Tag Archives: paul burstow

Suzanne Fletcher

How good that LDV posts don’t fade away

By Suzanne Fletcher | Thu 19th June 2025 - 9:26 am

Whilst looking up the words “Put it on a piece of paper, shove it through a letter box”, David Penhaligon, this LDV link came up from September 2012:

“What the three departing Lib Dem ministers said as they leave Government”

How interesting and I am afraid depressing to read what three of our retiring Ministers said on their dismissal 13 years ago.

Sarah Teather rightly saying:

I’m hugely proud of the part I have been able to play in ending child detention, and rolling out the pupil premium, giving free nursery places to disadvantaged two year olds, amongst many other achievements.” And we should never forget that.  But also “Particularly close to my heart has been the work to reform the system of support for children and families with special educational needs and disability.

One of the crying out needs today about the need for a much better system for SEND children and their families.  Let us not forget that the fight started there,

Paul Burstow:

Having dedicated most of my political career to improving the health and care of others it has been an absolute privilege to be directly involved in framing a new social care law and working closely with colleagues in the sector to set out a reform agenda in the Care and Support White Paper.  In the last two years or so I have been able to introduce policies that will improve the mental health of adults and children, the care of older people and the diagnosis of dementia.

How crucial it is today that the care system is reformed.  Let us not forget the fight that started with that white paper.

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The Voice

LibLink: Paul Burstow on leaving the elderly at death’s door

By The Voice | Mon 22nd June 2015 - 5:17 pm

Paul BurstowIn the Telegraph today, Paul Burstow expresses his concerns for social care under the Conservative Government. He writes:

Ninety per cent of NHS leaders now believe that social care cuts are directly affecting patient care, while social care leaders report that over half of the providers they work with are facing financial difficulties. This is not sustainable.

Social care has always been the poor relation of the NHS, but in the last Government, Norman Lamb and I made the reform of social care a priority, and, we made more progress in five years than the previous government did in thirteen. We secured an extra £7.2 billion, reformed social care law putting well-being and prevention centre stage, limited individual exposure to care costs and made sure no one should ever again have to sell their home to pay for care. And we laid the groundwork for bringing the NHS and social care together with one budget.

But he sees all that being placed at risk.

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Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes…We must transform mental health services for young people #timetotalk

By Paul Burstow | Thu 5th February 2015 - 3:00 pm

Time to talk 2015From day one of this government, Lib Dems have prioritised mental health, so long neglected and overlooked by previous governments. In 2011, I published the Coalition Government’s mental health strategy, No Health Without Mental Health. Four years on, that strategy has been translated into action by a succession of initiatives. Investing in expanding the adult talking therapies (IAPT) programme, building from scratch a children’s IAPT programme, putting in place liaison and diversion services investing in liaison psychiatry, the first ever waiting time standards for mental health and Nick’s announcement of an ambition for zero-suicides across the NHS.

Achieving parity of esteem is never going to be a quick win, we are making real progress and helping to set the agenda for any future government. Thanks to the Lib Dems there is now a challenge on mental health, and, with the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Task Force established by Norman Lamb reporting in March, there is an opportunity to establish a roadmap for real reform for children and young people in the next parliament.

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Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes…We need urgent action on home care

By Paul Burstow | Tue 9th December 2014 - 11:58 am

Care in the home Some rights reserved by British Red CrossThe extra £2 billion for health care services announced in the Autumn Statement last week is fantastic news. It is testament to Norman Lamb’s effective and high profile campaigning for urgent funding for the NHS, as well as the hard work behind the scenes by many colleagues making the case.

But in reality these additional funds will not be enough to put the NHS on a sustainable footing. As many of us know only too well, social care is in crisis, and with an ageing population, the existing strain can only become greater. If we don’t address this issue urgently, we risk creating a wholly avoidable additional burden on the NHS which would put its stability entirely out of reach.

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Paul Burstow

Paul Burstow MP writes…Putting mental health at the top of the agenda

By Paul Burstow | Thu 6th November 2014 - 10:13 am

Mental health is so often in the news for the wrong reasons its good to finally have a few things to cheer about. Last month, though little noticed, Nick Clegg announced the start of a genuinely preventative programme in mental health with the launch of a series of front line mental health support pilots for blue light workers. People working in the emergency services experience some of the highest levels of work related stress, so it is absolutely the right place to start. And with poor mental health costing UK businesses £26 billion a year, taking mental health seriously in the workplace needs to be on every employers’ agenda – with government leading the way.

This followed on from ministerial commitment from Norman Lamb to continue funding for Time to Change, the campaign to end mental health stigma, and a rallying call for all FTSE 100 companies to sign up. It is a clear statement that good mental health should matter to all of us, and its heartening to see that companies like Royal Mail, Marks and Spencer and Barclays have already come on board.

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The Voice

Horwood and Burstow take part in Westminster Dog of the Year

By The Voice | Thu 23rd October 2014 - 10:02 am

Guide dog puppyThis year’s Westminster Dog of the Year gets underway shortly. The aim is to celebrate that great bond between dog and human and to promote responsible dog ownership.

Last year, the Liberal Democrats were represented by Tessa Munt and Poppy. This year Paul Burstow and Martin Horwood are taking part.

Paul takes part with his dog Indy, who came to them as a rescue dog 4 years ago:

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Stephen Tall

Ashcroft’s poll of Lib Dem battleground seats: incumbency is alive and well but 2015 will be a survival election for the party

By Stephen Tall | Mon 29th September 2014 - 6:15 pm

Tory peer and pollster Lord Ashcroft has published his latest set of constituency findings. He polled some of the key Lib Dem / Tory and Lib Dem / Labour battlegrounds in the summer – he’s now followed that up by looking at a further 22 seats. Of these, 2 are Lib Dem targets, 15 the party is defending against the Tories, and 5 against Labour. You can see the full results here .

Here are the headline findings:

  • Of the 20 Lib Dem-held seats polled, the Lib Dems would retain just 6.
  • The Tories would gain 7 and Labour would gain 4. The other 2 would be a tie (though actually a further 5 are statistical ties within the margin of error).
  • The Lib Dems would win neither of their two targets.

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    Posted in Polls | Also tagged , , , , , , , , and | 37 Comments
    Paul Burstow

    Paul Burstow MP: Liberal Democrats announce package of measures to help carers

    By Paul Burstow | Tue 19th August 2014 - 2:59 pm

    Care in the home Some rights reserved by British Red CrossThere are 6.5 million carers in the UK today looking after friends and family who started to need a little help to carry on their day to day lives. Sadly for both carers and those they care for, a little help can become a lot more as conditions deteriorate and people are able to do less for themselves.

    That one in eight of us is willing to selflessly prioritise the needs of our loved ones is truly inspirational. But too often as …

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    The Voice

    Clegg: “I want to see Britain become the world leader in the next breakthrough in mental health research”

    By The Voice | Fri 8th August 2014 - 4:35 pm

    lib dem mental illness posterThe Lib Dems have unveiled plans to increase funding spent on mental health research by £50m, by 2020, as the party seeks to ensure it’s are treated as seriously as physical illnesses are. Here’s Nick Clegg:

    “Mental health issues have been treated as a sort of Cinderella service compared to physical health issues. I want people who are dealing with depression to be as effectively treated as if they had diabetes. That is why I want to see Britain become the world leader in the next breakthrough

    …

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    Paul Burstow

    Paul Burstow writes… Time to prepare for life in an ageing society

    By Paul Burstow | Tue 5th August 2014 - 10:00 am

    Grey_Pride_logo_headerLast week Anchor launched their grey pride manifesto, calling on political parties to do more for older people. Not only to end the discrimination that we know many older people suffer, but to face up to the many challenges that living in an ageing society presents, challenges for which we are “woefully unprepared”, as last year’s House of Lords Committee on Demographic Change warned.

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    Caron Lindsay

    11 Liberal Democrat MPs vote for registrars to be exempt from marrying same sex couples

    By Caron Lindsay | Mon 20th May 2013 - 10:55 pm

    The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill has made fairly easy progress through the Commons tonight. After a Government/Labour compromise on a review for extending civil partnerships to opposite sex couples, and the heavy defeat or withdrawal of amendments, including “son of Section 28”, it looks as though many of the barriers to this Bill’s passage have been removed.

    There is still a further day of debate tomorrow, though, and further amendments to be debated.

    One of the amendments discussed today, defeated by 340 votes to 150 in favour, was to allow registrars to exempt themselves from marrying same sex couples. Eleven Liberal …

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    Stephen Tall

    Welfare reform: what should the Lib Dems do?

    By Stephen Tall | Mon 8th April 2013 - 11:00 am

    This much I think I know… Cuts to the overall welfare budget are inescapable: it accounts for too large a chunk of of public spending for it to be immune — certainly if the NHS, schools and overseas aid budgets are to be protected at the same time as spending is reduced.

    These cuts would be happening whichever party was in power, though doubtless the precise methods would differ. The IFS’s verdict in 2010 on what they termed Labour’s “fiscal drift” was stark: “By the eve of the financial crisis … the UK one of the largest structural …

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    Mark Pack

    Here comes the Mid-Term Review (Slimmed Down edition)

    By Mark Pack | Sun 6th January 2013 - 6:06 pm

    Nick Clegg and David CameronRight, time to set the alarm clock extra early for tomorrow morning to do a Radio 5 Live interview as it’s the week of the Mid-Term Review.

    Not the original Mid-Term Review, as was planned back in the early days of the Parliament, that is – but the Slimmed Down Super Light edition, which will contain a fair amount of ‘look how we’re doing better than Labour’ and then a clutch of new policy announcements for the second half of this Parliament.

    How well or badly the former is …

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    NewsHound

    LibLink: Paul Burstow, Lynne Featherstone and Paul Tyler

    By NewsHound | Fri 4th January 2013 - 12:21 pm

    Elsewhere, whilst some of us adjust back into the normal routine after the New Year, some of our tribunes are already up and running.

    Paul Burstow hit the headlines yesterday with his call for means-testing of the winter fuel allowance, with the intention of saving £1.5 billion, to be redirected towards paying for the proposed social care changed recommended by the Dilnot Commission. Writing in the Guardian;

    Some argue this is a debate we need to have at or even after the next general election. But by that time it will be too late. The research in my report reveals that

    …

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    Tim Purkiss

    Opinion: Can Labour be trusted on mental health?

    By Tim Purkiss | Wed 21st November 2012 - 8:55 am

    In my last two articles for Liberal Democrat Voice I wrote about the current under provision in mental health treatment in the country and why it is important that properly addressing mental health is brought into the political mainstream.

    Thankfully in recent weeks this has started to happen. Of course there was Ed Miliband’s speech to the Royal College of Psychiatrists in which he spoke of the need for improved provision in mental health treatments across the country. Many people will of course welcome this state of affairs and it is encouraging if Miliband is intending to put improved …

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    Mark Pack

    Paul Burstow is new chair of the Parliamentary Party

    By Mark Pack | Thu 1st November 2012 - 5:53 pm

    Paul BurstowA bit of party news today with various posts being filled. Paul Burstow has been elected chair of the Parliamentary Party, succeeding Lorely Burt who in the reshuffle became PPS to Danny Alexander.

    Meanwhile there have also been changes at both the Commons and Lords end to the Co-Chairs of various Liberal Democrat Party Parliamentary Committees (often given the same acronym, PPCs, as used for party candidates).

    The full list of names now is:

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    Posted in News, Parliament and Party policy and internal matters | Also tagged | Leave a comment
    NewsHound

    LibLink: Paul Burstow – Why is the Coalition failing to tackle our broken care system?

    By NewsHound | Sat 22nd September 2012 - 11:45 am

    Lib Dem MP Paul Burstow, until the reshuffle the Lib Dem health minister, has written an article in today’s Telegraph with a plea for the Coalition to ‘be bold and take the decisions needed to fix our broken social care system’. Here are a couple of excerpts, first looking at why Paul fears the reforms he pushed in government might not go anywhere:

    The Coalition understood the “urgent need for reform”, and has been wrestling with these issues since May 2010. In July the White Paper I drafted was published. It tackles much that is wrong with care. Widely welcomed, it

    …

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    Tim Farron MP

    Tim Farron MP writes… My thoughts on the Cabinet reshuffle

    By Tim Farron MP | Thu 6th September 2012 - 6:38 pm

    The first proper reshuffle for our party since the 1920s was always going to be a weird situation. I am extremely sad to see Sarah Teather, Nick Harvey, Paul Burstow and Andrew Stunell leave the government. Sarah’s work on the Pupil Premium will leave an outstanding legacy for the next generation, Andrew’s work on releasing empty homes to meet the needs of those in desperate circumstances will make the difference to thousands of people and Nick Harvey’s tenacity in ensuring that a like for like replacement for Trident is kicked off into the long grass has been a quite immense …

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    Transfer deadline day: Laws, Brake, Foster & Swinson in, Burstow, Teather, Harvey & Stunell out, Clarke loan finishes

    By James Percival | Wed 5th September 2012 - 1:32 pm

    I love reshuffle days, they’re just like transfer deadline day. You sit there at your office computer pretending to work while secretly updating the Guardian live blog to see who your side has brought in and let go.

    So, have we strengthened the side for the second half of the season or left gaping holes in our defence?

    Well, we have managed to hold on to all our big players – Cable, Alexander, Davey and Moore – and, despite losing his place to Alexander after his suspension early in the season, we now have a fighting fit Laws back and ready …

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    Mark Pack

    Reshuffle thoughts: how does it score against my four criteria?

    By Mark Pack | Tue 4th September 2012 - 9:31 pm

    Ahead of the reshuffle, I posted four criteria against which the Liberal Democrat part of the shuffling should be judged. Now nearly all the details are in, how does it look?

     

    Most importantly, have people been put in jobs they’ve got a decent chance of doing well? It’s hard enough being a minister in the smaller party in a coalition government without having lots of people thrown into policy areas they are completely new to.

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    Stephen Tall

    What the three departing Lib Dem ministers have said as they leave government

    By Stephen Tall | Tue 4th September 2012 - 8:05 pm

    You can catch up on the rolling LibDemVoice live-blog of today’s reshuffle here and the current list of official Lib Dem appointments here.

    Three Lib Dem ministers are at the time of writing departing the Coalition Government for the backbenches. Each of them has issued statements as follows:

    Sarah Teather, Liberal Democrat MP for Brent Central:

    It has been a huge privilege to serve as an education minister in the coalition government over the last two and a half years. I’m hugely proud of the part I have been able to play in ending child detention, and rolling out the

    …

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    Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 5 Comments
    Paul Burstow

    Paul Burstow MP writes: Mental health, no excuses

    By Paul Burstow | Fri 27th July 2012 - 11:50 am

    Over the past few days Channel Four has been highlighting mental health with its #4goesmad series of programmes. With the aim of debunking the myths and stigma surrounding mental health, they are well worth a watch.

    I watched both Ruby Wax and Jon Richardson programmes.  Both told powerful and compelling stories  of people coming to terms with their mental health and talking openly about it often for the first time. One such moment was when a successful chef told his restaurant staff that he had, quite recently, contemplated suicide. Getting this confession out into the open was a symbol of that …

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    Caron Lindsay

    Nick Clegg and Paul Burstow’s 3 steps for employers on mental health

    By Caron Lindsay | Thu 26th July 2012 - 12:56 pm

    Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s long running work on mental health issues took another step forward this week with the publication of a mental health implementation framework aimed at helping people suffering from mental health problems in the workplace. Employers will be asked to take 3 steps to identify and support those 1 in 6 workers affected. These are:

    1)    Make this year the Time to Change: Sign your company up to the Time to Change campaign to end mental health discrimination. By signing up, you make a public commitment from the top of the organisation to the bottom, …

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    Mark Pack

    The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Works

    By Mark Pack | Mon 16th July 2012 - 2:25 pm

    Robert Hazell and Ben Yong’s work, The Politics of Coalition: How the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Government Works, is a very readable volume, written mostly in the style of an introductory politics textbook and based on extensive interviews with the participants, including at very senior levels.

    The book is well done, readable, comprehensive and has a few gems lurking in the revelations from all the interviews, such as the limited involvement of Andrew Lansley and Paul Burstow in drafting the health section of the Coalition Agreement.

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    Bill le Breton

    Opinion: Brand values

    By Bill le Breton | Tue 20th March 2012 - 10:33 am

    There have been a couple of posts recently on where campaigning ideas should come from and whether those campaigns can be directed centrally, first from Scott Hill and then from Robin McGhee And another, which I refuse to link to because it does not appear to publish comments, mocked us for our backwardness in brand management.

    Campaigning and not policy is the life blood of Liberal Democrat politics. A policy however right or valuable is inanimate. A campaign establishes connections and energizes movement. That is perhaps why you cannot chose for Liberal Democrats THE campaign they should be waging in March in 2012 or in any other month for that matter. That was the lesson I learnt when an acting Chief Executive of ALDC in the late 1980s.

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 19 Comments
    Stephen Tall

    What Lib Dem members think about the NHS Bill: 57% opposed, but majority might back it if significantly amended

    By Stephen Tall | Thu 8th March 2012 - 11:15 pm

    We’ve been surveying the views of current Lib Dem members this week on your views on the NHS Bill. Over 500 responded, and here’s what you told us…

  • A majority of Lib Dem members – and a majority of Lib Dem members who will be voting delegates at the party’s spring conference at NewcastleGateshead this weekend – oppose the Coalition Government’s NHS reforms as they currently stand. By 57% to 32%, Lib Dem members reject the Health & Social Care Bill.
  • However, that does not automatically mean the Lib Dem conference will vote to ‘Kill the Bill’ if

    • …

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    Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged , , , , , , and | 18 Comments
    Tom Smith

    Opinion: Liberal Democrat, not Yes Minister, values must prevail on Risk Register

    By Tom Smith | Wed 22nd February 2012 - 10:25 am

    Back in 2010 we campaigned on a vision of open government and “new politics”. The debacle over the NHS Strategic Risk Register shows how far we have strayed from this policy objective and also how hit and miss the Coalition’s political management has become.

    The Risk Register issue is just one in a very long line of political blunders in the life of the Health and Social Care Bill. This time the Government is still trying to oppose public opinion, the Information Commissioner and now a Labour motion in the Commons, causing far more political upheaval than necessary. Whatever the actual …

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    Jamie Hewitt

    The Independent View: World Arthritis Day

    By Jamie Hewitt | Sun 16th October 2011 - 11:50 am

    I suspect few of you know this, but Wednesday was actually World Arthritis Day. For charities in the musculoskeletal sector this can be a pretty big deal, as we jostle to publish new research and try and ensnare policy makers in dialogue.

    And so it proved to be when NRAS participated in a live webchat with the Health Minister, Paul Burstow MP, the man with responsibility for long-term conditions, like Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

    Needless to say we were cock-a-hoop that the Minister agreed to participate. He could have quite easily cancelled on us due to all the palaver surrounding the passage of

    …

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    Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged and | 3 Comments
    Judith Jolly

    Baroness Judith Jolly writes… The House of Lords will challenge, revise and improve the Health Bill

    By Judith Jolly | Tue 11th October 2011 - 4:53 pm

    Tony Blair, on the eve of the 1997 General Election, famously proclaimed that we have just “24 hours to save the NHS”. A nice rhetorical flourish, but lacking in objectivity. Perhaps somewhat like the Labour party. Similar language is once again being used this week as the House of Lords debates giving a second reading to the Health and Social Care Bill. Opposition groups have jumped on this by suggesting that this is the last chance to ‘stop’ this Bill. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the complexity of the inner workings of the House of Lords, this doesn’t properly reflect …

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    Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 18 Comments
    Mark Pack

    A messaging mess: what Liberal Democrats are achieving in government

    By Mark Pack | Fri 23rd September 2011 - 11:55 am

    As I wrote in the immediate aftermath of Nick Clegg’s conference speech, the party was much better at saying what it was not and what it was against – not the Conservatives, not unhappy, against tax cheats, against overpaid under-performing company directors and so on – than what it was for.

    In theory the answer should have been found in the conference packs handed out to people on arrival at the Birmingham ICC, for inside them was not only an “In government – on your side” leaflet but also three others from different Liberal Democrat ministers, all promoting the party’s …

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    Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 14 Comments
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