vivweb01blog

  The NHS has never been more ripe for reform. I published my ideas on this initially in a 2022 blog , and the content has been updated periodically to take into account such progress as was made by the previous government. The present government has accepted that the service is 'broken' and decided to request input from the public and NHS staff before attempting to implement any major reforms. This is a welcome development and does the new minister and his department credit. However, in the interests of openness we need to ensure the responses are actively considered, and where appropriate, acted upon. There needs to be a mechanism for providing confirmation of this, and feedback on ideas suggested /implemented. In my previous blog, the main message that emerged was that a new funding model will be essential if our NHS is to become fit for purpose again, and remain so . We have only to look at those of our nearest European neighbours with similar population sizes and demo

    Now that the dust is starting to settle after Reeves’ so-called ‘Halloween Nightmare’ budget, let’s take a look at what actually happened to pensioner benefits…and what we might expect to happen in future. We all know about the loss of the Winter Fuel Payment for the majority of pensioners – you would have had to have been living on Mars for the last 3 months not to. Starmer is not yet out of the woods on that one, although it’s unlikely he will give way without an adverse judgement in the courts, and he will doubtless fight to defeat any attempt to force an about-turn, since the loss of face involved would be too great for him to bear, both politically and personally. The overwhelming adverse reaction to the move, and in particular to the way it was announced and justified, will have been noted, however, and I think this has probably been responsible for restraint on any further cuts – so far.…. It remains to be seen whether we will ever get universal WF payments back – if t

  Although 2029 is a long way ahead, and Labour's leadership and cabinet will be focused on immediate policy decisions, their advance planners should already be thinking about their electoral prospects…and not just for the next general election. The reason why they should be concerned at this early stage is that the next tranche of local elections are only a little over 6 months away, so the first ‘day of reckoning’ at the ballot box is, relatively speaking,   nigh. Does this really matter, though ? The answer is that it does…the hard reality is that the brunt of any early disapproval of the new government by the electorate (and there’s plenty of that around just now!) will fall on local Labour councillors, many of whom come up for re-election next year and will be worried about retaining their seats on May 1 st . In one sense, this is a pity, since local politics is by its nature less overtly political than the national variety, and involves a lot more cross-party collabor

  Those of us who were suspicious of Labour’s motives before the election will not have been surprised at Rachel Reeve’s first salvo in Labour’s ‘war on pensioners’ in August. The only thing that was a little unexpected was the belligerence of her delivery…and the readiness with which she was prepared to ‘let the cat out of the bag’ this early in her tenure. The pronounced ‘gasp’ from all sides of the Commons when she announced the move suggested that even her own colleagues were a tad surprised. Subsequent analysis has shown very little evidence of contrition on her part, although Starmer's 'happy band' of new MPs are getting it in the neck via their mailboxes. It was a virtual certainty that benefits would come under attack following the Tories election defeat. Labour, having successfully hemmed themselves in by their manifesto promise of no increases in NI, VAT or income tax rates, have already agreed several inflation-busting increases in public sector pay. With man