Tag Archives: secretary

Shadow Health Secretary’s bleak opinion of the NHS should terrify you

Wes Streeting: the Shadow Health Secretary doesn’t even understand what running the NHS entails, so he certainly doesn’t deserve the chance to try it.

Richard Murphy’s appraisal of Wes Streeting’s words is accurate; the National Health Service is an investment in the future of the entire United Kingdom.

It works (when it works) by ensuring that the UK’s workforce is fit and healthy, thereby being able to add value to the nation’s economy – making us wealthier.

So Streeting is telling an untruth. Money spent on the NHS is an investment in “child poverty reduction, spending in schools, crime and policing” or whatever.

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It is an insult to the UK’s voters that a so-called Labour Party health spokesman is speaking tripe like this – as the rest of us have noticed:

Here’s “MsAlfieB” on ‘X’: “What a disaster We normally expect some HOPE from the opposition to a lousy govt, something to look forward to… This spiv and the spook and the fiscal frump just fill me with complete dread.”

Dr Dan Goyal brings the more obvious threat to Labour: “I get that Labour’s political strategists’ straw polls and focus groups suggest this “NHS has enough money” narrative appeals to the Tory base, but I have one question: how have they estimated turnout rates? Because I’m not turning out to vote for this nonsense.”

That’s the issue here. Who will turn out to vote for this nonsense?

Anybody voting Labour because it’s their “tribe”, or because they think it has to be automatically “better than the Tories”, needs to screw their head back on, because it has clearly come loose.

In the forthcoming general election, more than at any time in the past, you must consider what all the candidates are offering, and vote for the policies that would actually help you, no matter who is offering them.

Voting for a party just because you think it will beat another party is ridiculous, stupid, childish… It’s what has installed the corruption into Westminster that we see today.

It’s what put Wes Streeting in the Shadow Health Secretary role that he so clearly doesn’t understand, let alone deserve.


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Top law firm invites Mel Stride to start pension mediation for 50s women | Westminster Confidential

David Hencke’s ever-informative Westminster Confidential site provides this update on the struggle to get restitution for women who have been harmed by changes to the pension system:

One of London’s top law firms has written to Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, inviting him to agree to mediation talks to end the long suffering impasse on awarding compensation to the now 3.5 million 50s born women who had to wait another six years before they got their pension.

[A] report into the issue was published at the end of November and concluded that there was direct discrimination … women who were born from 1950 to 1960 had been singled out to wait for their pension while everyone else was unaffected.

It has also to be taken into account that 9.8m men were given 5 years free auto credits to retire 5 years early, aged 60, whilst the state pension of 3.8m 1950’s women was twice deferred, by stealth, and they were then coerced back to work for up to another 6 years having been denied the promised similar auto credits awarded to men.

The report [was hand-delivered] to Rishi Sunak at Downing Street just before it was published. It was also delivered to Robert Behrens, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, who is currently involved in a long inquiry into how much the women should be compensated after finding partial maladminstration.

It might be instructive to contrast this with another case of discrimination against women, that has been in the news recently; I refer to that of Birmingham City Council, which used a bonus scheme that unfairly benefited men more than women while it was run by a Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition and then was under no overal control, between 2004 and 2010.

After a court battle, the council was ordered to pay £760 million to settle equal pay claims – and attempting to comply has caused the council to declare (effective) bankruptcy. Tory MPs have made a big fuss of the fact that a council that is now run by Labour has been financially embarrassed, even though it was their party that caused the problem.

The UK government cannot go bankrupt; it can always issue currency to cover any spending it has to make (although there should be a balancing tax take, to counter inflation).

But, so far, it has resisted calls to compensate women harmed by the state pension changes, even though those changes were clearly discriminatory against them.

Hypocrisy? What gives the Tory government the right to avoid a responsibility that the law has thrust onto a local authority – with the enthusiastic support of Tory MPs?

Source: Exclusive: Top law firm writes to Mel Stride inviting him to start mediation talks on restitution for 50swomen | Westminster Confidential


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People of Chipping Barnet: Theresa Villiers is the kind of MP you DON’T want

Theresa Villiers: she says her failure to declare £70,000 worth of shares in Shell was an “oversight”. Was it really, though? What else has she failed to share?

This is shocking: when she was the government member charged with caring for our environment, Theresa Villiers had £70,000 worth of shares in mass-polluter Shell oil.

She is the MP for Chipping Barnet, where constituents should be outraged that she has been working for the enrichment of that firm (and therefore increased profits for herself) rather than in their interests.

That firm recently announced profits of $5 billion (US), which is admittedly down from the £7.7 billion (UK) it made in the first quarter of 2023. Of that, £6 billion found its way into the bank accounts of shareholders like Ms Villiers.

Shell stock is currently worth around £24 – higher than the £19.41 when Ms Villiers left office as Environment Secretary, so she’s making a bit of a killing.

She says her failure to declare this enormous conflict of interest was an oversight that won’t happen again:

The only reason it won’t happen again is that she has been caught red-handed and knows she can’t hide this any more.

What else has she been hiding, though?

It seems clear that there is only one way to keep this woman from lying – call it what it is – about business interests that create conflicts with her duty to the nation.

That is to ensure that she cannot have a job in which such conflicts arise.

If Ms Villiers is more interested in making money for herself than in safeguarding the interests and well-being of the United Kingdom as a whole, then she should be forced back into the private sector.

No doubt she’ll quickly find work with a firm that has profited from UK government policy.

She might do well by sending her CV to Shell.


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Asylum barge is potential new Grenfell Tower-style deathtrap

Suella Braverman considers a kinder, ‘compassionate Conservative’ response to asylum-seekers.

Isn’t it good to know the Tories are taking their responsibilities seriously?

Oh, wait…

Once they have detained people they believe have come to the UK illegally, they have a legal responsibility to ensure the well-being of those people until their future can be decided.

So, do they house these people in safe and secure accommodation? No!

They say: “We’ll put them up in a floating firetrap with no means of escape if it burns; that’s good enough for ’em!”

Or at least, that’s what This Writer gets from the following:

Here’s the supporting information:

Bizarrely, if I recall correctly, the Tory government could have put the same number of people into luxury hotel rooms for less money than it has cost to hire this floating incinerator.

The Fire Brigades Union has now written to the Home Office, and you can read the letter here:

It says: “Firefighting operations on vessels such as the Bibby Stockholm provide significant challenges and require specialist training and safe systems of work.”

Then it describes safety provisions on the Bibby Stockholm as “diminished” and warns that the nature of those provisions “exacerbate our operational concerns”.

The letter also states that “The FBU believes fire safety standards are universal and apply to everyone… Fire does not discriminate and therefore neither should safety regulations.”

The implication is clear: the boat is unsafe and the FBU believes it has been deliberately made unsafe on Home Office orders.

This Writer looks forward to hearing Suella Braverman’s excuse for housing asylum-seekers in a deathtrap.

I’m willing to bet it will include a lot of bullying talk and probably a bit of racism as well.


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Nice day for a walk in the country? Therese Coffey doesn’t seem to think so…

Tory Environment Secretary Therese Coffey – the one who has colluded in the sewage pollution of the UK’s waterways to help the water firms make massive profits – is at it again.

She’s apparently now colluding with landowners to take away from us 41,000 miles of unrecorded rights of way.

It’s a new Enclosure Act for the 21st century, isn’t it?

Here’s Damo to explain:


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Amid frantic denials, is Steve Barclay the Tories’ next bullying scandal? 

Steve Barclay: another Tory bully?

Is he a bully or isn’t he?

The Guardian reckons the Department of Health’s top civil servant has received multiple complaints about Health Secretary Steve Barclay; the DoH itself says he hasn’t.

So your answer, for the moment, depends on who you trust.

It’s certainly true that the Tory government won’t want to deal with another bullying scandal so soon after Dominic Raab, and will want to discourage civil servants from acting on the precedent created by the former Deputy Prime Minister’s case.

According to the Graun,

senior civil servants in the department had privately referred to “bullying” and other “bad behaviour” by Barclay towards his staff since he joined the Whitehall department in July last year.

One source said there were “a lot of unhappy people at the Department of Health just now”, in part as a result of Barclay’s behaviour. Another said officials in his private office had “borne the brunt” of his behaviour. “Everyone finds him quite challenging,” said a third source.

Two other Whitehall sources alleged that he had regularly “blasted” staff in full view of others in the office. One of these insiders said he was “constantly angry”, which was “very difficult” for officials, who now “don’t want to have meetings with him”. Another source claimed that there were occasions were he “deliberately ignored” staff who tried to talk to him.

A separate source added: “Barclay’s style is very macho … He would say that he’s forensic. But in reality he’s a micro-manager. He hauls people over the coals and is generally a bit unpleasant.”

The BBC – ever the Tory mouthpiece – has run a story based around the government’s denials.

It states,

The Department of Health has not received any formal complaints about the behaviour of Health Secretary Steve Barclay, a spokesman has said.

Someone who has worked with him told the BBC the claims were “totally unsubstantiated and a politically motivated attack”.

Another government official said many colleagues “speak highly” of Mr Barclay and are unhappy about the briefings.

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly told Sky News that his colleague Mr Barclay was “absolutely not” a bully.

(This on its own is probably enough to convince anyone that he is; Cleverly’s relationship with the facts has been put in doubt before, remember.)

Both The Guardian and the BBC reported that the Department of Health had said no official complaints had been received.

But that’s not what the claims in The Guardian had said. It stated that civil servants had informally complained to Chris Wormald, the department’s permanent secretary, about the way they believe they and colleagues have been treated by the Health Secretary.

And it added that the DoH

did not deny being alerted to concerns informally in the way sources described.

This could be a very clever trap set by Guardian journalists for the Tory government.

With the official denials out in the open, civil servants may be encouraged to lodge official complaints, simply from anger at having their privately-raised concerns denied.

So, by refusing to admit the existence of any complaints at all – official or unofficial, the government may have put Steve Barclay on a path to the political dustbin.

Source: Health department officials ‘raised concerns’ about Steve Barclay’s behaviour | Steve Barclay | The Guardian


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Why is Steve Barclay taking legal action against nurse strike – on a technicality?

Did you understand that Health Secretary Steve Barclay is taking legal action against the Royal College of Nursing, not because its strike from April 30 to May 2 is illegal in itself, but because he disagrees with its timing?

When the RCN balloted its members for strike action on November 2 last year, the mandate was to last six months.

Barclay reckons that means the mandate ends on May 1 and therefore most of the second day of the 48-hour strike (it ends at 8pm BST on May 2) falls outside the RCN’s mandate to strike.

The RCN disagrees (obviously) – and This Writer tends to agree. If the ballot takes place on a particular day – it seems to me – any mandate must begin on a subsequent day; the following day seems the logical choice.

The RCN’s argument seems to corroborate this, as it quotes a precedent from a miner’s strike from 1995 that gives it until midnight on May 2.

Here’s Taj Ali to provide some background:

The threat of an interim order to stop the strike has been considered offensive by many:

The request for an order that stops strike action until a court has decided whether it is legal could be a double-edged sword for the government.

If the court rules in the government’s favour, then the RCN has said it will abide by the decision.

But if it rules against Barclay, then he will have hindered a legal strike for no good reason at all. That would be a public-relations disaster for him and his government.

They would have force-halted a legal and reasonable strike for no good reason.

They would have demonstrated that they are not to be trusted on any level in negotiations over pay.

They would have shown that they are unfit to serve the UK as its government.

Right?


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Health Secretary won’t go to mediator over junior doctor strike – report

Steve Barclay: he doesn’t know how any of this equipment works and he is attacking the people who do, while the UK’s medical patients go without treatment.

This looks very bad for the Tory government.

The BMA, which represents junior doctors, supports mediation via ACAS. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has intervened to call for it.

But Steve Barclay refuses to accept it – according to The Times. And, unlike the doctors, he wants to impose preconditions on any talks. Why?

Is that really it? Barclay’s afraid that a mediator will oppose him and side with the doctors?

If so, then the cat’s out of the bag and he’ll look bad, whatever he does now.


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As the DUP digs in its heels, is Northern Ireland facing hard times?

Stormont: still locked as the DUP’s representatives dig in their heels over post-Brexit trade.

Rishi Sunak has managed to avoid humiliation in the vote on the ‘Stormont Brake’ aspect of his ‘Windsor Framework’ deal with the EU over trade in Northern Ireland. Instead the shame was hung on the Democratic Unionists and Tories in the European Research Group faction.

MPs voted by 515 to 29 to support the deal agreed by Rishi Sunak.

But the defeat means the DUP has vowed to continue its boycott of the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont – with possibly serious consequences for the province.

Spokespeople for the other Northern Irish political parties have begged the DUP to come back, according to the BBC:

Sinn Féin vice-president Michelle O’Neill said the DUP had to “stop their boycott” of Stormont so that executive ministers could take control of the budget.

Ministers had to be in post to make the case to the Treasury for extra funding for Northern Ireland, Ms O’Neill added.

“This budget is about to cause catastrophic damage to public services,” she said.

“So the DUP need to get around the table with the rest of us, make politics work.”

Alliance Party MP Stephen Farry said Northern Ireland was “bleeding at present”, with problems piling up and public services in real crisis.

He said his party had asked the UK government to consider providing a financial package and it appeared “the door is open to that”.

“This will require the parties in Northern Ireland to work together and to make a very persuasive case… to the Treasury,” he said.

“So it reinforces the impetus on the DUP to join the rest of us in ensuring we have proper governance here.”

Ulster Unionist assembly member Robbie Butler said the level of budget cuts “on that cliff edge at the moment actually is quite alarming”.

He urged the DUP to accept the “difficulties” with the Windsor Framework and “put the people of Northern Ireland first”.

Social Democratic and Labour Party leader Colum Eastwood said the DUP had to accept that it could not get everything it wanted from the new Brexit deal.

“We have a huge opportunity with this [deal] to trade into both [UK and EU] markets unencumbered,” said the Foyle MP.

“People in Britain would give their right arm to have that opportunity.”

But DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the ‘Windsor Framework’ would not deliver the long-term stability and prosperity that Northern Ireland needs.

Adding insult to injury, he adopted the rhetoric of Labour’s Keir Starmer, saying there was “an element of the sticking plaster” about Rishi Sunak’s new deal with the European Union, and it would not work.

He went on to say he is “not a quitter” and will continue trying to get the deal changed – a tall order, considering the joint UK-EU body that is overseeing Brexit will meet o ratify the legal changes brought about by the Windsor Framework – tomorrow (Friday, March 24, 2023).

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has met the five main Stormont parties at Hillsborough to discuss the new Brexit deal as well as Northern Ireland’s public finances, which he said were not in a good state.

He said he would have to set Northern Ireland’s budget for the coming year within the next few weeks if the executive was not up and running soon – and there would be some “tough decisions” if that happened.

It seems a very thinly-veiled threat, not just to the DUP but to all of the Northern Irish politicians: “get back to normal or suffer”.

But nobody in NI will be in any doubt about where responsibility will lie if the Tories in Westminster penalise them with Budget restrictions, and there may be knock-on consequences at the ballot box.

Is the DUP really willing to court electoral wipeout for the sake of what many see as not just a lost cause, but also a pointless one?


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How is this new offer to health unions going to do any good?

A nurse: doesn’t this person deserve fair pay?

Apparently Health Secretary Steve Barclay is going to make a new offer to health unions, in his latest bid to end the NHS strikes in England.

But from the reports, it’s a rotten offer.

We’re hearing he’s offering a one-off payment – a bonus – of up to six per cent for 2022-23, coupled with a permanent pay increase of five per cent for the current financial year onwards.

That’s nothing like enough to cover all the money that NHS workers have lost since the Conservatives slithered back into office in 2010. Nurses have lost 20 per cent in that time.

And it won’t cover the increased costs that have been caused by inflation. You see, just because inflation goes down, that doesn’t mean prices do the same. Quite the opposite, in fact – they continue rising, just at a slower rate.

And nurses, together with all the other striking NHS workers, are struggling to make ends meet.

The impression This Writer has is that the government wants nurses to struggle and this is just another attempt to look reasonable.

Remember: MPs almost have parity with the level of pay they had in 2010 – they aren’t suffering in anything like the same way as nurses. And they get publicly-subsidised meals and drinks in the House of Commons facilities.

This Writer is glad to hear that not all of the 14 health unions are expected to support the new pay offer.

I’m aware that they may be tired of strikes, but derisory pay offers are an attack on the quality of healthcare and must be opposed.

Source: Government makes revised pay offer to health unions, reports say – UK politics live


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