Lord Owen speaks to the Planet Normal podcast of the UK’s Daily Telegraph (22 April 2021). In a wide-ranging interview, he discusses the Government’s response to Covid, the various lobbying scandals and the wisdom of proper Cabinet Government. In particular, in the wake of the death of Shirley Williams he talks of the ‘What ifs’ of history if she had become, as he wished, leader of the Social Democratic Party …
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At Last: ban on UK blood plasma lifted
Following Lord Owen & others’ campaign to lift the ban on using UK blood plasma for immunoglobulin manufacture, the Department of Health on 25 February 2021 made an announcement to that effect. Convalescent plasma is now being trialled in the UK for treating COVID-19. Positive results would mean immunoglobulins from UK-donated plasma could in future be used as immunoglobulins to treat coronavirus patients.
Read the full press release at this …
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Statement on the Government’s proposed NHS reforms
STATEMENT ON THE GOVERNMENT’S PROPOSED NHS REFORMS
Monday 08 February 2021
“It may be that the social history of Britain will record that a lasting and substantive achievement of Brexit has been to return to the British people the NHS that was brought in by Aneurin Bevan and was very nearly destroyed by the Conservative/Liberal coalition supporting the outrageous and damaging Andrew Lansley legislation in 2012.
As always the devil …
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China’s latest acts of oppression must act as a wake-up call
Lord Owen writes in The Times, 26 November 2020
Read the full article here
The third breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration by the Chinese Communist Party should serve as a wake-up call not just to Britain but to her allies as well.
The pace at which President Xi has dismantled Hong Kong’s democracy through the purging of pro-democracy and the recent arrests of former pro-democracy lawmakers only points to
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Lord David Owen, a medical doctor by training and a former Minister of Health, writes a personal analysis of the UK’s Covid-19 pandemic
Latest update 20 October 2020 following receipt of positive news of a new treatment. Read the Minister’s letter here.
Regards safety of using UK plasma in fractionation vis-a-vis vCJD: a technical paper drawn from French experience is attached here. The ban on UK plasma is under review with an outcome expected late autumn.
Updated 16 July 2020 following PM’s agreement to hold an independent Covid-19 inquiry.
First posted 28 …
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Exploring the fatally flawed changes that left the NHS very nearly unable to cope with Covid-19
In his 2014 book ‘The Health of the Nation: The NHS In Peril,’ Lord Owen explains why the fatally flawed structural changes made by both Labour and Conservative governments over the last 20 years before Covid-19 meant the NHS was very nearly unable to cope.
This book is now available free.
Download the PDF here: The NHS in Peril
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Britain Must Step Up to the Global Stage to Protect Hong Kong
“China’s disregard for international law under Xi presents a shared challenge.”
Lord Owen, writing in the online ForeignPolicy.com magazine, June 23, 2020, 4:30 PM
Read the original here: Britain Must Step Up on HK
The 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration was the brainchild of two formidable political leaders, China’s Deng Xiaoping and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Since the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, the international treaty has generally worked …
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The Fence or The Ambulance
Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant;
But over its terrible edge there had slipped
A duke and full many a peasant.
So the people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally;
Some said, “Put a fence ’round the edge of the cliff,”
Some, “An ambulance down in the valley.”
But the …
