“The question – and it is a very real one – is can the SNP and the Labour Party in Scotland do anything other than fight each other for the next five years? On this it has been encouraging that the London based UK leadership of Jeremy Corbyn has appointed Jon Trickett an influential Shadow Cabinet member with an additional task of embracing a cross-party Constitutional Convention. The prospect of
Browsing Category Domestic
Labour’s 2015 leadership election: Lord Owen interview on BBC Newsnight
Lord Owen discusses Labour’s 2015 leadership elections and media speculation that it could lead to an SDP-style split in an interview on BBC Newsnight. View the interview, from around 16’50” in the programme, here.
Please note, access is time-limited by the BBC, expires approx 17 August.…
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Lord Owen hopes cooperation over Caroline Lucas’s NHS Bill could lead to a wider progressive alliance amongst the political parties.
The Campaign for the Reinstatement Bill has, in essence, been adopted in this new Parliament by Caroline Lucas in her Private Member’s NHS Bill which has received a First Reading. The importance of this Bill is that prior to the Election it was supported by Labour, Liberal Democrat, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Green MPs and now this newly tabled Bill continues to be supported by that same grouping though slightly …
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The coming election will decide the future of the NHS, and with it, the United Kingdom.
The end of the NHS as we have known and understood it in England will take place before 2020 if whichever party or parties that win the 2015 general election does not change the 2012 NHS legislation ….around that moment the issue of Scottish independence will be back on the political agenda with a vengeance. The two are linked in more ways than have yet been fully recognised.
The New
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Lord Owen warns of the lessons to be learnt from the Hinchingbrooke Hospital scandal.
Article, published in The Guardian 19 January 2015
Hinchingbrooke has been a heavy defeat for an ideological solution that can work well in manufacturing or retailing, but runs into problems in healthcare.
Advocates of a market-led, partly privatised NHS for England have been saying for years that “what matters is what works”, dismissing those who believe in the 1948 NHS concept as ideological, old-fashioned or plain wrong.
Now that their …
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The Health of the Nation: NHS in Peril
A new book by Lord Owen entitled The Health of the Nation: NHS in Peril will be published on 4 December. It details the damage done by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and the reasons why the worst aspects of it must be repealed.
The six chapter headings covering the main topics are as follows:
Introduction
“The Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015 is an all-party and …
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Lord Owen calls for time limits on Prime Ministers’ tenure of office
Prime Ministers should stay in office for no more than ten years or eight years if the Fixed Term Parliament Act is changed from five to four years, according to former Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen. He believes limitation would curb the hubristic behaviour of Prime Ministers who become intoxicated with power. Speaking at a conference on Leadership: Stress & Hubris on 17 November, hosted by the Daedalus Trust and …
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Launch of the Campaign for the NHS Reinstatement Bill 2015
SATURDAY, 4TH OCTOBER 2014. A campaign is being launched today to reverse the failings of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and fully restore the National Health Service (NHS) in England as an accountable public service. It is encouraging voters to ask candidates in the general election to support including a Bill that would do just that in the first Queen’s Speech after the election. The campaign’s website …
