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07 JAN 2010
Let the voters have their say
While most people in the country have been worrying about how to get to work through the snow and ice and who's going to look after their children while their school is closed, everyone in Westminster has spent the last two days talking about the latest Labour plot to get rid of Gordon Brown. I don't know about you but I am heartily sick of these stories. Gordon Brown has been Prime Minister for the last two years. The British people had no say in his election to that office. At the very least, they deserve an opportunity to pass their own verdict on his tenure of it. And a general election is the way to let them do it.
05 JAN 2010
My NHS, your NHS, our NHS
David Cameron has kicked off the Conservatives' campaign for change with a billboard promising cuts in the budget deficit and not the NHS. Our opponents doubt the depth and sincerity of the Conservatives' commitment to the NHS. But I hope that no-one will doubt David Cameron's - or mine. David has talked of the huge debt he and his family owe the NHS for the way doctors and nurses looked after Ivan and helped make his short life a more bearable one. What some of you may not know is that I have my own personal reason to thank the NHS. In the spring of 2007, before I moved to Lincolnshire, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the lymph system. Although I had private health insurance at the time, I relied on the NHS for every aspect of my treatment. And the care I received throughout several months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy was superb. Can the NHS be reformed and improved? Of course it can. But can I countenance a Britain without it? Over my dead body.
02 JAN 2010
Year for Change
Happy new year to all of you! I don't think any of us is likely to mourn the passing of the Noughties, the decade which started with the fiasco of the Millennium Dome, that eternal symbol of New Labour's fatuous profligacy, and ended with the deepest recession and biggest budget deficit in modern history. But we can console ourselves with the following thought. 2010 is the year in which we get to turn over a new leaf. If we campaign for change, and vote for change, 2010 will be the year in which the revival of Britain's fortunes can begin.
04 NOV 2009
Britain betrayed
Yesterday the Lisbon Treaty became law without the British people ever being given a chance to say what they think of it. The way Labour has behaved over this makes my blood boil. Tony Blair promised us a referendum before the 2005 election and then promptly broke that promise once the election was out of the way. Gordon Brown was so desperate to distance himself from this betrayal that he tried to sign the treaty in secret - but that didn't stop him ramming it through Parliament with LibDem support. People throughout Lincolnshire are right to feel angry and frustrated today. I do too. But let's make sure that we focus our anger on the real culprits. Not David Cameron and William Hague, who have consistently campaigned for a referendum and opposed the Lisbon Treaty from the start. But Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg, who have ganged up with unaccountable bureaucrats in Brussels, and pulled off the mother of all con tricks on the British people.
24 OCT 2009
A PM to be proud of
You've been Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister. You've led your country through a recession and a war, won an election against the odds, and lost one as your party fell apart. 12 years later, you could be forgiven for deciding that you've done your bit, that the Conservative Party will just have to get on without you. But not if you are John Major. He didn't just turn up to last night's Stamford Welland dinner, but he answered every question and stayed until quarter to midnight, talking to everyone who wanted to say hello. Now that's what I call a class act.
30 SEP 2009
Dodging the issues
Gordon Brown's speech to the Labour Party conference lasted 59 minutes and avoided anything more than a glancing mention of the two biggest challenges facing Britain: the level of government borrowing and the war in Afghanistan. If the Prime Minister wants to understand why The Sun has dumped him, he needs look no further. The British people want their leaders to be clear-eyed about the problems we face and realistic in the solutions they propose. Trying to pretend that problems don't exist or that solutions will be painless just makes voters cross. This week the Labour Party has provided final proof that they are no longer fit to govern. Next week, David Cameron has to show that he is ready to take on the heavy burden of Prime Ministerial office. I know he won't let us down.
15 SEP 2009
Come off it, Mandy
Yesterday, Peter Mandelson argued that Labour would be 'wise spenders not big spenders', while Conservatives were ideologically committed to draconian, indiscriminate cuts. This is a bit rich, even by the standards of the Sultan of Spin. Does he think people won't notice that Labour have been in power for 12 years? In their first few years in office, they were wise spenders - but only because they stuck to Ken Clarke's spending plans. After they had lulled everyone into a false sense of security, the floodgates opened. Why should anyone believe that now, having mortgaged the country's future and brought the economy to its knees, that Labour will suddenly learn how to be wise spenders again?
03 SEP 2009
Stupid, spineless and wrong
Few things in life are genuinely shocking. It is a word that politicians use far too much. But, if any recent event really deserves the epithet, the Scottish Justice Minister's decision to release Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds is it. It was spineless of the British government to give into pressure from the Libyan dictator. It was stupid of Gordon Brown to think that by keeping shtum he could stop the decision from causing irreparable harm to our relationship with the United States. But, most of all, it was wrong to put the interests of a ailing murderer above the simple principles of justice.
17 AUG 2009
Standing up for the NHS
I am a fan of Dan Hannan - he was right to say that the Conservatives should leave the EPP and his recent response to Gordon Brown's speech to the European Parliament was a tour de force. But Dan is wrong about the NHS. Of course, it could be better. Of course, we need to give patients more power to choose which doctors they wish to be treated by and to give medical professionals more freedom to exercise clinical judgment. But, despite the flaws produced by Labour's bureaucratic approach, the NHS still provides the British people with high quality healthcare at a very reasonable cost (and far more cheaply than in the US.) When I got cancer in 2007, I relied on the NHS and the way it responded was superb - from the first discussion with my GP, through all the blood tests and biopsies, to the chemotherapy and radiotherapy, to the continuing pattern of check-ups I still receive. Not having to worry about the cost of my treatment when I was already worried about being ill made all the difference. Like David Cameron, I am grateful to the NHS, proud of what it has achieved and passionate about making it work even better in the decades to come.
Is it not the case that the cost of health insurance in the US has being inflated? If health insurance was today reflective of what it was originally planned to be, it would only be used as a safe guard against unlikely/highly unlikely medical conditions.
If it did not cover the simple things like a check up when you have something as simple as a fever, it would surely be alot cheaper.
I have to say I am with Mr. Hannan on this one. The NHS is far from the envy of the world, but its hard to convince people about privatising it because it touches upon emotional issues... just as the drugs issue. I fear we Libertarians will not be taken seriously untill emotions give way to reason.
Best of luck to Mr. Hannan.
- Anon
24 JUL 2009
Fun and games at the Game Fair
Yesterday I went to Belvoir Castle to see the Game Fair. This wasn't my first Game Fair. I remember going at least once as a boy when it was held at Stratfield Saye, home of the Duke of Wellington. Normally, the things whose scale impressed you as a child, disappoint you when you revisit them as an adult. But not the Game Fair. If anything, it was even bigger than I remember it. I walked along miles of stalls selling everything from guns to sculptures to ferret huts. I watched a woman demonstrate falconry, and bumped into cousins of mine who run Inverawe Smokehouses and were doing a roaring trade in smoked salmon sandwiches at their stall. I then met up with Joan Hayes, who had invited me, and was introduced to her remarkable granddaughter. She can't be much more than 5 years old and is already winning prizes as an expert gundog handler. With youngsters like her keen to get involved, the future of country sports looks bright.
Nick Boles
07 JAN 2010
Let the voters have their say
While most people in the country have been worrying about how to get to work through the snow and ice and who's going to look after their children while their school is closed, everyone in Westminster has spent the last two days talking about the latest Labour plot to get rid of Gordon Brown. I don't know about you but I am heartily sick of these stories. Gordon Brown has been Prime Minister for the last two years. The British people had no say in his election to that office. At the very least, they deserve an opportunity to pass their own verdict on his tenure of it. And a general election is the way to let them do it.
05 JAN 2010
My NHS, your NHS, our NHS
David Cameron has kicked off the Conservatives' campaign for change with a billboard promising cuts in the budget deficit and not the NHS. Our opponents doubt the depth and sincerity of the Conservatives' commitment to the NHS. But I hope that no-one will doubt David Cameron's - or mine. David has talked of the huge debt he and his family owe the NHS for the way doctors and nurses looked after Ivan and helped make his short life a more bearable one. What some of you may not know is that I have my own personal reason to thank the NHS. In the spring of 2007, before I moved to Lincolnshire, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the lymph system. Although I had private health insurance at the time, I relied on the NHS for every aspect of my treatment. And the care I received throughout several months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy was superb. Can the NHS be reformed and improved? Of course it can. But can I countenance a Britain without it? Over my dead body.
Indeed this is bad for democracy. Junaid Egale junaidegale.me
- Junaid Egale