Archive for November, 2007
While our government feebly pleads…
Posted by Nick Cowen in European Union on 20/11/2007
…our fishing industry slips into crisis.
The European Union’s Fisheries Commission places strict quotas on fishing in the North Sea, areas that were previously sovereign British territory. The purpose of this policy is to encourage fish stocks to recover from over fishing that previously took place because of the free for all policy that allowed several European countries to access the same waters. The perverse result is that between 40 and 60 per cent of all fish caught have to be thrown back dead into the sea, leaving us with the worst of all worlds: a growing environmental crisis as fish stocks fail to be replenished and a crippled fishing industry. This policy is no good, either for today’s fisherman or tomorrow’s consumer.
Time for some Dutch courage
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 19/11/2007
A priority of the Dutch health care system, just like in the NHS, is to guarantee access to health care services in accordance with principles of solidarity and equality. As a result, health care coverage, just like in the NHS, is universal.
But, unlike the NHS, universal coverage is being achieved not through a predominantly government-run system, but through an insurance market that aims to be patient-focused and competitive. The government regulates the system and provides extra funds for the poor and those with excessive health care risks, but is neither the major provider nor funder of health care. It is patient demand, not central command that drives quality of care. As this Civitas briefing shows, there is much the NHS could learn.
‘Outie’ or ‘Innie’? The EU belly button
Posted by Pete Quentin in European Union on 15/11/2007
Apparently David Miliband was felt today by the ‘hand of history’, when delivering a speech to the College of Europe in Bruges. You would have thought that hand belonged to Baroness Thatcher given her famous speech of September 1988 at that location, when she laid out the fundamentals of British euroscepticism.
Instead it seems it was Miliband’s “personal history”, of a family history embroiled in continental strife, which directed his proclamation that the EU should not become a superpower but a global “role model” (yet more school boy language from the Foreign Secretary, who only recently childishly described the world as “rather a scary place”). This is skewed on a number of levels but more importantly acts as an opportunity to raise the points made by Thatcher in 1988 and their continued relevance to Britain’s place in Europe today.
Why I Lack All Faith in and Hope for the Charity Commission
Posted by David Conway in Social Cohesion on 13/11/2007
Last Friday, the Charity Commission announced the creation of a new Faith and Social Cohesion Unit to lead its work with faith-based charities.
In the first instance, it announced, the new unit will focus on Muslim charities and communities. Directing its work will be a newly created Project Board the members of which, we were told, will include representatives from MINAB, the Mosques and Imams Advisory Board.
Continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.
The Loudmouth Across the Channel
Posted by Pete Quentin in European Union on 12/11/2007
There is one man across the English Channel who Gordon Brown must wish would shut up, writes Cem Suleyman.
The man I’m talking about is Valery Giscard d’Estaing (VGE), former President of the French Fifth Republic (1974-81).
VGE was President of the Convention on the Future of Europe, which drafted the original, and failed, EU Constitutional Treaty. Ever since the Constitutional Treaty was torpedoed by the non / nee votes in France and the Netherlands, VGE has made it his mission to make the people of Europe realise the error of their ways and eventually adopt the Constitutional Treaty in full. In the case of France’s non VGE has said “The French did not vote for or against this text, they avoided the text. This mistake must not happen again”. As you can see I’m not discussing the most humble of men!
Not the right way to go about it
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 08/11/2007
Let’s get one thing straight. Hospital reconfiguration is necessary. There are too many district general hospitals (DGHs) in England. All the evidence suggests that acute care, such as A&E, cardiology, neurosurgery, liver transplantation, some cancer surgery and major vascular surgery, is more safely provided in larger hospitals where doctors have the right skills, experience and equipment to treat the sickest patients.*
But that does not mean the Department of Health should go about it by just unilaterally cutting payments – or, more specifically, not offering ‘top-up’ premiums – for specialist procedures to some DGHs they’ve decided should no longer be carrying them out, as has been revealed today by the HSJ.