Posts Tagged MPs
Will MPs vote with their Tweet?
Posted by Nick Cowen in Politics on 29/03/2011
By Tom Shakhli
Poor old social media. You would think that having put us back in touch with our old school friends, broadened our work networks, and facilitated a revolution or two, we would cut it some slack and be content to take a step back and marvel as it continues to sweep through the world. To oppose it as a concept, goes the argument, is to be elitist, out-of-touch, or an opponent of modernisation. Hopefully this accusation does not inhibit us from questioning it on a case-by-case basis, which is the premise of this post. Most people have benefited from having a Facebook account, looking for jobs on LinkedIn, and despite its futility, spending too much time on YouTube. However, hidden in the news this week was something that perhaps should make us pause and think about whether the juggernaut of social media should be given a free, access-all-areas pass: the recommendation that MPs be allowed to use Twitter in the chamber of the House of Commons.
A welcome prescription from senior clinicians
Posted by James Gubb in Health, Politics on 07/05/2010
Whoever, whenever and whatever government is formed from the malaise of today’s election results would do well to read this welcome letter to the Guardian from some of the country’s most senior clinicians who argue in no uncertain terms that large-scale reconfiguration of services will be required in the coming years to both pull the NHS through tight financial times, and improve quality of care. Instead of pandering to local hospitals operating often unsustainable 19th century models of health care – as is suggested MPs will do in this HSJ survey – MPs and ministers should be putting their weight behind the difficult decisions PCTs (the commissioners of care in the NHS) will have to be making; drawing chronic care out into the community and centralising specialist services. Decisions that will also, no doubt, entail using providers from outside the current NHS setting… BMA watch out!