But not quite. His latest article on Comment is Free is headlined ‘Making GPs more accessible is just a disguised concession to big business’. Although his ideology is almost unparalleled in its economic illiteracy, it looks on the face as if he might have happened upon something important. He starts off well, pointing out that… [Read More]
More than enough, perhaps, has already been said about the speech given last week by the Minister for Culture Margaret Hodge in which she criticised the Proms and other unnamed iconic cultural events — the Henley Regatta?, Glyndebourne? — for not being sufficiently inclusive. So well does the Culture Minister’s speech epitomise a central flaw… [Read More]
ID cards are being re-branded. The objective remains exactly the same, to create a national database with an associated biometric ID card. The difference is the softly, softly approach to introducing them to keep the scheme associated with the public’s security fears. It will cover first non-EU migrants, then ‘sensitive personnel’ such as baggage handlers,… [Read More]
Parents with children in their final year at primary school will today learn how successful they have been in securing for their children a place this coming September at a secondary school of their choice. Those who have been through this process will know what a trying time it is. continued on the Centre for… [Read More]
The Times today reveals the Conservatives are equally, if not more, committed to throwing yet more money at the NHS than Labour. The Shadow Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley has boldly so he thinks, and completely foolhardily so many of the public will think, pledged to increase spending on it by £28 billion per year to… [Read More]
The Daily Mail reports that one in eight entries on the police’s growing DNA database is incorrectly inputted, threatening to associate the DNA signature of a criminal with the record of an innocent member of the public. In the future innocent people could be arrested on the basis of an error made by a data… [Read More]
Today’s Times reports that 20,000 Muslim leaders have just issued a declaration condemning terrorism as un-Islamic. Their declaration was made at a conference held yesterday at the Dar Uloom madrassa in Deoband, northern India. It runs: “Islam is a religion of mercy for all humanity. Islam sternly condemns all kinds of oppression, violence and terrorism.”… [Read More]
A worrying case has emerged this morning. A shopkeeper managed to fend off an attempted robbery by stabbing the assailant with his own knife. From the details available, this response was proportionate since the shopkeeper suffered wounds in the struggle as well (it was clear that the robber was prepared to carry out his threat… [Read More]
Who is it that can keep London safe in the run-up to the Olympic Games? If you have been tempted to answer either the ‘Metropolitan Police’ or the ‘Special Branch’, then you would have been wrong. That is the view of the recently retired head of the Special Branch’s Muslim Contact Unit. continued on the… [Read More]
Richard Vize writes what can only be described as a vitriolic attack on the BMA in his editorial in the Health Service Journal this week, describing them as resorting to ‘sabotage to block the modernisation of our primary care services’ and ‘crass, childish behaviour’. His particular gripe is that the BMA’s GP Committee has, very… [Read More]