As a follow up to last weeks adventures with Hugh Dalton and the onesie this week we have another look at the era of the big state. After World War 2 Clement Attlee shrunk the state prodigiously as Prime Minister, reducing the share of GDP taken up by Government spending by more than any PM … Read more
The last few weeks have marked a massive change in the way we view the role of the state. Government is shifting to the kind of interventionism we haven’t seen since Harold Wilson or even Clement Attlee. Very quietly a few weeks ago the Railways were brought back into state control, with the whole free … Read more
Most people will have seen this graph, or a variant of it over the last few days showing the spread of Covid-10 Coronavirus: It’s clear from this graph and lots of others in the media that some countries are doing much better than others at controlling the spread of the disease. Some of these numbers … Read more
Mulled wine is illegal in Durham. I realise that this is shocking news for residents of this fine City. I have worse news. Baileys hot chocolate is illegal too. You can drink it at home, but publicly the sale and consumption of mulled wine and Bailey’s hot chocolate are against the law. But only in … Read more
The old myth that foreigners are coming to take your jobs has a new rival – Americans are coming to steal the NHS. Both are equally silly. Why the immigration myth is nonsense One of the great myths spread by right wing politicians is that somewhere in the world there is a hoard of foreigners … Read more
This is a quote from Jeremy Corbyn at today’s launch of Labour’s election manifesto. A completely nationalised NHS, with no scope for private sector involvement. I realise that this is an emotive issue for many, but when the NHS was set up by the Attlee Government it was established with a mix of public and … Read more
This is Matt Hancock proudly announcing that the Government is ending the use of PFI to fund NHS hospital construction. And tweeting about: You made have spotted that one of my recent themes is the same policy being announced over and over again. https://jon-chadwick.com/2019/08/25/spin-spin-spin-the-wheel-of-policy-how-the-same-shit-policies-come-round-again-and-again/ https://jon-chadwick.com/2019/09/30/spin-the-wheel-of-policy-again-this-time-its-planning-permission/ Ending the use of PFI in the NHS is a … Read more
I make no apologies for returning to the on going disaster that is Universal Credits. I have covered this ongoing public policy catastrophe previously: Universal Credits continues to blight the lives of millions of people. Most of the criticism of UC stems from 3 problems: George Osborne used the introduction of UC to push through … Read more
This is the new exciting policy announcement form the Tory Party conference. A radical change in planning permission: This is a sad faced Nick Clegg announcing the same policy almost exactly 7 years ago: I’ve applied for this extension to my house. What can go wrong?
The Conservatives plan to scrap big chunks of Andrew Lansley’s 2012 Health and Social Care Act. This is a damn good thing. The specific sections which will be repealed are those requiring commissioners to offer NHS Services for tender to private sector contractors like Virgin or Circle They will also remove NHS Services from the … Read more