Last month I wrote about the potential for Coronavirus to take hold in rural America. Since then the situation has worsened rapidly, and we are way beyond what I considered a worse case scenario. Without a big change of plan they will at least double their number of deaths before the election. Trebling the number … Read more
The Government has made a massive mess of it’s response to Coronavirus. An unmitigated disaster. Boris Johnson and his team prioritised managing the news cycle over managing the virus; too many eye catching announcements without any actual thought about whether they would work. With so many gaffes it’s hard to pick a low point, but … Read more
The US is at a turning point in the fight against CV-19. Deaths are still falling, but new infections are rising again as states re-open economic activity cheered on by the White House. The big risk for the US is that CV-19 takes hold in the large rural populations, which already suffer from high levels … Read more
Dominic Cummings isn’t going. The scandal, while huge, is not enough to push him out the door. Even his presence getting in the way of the Government tackling a pandemic he is staying. Those of use who think he should go won’t get our wish. Boris wants us all to move on, but Boris hasn’t … Read more
A few months ago I wrote about the impossible task that Trump had set himself getting rid of Obamacare: Trump’s basic problem is that the US has been drifting closer and closer to a socialised healthcare system for decades as Federal and State spending on healthcare has over-taken insurers and private individuals. All Obama did … Read more
In yesterdays blog I suggested that the new centralised system to provide PPE to care homes was run by a company called Clipper. The actual system that the Department of Health and Social Care has set up is run by Ebay. Clipper are the logistics partner who are distributing the equipment to all non-acute health … Read more
Over the last few weeks I have written about problems with NHS procurement. Since becoming Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock has centralised NHS procurement and cut Trust budgets to save money. This, plus a failure to adequately prepare for a pandemic, has caused shortfalls of PPE across the NHS. One of the bright … Read more
This is the last in a trilogy of posts from the era of Big Government. A cautionary tale of NHS procurement. Harold Wilson came to power in 1964, ending over a decade of Conservative Governments. He inherited a long running dispute between the NHS and the Pharmaceutical Industry over the price of drugs, dating back … Read more
Remploy was started by the Attlee Government to provide sheltered employment to people with disabilities. It opened it’s first factory in 1946 making violins. Only 15 years ago it operated 83 factories across the UK. The sheltered employment model became less popular as years went by and the emphasis changed to supporting disabled people into … 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