The Health and Social Care Bill committee stages started last week http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201011/ldhansrd/text/111025-0002.htm and will continue this afternoon. We haven’t got past clause 1 yet. It was probably the most frustrating debate I’ve ever attended. It is all about whether the Secretary of State for Health should ‘provide’, or ‘promote’ and or ‘secure’ a comprehensive health…
Following on Lord Tyler’s exchanges with Zoe Williams in the Guardian, I have to confess to being increasingly alienated by mass e-mails and letters about the Health and Social Care Bill. We have always had mass mailings from union members and religious organisations on certain issues but I first noticed I was receiving large numbers…
The House of Lords Science & Technology Select Committee inquiry into the activities of Chief Scientific Advisers (CSAs), which will shortly begin deliberations. In preparation for this the Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE), which quite rightly advocates for better scientific advice to inform policy making, have examined the current state of play for existing…
Like most peers I try and get out and about to keep in touch with what’s happening in my old field, in my case in mental health services, by speaking about parliament and in return listening to staff concerns. It doesn’t give the full picture. For one thing these visits don’t include patients and their…
So I finally made the front page of the Sun, somewhat unexpectedly, see http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/3857501/Tory-peer-tells-British-fatties-to-brjust-eat-less.html Lord Crisp’s debate on non-communicable diseases on Thursday which I mentioned in my last post included a contribution from Lord McColl, an old colleague and friend from our days together at Guy’s Hospital, in which he urged people quite rightly to…
