Society

As an alternative to my earlier blog post, here’s Andrew Lansley’s take on Alan Johnson’s top-up announcement today – Pete Hoskin In his announcement today Alan Johnson sought to put right the awful spectre of patients being denied NHS care because they have accessed private treatment.  It is a situation that was morally repugnant and needed to change months ago. But in so doing Labour have jumped out of that particular frying pan, and into the fire of forcing patients to pay for their care and creating a two-tier NHS.  At the Labour Party conference Gordon Brown pledged to stop cancer patients from having to pay £7.10 for a prescription;

I’ve just been to a polling place here in DC to watch people cast their ballots. The lines are more manageable now than they were early in the morning when people were queuing for an hour-and-a-half to vote, despite the fact that Obama will win the District with 90 percent plus of the vote. There is something inspiring about watching people vote. One woman said to me, about the lines she faced this morning, that it was one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. Not to sound all gooey, but we take for granted that every adult has a right to vote and that power will transfer peacefully. It

A good spot by Ben Brogan over at his essential blog – here’s how Peter Mandelson described Gordon Brown to a group of journos earlier: “I see a man who is really in his stride. He has risen to this challenge. He has grasped the essentials of the crisis, he has understood it. People are crying for change, for leadership. The fact that we in Britain can now be universally recognised as advocates of change and have been recognised as advocating it for a long time … it’s worth its weight in gold.” As Brogan notes, it’s a little bit odd that Mandy should be pushing the “change” line quite