Charlotte Leslie

Jeremy Hunt opens the attack on the Working Time Directive

For years, Secretaries of State for Health have studiously ignored one of the most corrosive regulations to the NHS: the European Working Time Directive. Although the EU is not supposed to have any remit over health, this ‘health and safety’ directive limits junior doctors’ hours to an average of 48 hours per week, with added

Wales is a nightmare vision of Ed Miliband’s Britain

If politics was science, you would call Wales the ‘control’ group, for public service reform. Here is a country where Labour are the only game in town and a socialist philosophy which places a monopolistic state provider at the centre of health care and education reigns supreme – yes, even more supreme than the pupils

David Nicholson should have no future in the NHS

When T.S Eliot spoke of the folly of trying to ‘Devise systems so perfect, that nobody will need to be good’, he effectively described a distinction between the left – who instinctively turn to systems to get things done, and the right – who tend to believe in focusing on individuals, people, and their values.

Why David Nicholson must go

As the Mid-Staffs tragedy unfurls, it becomes more and more apparent that contrary to the insistence of former Labour Ministers and Prime Ministers, this was not an isolated case, but an appalling example of problems evident throughout the NHS. Indeed, back in 2008, the then Labour Government received reports from respected international health consultants warning

Vocation calling

I was at a lunch this week to talk about the state of further education, in view of the Government’s plans to extend the school leaving age. It was generally agreed that further education and training are in a bit of a mess. “Does Gordon Brown actually know what vocational skills are?” someone asked. Who