Vince Cable and the entrapment saga

Vince Cable must have been delighted with the surprise of finding some like minded people in his constituency surgery. So much so that the experience seems to have gone completely to his head. It turns out that he was not the only liberal democrat in this situation. Given the recent events on student fees they must have thought Christmas had come early.

Vince was expansive on his pivotal role in government, his attitude towards the Murdoch press, grateful for a captive and no doubt enthusiastic audience he let rip with gusto!

So, like his colleagues he is a honest and committed politician. That does not excuse the lack of, as Sir Humphrey of ‘Yes Minister’ would put it, soundness.

Being part of a cabinet reduces ones flexibility, ones ability to be ‘off the record’ and Cable should know this, as should his friends on the party. It is for this reason alone that he should have resigned yesterday. That is what an honourable politician should have done.

#Condem immigration CAP will not limit IT inter company transfers

“Call me Dave”* made clear his contempt of the IT industry in question time this week. It is clear that he has little idea of what the IT industry and the IT staff do in real life. As an IT contractor over the last 8 years and with 30 years in the industry, I have direct experience of two aspects of the industry that reveal the hollowness of the condem policies on reducing the deficit.

The Sunday Times today carries the expectation that Theresa May will announce the details of the immigration cap and it’s effect on inter company transfers. The inter company transfer allows a company to bring in workers from outside the EU on restricted visas to work in the UK. The main limit for this will be an earnings lower limit of around £40,000 per year. This is designed to allow senior managers, key technical staff and bankers to work here, largely from the USA.

The lower earning limit for IT will be set at £24,000. This is below the industry average wage for IT. It is driven on the back of the supposed “skills shortage” in the industry. That skills shortage is a direct result of the recruitment process in the industry, where on a general level every actual vacancy is re-posted on the main websites by a number of recruitment agencies, desperate for work. Another reason for the inflated job figures is the current practice by some companies of “trawling” for new staff or “benchmarking” internal staff against external candidates.

The other main reason for the special treatment is that an increasing number of companies in the UK are using offshore, i.e. outside the E.U., companies to provide their technical staff in the UK, reducing their IT spend considerably. There are problems with this approach such as high staff turnover as peoples’ visa expire causing lack of continuity, language and cultural differences that reduce the effectiveness and hence the cost savings in such an exercise.

“Call me Dave” tell us that we need the small business of the UK to bring us out of recession, to mop up the supposedly inevitable reduction in government, local government and associated industry jobs. Many of those will be in the IT sector. I predict that many of these jobs will either move offshore entirely or be taken over by cheap labour from outside the EU on “inter company” transfers. As a small business man who has, over the last 2 years, seen my own opportunities reduced and hence my earnings, I am one of those people that “Call me Dave” is expecting to drive the recovery. Well, thanks Dave and Theresa, you just made that job almost impossible. Its a pity that cabinet ministers are not hired on the same basis as IT contractors, perhaps then they would understand how the real world works

Regards

* with thanks to Andrew Neil and This Week

Is the NHS safe in the hands of the medical profession?

For many years the jewel in the crown of the British welfare state and of civilisation in the UK has been the national health service. Since it’s inception after the second world war it has strived to bring health and equality to the people of this country.

Labour spent the last decade pumping money into the service, setting targets to direct effort and remove the long queues largely introduced by the Tories. One would think that the service would be in the best state it has ever been in at this point.

One may think that. Certainly the medical profession is in good health, earning more, hours trimmed by the working time directive and with the advances in medical science and equipment working more and more miraculous cures. But have the ethics kept pace with the investment? I think not. The recessions in the 80’2 and 90′s started a train of thought within the medical profession, they thought about rationing care. Of course they dressed it up into more acceptable jargon, dreamed up more and more sophisticated questionnaires to allow ‘medical decisions’ to be made. But in the end the result is a form of rationing. Each patient is assessed not only for their medical situation but also for their quality of life, whether action needs to be taken now or postponed and directed through different cheaper channels. Almost a “not from my budget you don’t” mentality.

In keeping with the British aversion to centralisation, each area of the country, each hospital team devised their own strategies. The result the “post code” lottery of treatment that NICE was established to stop. NICE started their own form of rationing, punctuated by occasional successful pressure from the public ( really the drug companies ) where they changed their minds over particular drugs.

Improvements in pain relief and management now seem to allow those in chronic pain to be treated as non urgent. Someone bed ridden, unable to work and in constant pain, is sent to hospital, examined to the point of the test suggested by their GP, prior to admission. This test is only given quickly to those with sufficient priority, so the patient is put on the waiting list ( currently 6 weeks ), sent home with more pain killers to await the test which is then used to determine whether to operate at a later date. The result, probably 8-12 weeks in total of pain and frustration, loss of earnings and stress. All for want of a scan that takes 15-20 minutes and costs a few hundred pounds.

Stories like this come as a real shock to a life long Labour supporter, who approved whole heartedly of the investment in the Health Service over the last few years. The Condem government is saying that the health service budgets are ring fenced. It is difficult to ring fence something that will be as drastically re-organised as planned in the near future. If they want to really effect the outcomes in the Health Service then there is one very simple area that needs to be addressed. That of communication.

Communication is still the weakest part of the system. Consultants, GP’s and the rest of the service depend on the vast quantity of paper used to communicate. Referrals and appointments must be gained by a doctor writing, seemingly via a postal system that makes Royal Mails second class service look instantaneous, to another doctor, asking for a test, or operation. The patient is then written to, when they have an appointment available. The results are said test are then communicated in writing to the original doctor. The strangest thing is that doctors seem to be able to write but no read. If I meet with a client I read the history before I see them, not in the middle of a meeting or consultation. The rest of the world uses email to communicate and it is about time the medical profession moved out of the 18th century and did the same. It strikes me that perhaps the NHS computerisation project is not so bad after all. The issue with it is that the medical profession cannot cope with the idea of the change. This is after all the major issue with most new computer implementations.

This is, for me a long blog, some may say a diatribe. That is probably true. While you are reading it , agreeing or disagreeing as is your right, consider that the main thrust is that the service that was once a national treasure, the service that countless volunteers have given up time to support, that has done so much to improve the life chances of the people of this country, is now slowly dying because of the actions of its most important people, the medical profession. So I think that it is time to recognise that the national health service is no longer safe in their hands. Putting budgets in the hands of GPs may help focus their minds, but only if the infrastructure is in place to resolve the inevitable communication and scheduling issues

All is fair in politics as Shakespeare never said

The conservative party conference this week proved beyond reasonable doubt that any cuts will not be fair, even with the CONDEM redefinition of the word.

Having decided, probably at the very last minute to announce a tax rise on the lower end of the middle classes, destroy the convention on universal benefits in one fell swoop, by cutting child benefit for those on 40% tax, they then crumbled in the ensuing onslaught from the Tory press.

The Mail and the Torygraph weighed in without restraint, leading the condemnation of the chattering classes of the attack on marriage, fairness and middle class values. The absolute iniquity of taking money from the yummy mummy brigade could not be endured and within 24 hours Cameron was backtracking with talk of a return to the married couples tax allowance. Itself about as fair as a two headed coin.

The really sick part of all of this furore is that the people who will be affected most are not those with the biggest voice, but those who just creep into the 40% tax bracket who could not be described as the idle middle classes and this will be the majority of people affected. The people who will not be affected are the people rich enough to not need child benefit like Cameron, Clegg and Osborne.

The final nail in the coffin of fairness was the announcement that benefits would be limited to the average wage level, irrespective of actual need. The targeting of those with large families by the condem government to support their reasons for this change was just plain cynical media manipulation. The Tory media went along, of course, as Murdoch will make sure that they do. The group who will suffer most from this retrograde step are the children in these families. The parents have made their choices with a system built to preserve a decent level of support for children in this country. It is not perfect but it is a sign of a caring society whose citizens long ago decided to share some of the responsibilities by building the welfare state.

Baroness Varsi, Tory party leader was showing more of the real meaning of the “big society” on Question Time on the BBC this week. The politics of envy is back with a vengence, proud and not afraid to state is spiteful rhetoric. Her every word invited the listener to associate those on benefits with lazy scroungers, pointing out that it is unfair for some to work and some to not. The language of Thatcher is back. The politics of Thatcher is back.

As Shakespear said “all is fair in love and war”. No mention of politics , for reasons we are now all seeing in the totally cynical approach of this government. “Fairness is as I say it is” would be the CONDEM quote

Regards

David Miliband should go for the shadow cabinet but it’s his decision#lab10 #dmiliband

My personal view is that the loss of David Miliband from active poilitics in the UK would be a major setback for the Labour Party but a major disaster for the country. It is clear to me that the current press speculation and focus is driven by a desire to reduce the effectiveness of the Labour opposition to the Condem government.

The surprise election of Ed has given both the Tory press and the condem coalition a way of attacking the party by threatening a renewal of the Blair/Brown feud issues with the Miliband brothers. The difference is that, broadly speaking, the brothers do not have similarly large differences of opinion or strategy.

In the unlikely event that David should read this, then know that I support your decision, whatever it is, as I voted for you for leader. I know that it would appear to be the time to let Ed have sway and remove the issue of your relationship from public gaze. The sad fact is that it won’t work that way. So consider your family or own desires for the future first. If you want to continue in the cabinet put yourself forward. I for one would be glad if that is what you choose. The coalition won’t be

regards

Dave

Congratulations Ed, now the real work starts

Congratulations Ed on winning the Labour leadership. Watching the announcement yesterday it only became clear in the very last minute, exciting stuff.

The key thing is now we have a leader. Not one I voted for but that is collective decision making. Now we all need to get behind the leader and move onto the critically important task, getting rid of Cameron and Clegg before they bring the country to the state of Ireland.

Ireland seems to spiralling onto a deeper recession, following their removal of 6% of the countries GDP in cuts and continuing to fall, unlike the rest of Europe.

The papers have not been slow today to criticise the result of the leadership poll, phrases such as “red ed”, “union barons” and “wilderness” abound. To my mind this indicates how scared they actually are. Their pet project for the last 5 years has been to get Cameron into power, this failed badly. They were pleasantly surprised by Clegg’s act of suicidal betrayal. Now they are facing a rejuvenated Labour party, keen to get on with the job.

So congratulations Ed, now the real work starts

Regards

Power corrupts absolutely

Nick Clegg has managed one achievement in his 13 weeks in office, that is to prove that power corrupts absolutely. It is clear that, to him, being in government is more important than the principles that the Liberal Democrats have espoused since their formation.

Despite the personal statements of Nick during the election campaign that he would never work with “Callmedave” Cameron and that the conservative cuts policy went way to far, here he is, in bed with the Tories.

Nicks task for the party conference is to convince the party that he has taken the best course. As he states in the Times today, he believes that ” we’ve helped release the inner Liberal in a good many Tories”.

This level of creative thought can only be labelled as delusional at best and disingenuous at worst. “Callmedave” is clearly using the Liberals to legitimise the staunchly right wing Tory cuts program. Their attempt to be inclusive, by asking for suggestions in cuts, is clear proof of their intentions.

Government is about choice, taking the direction from the people and enacting what the sane collective voice has said. People vote because of the actions that a leader or party takes, what is in their manifesto, how nice they are on television, or for many other reasons. People also remember why they voted.

Nick Clegg needs to remember how he got where he is, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, not deputy PM, listen to his party and forget the delusion of power, before he joins Icarus in his plunge to the sea

Regards