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GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.304
A lot happening internationally, nationally and locally. As we find out if Putin will enter discussions on a ceasefire, we could also see the schools bill pass through the Commons unpicking years of rising standards (read this shocking article by the former Chief Executive of Ofsted). Locally the LibDems have got into a pickle after being found out trying to rig the new unitary council structures for political advantage.
WHAT’S GOING ON IN WESTMINSTER
BONFIRE OF THE QUANGOS The biggest news in Westminster law week was the government’s announcement that the UK’s biggest quango, NHS England, is to be scrapped. In what is probably one of the biggest reforms in recent history, NHS England is to be brought back into the Department of Health. As I said on Sky News, even though I was Health Secretary when NHS England came into being, it is the potentially right thing to do. The NHS is failing because it is micro-managed from the centre. So if this leads to greater autonomy, it could work. If, however, we just move from bureaucratic to political centralisation, the new structure will fail. In Parliament on Thursday, I asked Wes Streeting which it was going to be - and he gave an encouraging response.
PANDEMIC PLANNING Speaking of the NHS, last week I wrote an article in the Express about key lessons learned from the pandemic. Our Covid deaths were around the international average - but the price we paid was having to switch off too much other NHS care - leading to today’s long waiting lists. The lesson is more capacity in the system - and making sure the rest of the NHS (cancer care for example) is able to function even if A & E's are overwhelmed.
PUTIN’S PLAY News broke last week that Ukraine would agree to a 30-day ceasefire, admittedly after pressure from Trump which made many of us wince. But if Putin is now pressured to do the same, it could be the start of something no one previously thought possible, namely a 1953-style Korean ‘freezing’ of the conflict. I talked about this during a Channel 4 interview The challenge is that unlike in Korea, the US is not willing to provide security guarantees and European countries may not be able to - but full marks to Keir Starmer for trying to put such a ‘coalition of the willing’ together.
WHAT’S GOING ON LOCALLY
UNITARY SHENANIGANS This week Councillors across Surrey will give their view on the best structure for Surrey. Surrey County Council believe a two unitary format is best and some of the 11 Districts and Boroughs are expected to support three… but it will be Labour’s local government Minister Jim McMahon who makes the ultimate call. I support two unitaries (East Surrey and West Surrey) for a simple reason: I am worried that Woking’s £2.2bn debt is too much for us to absorb if we were just Guildford/Waverley/Woking without impacting on council tax bill. The Lib Dems are trying to rig the process to create three because they think they would control the smaller units, as revealed in this rather shocking video in which the Waverley LibDem leader asks the Council Chief Executive to ‘skew’ the report (and the supposedly apolitical CEO responding ‘this had already been done’.) Many councillors across Surrey have called for his resignation citing breach of the code of conduct. Take a look at the clip… what do you think?
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