GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.316 just over six years and going strong! Another extremely busy week finished off in Godalming, Cranleigh and Elstead and my social media return to…wait for it…TikTok.
WESTMINSTER WHISPERS
NHS NEW START? This week sees the publication of the government’s much trailed ‘10-year plan’ for the NHS. In anticipation of this, I wrote an article for the Sunday Times which you can read here if you are not a subscriber. I have tried to be balanced and genuinely wish Wes Streeting well. But if we are going to turn around the NHS, we need to learn from the transformation in state schools: fewer targets, more local autonomy and a relentless focus on quality of provision. Oh yes and don’t use up all that extra money on pay awards as I fear has been happening.
MIGRATION MADNESS I have always thought of myself as a ‘liberal’ on migration e.g. someone who recognises that the UK prospers by welcoming the brightest and best from around the world. But the social consensus for that will be ripped up unless we GRIP the issues around migration by a) stopping illegal migration and b) substantially reducing legal migration. The latter will only happen with substantial reform of the benefits system so those here re-enter the labour market, as I wrote for the Economist. There is a good discussion on this in the latest Daily T podcast where I discuss the issue with Camilla Tominey and an expert panel. My most controversial proposal: Sir Keir Starmer, as a seasoned human rights lawyer, should lead the charge to rewrite international law (the ECHR and 1951 convention) that is one of the root causes of the problem.
TO TURN OR NOT TO TURN We now know the answer when it comes to welfare (and winter fuel payments and grooming gangs and island of strangers speeches) which is this government is for turning. I was hoping that Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves would stay the course as I said on Good Morning Britain. My biggest worry is that tax rises are now all but inevitable - and that means we are more likely to get stuck in a doom loop of ever lower growth causing ever more pressure on public finances.
AND LOCALLY…
MOBILE PHONE MEETING WITH SHADOW MINISTER IN CRANLEIGH We need to fix the dire mobile phone reception in Cranleigh and surrounding villages so on Friday I met local leaders with Shadow Minister Alan Mak. Cranleigh Parish Council Chairman Marc Scully made a brilliant case for urgent intervention. He was backed up by Cranleigh BID manager Christine Martin and Martin Bamford of the Cranleigh Chamber of Commerce. Dr Mike Bundy explained that recently installed defibrillators are unable to be accessed because of the lack of reception to open them. Watch this video of team Cranleigh in action!
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