Shadow politics: The NHS is more than a logo
Perhaps the most blatant example of the shadow politics is what the political class has doing to the NHS over the past 30 years. To most people, the NHS is more than a logo - but for how much longer?
Frontline Friday 2nd August 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 29th July 2013, from welfare reform to privatisation of the NHS, probation and the Court Service - and should practitioners write about real cases?
Wonga and the payday loansharks to be outlawed?
With wages falling, costs rising, and social safety nets being torn asunder – UK citizens are turning, in ever greater numbers, to pay day lenders to plug the gap. In the past, the poor were protected from predatory lenders by Usury Laws which made extortionate interest rates illegal. Yet in today’s Usury Kingdom, crime pays. One petitioner [...]
Should professionals write publicly about real cases?
I had a very interesting and thought provoking email correspondence with a reader of The Masked AMHP blog recently. The reader initially found the accounts on the blog of real situations interesting and at times amusing, but then started to think about how they would feel if they were reading about themselves. The reader raised [...]
Shadow politics: How outsourcing and privatisation have got their teeth into public services
In the shadow politics, some policies - such as outsourcing and privatisation - are beyond the need for evidence. And once they sink their teeth in, they don’t let go.
Service users? I couldn’t eat a whole one
The organiser of the Patient Service User Forum licked her lips when she saw me. A Service User! Me. She had captured one, a strange and precious creature for her consultation exercise. What will it say?! Will it kick off? Will it have a hot drink? Or would it prefer something cooler? Will it jump [...]
Frontline Friday 26th July 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 22nd July 2013 - from welfare reform to the Work Capability Assessment, police powers to the ‘war on porn’.
The Parliamentary Hypocritical Oath
“…there is in fact very little in place to “police” MP’s in the same way all other sections of the public sector are “policed”. …They are “monitored” by a group of their peers with not a single impartial, independent person amongst them.” Snapper explains why it’s one rule for MPs, and another for those who work in the public sector.
Cameron’s phoney ‘war on porn’ is actually a war on privacy
“David Cameron is attempting a bloodless coup of the free internet, inside a paper mache Trojan Horse of Daily Mail headlines.” Scriptonite Daily explains why the Government’s ‘new’ announcement is really about the privacy of adults, not the protection of children.
10 questions about Cameron’s ‘new’ porn-blocking
There’s been a bit of a media onslaught from David Cameron about his ‘war on porn’ over the weekend. Some of the messages given out have been very welcome – but some are contradictory and others make very little sense when examined closely. The latest pronouncement, as presented to/by the BBC, says “Online pornography to [...]
Attack on union link puts democracy at risk
Over two centuries working people have fought for our rights in the workplace and wider society. Among our victories have been those of the Chartists and the Suffragettes (and Suffragists) who won us the franchise. The right to choose who governs us is an essential element of democracy. Our rulers have never been comfortable with [...]
Guerilla gardening
I live on the fourth floor in the East End. 70 stairs, no lift. No garden, no balcony. Directly above my early 20th Century flat is a huge flat roof covered in dozens of tall red chimneys. There are lots of rules about the roof and its neighbouring sibling: no parties, barbecues or access of [...]
Frontline Friday 19th July 2013: Our favourite frontline blogs this week
Here’s our list of ten frontline blogs we’ve particularly liked from the week of 15th July 2013 - from male mental health to the NHS, welfare reforms to payment by results.
Monsters in Whitehall?
I had a look at the article by journalist, columnist and former Cameron speech-writer Ian Birrell in The Guardian. It’s titled The Civil Service: a monster in Whitehall. The sub-text seeks to prepare the ground for the politicisation of the civil service. The problem is that the article doesn’t make the case how politicising the civil [...]
What now, Labour?
You can get some interesting results if you google “Labour effective opposition”. This is just a prologue to a longer post at some point (wouldn’t have googled it otherwise). I’m not happy with Labour’s performance in opposition, although I’d definitely rather have them in power than the Coalition. For now, I found one source that [...]
Only one argument!
Sometimes in this job you have a week that is like no other you have experienced before and for me this is an important subtle reminder that you can never make any assumptions in social work. It is also a gentle reminder that life is precious and should be treated with respect, and maybe I [...]
I thought I was a shareholder in Britain
The funding, running and maintaining of our essential services has become such a complete and utter farce that, like a growing number of people, I despair at and hold in contempt, those private companies and successive governments who are responsible. Energy, the Emergency Services, Health and Social Care, Education, Water, Transport, Law, Order and Justice [...]
The political class: ending the old politics requires a radical think of the role of political parties
In our continuing series on the political class, we suggest that the depth of the crisis of legitimacy being experienced by the mainstream political parties requires a radical rethinking of their role in contemporary politics.
Binaries
I’m not sure I buy into binaries. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who think there are only two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t. Here’s a binary for you: either there is an unprecedented crisis which can only be solved by austerity politics, or there isn’t. I don’t know which of [...]