Who can give the modern Cathy a home?

2^nd August 2016

It’s 50 years since Ken Loach’s groundbreaking film, Cathy Come Home, documented the inhuman effects of homelessness. Without a home, as his heartbreaking film shows, families collapse, children are deprived of a stable childhood in which to thrive and individuals – Cathy herself – are put under intolerable mental and emotional strain with tragic and unjust consequences.

Health

We need a manufacturing resurgence more than ever. How can we bring it about?

28^th June 2016

There’s been a familiar narrative emerging since Thursday’s vote – this was the left behind white working class getting one over the London-centric political and economic elites. I think that analysis only takes us so far as it glosses over diversity within the Leave vote.

The economic impacts of a Brexit would make us more, not less, reliant on other countries

21^st June 2016

Yesterday’s letter from Ford to its employees was the latest chapter in the economic debate on Britain’s EU membership, which has largely focused on the impact of Brexit on the UK’s big manufacturers.

europe

Mutuals and Co-ops Can Be The Very Best Option!

16^th May 2016

The Quest for John Lewis Quality Public Services for Wales Wales has often been characterised by a radical political tradition that exists to promote a vision of educated, articulate, empowered local communities that act on their own behalf rather than having others acting for them.

Book Review: ‘Taking Power Back: Putting people in charge of politics’ by Simon Parker

10^th May 2016

Nearly a year before the 2015 General Election, the Chancellor George Osborne announced that the country needed a ‘Northern Powerhouse’: an attempt to bring together the North’s 15 million strong population into a collective force that could begin to rival London and the South East as the economic heartbeat of the UK.

Remain: The truly patriotic choice

5^th May 2016

In its latest volley of relentless negativity, the Remain campaign has targeted the grim outlook for UK trade were we to leave the EU. Last week its aim was fixed on the 3 million jobs dependent on the union.

brexit + EU + europe

Becoming ‘the best place in the world’ for dementia treatment

26^th April 2016

This blog was originally published by Age UK   The Prime Minister wants the UK to be ‘the best place in the world to undertake research into dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.’

Beyond the Economic: The true value of Europe

23^rd March 2016

Arguments against Britain leaving the EU have focused on economic cost-benefit-analyses and arguments from national self-interest. This does a disservice to an organisation which, with its rare idealism, should be valued beyond a banal calculation of whether we get out more than we put in.

brexit + EU + europe

With Prevention in Mind

19^th February 2016

Announcing £1 billion increase in funding to mental health, David Cameron rightly said that there needs to be a ‘revolution’ in mental health care. Much of the money the Prime Minister is pledging is to flow into acute mental health services; £250 million for emergency mental health in A&E and £400 million for investment in crisis resolution.

Health + mental health + prevention

NHS2

11^th February 2016

The NHS began with a bitter doctor’s dispute. Nye Bevan, the towering socialist Welsh force of nature, and Minister of Health whose single – some would say bloody – mindedness in pushing through the root law that set up the world’s first fully funded public healthcare system, in 1948, was a hate figure for most doctors.

NHS