Category: NHS
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Following Tuesday evening’s Edward Heath Lecture in Salisbury by very fed up Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, it was not astonishing that Kemi Badenoch (North West Essex, Conservative) LoTO focused all six of her questions on Defence Spending. LoTO rose at 12:03:05 and asked: Mr Speaker intervened in apparent embarrassment to cut off Sir Keir’s…
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It has been James Vance Week, or for fans of Édith Piaf, “Semaine Je Regrette Tout.” With Westminster largely silent while Parliament was in Easter recess, British politics spent the week reacting to events elsewhere. The most consequential development was the quiet collapse of the Chagos deal, but this seemed like small beer compared to…
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Another week in which British politics found itself waiting on events elsewhere. Iran continued to set the strategic tempo, Washington oscillated between negotiation and escalation by the hour and Westminster responded largely by adjusting language rather than making decisions. Several domestic signals were worth noting: a stalled youth mobility reset with the EU, an unexpectedly…
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Waiting for imaginary negotiations abroad, preparing for inflation at home and governing in the shadow of events with no clear purpose. Welcome to Britain 2026. The Israel–US confrontation with Iran continues to set the UK political tempo. Domestic policy development not stop, but it does now feel provisional, as though HMG is waiting to see…
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Wait for it! Another week dominated by Iran, but not entirely determined by it. Westminster continues to move in its familiar pattern: modest domestic announcements, internal Labour positioning and foreign policy events imposing themselves faster than ministers can respond. British politics appears to be holding its breath. Diego Garcia and the geography of risk The…
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Preparation, hesitation, correction, reposition. This past week has seen a (leaky) raft of claims about the Government’s preparations for the US-Israeli attack on Iran, hesitation and uncertainty in response, hardly disguised at all by post hoc (and very definitely therefore not ergo propter hoc) announcements claiming that everything is under control. On the home front…
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ERASMUS RETURN, NHS STRIKES, UNION TENSIONS. The government agreed a deal for the UK to rejoin the EU’s Erasmus+ student exchange programme from the 2027/28 academic year. The UK’s will pay £570 million for that first year or involvement, almost double its pre-Brexit annual payments. A 30% “discount” was agreed for the first year. The…
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PEERS, NHS FLU PRESSURE AND A FLICKER OF YOUTH MOBILITY SCHEME HOPE. A Joke at the House of Lords’ expense. On Wednesday HMG announced 34 new Lords, including 25 Labour peers, five LibDems and three Tories. The list includes a slug of second rank (aka “failed”) Labour advisers, including Matthew Doyle, Katie Martin and Carol…