The next Conservative government must put responsibility where it belongs. Not solely in Whitehall. Not relegated to obscure committees. But at the very heart of how we govern and how we live.
It shouldn’t be taboo to ask the question: is our health and welfare system too quick to write older people off?
It should be called the 25-year health plan because that is how long it has taken to write. It is simply a rip-off of Tony Blair and Alan Milburn’s year 2000 NHS plan, and with nothing new to say.
After crossing the Rubicon, Caesar reportedly said: “the die is cast.” If Parliament legalises assisted suicide, we will have cast off the NHS as we know it, and in doing so, may place some of the most vulnerable in our society in harm’s way.
The constant chicanery and game playing by Leadbeater and her supporters throughout this vital stage of the Bill’s journey will likely have done more to alienate MPs than generate support and build consensus.
Draft legislation and subsequent debates in parliament must provide better answers to the difficult questions around assisted dying before endorsing such a radical legal shift in our approach to care.
The Government needs to resist the clamour from ideological libertarians and give people the tools they need to lead healthy lives and address the culture of the nation towards food, activity, and looking after yourself, as they do in other healthier countries.
A modest (if growing) list of technocratic interventions will not be enough for the electorate, no matter how good they are in their own terms.
Pressure on living standards is more acceptable if there is a sense that it is for a worthwhile goal and we are all in it together.
Few children can afford the time or cost to live near their ageing parents and, with both husband and wife working, cannot be expected to cross the country to visit elderly parents often.
I would break this down into three broad and interconnected areas. How do we improve accountability? How do we embrace new technology? And how do we allocate resources more effectively?
When I was responsible for the £600 million a year London Development Agency, I was shocked at how much management focus was just on getting money out of the door.
It has real democratic authority including with the Lords which might not be so inhibited from voting down new measures which didn’t feature in that manifesto.
Centralising power and imposing top-down reforms usually ends up backfiring on service users in the end.
Voters aren’t used to a world of rising prices and interest rates, and their hearts and minds are up for grabs.
The next Conservative government must put responsibility where it belongs. Not solely in Whitehall. Not relegated to obscure committees. But at the very heart of how we govern and how we live.