They say that when you know you’re going to die, you don’t remember the deadlines or the car you had, you don’t wish you’d worked harder or saved more or eaten more fibre – you remember the kisses, the long sprawling days in the park with your friends, the people you loved and who loved…
Two weeks ago, the Royal College of Nursing at its annual conference raised concerns over low staffing levels and believed that some of the important recommendations from the Francis report such as a registration system for healthcare assistants were being ignored. This brought into focus again the failings identified by Francis, in particular the need…
On the day after the 2 May 2013 council elections the BBC posted a lead story on their news website about the previous day’s vote, containing the line: “UKIP is the big story of the night, gaining 139 councillors and beating the Lib Dems into fourth place in projected vote share with 23 per cent.”…
“When all this is gone, what’s left is what matters most: the people you love – your family, your friends.” The Guardian’s Mike White tells me these were Jim Callaghan’s words, quoted by a member of his family at the memorial service for the former Prime Minister and his beloved wife Audrey. I’m sure many…
The idea of the ‘squeezed middle’ is at the heart of today’s political debates about economic recovery and living standards. It’s a pithy phrase reflecting evidence that people in the middle of the income distribution have seen their incomes stagnate while the costs of living keeps rising. But almost all the recent discussion and analysis…
Labour is slowly moving from mere response mode to feeling out more concrete terrain on what its next state may look like. Some have argued they have taken too long to make this transition but, the publicity (and departmental research budget) vacuum of opposition aside, there has been much to think through. Though the 1997-2010…
Both ‘Total Place’, initiated through a partnership between the last Labour government and local government, and the current coalition government’s ‘Whole Place Community Budgets’ have much to offer to the debate on future spending choices. I was the programme director for the Total Place pilot in Worcestershire, where total public expenditure, including welfare and pension…
At the moment, there is widespread consensus that fundamental changes are required if the failures at Mid Staffordshire are to be avoided. The NHS must find a way to respond to the Francis report and deliver high quality and safe care. I believe the report will be an important turning point in this journey –…
According to what one could call the ‘golden age narrative’, social democracy is a political ideology that came to fruition in the post-war decades but has since run up against its limited shelf life. This narrative plainly does not fit with the experiences of the social democrats in Scandinavia. From the premise that the Nordic…
Jeremy Hunt’s recent announcement about social care funding has been met with a mixture of cautious relief that something is being done to tackle the crisis, and disappointment that Dilnot’s more generous proposals are not being fully implemented. Social care funding is in crisis not only because of the pressures of an ageing population at…
At Fabian Regional Conference in Peterborough where @Jessica_Asato is about to kick off discussion on responsible capitalism #FabEast
Health Network launches partnership with @AMREF_UK allowing Young Fabians chance to directly support intl development http://t.co/9CylpZdH6v RT @SaveSouthBank: Great piece by @thefabians Take a look: http://t.co/fIHLFNrnf8
RT @sophie_kside: FF @BarbaraAllen8 @Uma_Kumaran @unsachaudri @abigailfwood @b_anandana some of the amazing, inspiring @FabianWomen I met this week RT @sofiejenkinson: I wrote a little piece on how important common space is &hope&skaters&politics&fighting together for what we treasure http://t.co/cLMEI9g8xK We need to talk about masculinity | Laurie Penny http://t.co/Fv26Jq2lMw via @guardian