The Liberal Democrat spring conference saw a spectacular falling out between two powerful women of the left. Shirley Williams launched an attack upon Polly Toynbee because the latter had previously attacked her support for the Bill. The argument became quite heated – accusations of lying were made – and later in the week Polly Toynbee retumed the fray in a Guardian article. Read the rest of this entry »
Last week I posted on several occasions about the problems being caused by the Government’s failure to develop an adequate narrative to fully explain the NHS Reforms. I observed that this omission had now been noted by a wide range of different commentators both inside and outside of the NHS. Read the rest of this entry »
As I mentioned yesterday the Government has been using scatter-gun tactics in its attempt to argue its case for NHS reform. For some time they have been trawling through a wide range of sources to try and find support for the necessity for their reforms.
The trick they are trying to pull off is to claim that by being in favour of reform (as many are) you are in favour of their reforms (which few are). Read the rest of this entry »
Confident or anxious narratives produce very different political outcomes for Government.
Filed Under (Health and Social Care Bill, Narrative of reform, Reform of the NHS) by Paul on 21-02-2012
Yesterday the Government found itself under attack for having a meeting to discuss the implementation of the Health and Social Care Bill. The central theme of these attacks concerned those who had been invited and those who had not.
At some moment during the last week it must have seemed like a good idea to have a meeting to discuss the implementation of the Health and Social Care Bill – that excluded both the BMA and the RCN – but it would have been a moment of weakness and not strength. Read the rest of this entry »
Yet another problem for the Government – caused by developing NHS reforms through a Bill.
Filed Under (Competition, Health and Social Care Bill, Narrative of reform, Reform of the NHS) by Paul on 17-02-2012
Another new set of arguments were launched against the Bill last week which tap into another vein of opposition.
It’s really interesting that when there is no narrative for reform to dominate the argument, a whole host of very different ones can and do emerge. Arguments against the Government’s NHS reforms have already been set out and now variant forms of those arguments are appearing – resulting in the reforms now being assailed from not only all sides – but also from above and below. Read the rest of this entry »
“First our Bill gives power to doctors and nurses” – but does it Mr Cameron? Does it?
Filed Under (Clinical Commissioning Groups, GPs, Health and Social Care Bill, Narrative of reform) by Paul on 16-02-2012
Yesterday I remarked on the distance between the Prime Minister’s narrative for the Health and Social Care Bill and the content of the actual Bill itself. I said that whilst it is essential for the Government to try and develop a narrative that can describe the Bill, the crucial thing is for the narrative to encompass the real content of the Bill – and not a fantasy. Read the rest of this entry »
The Prime Minister is a good communicator. He spent several years in opposition trying to ’detoxify’ the public image of the Conservative Party; and he carried out this process with particular attention to the NHS. Read the rest of this entry »
Just when you think the Conservatives don’t have a narrative for their NHS reforms… along come two.
Filed Under (Health and Social Care Bill, Narrative of reform) by Paul on 14-02-2012
Regular readers will be aware that I have been pointing out the failure of the Government to provide a compelling narrative for their NHS reforms. In the last couple of weeks, nearly everybody – whether in favour or against the reforms – has pointed out the political fallout from this failure. Read the rest of this entry »
This whole Bill is the best example I can think of for why a compelling narrative matters…
A few years ago the idea that a Government’s major policies needed a compelling narrative seemed to get a bad name. People felt it was somehow ‘shady’ to provide an overall explanation for major reform programmes such as that planned for the NHS. In particular New Labour was criticised for spending too much time thinking about how best to communicate its reasons for reforming public services. Many people said at the time that this concern with the need for a compelling narrative in some way ‘cheapened’ policy. Read the rest of this entry »
Does all this NHS reform really require legislation?
Filed Under (Coalition Government, Health and Social Care Bill, Narrative of reform, Reform of the NHS) by Paul on 06-02-2012
The problem with the Health and Social Care Bill is that it moves reform backwards.
Over the weekend I had several conversations with journalists questioning whether the Government really needed a Bill to achieve the main themes of the NHS reforms that they want. Read the rest of this entry »
