Burnham is wrong to model social care reform on the NHS
There have been trimmings and ornaments: the bus fare cap and the performative opening of a No. 10 North in…
A free-to-use National Care Service will never work
As a former adviser on social care reform to a Conservative prime minister, allow me to explain why Andy Burnham’s…
The NHS is fundamentally dishonest
This weekend, the excellent health editor of the Sunday Times, Shaun Lintern, revealed how NHS England has been suppressing damaging reports…
Why the bus £2 price cap might just pay off for Burnham
Andy Burnham has announced a reduction in the cap on English bus fares, down from Starmer’s £3. Remarkably, he might…
The joyous ridicule of Stella Creasy’s avian error
‘Stella Creasy’s bird-brained parrot alert,’ ran a Steerpike headline yesterday. The Labour MP for Walthamstow had posted a video of…
The NHS can’t cope with this heat
The weather in 1976, like the football ten years before, lingers in our national memory. But already on some measures…
It must be harder for the NHS to strike
The BMA makes lots of vague demands for recognition and autonomy, control and civility – Madeline Grant, hearing similar words…
Would Oxford still open its doors to a poor, white boy like me?
Magdalen College, Oxford, is over-represented at The Spectator. Not long ago, Paul Johnson and Matthew d’Ancona were fixtures here. Today, there…
The true cost of ending the doctors’ strikes
After three years, and a cost to taxpayers of over £3 billion, the junior doctor strikes are finally over. For…
Why Britain has a medicine shortage
Across Britain today, people will take prescriptions to pharmacies and be told they can’t be fulfilled. After hearing a lifetime…
Good intentions alone won’t fix Britain’s maternity crisis
The Ockenden Maternity Review, published today, finds the NHS is not to be trusted – not for maternity care, possibly…
The Employment Rights Act will fuel striking doctors
TThe junior doctors were due to strike again, and everyone was sick of the whole business. At the last minute,…
Why can’t Elon Musk’s critics just be pleased for him?
The quiet kid from my friend’s school has become a trillionaire, and many people are unhappy that this should be…
Marilyn Monroe was just like the rest of us
Marilyn Monroe was born a hundred years ago today. She was famous enough in her lifetime to be one of…
We cannot stop the small boats
This April, we agreed another deal with France to stop migrants coming across the Channel. The Home Office has explained…
Gene-editing drugs are opening a new frontier in medicine
Older readers with bulging medicine cabinets, or parents eyeing their children’s distant futures, are not encouraged to read the New…
Will Labour’s sick note crackdown work?
‘Can I have one last present?’ my daughter asked earlier this week, having turned 15 and covered the kitchen floor…
Streeting’s NHS record is nothing to boast about
“Leaders take responsibility,” Wes Streeting wrote, in what has already been called his Wesignation letter. The charge against Keir Starmer…
Mary Seacole is celebrated for all the wrong reasons
Florence Nightingale, born in Florence on this day in 1820, made her world measurably better. She counted the dead until…
Why Scottish whiskey is worth the effort
‘The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!’…
Politics is making us more unhealthy
Wes Streeting has said women have been treated like ‘second-class citizens whose voices don’t matter’. ‘The blunt reality is the…
Should doctors be banned from striking?
Kemi Badenoch has said she will ban doctors from striking. Yesterday, asked if he would do the same, Health Secretary…
Why junior doctors are back on strike
In the emergency department, and on my wards, the strikes sit lightly. My specialty of internal medicine never closes; Easter…
What the death of my beloved son taught me about Easter
The hawthorn hedges are white with blossom; the countryside looks set for a wedding. Even in the small garden of…
Is it time to scrap the NHS?
Nigel Lawson said the NHS was the closest we had to a religion. What’s needed today is someone willing to…
