Published in The Guardian (July 16th, 2013) Britain has a bad habit of deluding itself over its institutions. We proclaim the National Health Service to be the envy […]
Health / Policy
Worshipping the NHS costs lives
Published in The Independent on Sunday (23rd June, 2013) Imagine if an airline crashed 10 planes each year, killing 3,000 passengers in avoidable accidents. After its most disturbing […]
Disability / Health / Policy
The NHS is killing disabled people
Published in The Guardian (May 22nd, 2013) My daughter was ill at the weekend. Just a heavy cold; but when your child has profound and multiple learning disabilities, […]
Immigration / Policy / Politics
A Queen’s speech ruined by absurd anti-immigration measures
Published in The Guardian (May 8th, 2013) There is something reassuringly Ruritanian about the rituals associated with the Queen’s speech, from those flunkies in gold-trimmed finery to the […]
Health / Policy
A helpline in crisis and doctors who refuse to put patients’ interests above their own
Published in The Daily Mail (May 6th, 2013) For weeks there have been many stories emerging of patients left hanging on the phone, fearful or in pain; urgent […]
Policy / Race
Christians, Muslims and the reality of religious persecution
Published in The Guardian (April 22nd, 2013) It is hard not to laugh. Three Christians are taking a landmark legal case to the European Court of Human Rights […]
Arts / Books / Immigration / Policy
Frightened by foreign bodies
Published in The Observer (14th April, 2013) The British Dream by David Goodhart (Atlantic); The Diversity Illusion by Ed West (Gibson Square) A couple of years ago I […]
Policy / Politics / Welfare
The mutinous anger of Labour voters over welfare
Published in The Mail on Sunday (April 7th, 2013) Let me introduce you to two women I met on Friday. The first is Kathy Barratt, 33, a jobless […]
Disability / Policy / Politics / Welfare
All we can agree on is that welfare’s in a state
Published in The Independent (April 2nd, 2013) What a strange world we live in. A clutch of Church leaders spent their holiest weekend of the year queuing up to […]
Health / Policy / Politics
The man they couldn’t hang
Published in The Independent on Sunday (31st March, 2013) When the National Health Service rose like a merciful phoenix from the wreckage of a war-torn nation, its founder […]
Immigration / Policy / Politics
The immigration debate: evidence-free and more rancid than ever
Published in The Guardian (26th March, 2013) Nigel Farage must have been smiling to himself as he supped his pint of real ale last night. His party has no […]