Published in The Mail on Sunday (March 24th, 2013) As we set off from our overnight camp in the jungle, the patrol leader turns, gesticulating with a machete […]
Aid / Health / Policy / Politics / Social care
Overseas aid: an indefensible ringfence
Published in The Guardian (March 14th, 2013) One of the first rules of opposition is to avoid rash promises that can come back to throttle you in government. […]
Health / Policy / Politics
Cover-up: the public are sickened by such cynicism
Published in The Daily Mail (February 22nd, 2013) Julie Bailey is a heroine of our age. She is the cafe owner from Stafford who saw her elderly mother […]
Health / Police / Policy / Politics / Technology
Why does no-one ever take the blame any more?
Published in The Daily Mail (February 13th, 2013) When Nick Clegg dropped into Hampshire to boost his party’s campaign in the crucial Eastleigh by-election, he spoke passionately about […]
Disability / Policy / Social care
We’re all living longer. How afraid should we be?
Published in The Independent (February 11th, 2013) On the day I was born in 1962, the number of British centenarians was in three figures. Since then numbers have […]
Health / Policy
Victims of our blind faith in the NHS
Published in The Independent (February 7th, 2013) It is just seven months since the NHS was presented to a baffled world as one of the great features of […]
Immigration / Policy
Immigrants may see Britain’s enduring strengths more clearly
Published in State of the Nation, a report by British Future (January 14th, 2013) It is always hard to determine the precise state of any nation, since it […]
Crime / Policy / Politics
One step forward on probation, then one giant step back on jails
Published in The Guardian (January 11th, 2013) According to the latest figures there are 83,632 locked up in English and Welsh prisons. This is an obscenely large number […]
Economics / Housing / Policy
We must make it easier to build homes in London
Published in the London Evening Standard (January 4th, 2013) There are plans for a handful of new houses in my neck of north London. It is a modest […]
Health / Policy
NHS privatisation fears? Grow up
Published in The Guardian (December 21, 2012) Nearly one in five patients having hip replacements and hernia repairs are handled by private companies, thanks to reforms introduced by the […]
Immigration / Politics
Confront the pessimistic protest politics of UKIP
Published in the London Evening Standard (December 19th, 2012) Nick Clegg has made a lot of noise this week, celebrating his fifth anniversary as Liberal Democrat leader with […]