Articles

There has been a good response to the latest email I sent out to Go Fourth supporters this week. I know there will be some crossover between Go Fourth subscribers and people who visit here, but thought those who are not Go Fourthers might like to see it anyway.  Dear Go Fourth A long one [...]

What a truly inspiring and humbling time I had at the new Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit at Rathbone hospital in Liverpool yesterday.  It was not just the evident quality of care being provided for a small number of seriously ill men. It was also the clear emphasis that was put on making sure the views [...]

I promised an update on my morning with the psychiatrists in Sedgefield, and I really really tried to get it to you yesterday. Don’t blame me. Blame something called Globetrotter Connect on my laptop. Whichever bits of the globe it was connected to, they didn’t include any of the bits where I was trotting and [...]

Knocking this off very quickly before heading to a conference in the North East to make a speech on mental health. So before too long I will be in a room full of psychiatrists, in Tony Blair’s old constituency of Sedgefield. With the BBC leading on a report suggesting real pressure on NHS finances in [...]

My God, is it really fifteen years since Hillary Clinton’s efforts to deliver universal healthcare for Americans were defeated in the US Congress? The same year Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party? A lot has happened in both countries since. And as Barack Obama takes off where the wife of his predecessor but one [...]

There is a tendency for everyone in politics, both politicians and commentators, to make single sweeping judgements based upon what ultimately are a myriad complicated reasons that swing votes one way or another. So for Labour politicians doing the media rounds last night, getting hit hard by the expenses scandal became the most common attempt [...]

There is a downside to political frenzy for the political journalists who feed on it. That is that the higher you crank it up, the harder it is to keep cranking higher. There has barely been a day in recent times in which there has not been a TV talking head saying he/she had never known a day [...]

Staring at the depressing blue map being painted as a result of Thursday’s elections, I thought I would share with you a story that bucked the trend, and which illustrates what a difference strong local campaigning, issues based, can make. The story is of a by-election in Princes ward in Lambeth, where turnout was almost [...]

I might not express myself in exactly the same way as John Prescott, but it is hard to disagree with his assessment on the Go Fourth website that there was a lack of proper campaigning in the run up to yesterday’s elections. I also agree with John that the responsibility for that cannot solely be [...]

I’ll come on to ‘vote Labour’ in a moment, but first …. It’s amazing how quickly your spirits can be restored if you get outside the noise of the Westminster media bubble. I mentioned yesterday I was on my way to a mental health conference in Hull, part of ‘Business Week’ on Humberside. My event [...]