The election on 6 May is going to be one of the closest in history, and judging by the recent polls, there is still everything to play for. The Tories are nervous; Labour realises a hung parliament is perhaps their best chance for holding onto power; and the Lib Dems, and Nick Clegg in particular, could finally have their moment in the sun. But what do each party say about health and what does this mean for the future of health policy?
Posts Tagged ‘Conservatives’
A ‘healthy’ review of the election manifesto
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010Murdoch: News industry must charge for content. But who will pay?
Thursday, April 8th, 2010The latest in the ongoing saga of Rupert Murdoch versus the BBC and Google News is that the News Corp boss maintains that the industry must charge for content. In an event at George Washington University yesterday, he said search engines were stealing journalism and ‘tapping into a river of gold’ by aggregating content. But will people ever get used to paying to read articles online, especially when free services will remain?
Conservative policy: Unhealthy contradictions?
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010David Cameron’s focus on healthcare has been very clear since pre-election campaigning kicked off in January, when the BBC reported that the NHS was Cameron’s “number one priority”. At this point, the health service was also a priority for the wider Conservative Party, with the NHS ranked as the fourth most important policy area. But have the recent internal affairs of the party affected this?
Cross-party report: Politicians versus the media?
Thursday, February 25th, 2010Politicians and editors make for strange bedfellows, mostly through necessity rather than choice. For the last year, politicians have been routinely vilified on an almost daily basis by editors. So did yesterday’s cross-party report by the Culture and Media Select Committee allow politicians some payback to the national newspapers?
Death tax doesn’t have to be taxing!
Monday, February 15th, 2010While Twitter is noisy with chat about the Robin Hood tax on bankers to provide funds for worthy causes (sign up!), UK political correspondents have been talking about Labour’s proposed ‘death tax’. Besides having a cheerful, catchy name, this ‘tax’ poses a fundamental shake-up of social care provision in England. English MPs are considering a compulsory fee of £20,000 to plug the growing gap in funding that’s becoming apparent as the population gets older and creakier. It’s really not a particularly attractive proposition to many, taking the form of an ‘inheritance tax’ that you cannot opt out of. It’s a pretty bold move from Labour to position themselves as the ‘no nonsense’, practical minded party, and again accuse the Tories of being all style and no substance. So what kind of game are the Tories playing when it comes to this latest issue in healthcare?
Public Affairs breakfast briefing with Shadow Health Minister Mark Simmonds
Monday, November 9th, 2009With the Conservative Party consistently ahead in opinion polls, solid approval ratings for its leader and the widespread respect of the media, there is a strong likelihood that there will be a Conservative government by June 2010. With this in mind, Virgo HEALTH and public affairs partner Open Road hosted a breakfast briefing with Mark Simmonds, the Conservative Shadow Health Minister, acknowledging that successful public relations and public affairs strategy depends on comprehensive, well-informed scenario planning.
