It has always been this clause of the Coalition Agreement that has caused many people a lot of discomfort.
The creeping marketisation (and monetisation) of the NHS continues to cause dismay amongst senior Liberal Democrat peers, reflecting the prominent opposition by Nick Clegg in 2011. Baroness Liz Barker described on the blog ‘LibDem voice’, in 2011, that the Liberal Democrats would “continue to argue that there should be nothing in the Bill that will open up the NHS to challenge by large private healthcare companies“. The latest salvo comes from Lord Tony Greaves this evening.
The biography of Lord Tony Greaves is fascinating.
Lord Tony Greaves has been a grass-roots Liberal activist since he joined the Liberals in 1960 (at university at Oxford and at home in Wakefield, Yorkshire). He says that for the past 40 years he has been a “mainstream Grimond-era radical Liberal) and looks with amazement at left-wing friends from the 1960s who have now leap-frogged him to the distant right to cuddle down with New Labour.
He was born and lived as a young child in Bradford but transferred his political allegiances to the North West when living in Manchester many years ago. He was a leading Liberal member of Lancashire County Council for some 25 years (Liberal group leader for a time) and a local Councillor on Colne and Pendle Borough Councils over most of the last three decades of the 20th century (with a spell as leader of Pendle Council).
When he was made a life peer in the list of “working peers” in the spring of 2000 he adopted the territorial designation of Pendle, the famous Lancashire Pennine hill that overlooks much of the mill towns and moors that make up the Borough itself.
Lord Tony Greaves feels that there is a fundamental flaw at the heart of the NHS Bill.
However, Lord Greaves has just given a very sobering interview on BBC’s Westminster Hour. On some good news, he feels that there has been a lot of safeguards to be welcome. For example, the Secretary of State is directly responsible to parliament.
Andrew Lansley would like to deliver a huge increase in productivity through commercial activity. However, Lord Greaves fundamentally believes that this would lead to privatisation of the NHS, and feels that this could lead to profits being returned to the private sector. Greaves feels that the regulation of this would be extremely difficult. There is going to be a steady seepage of services through to the private sector, according to Lord Greaves.
Lord Greaves feels that ultimately there have been so many changes in the Bill that it is likely that no party is going to be satisfied with the Bill. Lord Owen threatened the Bill did not go to Report, but now it looks as if the Bill is going to be passed in a substantially different Bill. Lord Greaves is further concerned about the use of the Financial Privilege being misused, making the Lords’ attendance redundant. However, Lord Greaves feels that the amendments have taken place due to a huge amount of compromise.
Lord Tony Greaves is ultimately concerned about the fragmentation and privatisation of the Bill. A lot of medical organisations have made it clear what they want, and it is hard for the Bill to be killed, without making Lansley go.
