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Why the National Health Action Party doesn't need its own 'Country Club Bore'



 

 

 

There is apparently a consensus around Westminster circles that Nigel Farage is ‘the Country Club bore’, a slightly red-faced jovial, charismatic man who doesn’t particularly mind speaking shit.

 

While such people appear pleasant, often their messages are not entirely trivial. The same criticism has been made of ‘Bungling Bojo’ i.e. Boris Johnson, that behind the buffoonery there is quite an incisive mind who politically astute. The Left, which has been accused previously of lacking a sense of humour by notorious funnyman Jeremy Clarkson, appears not to have its own ‘nice buffoon’. Maybe it’s because buffoons are supposed to have posh accents and smile a lot – though Tony Blair did have a posh accent, and smile a lot.

 

UKIP policies simply don’t add up. I have previously thought that UKIP could equally appeal to the left, in that Labour also has a proud history of wishing to leave Europe. The recent accusation that ‘UKIP means “racists for posh people” has been violently criticised by UKIP who cite that the last thing that they are are racist (either even having members from ethnic minorities themselves, or having members who are married to people from abroad.) They don’t have a single MP, and yet they are given a huge amount of air time. People often joke on Twitter that tonight it is ‘Nigel Farage Nigel Farage Nigel Farage Nigel Farage Nigel Farage #BBCQT”.

 

Emulating the secret of Nigel Farage is, though, difficult if you’re a “single issue party”. Nigel Farage is very different to Caroline Lucas, or Natalie Bennett. One suspects you would never get Nigel Farage voting against the section 75 NHS regulations, even though one also suspects that Farage wouldn’t know what these regulations are even if his life depended on them. However, Nigel Farage has been an effective ‘Trojan horse’ for getting his immigration issues a lot of air time. The National Health Action Party would probably love to have the media dominance which has been secured by UKIP, but the last thing the National Health Action Party needs at this time their own equivalent of a ‘Country Club Bore’.

 

However, the National Health Action Party, I feel, should think carefully about what sort of impression they wish to create. There is a huge amount of goodwill and affection to the NHS from traditional voters of all parties, and Dr Clive Peedell and Dr Richard Taylor could not do much worse than to present themselves as a modern day Alec Douglas-Home. The patrician view of the NHS consultant, who spends most of his time on the golf course (which is of course completely untrue), would go down like a lead balloon with the electorate.

 

Also, it has a very serious dialogue to have with the electorate, on the future of the NHS, who “owns it”, who it “works for”, and who is deciding policy for it. The enactment of the Health and Social Care Act (2012) was one of the most disastrous steps to increase the democratic deficit ever to take place in England, when it became clear that this current Government is much more interested in having behind-closed-doors conversations with private healthcare providers than members of the medical Royal Colleges or the BMA, for example. Sure, the the National Health Action Party needs to represent faithfully the views of all healthcare professionals including nurses, as well as Doctors, but it also needs to represent ordinary members of the general public. Dressing up in theatre scrubs or donning a medical stethoscope, akin to a low-budget RAG project, may not be the best way to project a serious image, but the election in Eastleigh was a real eye-opener in how the media could completely ignore NHS issues.

 

Whilst it is tempting to spend a lot of time and energy in wondering why the BBC have steadfastly refused to cover the NHS reforms, to be frank the discussion of the NHS’ journey of late has been scant and pathetic for a very long time. Members of the public are generally aware of the private finance initiative, but seem generally unaware of the major advances in this initiative during Major’s short stay in government. Likewise, people are generally unaware of the impact of NHS Foundation Trusts, what ‘efficiency savings’ are, or what the failure regimes of NHS hospitals means. The social media can do so much, and it is incredibly disheartening to hear Liberal Democrats whining in the House of Lords about how much ‘misinformation’ has emerged from the social media.

 

The basic issue is that the social media is the only mechanism many people have for discussing the NHS at all, and neutering this device is in nobody’s interest apart from powerful corporates. While the National Health Action Party may not have its equivalent of the “Country Club bore”, I am sure that they are putting maximum effort into thinking which seats they wish to target, what their core message is, what they feel the basic understanding of voters on issues to do with the NHS might be, how they’re going to get their message across, and what they feel their ideal outcome is. I think they should drag themselves away from the philosophy of the ‘focus group’ made popular by New Labour, but lead on what they think is right. This could include populist issues, of massive public policy concern, such as patient safety, which no traditional party has had a moral licence to pursue.

@thefabians #QuestionTime at Liverpool Town Hall (25 September) #Lab11 #fringe #conf



These videos are available on our YouTube channel. I include them for ease of convenience. They were recorded last night at the fringe meeting of the Fabians held at Liverpool Town Hall.

The Fabian Question Time is an established fixture on the opening weekend of Conference, attracting some of the biggest political personalities, and considerable media interest, to debate the key electoral issues. The ‘Question Time’ format enables us to respond to the most topical issues to be discussed at the conference
Confirmed speakers:
Yvette Cooper MPShadow Home Secretary
Lord Maurice Glasman, Academic and leading “Blue Labour” thinker
Phil Collins, Former chief speechwriter to Tony Blair
Andrew Harrop, General Secretary, Fabian Society
CHAIR – Toby Helm, Political Editor, The Observer

 

Videos

Is Nick Clegg correct to say there are too many backroom boys?

 

Yvette Cooper responding to today’s Independent headline from Ed Balls on cuts

 

Lord Glasman on whether teachers should strike over their pensions

Charlotte Harris on Question Time discussing types of injunction and parliamentary privilege



Reputation management is a topic discussed at the BPP Legal Awareness Society, in relation to “technology and the media”. It has been in the general news recently, as well as the specialist press. Legal tweeters have been discussing it in great detail, including the effect of international law (US SPEECH, US Communications Act and the European Convention of Human Rights) as well as domestic law on what can be legitimately reported. It has been a tough time for traditional professional journalists too, as well as the parties involved. The lawyers have worked very hard in avoiding becoming the news story, which is said to be ‘the first rule of journalism'; whether they have succeeded (with the antics of Carter Ruck LLP over Trafigura in the past, and Schillings over CTB and Glencore) is a different matter.

Question Time is a tough gig for anyone.  Charlotte Harris, a reputation management partner from Mischon de Reya LLP, faced questions inevitably on many media issues which had surfaced during this week.

The questions are difficult, but Charlotte clearly represented the law as it currently stands. For some reason, the whole issue has raised a lot of emotions about the privacy legislation, and the relationship between the legislature, executive and judiciary; and, equally worryingly, the relationship between the general public and lawyers.

1. Did John Henning abuse parliamentary privilege?

Last Friday saw the publication of Lord Neuberger’s report on “Super Injunctions, Anonymised Injunctions and Open Justice”.

This Report arguably could not come at a more sensitive time as more and more celebrities are requesting injunctions, so the story goes, and court orders are being flouted on Twitter and by MPs hiding behind parliamentary privilege.

Bloggers and users of social networking sites, such as Twitter, are being seen as a problem that “add to the difficulties of enforcement” of court orders.  Lord Neuberger said “modern technology is totally out of control… Anybody can put anything on it.”   The Report goes on to consider the issue of parliamentary privilege and is somewhat critical of MPs who use parliamentary privilege to flout court orders however, the Report does not appear to recommend any change to the law on parliamentary privilege.  Lord Neuberger said the law on parliamentary privilege is “astonishingly unclear” and asked whether it was a “good idea” for lawmakers to be “flouting a court order just because they disagree”. A vast majority of people have viewed that John Hemming MP did “flout” the law; parliamentary privilege is said to be defeated by malice, so it is imperative that John Hemming did not act with malice in making his brief remark in the lower House. There is a sentiment which many people believe that John Hemming MP did flout the law, and Charlotte Harris did make this opinion, in keeping with the heads of the Judiciary, very clear.

2. Are superinjunctions are a ‘secret justice’?

David Cameron has accused judges of making privacy law without Parliamentary authority. The aforementioned judicial report on media gagging orders conceded there has been an increase in U.K. courts granting anonymity orders blocking the media from naming people involved in lawsuits over news stories. According Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge at a recent press conference , the English law on privacy comes predominantly from the Human Rights Act [1998] which Parliament passed.

A superinjunction is an injunction which nobody is known about, such as Trafigura. Charlotte Harris has never been involved in a superinjunction. The central point is that superinjunctions are extremely uncommon, and Charlotte Harris made this central point clearly. Harris is completely correct to distinguish between normal injunctions, anonymised injunctions and superinjunctions. Senior U.K. judges have dismissed criticism over media restrictions, saying only two so-called super-injunctions were granted since January 2010, and neither are in force at the moment.

Interesting links: Schillings becoming the story
Injunction publicity backfires on celebrity law firm : http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/may/24/injunction-publicity-backfires-law-firm

Go here

Trafigura and parliament
Trafigura gag attempt unites house in protest : http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/13/trafigura-carter-ruck-gag

Go here

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