Patient choice cannot become a reality until there is spare capacity which allows people to choose where to go. But the more patients or GPs on their behalf are able to exercise real choices, the faster the extra spending will generate more capacity.Mr Turner’s second observation follows from this It is that every NHS procedure and operation must be priced This is already happening, but must be speeded up. The sooner it does, the faster new providers of publicly-funded health care will come forward.If there is a revolution going on in the NHS, it needs a sense of urgency to carry it through.. The case for a bicycling monarchy has hit a pothole.
The release of the Queen’s financial information yesterday reveals that, of the £35.3m of taxpayer’s money which she received last year, a mere £38,000 was spent on cars. Not much to be saved by switching from the royal Bentley to a Moulton, then
The case for a bicycling monarchy has hit a pothole. Who audited these accounts, Arthur Andersen? Let the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Commission go through the figures. The Duke of Edinburgh’s London taxi is presumably his own private vehicle.
But if he could be persuaded to take up his obvious vocation and drive it for a living, it might help the numbers a little.. The Chancellor of the Exchequer should be congratulated on clarifying his five tests for adopting the euro. It is worth recalling that they were only invented after the death of John Smith – a leader who took a straightforward position on matters European – in order to keep Labour’s options open.Until then, Mr Smith’s view was that the criteria enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty were sufficient to decide a currency’s suitability to join, once the political decision had been made His view was and continues to be right. Britain has satisfied the Maastricht criteria since before the launch of the single currency. Fortuitously, the pound-euro exchange rate is now equivalent to the famous level of DM2.95, which was not sustainable 10 years ago, when our interest rates were out of kilter with Germany’s, but is now.What matters, then, is making the decision. That depends on the British people’s assent to the proposition that their country should be a leading player in an expanded European Union. But it is a decision that rests firmly on a foundation of economics.