Reform Media Summary

1 April 2008

Economy

Elizabeth Truss, Reform’s Deputy Director discusses the new media politics revolution in a comment piece on Conservativehome. She writes about the “almost limitless opportunity that this new technology brings”, saying that “it empowers individuals, undermines privilege and extends choice and can therefore bring major benefits to society and the economy”. This theme was also taken up by Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, at the launch of Reform’s new website yesterday as he talked about the new era of “collaborative individualism” and the huge opportunities that have been made available by the internet (Conservativehome).

According to the Telegraph, Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, is expected to rule out any cuts to Government spending. Instead, he is expected to let borrowing levels rise (Telegraph, p.10; Sun, p.2).

A report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies indicates that cuts to the basic rate of income tax, due to come into force next week, will have a very minimal impact on individuals: “The overall package appears to have been carefully constructed to minimise the number of individuals losing or gaining significantly” (FT, p.3).

According to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee, unprecedented immigration is having a dramatic impact on house prices and public services, while having “little or no impact” on economic wellbeing (Times, p.2; FT, p.3; Guardian, p.1, p.32 [John Wakeham]; Express, p.1-5, p.12 [leader]; Telegraph, p.1, p.4, p.21 [leader]; Sun, p.2, p.8 [leader]; Mirror,p.4; Mail, p.1, p.8, p.9, p.12 [leader]).

Two million home owners could face higher mortgage bills after NatWest became the first lender to increase repayments for existing customers (Telegraph, p.1).

Comments by Mervyn King interpreted as dampening hopes of interest rate cut next week. In a speech in Israel Mr King said “some slowdown in the growth rate of economic activity is likely to be necessary to ensure inflation returns to the target” (FT, p.2; Times, p.43; Independent, p.34).

Lord Sainsbury, the former minister and Labour’s biggest financial backer, transferred £340 million worth of shares last night. The Labour peer is the most high-profile person to take action to avoid the impact of the new Capital Gains Tax regime (Telegraph, p.1; Independent, p.8).

American philanthropist is to leave the UK in protest over “non-dom” tax proposals (Times, p.12).

Figures published by Eurostat reveals that pensioners in Britain are more likely to fall into poverty than those in Romania, Bulgaria or Greece. Chris Grayling, Shadow Work and Pensions

Secretary, described the findings as “very depressing” and blamed the Government’s system of means-testing (Express, p.4)

Health

The Telegraph reports on Doctors for Reform’s new campaign to support patients who want to pay towards their own NHS treatment. Janet Daley, in an article online, comments: “How does the individual who chooses to spend his own money – or perhaps even funds raised by friends or charitable community efforts – on a drug or a procedure, disadvantage anyone else receiving standard NHS care?” For more details on the campaign go to www.doctorsforreform.com (Telegraph, p.10, online [Janet Daley]).

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, will announce today that every person in the country will get regular free health checks once they reach 40 (Telegraph, p.1; Mirror, p.6; Times, p.2; Mail, p.6).

The programme for deep cleaning hospitals has been called “an expensive waste of time” by Professor Hugh Pennington of Aberdeen University whilst Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats Health Spokesman, has called it “an example of gesture politics” (Independent, p.17, p.26 [leader]).

Times2 feature on Lord Darzi and his forthcoming NHS review. On polyclinics, he says: “The idea that I am going to herd all GPs into one large building is ludicrous.... there are very good examples of federated models where you have five or six practices that have access to a diagnostic service” (Times, Times2, p.4).

Figures obtained by James Brokenshire, the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, show alcohol-related hospital admissions have quadrupled in some parts of Britain since 24-hour drinking was introduced (Telegraph, p.2; Mirror, p.8; Express, p.7).

According to Professor Matthew Falagas, we could be facing a “pandemic with important public health implications” of a hospital superbug called acinetobacter (Mail, p.25).

Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow has warned that more than 23,000 care home residents with Alzheimers are dying after being given anti-psychotic drugs (Mail, p.32; Guardian, p.6; Express, p.25).

Education

Major qualification reform announced yesterday. Several types of qualifications introduced in recent years, such as Applied A levels, have been abandoned (Times, p.8; Mail, p.33; FT, p.4; Guardian, p.4, Education, p.9; Times, p.8).

There are almost 800,000 children in schools who do not speak English as a first language (Telegraph, p.4).

In an article for Education Guardian, Phil Beadle criticises the Government’s emphasis on ICT aids in the classroom: “The interactive whiteboards that were meant to radicalise our teaching have been proven to make no real difference other than encouraging the kind of didactic, front-of-class teaching that is supposed to induce the least learning of our charges” (Guardian, Education, p.6).

New figures show that more than 300,000 pupils have claimed for “special consideration” marks in their GSCE and A-level examinations (Telegraph, p.8).

Politics

A ComRes survey for the Independent: Conservatives 38 per cent (down 3 points on the previous month), Labour on 31 per cent (up one point), Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent (unchanged) (Independent, p.10; Mail, p.2).

Tom Watson, Cabinet Office Minister for Transformational Government, sets up a Whitehall taskforce to examine how to use the internet to make “our own decisions quicker and better” (FT, p.2).

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, reportedly urges Labour MPs to “hold their nerve”, in the face of recent opinion polls, promising to press ahead with public service reform backed by sustained investment (FT, p.3; Guardian, p.7; Express, p.2).