NHS Reorganisation
Debate between Paul Blomfield and Christopher Pincher(13 years, 3 months ago)
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Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
Over Christmas, I found myself using the services of the Royal Hallamshire hospital in Sheffield for emergency eye surgery. I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the staff there, who saved the sight in my left eye, which is, as hon. Members might imagine, important to me. That procedure was routine for those staff—something that they did day in, day out. The whole experience—the quick diagnosis, emergency admission, successful operation and supportive aftercare—brought home to me the importance of having a national health service that is not only free at the point of delivery but available equally to all and with the capacity to meet the health care needs of our people. Let me contrast it with the system in the United States, where the quality and speed of treatment depends on patients’ ability to pay. Incidentally, the American system costs the public purse more. I know that some Conservative parliamentarians look at that system with enthusiasm. Many of us will recall Daniel Hannan campaigning against President Obama’s health reforms and describing the NHS as a 60-year old mistake, so it is not surprising that the majority of people in this country do not trust this Government with the NHS. When Government Members talk about monopolies, the people of this country see a public service.
Christopher Pincher
The hon. Gentleman talks about Government Members, but he might note that, other than those on the Front Bench, there are only 11 Members on the Opposition Benches for their Opposition day debate. On the Government side there are more than double that number. Does that not bear eloquent testimony to who really cares about the NHS?
Paul Blomfield
What bears eloquent testimony to who really cares about the NHS is our record. Before 1997, I remember patients being stacked up in hospital corridors in Sheffield every winter because the hospitals could not find beds. That situation has been transformed under Labour over the past 13 years.
The Prime Minister has tried hard to reassure the public that the NHS is safe in Tory hands, but he has failed. In January, a major survey of the British public demonstrated that only 27% of people back moves to allow profit-making companies to increase their role in the NHS. That reflects the way in which our people treasure the NHS and its values, and that is why the Government did not have the confidence to say at the general election what their real intention was: the deconstruction and privatisation of the NHS by stealth.
It is not only the public whom the Prime Minister has failed to convince. The Secretary of State told us again today, as the Government have done many times during discourse on the issue, that we should trust doctors—those who understand the NHS.
Education Maintenance Allowance
Debate between Paul Blomfield and Christopher Pincher(13 years, 5 months ago)
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Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
It is unfortunate that so many Government Members have tried to deflect the debate and create a smokescreen of talk about Labour overspending. I do not recall the Conservative party or the Liberal Democrats opposing the money that we spent on building new hospitals and new schools and on investing in our universities and our police service as we set about repairing the broken Britain that we inherited in 1997. If our spending was profligate, and if Conservative and Liberal Democrat Members thought that at the time, why did the then shadow Chancellor commit himself to matching our spending plans until the banking crisis hit internationally?
The hon. Member for Croydon Central (Gavin Barwell) has just challenged us to come up with alternatives. Here is one alternative: if the Government abandon their plans to halve the tax on bankers’ bonuses, they could spend the money on EMAs three times over.
Paul Blomfield
No, in the light of the time, I will not give way.
The hon. Member for Croydon Central also said that we should pay attention to the expertise of those on the front line of educating our young people. Every head of institution in Sheffield to whom I have spoken has made it clear that they oppose the Government’s plans. Let us consider Silverdale school, which is not in my constituency, but in that of the Deputy Prime Minister. When he next pops to Sheffield, I hope that he will take the time to talk to teachers and students there. It is a successful school with a real commitment to reaching out beyond the leafy suburbs in which it is located. It draws on many young people from the parts of inner-city Sheffield that I represent, provides them with an outstanding education and transforms their lives. When I was there recently, presenting GCSE certificates, the head and deputy head had no doubt that getting rid of EMA would undermine that work for the 25% of students who attend the school from my constituency and depend on EMA.
The biggest provider of 16-to-19 education in our city is Sheffield college, with just over 3,300 learners. Of those, 51% claim EMA, and—this is a measure of their needs—84% of them are awarded it at the full rate. In my discussions with her, the chief executive of the college made it absolutely clear that EMA has a significant positive impact on learner retention and achievement, and that its withdrawal would lead to a significant cut in student numbers. That, along with the money lost through scrapping Train to Gain and the reduction in funding for adult learners, will have a significant impact on the college budget, its curriculum and its work.
One of the students at the King Edward VII school in the heart of my constituency, Elicia Ennis, was so moved with anger by the double whammy of the Government’s policies on EMA and university fees that she wrote an article for our local newspaper, Sheffield’s The Star. She wrote:
“I completely disagree with the idea of cutting the EMA.
Some students may have abused the system but that’s no reason for the entire idea to be axed.”
She went on to say—with a full knowledge of the subject, having talked daily to those around her in her sixth form—that
“with fees rising and EMA being cut, people will leave school at 16”.
She also went on to say:
“as a…former Lib Dem supporter I will think twice about voting for the party when we get a chance. More so if Nick Clegg represents them.”
We Labour Members know that many Lib Dem Members—and, indeed, some Conservative Members—share our concerns about the abolition of EMA, just as they shared our concerns about tuition fees, but instead of angsting, and turning to principled abstention or regretful support of the Government’s proposals, they should use this opportunity to join us in calling on the Government to rethink their decision on EMA.
Tuition Fees
Debate between Paul Blomfield and Christopher Pincher(13 years, 6 months ago)
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Paul Blomfield
I certainly agree that there should be a delay in the process. We are on the verge of the most fundamental reform of our higher education system in more than 50 years, and it is an outrage that we are putting the cart before the horse by being asked to make a decision on the financial framework for our universities before we have had a debate on the higher education White Paper to conclude what sort of university system we want.
Like the hon. Gentleman, I signed the pledge to vote against any increase in tuition fees. Unlike my neighbour, the Deputy Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr Clegg), I do not regret it. I did not make the decision lightly, but I made it with the intention of keeping it. On 12 October the Business Secretary casually dismissed the pledge with some obscure reference to “skid marks”, but let me remind Lib Dem Members that their pledge was no manifesto small print.
In university seats such as mine, the Liberal Democrats fought the election on the issue. As the president of Sheffield Hallam university students union said,
“Before the election, we couldn’t get the Deputy Prime Minister out of our Union . . . now we can’t get him in.”
The outcome of individual elections was determined by that pledge. Just days before the election, what was it that the Deputy Prime Minister said?
“The Liberal Democrats are different. Not only will we oppose any raising of the cap, we will scrap tuition fees for good . . . Use your vote,”
he said to students,
“to block unfair tuition fees and get them scrapped once and for all.”
Now we know that while the Deputy Prime Minister was making that heartfelt appeal, he was planning to ditch the commitment.
I accept that most Lib Dem Members who were kept out of the loop by the Orange Book faction that now leads their party signed that pledge with honest intention, and I urge them to keep to that honest intention. If they vote in favour of the proposals, not only will they be dashing the hopes of thousands of young people, but they will be destroying the confidence of those young people in democratic politics. This was the election in which the Liberal Democrats tried to seize the moral high ground, talking about honesty, trust, integrity—
Paul Blomfield
No, I will not lose any further time.
Voting in abstention, knowing that Conservative votes will push the measures through, will also be seen to be deeply cynical, so I urge Liberal Democrat Members to honour their pledge, join Opposition Members and vote down the proposals.