I said in my previous post that health politics had become interesting again. Well, hard on the heels of the Lewisham victory, another interesting thing has happened. Jeremy Purvis has become a Lord. He was one of a batch of three Scots consisting of Annabel Goldie (former leader of Scottish Conservatives, quite fun and tells naughty jokes when she's had a sherry, or so I'm told) Willie Haughey (gave £1million to Labour) and the aforesaid Jeremy. So who is he, I hear you ask?
Well, first of all, he hasn't been a leader, not even of the Lib Dems of which he was a member in Scotland. Nor is he rich (not as far as I am aware). And he's not even 40 yet; he's a bit young to be in fair round belly with good capon lined. But he is known for other things. He put forward the bill 'Dignity in Dying' in Scotland a couple of years before Margo McDonald took up the standard. And at first I thought this was why he had been made a lord. But recently he has become involved with an organisation called Reform Scotland. This is a sister to Reform in London. Both are rather ill disguised right wing think tanks although they both insist that they are independent. Jeremy Purvis's involvement at the moment is with a campaign called
'Devo Plus' which basically doesn't want to go the whole way on independence, but would like greater fiscal powers for Scotland (though they are rather vague on what those would be. I am not sure if Jeremy Purvis is a full member of Reform Scotland; when I clicked on his name on their website, no biography came up..
But devolution isn't the only thing Reform Scotland has an opinion on. They produced this report
'Patient Power' in 2009. In it they support abolishing GP boundaries, setting up tariffs, creating a purchaser/provider split in the Scottish NHS, ending the ban on commercial companies taking over GP practices and introducing insurance based (sic) funding for health. (Apparently National Insurance doesn't count; they mean private insurance, but I think they don't want to use the 'p' word). Oh, and to have not-for-profit commissioning trusts acting as honest brokers. Sound familiar?
Now this is all rather predictable from Reform Scotland (and from Reform). What would you expect when its director and head of research were both political advisors for the Scottish Conservatives? What isn't so predictable is Jeremy Purvis' involvement in it, let alone being sent down to the Lords. And I wonder just exactly what is going on, but I feel it's nothing good. This is going to be one to watch for the Scottish NHS rather than England. And watch we will. As one of the less friendly churches in the neighbourhood said above its door,' You have been photographed twice and identified.'..
