Monthly Archives: February 2012

South Central Social Liberal Forum Event

Posted on February 19, 2012 by KellyMarieBlundell| Leave a comment

We are pleased to tell you about another Social Liberal Forum event happening in the South Central region – “The Health and Social Care Bill: is it now good enough?”. The regional Liberal Democrat conference is taking place on Saturday 25th February in High Wycombe (http://southcentrallibdems.org.uk/en/page/regional-conference ) and we have arranged a lunch time fringe event at the conference. Graham Winyard has a long history of working in the NHS (having been Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director of the NHS in England) and is one of the key names behind a petition launched by the Winchester Liberal Democrats (http://www.winld.org.uk/nhs-petition/ ) to drop the Health and Social Care Bill.                           

A recent online survey by LibDemVoice (http://www.libdemvoice.org/nhs-bill-lib-dem-members-poll-27034.html) highlighted that of those party members who responded, opponents of the bill outnumbered supporters by 2-to-1. Some party members who oppose the bill feel that it could be rescued by abandoning some aspects or by major changes, while others feel it should be dropped altogether. How do we as party members influence our MPs and members of the House of Lords? Please join the debate at our fringe event.

We would particularly like to hear from people who work in the NHS about how you feel towards the bill and what impact it could have – contact us if you feel able to speak at the fringe about your personal experiences.

Bookmark and Share

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Announcement

Tagged

South East Social Liberal Forum Meeting

Posted on February 12, 2012 by KellyMarieBlundell| Leave a comment

We are delighted to invite you to the first meeting of the South East Social Liberal Forum.

To help with the ambition of the Social Liberal Forum to develop radical, distinctive and progressive policies and manifesto for the next election, we are seeking to establish regional Social Liberal Forums where we can focus on ensuring everybody within the party gets their say.

The South East Social Liberal Forum is pleased to hold its first event in Lewes Town Hall, on Friday 17th February 2012. Joining us for a discussion on Liberal Democrat policy is Transport Minister Norman Baker MP.

The event starts at 7.30 so please be prompt. Like the Social Liberal Forum, the event is free, but we would be grateful for any donations to help with the running costs.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Please feel free to circulate this to other Liberal Democrats members, whether or not they are members of the Social Liberal Forum.

If you are interested in getting involved with the Social Liberal Forum at a regional level, please e-mail Kelly-Marie Blundell at kelly-marie.blundell@socialliberal.net

Please note we are looking to hold two further events this year at different areas across the South East Region, with Stephen Lloyd MP and Sharon Bowles MEP in attendance, so don’t worry if you can’t make it this time!

We look forward to seeing you on Friday 17th February 2012.

Bookmark and Share

→ Leave a comment

Posted in South East, Uncategorized

Unworkable and unnecessary elements of Health bill should be dropped

Posted on February 10, 2012 by prateekbuch| 18 Comments

“The Social Liberal Forum and senior Lib Dems with expert knowledge of the NHS have long believed that the Health and Social Care Bill is seriously flawed and should only be enacted if substantially amended. It has now emerged that senior Conservative Cabinet Ministers and Conservative Home share the widespread concern over the Bill’s impact.

The NHS is already implementing many substantial changes to how frontline services are delivered in response to financial and demographic pressures – this Bill is irrelevant to those changes which can be carried out without new legislation. Where the reforms underway enhance the social liberal aspects of the healthcare system they should be completed with little further disruption, agreement across Parliament and in concert with the medical profession. The rest of the Bill should be abandoned in the interests of preserving a locally accountable, coordinated, comprehensive and cooperative health service.”

Bookmark and Share

→ 18 Comments

Posted in Announcement

Tagged ,

SLF welcomes cancellation of ‘Coalition 2.0′

Posted on February 1, 2012 by socialliberalforum| 3 Comments

The Social Liberal Forum welcomes confirmation in the Independent on Sunday that there will be no new fixed coalition agreement for the second half of this parliament.

There is a lot more work to do on several bills currently passing through parliament – some of which, such as the Health and Social Care Bill, contain elements that we continue to find worrying. Others, for example implementation of the Vickers recommendations on banking, will require a concerted effort to pass into law. Now is not the time to plan a new raft of legislation. 

The original Coalition Agreement was an impressive document, containing many elements of a Social Liberal agenda for government and demonstrating the benefits of compromise – both for Liberal Democrats and for the country. 

However, it would not be appropriate to agree another full programme at this stage. Rather, we would like to see Conservatives and Liberal Democrats proposing their own ideas separately – as Nick Clegg did last week, with his welcome call for a further and faster rise in the income tax threshold. The two parties can then show how coalition works, positively, by examining each other’s ideas on their merits. We will support progressive social liberal measures, wherever they come from – and continue to oppose all measures that would widen the gap between rich and poor.

We believe that Social Liberal ideas are strong enough to attract consensus across government – and indeed across parliament – and we will continue to argue for them.

Bookmark and Share

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Announcement

Tagged , ,