Category: news

Patients are getting “precious little” from the £7bn NHS electronic care records system in England, a watchdog says.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

There has been blanket coverage of the coalition’s first anniversary, but how has Ed Miliband’s Labour Party performed in its first year in opposition? Five experts give their verdict.

LEADERSHIP

Ed Miliband beat brother David to the Labour leadership in September 2010 by the narrowest of margins.

“Ed Miliband’s always, and rightly, careful to say Labour’s taken only the first small steps on its return journey to power. He could fairly say the same of his own mission to become prime minister-in-waiting.

“Yes, he’s acknowledged on all sides to be an intelligent and thoughtful politician, qualities which don’t always coincide.

“Miliband also appears comfortable in the company of ‘ordinary’ people; more than could be said, frankly, of his former boss and mentor, Gordon Brown (a relationship David Cameron will never allow him, or us, to forget).

“He’s often at his best in his weekly Commons jousts with Cameron at Question Time. Taking on and defeating brother David for the leadership showed a streak of ruthlessness.

“But he has yet to ‘punch through’, in the jargon, in his efforts to give new definition to Labour, or himself.

“His claim to be the champion of the ‘squeezed middle’ may have potential. So far, it’s more often been derided as being so vague as to be meaningless.

“And owning up to Labour’s past errors in handling such issues as immigration, financial regulation and the balance between services and manufacturing has simply amplified the demand for Miliband to set out what Labour thinks – and would do now – given the opportunity. The row over spending cuts has stuttered on like a stuck record for months. Miliband condemns cuts. Coalition ministers demand to know what he would cut instead.

“Polls show Ed Miliband lags behind Mr Cameron on many qualities of leadership. And Labour’s current lead over the Conservatives is measured in small single figures.

“All this may change, when the effect of spending cuts kicks in, and public opinion polarises. Miliband still has time. The coming year will be important in defining the Labour leader, and just as importantly, perceptions of his ability to run a country.”

POLICY

In November, Labour launched a two-year policy review to move the party beyond New Labour and reconnect with voters.

“All parties wipe the slate clean on their policy commitments after general election defeats. It is part of the process of coming to terms with losing and reconnecting with the electorate.

“This time, however, Labour has a bigger task than it has faced for a generation.

“In most of Europe, social democratic parties are in retreat, shedding votes and losing power. The aftermath of the Great Recession has not re-energised the left, as many hoped and expected. Instead, it has emboldened right-wing forces.

“Labour shares in this wider malaise, confronting the difficult electoral reality of a fractured voting coalition and the splintering of allegiances to the two main parties.

“It has also to reckon with its own record in power: how much does it defend, criticise or move beyond?

“Neither a shift to the left nor a ‘one-more-New-Labour heave’ look like plausible electoral strategies. But if that is so, what is the core political direction Labour wants to follow?

“What is the strategy that can compare with Tony Blair’s New Labour shift to the centre-ground?

“And what does this mean for the big component parts of the political identity of the Labour Party?

“Will it be more interventionist on the economy, more liberal on the state and more conservative on community life?

“Ed Miliband’s single biggest task is to restore the party’s economic credibility. It has lost the argument with the public on the deficit.

“Can it win the argument on growth, living standards and Britain’s economic future?”

PRESENTATION

In December, Ed Miliband appointed former Times journalist Tom Baldwin as his communications chief, assisted by former Daily Mirror man Bob Roberts.

“Ed Miliband now has an experienced and effective team of media experts who have helped sharpen up his performance and improve his image.

“In the first year after an election the voters rarely want to hear much from the losing party.

“It is very hard to put across a positive message and so Miliband has been forced to spend most of his time reacting to the Tory-led coalition government’s policies and statements.

“As a result people know what Ed Miliband is against but have very little idea what he’s for.

“Although the next election seems a long way off, Labour can’t afford to be simply reactive any longer.

“Miliband has to explain what a Labour government under his ‘new generation’ leadership would be like, what it would do differently, what it would offer the country that the coalition doesn’t.

“Simply promising to cut less severely and less quickly isn’t enough.

“Very soon Miliband and his team must start making news and not just appearing for a ritual comment in stories about the other parties.

“Labour’s policy review is a long process. He can’t wait until it’s over. The time to start making an impression in his own right is now.”

Lance Price’s latest book, Where Power Lies, is out in paperback

ELECTIONS

Thursday, 5 May was the first big electoral test of Ed Miliband’s leadership.

“The results of the May 2011 elections presented a mixed bag for Labour.

“In Scotland, the SNP stormed to outright victory but largely off the back of taking votes from other parties rather than from Labour. But this was small consolation as Labour seat after Labour seat fell in its traditional heartlands.

“In Wales, they ended just short of outright victory but still managed a 10-point increase in their vote share compared with 2007 when the last Assembly elections were fought.

“In the English local council elections, the picture was more complicated. Labour ripped the heart out of the Lib Dem vote in many of the great cities but the reason their net gain of 839 seats fell short of an anticipated 1,000 was the remarkable resilience of the Conservative vote.

“The collapse of the Lib Dems delivered up gains to both Labour and the Conservatives. And in the end, Labour’s performance weakened the further south it went.”

OPPOSITION

A key part of being the official opposition is holding the government to account.

“Adapting to being in opposition is always a tough challenge, mixed with a fair bit of personal trauma.

“Former ministers, who have grown accustomed to the world of chauffeured cars, red boxes and thousands of civil servants serving them, suddenly find themselves on their own, with no support and few people to care what they have to say.

“Like many before them, Labour MPs were able to divert themselves with the activity and excitement of a leadership contest, giving them the illusion of meaningful activity.

“But this only postponed for a few months the day when the reality of being out of power dawned.

“New Leaders usually have something of a honeymoon, but the uniquely personal circumstances of Ed Miliband’s victory over his brother mean he has struggled to assert his authority and convey a sense of direction.

“Whilst many frontbenchers have taken to the job of attacking the government with gusto, the recent election results have perhaps shown that a positive alternative has yet to emerge.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

South Africans are going to vote in local elections after one of the most bitterly fought campaigns in years.

The delivery of basic services like water, housing and jobs have been among the issues dominating campaigning.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) controls all South Africa’s nine provinces but the Western Cape.

Analysts say the ANC remains the strongest party, but it is the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994 it has faced such stiff opposition.

The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says it is one of the most hotly contested provincial elections in recent years.

The battle for control of the key economic provinces like the Western Cape, currently controlled by the Democratic Alliance, and Gauteng has seen mud-slinging from party officials and aggressive door-to-door campaigning by senior party officials to rarely visited parts of the country, she says.

Last week, President Jacob Zuma warned his countrymen that their ancestors would never forgive them if they voted against the ANC.

A row over uncovered toilets has also proved embarrassing for all parties.

“This is the first election in which we’ve really seen a concerted attempt by the official opposition to compete for the black vote and the real test is whether black voters are biting,” Steven Friedman from the Institute for Democracy in South Africa told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme.

“It’s certainly a propitious time for the opposition – there’s a lot of feeling by grassroots supporters of the ruling party that the political leadership are only interested in themselves and other politicians that they’re not interested in voters,” he said.

“Of course we’ve had six years of grassroots protests in municipalities directed at municipal governments which feel that don’t respond to them and don’t listen to them.”

He said the polls were important in terms of South Africa’s maturing democracy.

“We’re not really going to have an effective democracy in this country until politicians are more accountable to voters, if you have a ruling party which wins with thumping majorities every time it’s very difficult for there to be accountability,” Mr Friedman said.

But correspondents say ANC supporters are fiercely loyal and though there may be disappointment at the slow pace of delivery, many voters may not yet feel ready to switch sides.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Ministers are seeking “revenge” on the police for foiled attempts to reform pay in 1993, the Police Federation of England and Wales’ chairman is to say.

Budget cuts are hitting police numbers and those remaining face a pay freeze and changes to allowances and pensions.

Paul McKeever will tell delegates at the federation’s annual conference in Bournemouth that the plans amount to “be kind to criminals, kick a cop”.

The home secretary is expected to defend the plans at the conference.

Theresa May is expected to say they are essential as part of the spending review – but she also wants to work with the police on cutting red tape and finding ways to modernise the job.

However, officers say they feel under attack from the government on a range of fronts.

Officer numbers are falling after reaching record highs and central government funding for police is being cut by a fifth under the Spending Review.

Ministers have also backed a far-reaching package of reforms which they say will modernise pay and conditions and award talented hard-working frontline officers.

But chief constables are struggling to make the cuts work and the Chief Inspector of Constabulary has warned that some forces will find it difficult to reduce budgets without cutting the frontline.

Mr McKeever is expected to tell the conference that the reforms being pushed by the coalition amount to “payback” for their successful campaign against similar proposals during John Major’s Conservative government.

The 1993 Sheehy report called for performance-related pay, cuts in overtime and fixed-term contracts. The Police Federation argued against it, saying policing was a unique job with exceptional risks. Most of the package was scrapped after officers staged a rally at Wembley Arena.

The home secretary’s visit to the conference comes after a stormy first day. Opening the conference, a leading member of the Police Federation accused the government of “hating” the police and wanting to “destroy” the service.

John Giblin said: “We acknowledge that some cuts are necessary due to the parlous state of the country’s finances, but we feel greatly let down that we are not considered to be a protected priority area by the government.

“They have and will continue to spew out that much-abused mantra that we have to be more effective and efficient, but don’t be fooled by this insincere, nihilist, smoke and mirrors, slash and burn policy, for it is in large parts economics and in greater part ideology.

“This government, to put it bluntly, hate the police service and want to destroy it in order to rebuild it again, but in their image.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

By Richard Black

A safety review of the UK’s nuclear industry, to be released on Wednesday, is expected to give a broad all-clear to current reactors and future plans.

Energy and Climate Secretary Chris Huhne commissioned the report in the wake of the Fukushima crisis in Japan.

Chief nuclear installations inspector Mike Weightman is expected to raise issues that should be explored further but will not affect new-build plans.

Estimates of the Fukushima compensation costs run to $100bn (£61bn).

But the Weightman report is expected to conclude that events resulting in a similar scale of damage are unlikely in the UK.

It will recommend continuing to allow multiple reactors on power station sites, BBC News understands, despite reports that the situation at Fukushima may have been exacerbated when explosions in one reactor building caused damage in others nearby.

It is understood that Mr Weightman will endorse government plans for an independent Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR), formally announced at the beginning of April.

He is currently executive head of the office inside the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and it is not clear whether he is in the running to lead it once it becomes independent.

Although reportedly running to 145 pages, this is described as an “interim” report.

The final version, incorporating comments from industry and other interested parties, is due to be published in September.

At the weekend, the giant energy company EDF, which is planning to build the first of the UK’s new nuclear plants, told newspapers that it was planning a major push to “sell” nuclear power to the UK public.

An opinion poll published in March, shortly after the Fukushima saga began, showed that support for the technology had diminished in the UK.

However, more people supported than opposed the building of new nuclear power stations.

Many countries have announced reviews of their nuclear industries following the Japanese crisis, with the German government intent on closing its remaining reactors.

Environmental groups say that with the situation at Fukushima still not completely under control, and with revelations still emerging about Japanese companies having resisted warnings about earthquake damage down the years, it is too soon to make a final judgement.

“With brave emergency workers still battling to bring Fukushima under control, and no analysis yet from international nuclear authorities, it will take many months or even years before the lessons can be properly learned,” said Doug Parr of Greenpeace.

“The interim safety report can only begin to ask the questions; it’s inconceivable that a credible comprehensive report can be delivered by September.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.