Does anyone read newspaper editorials? I never got the habit. But this one from tomorrow's Guardian in praise of Ed Davey's approach to politics is something else:
The Lib Dem leader wants to rewrite British politics – not with the language of crisis, but that of care. In a Westminster hooked on “tough choices” and resistant to compassion in policy, he offers something rare – moral clarity rooted in lived experience. He understands that care is not a luxury to be considered after the economy is “fixed”. It is, he says, the core economy. His new book is both memoir and manifesto, containing a call to abandon parliamentary introspection and recentre politics around mutual support. ...
Rooted in real life and years helping constituents through a broken system, his authority on care is hard-won. The UK has 6 million unpaid carers – 1.7 million work more than 50 hours a week. The NHS would collapse without them. Yet many carers are met not with help, but hurdles – denied adequate respite and treated as invisible. This paper’s investigation into the scandal over carer’s allowance payments revealed a brutal bureaucracy punishing vulnerable people. It’s not just neglectful. It’s insulting.
Sir Ed’s proposal – to assign every family in need a named carer and social worker – is modest, sensible and overdue. He’s also had enough of the care reviews. Who can blame him? Since 1997, there have been 25 commissions, inquiries and white papers. Now ministers want Louise Casey to take three more years for a review into adult social care. He says it’s enough to make you cry.
Yes, John Harris pays a warm tribute too, in his column.
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