Alun Cairns MP and Rob Wilson MP: Sense and nonsense on the Lobbying Bill – a response to ConservativeHome and others

Alun Cairns is the Member of Parliament for Vale of Glamorgan and Rob Wilson is the Member of Parliament for Reading East.

Today ConservativeHome reported on the opposition from the Left to the new Lobbying Bill, which also covers trade unions and election campaigning by organisations which are not political parties, such as charities and campaign groups.

The Guardian had reported on the opinion of one barrister from the radical chambers founded by Cherie Blair that the Bill will have a “chilling effect on freedom of expression” by charities and third sector organisations. The Leftist commentator Owen Jones warned that the Bill “will crush democratic freedoms”, endorsing the TUC’s verdict that the bill is something “worthy of an authoritarian dictatorship”. The online campaign group 38 Degrees has been getting its followers to write to MPs claiming that the Bill threatens a “vital part of British democracy. It would gag campaigning from much-loved charities and community groups for the entire year before a general election.”

Alun Cairns MP: Look at Wales and ask yourself - Can Labour can be trusted with the NHS?

Alun Cairns is Conservative MP for the Vale of Glamorgan. Follow Alun on Twitter.

The Health and Social Care Bill has completed its tortuous journey through the parliamentary process.  Without doubt it has been dubbed by the press and the Labour Party as one of the Coalition government’s most controversial moves.

I am a strong supporter of the Bill for a number of reasons; I believe it will bring about fresh innovation and new approaches to healthcare that have the opportunity to drive efficiency and value for money in what is the UK’s most treasured public service.

Coming from Wales, however, my constituents won’t benefit from such changes.  Labour’s criticisms throughout every part of the extended parliamentary scrutiny, failed to offer an alternative, leaving their model in Wales as an example of their policy outcomes: Cuts in NHS spending, longer waiting times, poor mortality rates and higher infection levels.

So what, if anything, can we learn from Labour’s approach to the NHS in Wales?

Wales is justifiably proud of Aneurin Bevan, the founding father of the NHS.  We consider ourselves to be the greatest champions and guardians of the service.  Therefore, over the last 15 years and particularly since the advent of devolution, the NHS has been the top priority of the nation and of politicians.  Whatever funding was needed, the money would be found. It still accounts for two-fifths of the Welsh budget.