John Glen MP and Jeremy Lefroy MP: NHS spending should be paid for by ring-fenced NI contributions

John Glen is MP for Salisbury and Jeremy Lefroy is MP for Stafford

Over the last few weeks there has been some debate around a return to the ‘contributory principle’ for welfare. We believe this is a valuable idea: recovering the sense of ‘social insurance’ that originally formed the basis for government welfare provision. The first area in which this could take place would be the NHS.

The NHS is unique among public services given the scale of universal health provision. Healthcare costs have, in recent years, been rising well above the rate of inflation and this trend is expected to continue. Health spending as a proportion of GDP has doubled within a generation, and will be a continuing demand on the public purse. Achieving a stable funding solution for the NHS is vital. British people rightly value the ring-fencing of the NHS budget – which this government has protected in real terms.

However, it is difficult to have a mature public debate when the facts are not widely known or understood. We need to be fully transparent about the cost of delivering a high quality universal health service, provided for free at the point of delivery, and not duck the reality of the cost pressures which exist.

Jeremy Lefroy MP: The case for a UK Development Bank

Jeremy Lefroy is Member of Parliament for Stafford.  Follow Jeremy on Twitter.

The UK's international development programme is placing increasing emphasis on assisting the private sector (including agriculture) in low income countries.

It is the private sector which will generate most of the work opportunities so much needed by growing populations and the tax revenues to pay for public services such as health and education. So it is sensible for the UK to support something which will lead to less need for aid.

Some of the work to help strengthen the private sector is probably best done by grants. Training of business trainers and basic rural infrastructure are two examples. But much could be done by loans or other repayable instruments, especially when the assistance is given directly to private companies. The funds could then be recycled by the UK into other development work when they have been repaid.

However the UK does not currently have a means for doing this. True, certain grant funding is given to bodies such as the African Enterprise Challenge Fund which then make a combination of grants and repayable loans to private companies. But the repaid funds are retained within the fund rather than eventually being returned to the UK taxpayer.

Jeremy Lefroy MP: Time to transform capitalism from within

Jeremy Lefroy is the MP for Stafford. 

From the steps of St Pauls to the pages of the Telegraph, politicians, economists, commentators and the public are questioning whether business as usual can deliver the social and economic value needed by our local, and global, society.

Charles Moore told his readership “that people in general have lost faith in the free-market, Western, democratic order...they ask the simple question, “What's in it for me?”, and they do not hear a good answer.” Peter Oborne berated the “feral rich of Chelsea and Kensington”. The Harvard Business Review says “The question becomes not whether capitalism is doomed, but rather how it will evolve away from its current form toward one more fit for a global economy,” and that “the financial industry must not be allowed to inhibit the evolution of capitalism.” Even Investment Manager David Blood added “The problem is that capitalism itself is broken or nearly broken…it is too focused on short- term gains and flawed incentives that are eroding trust in the system.”

Colleagues have weighed in, Matthew Hancock MP has written in The Times (£) that “it is not left-wing to criticise the moral vacuum at the top as well as the bottom of society." Elizabeth Truss MP has bemoaned the fact that "with shares largely in the hands of vast institutions, the scrutiny of public companies has been left to a small circle", and attacked “ballooning top  salaries…attributable to the money-go-round in banking and other uncompetitive industries,”

Jeremy Lefroy: The independence of the Office for National Statistics

Jeremy Lefroy is the Conservative Candidate for Stafford. He fought Newcastle-under-Lyme in the 2005 general election and was a Newcastle Borough councillor from 2003-2007 (cabinet member for finance 2006-7). He is a director of a coffee and cocoa business which he helped to found when living in Tanzania. He helped establish East African Botanicals, which produces artemisinin, the main compnent of modern anti-malarials, in its new factory in Kenya. He is a primary school governor in Staffordshire and trustee of the charity Equity for Africa.

The ONS has officially been independent since 1 April this year.

If it is to be seen as truly independent, it needs to reconsider the way in which it presents and comments on official statistics. I give three examples from the current pages of its website www.ons.gov.uk which concern me.

Example 1: The public sector budget deficit - August 2008

“Debt peaked at 44.8% of GDP in 1997, its highest since the mid 1980’s. The debt ration then fell steadily as public sector finances improved, reaching a low of 29.6% in March 2002. Since then, it has risen (my bold). The Budget forecast for the end of March 2009 is 38.5%.”

This comment might have been written by Gordon Brown himself. A falling debt ratio is an improvement (positive), while the opposite is merely described as ‘rising’ (neutral).

Example 2: Timescale of graph for inflation compared with that for public sector net debt

The public sector net debt graph starts in mid 1997, which is favourable to the Labour government (especially as it does not mention the substantial impact of the £20 billion fees from the sale of the 3G mobile licences).

By contrast, the inflation graph starts in August 2006 when the RPI was already at 3.5% and the CPI at 2.5%. Had the graph similarly started in mid 1997, when RPI under a Conservative government was at 2.00% and CPI at 1.6%, then the growth of inflation in recent years under Labour would appear much more marked.

Example 3: Economic growth

On the home page of the ONS (10/10/08), we have the wonderful statement that the “economic growth was 0.0%” in Q2.

Presumably the original wording was that it grows by 0.2% and then, with the  adjustment to zero, the ONS ‘forgot’ to alter the wording.

The ONS needs to take much greater care in its presentation and comments if I am to be convinced that it is truly independent of the Government.