Latest news with #JohnDavey
The Guardian
26-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on Ed Davey's mission: build politics around care. If not, cruelty will define it
Did last week mark a sea change in British politics? For many, it did. The government's U-turn on winter fuel payments signalled a welcome retreat. But the deeper shift may lie in the terrain that ministers are now forced to fight on: cuts hitting disabled people and their families. In the Commons, Sir Ed Davey raised the case of Ginny, a carer for her husband with myotonic dystrophy. He described the human burden of responsibility, exhaustion and love. Under the government's planned cuts, he warned, her family stands to lose £12,000 a year. The prime minister replied with managerial platitudes. Sir Ed, by contrast, spoke of duty, dignity and the very real consequences of policy. The Liberal Democrat leader isn't trading in ideology; he's drawing a line based on human decency. Caring has been a constant theme of his life, even more than politics. When he was a teenager, Sir Ed spent three years looking after his mother who died of bone cancer. Later he helped care for the grandmother who brought him up. Every morning at 6am, Sir Ed wakes up his severely disabled 17-year-old son, John, then cleans his teeth, bathes him and gives him his morning massage. In his new book, Why I Care, he frames this both an act of love and a foundational political insight. 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. Critics might call it earnest. Cynics may spy sentiment in search of power. The Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, says Lib Dems are just 'good at fixing church roofs'. But Sir Ed leans in. His paddle‑boarding, Zumba-thrusting 2024 election campaign delivered his party's best result in a century, winning 72 seats – 60 from the Conservatives. The latest YouGov polling has his party ahead of the Tories and snapping at Labour's heels. 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. Sir Ed's not point-scoring, just asking how family, community and state can equitably share the load. And urging the government to get on with it – as quietly and steadily as the carers it routinely ignores.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'I tried to help in Covid - now face £100k fine'
The owner of a chain of pharmacies in Liverpool says he is being asked to repay up to £100,000 to the NHS for deliveries he made to isolating patients during Covid. John Davey from Davey's Chemist says eligibility rules, which asked customers to provide a Test and Trace ID number, were unrealistic for many older people and those who didn't understand the system. He is being supported by his local MP Maria Eagle and the National Pharmacy Association, which represents Community Pharmacies. But the NHS says the rules were made clear at the time, and Mr Davey has a right to appeal the decision. Davey's Chemist has five branches in Liverpool and during the pandemic they were delivering to hundreds of customers every month. Owner John Davey said him and his team did everything possible to keep vulnerable customers safe. "We embraced what we needed to do. We kept our doors open – myself and the teams in my pharmacies went above and beyond, put themselves at risk, did everything we could for our community." Between March 2021 and February 2022 pharmacies received £6 from the NHS for every delivery they made under a special programme called the Community Pharmacy Home Delivery Service. But years on – the NHS is asking for up to £100,000 of it back from Davey's Chemist. The guidance to pharmacists stated that only isolating customers with a Test and Trace ID number qualified for free deliveries. Those ID numbers were given out by the Test & Trace service to people who had formally registered a positive Covid test or were identified as being in close contact with someone who had. But that meant those who had developed Covid but did not have a formal test, those around them, and people who had been "pinged" by the NHS Covid App did not qualify for free pharmacy deliveries. John Davey decided, despite the guidance, that many of his isolating customers needed deliveries whether or not they had the ID number because he said the system wasn't working. "We had to make a judgement call," he said, adding that without the deliveries, customers would have brought infection to his shops and staff. "If we didn't there would have been more deaths, more illness, the virus would have spread quicker." During the pandemic community pharmacies were dealing, not just with illnesses relating to the virus, but also with ongoing medication needed by patients with chronic conditions. Mike Kearns, 76, from Huyton has type 2 diabetes and a number of other conditions which need daily medication. When he fell ill with covid in late 2020 he needed to keep getting his prescriptions, but knew he needed to isolate. "You wouldn't want to be in a position where you passed something like that on to somebody elderly or in a vulnerable position so that was the thing - stay where you are," he said But Mike, who lost two relatives to Covid at around the same time, said he did not have anyone who could have gone to get them for him. Instead he got a free delivery from his local Davey's Chemist branch. "It was great that there was that facility for everybody," he said. John's MP Maria Eagle's office has written letters on his behalf. National Pharmacy Association (NPA) chair, Oliver Picard says several of their members have had issues with this scheme. "Some Pharmacies are saying that if I have to repay this money …then it could lead to the closure of my pharmacy," he said, adding that many independent pharmacies had struggled financially since Covid. "We want to invest in community pharmacy. We don't want to punish them for a service that was delivered five years ago in good faith in the middle of a pandemic." The NHS Business Services Authority says it is instructed by NHS England to recover overpayments from contactors when they have been made. It adds: "Contractors do have the right to appeal any decision to recover overpayments by making representation to NHS Resolution". John Davey's appeal is currently being considered. The NHS points out that documents sent to pharmacists setting out the Community Pharmacy Home Delivery Service all specified the need for a Test and Trace ID number. But John Davey says he will continue his fight. "They've not questioned the fact that we did the deliveries, " he said. "It's completely unjust, unfair. It doesn't meet any of the criteria about putting patients first" Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Yahoo
Big wheel to return despite resident's plea
An observation wheel in a public garden has been granted planning permission for another year despite a plea to give the park "back to the people". Councillors at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) voted unanimously to allow the Royal Windsor Wheel in Alexandra Gardens. Resident John Davey opposed the application, saying the garden should be "full of flowers, plants and wildlife" and "not forfeited to metal fairground rides". But council planning officers said under the plans less than 5% of the total grassland would be damaged, and the site would be re-turfed afterwards. They added that, when the wheel was in the park last summer, it left "plenty of garden area amenity area untouched by this development for members of the public". Planning officer Briony Franklin also said the council had to be consistent in deciding planning applications, and had approved identical temporary plans last year. Ward councillor Mark Wilson spoke in favour of the application and said it was an "attraction" for the town. "It's a boost for business and while there are mixed views as we've heard from residents many do enjoy it," he said. Councillor Amy Tisi said the wheel would take up about 0.5% of the park. "It seems to be a very emotive thing that some residents say it's taking up all of the park and it's taking up all of this space," she said. "I calculated that the site is 21 by 7m, so it works out to be 0.52% of the park is taken up by this." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Big wheel could return to town's gardens next month Big wheel to boost tourism in Royal town - council Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead
BBC News
07-04-2025
- General
- BBC News
Royal Windsor Wheel to return despite resident's plea
An observation wheel in a public garden has been granted planning permission for another year despite a plea to give the park "back to the people".Councillors at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM) voted unanimously to allow the Royal Windsor Wheel in Alexandra John Davey opposed the application, saying the garden should be "full of flowers, plants and wildlife" and "not forfeited to metal fairground rides".But council planning officers said under the plans less than 5% of the total grassland would be damaged, and the site would be re-turfed afterwards. They added that, when the wheel was in the park last summer, it left "plenty of garden area amenity area untouched by this development for members of the public".Planning officer Briony Franklin also said the council had to be consistent in deciding planning applications, and had approved identical temporary plans last year. 'Boost for business' Ward councillor Mark Wilson spoke in favour of the application and said it was an "attraction" for the town."It's a boost for business and while there are mixed views as we've heard from residents many do enjoy it," he Amy Tisi said the wheel would take up about 0.5% of the park."It seems to be a very emotive thing that some residents say it's taking up all of the park and it's taking up all of this space," she said."I calculated that the site is 21 by 7m, so it works out to be 0.52% of the park is taken up by this." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
