Author Archives: Daniel Singleton

Who would have thought that, at its birth 70 years ago, the NHS would still be standing today? That’s quite some achievement – and back in 1948, life expectancy was only 66 for men and 71 for women; 70 years later, it’s 77 for men […]

There are local elections taking place this week and, with the comings and goings at the Home Office, politics at home is very much the focus of the news media – but what does it have to do with those of us on the frontline […]

Ten years on from the banking crisis and the start of austerity, cuts are still biting and the effects of real term reductions in spending are felt by most of us. Yet, we also know that the misuse of resources too has a huge effect […]

At dinner last week with a number of friends from Eastern Europe, our conversation moved from the nerve agent attack in Salisbury to what patriotism meant to us and who felt they belonged and wanted to stay in the UK.  My dinner companions were all […]

The Government has released its long-awaited integration strategy, developed methodically behind the scenes with the close involvement of civil society organisations – including providers of community-based English programmes like Creative English. As Eric Pickles, former Secretary of State for Communities, said when the 2010 coalition […]

Don’t pay the NHS an extra £350million a week, but well done to Simon Stevens who may have single-handedly moved the Brexit debate on from political machinations, to life after Brexit and what we want it to be. The NHS will always need more cash, […]

Teachers all over the country are trying to find ways to add the government’s ‘British values’ to their lessons. The British values are: democracy the rule of law individual liberty mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs and for those […]

I’m fed up with commentary and opinion masquerading as fact and news! This happens when those who are supposedly ‘reporters or correspondents’ have become pundits, yet there has been no indication of the change in their role. That’s not to say I don’t engage with […]

There are so many legitimate responses to the terrible fire at Grenfell. We have seen care and compassion, but there will also be a need for inquiry and justice. The local community responded practically with food and clothes, so rapidly that some reception centres had […]

Wouldn’t it be good if the lasting image of the Manchester bombing was that homes, hotels and taxi drivers opened their doors to those who were in distress and trying to escape the horror? What a superb counter-response to this act of terror – if […]