Column: Pat’s Politics Articles

Amid all the fuss about NHS structures, it would be easy to forget what was happening in one area that really impacts on patients and that is the length of time people wait for treatment. The other night I took part in one of those end-of-the-week discussions on Radio...

The events of the past two days have seemed like a rerun of the debate last summer, says Pat McFadden MP. In the blue corner is George Osborne saying the Government inherited a mess and there is no alternative to the path of deficit reduction he has set out. Any sniff...

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole said that the Queen’s visit to Ireland was not so much a change in itself but instead underlined a change that has already happened.  He was right.  The relationship between Britain and Ireland has been transformed in recent decades. 

The Financial Times education results survey should be our rallying cry for change. We should learn from the London Challenge and reject anything that leads to levelling down, rather than levelling up, of standards.