Author Archives: Steve Baker

Public sector finances, UK: January 2024


Find the ONS bulletin on the public sector finances for January 2024, here.

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Improving Healthcare Outcomes for All in Wycombe


Last week, it was announced that the Wycombe Elective Surgical Centre (WESC) had been nominated by the regional NHS team for the prestigious national surgical hub accreditation program. I was glad to visit Wycombe Hospital to discuss the announcement with doctors there and the many positives it will bring to health outcomes for all in Wycombe. You can read more about the announcement here: In the context of this good news, I know that some will wonder why we are […]

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A local plea to detoxify comment on my social media


After receiving the following email from a constituent – which I publish by permission – I decided to take new steps to detoxify comment on my social media: I am writing to you after having spoken to [XXX] about how horrified and upset I get when I go to your FB account. I love seeing the posts and photos of the various places you go in my town and the local organisations you visit and then promote.  What I hate […]

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Growing Hope – nominate for a cake!


Growing Hope High Wycombe is a fantastic charity offering free therapy for children and young people (0-18) with additional needs. They also provide support for parents, carers and siblings through groups and courses. Their therapy clinic is open for referrals for children and families living in the High Wycombe area. Please give generously to Growing Hope, here. At a recent fundraising dinner for the charity, Growing Hope auctioned a cake a month for a year. I won the bidding and […]

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The Support Available to Those on Low Incomes


I know how much difficulty Covid has caused people in Wycombe and across our country. Alongside the awful health implications of Covid, cycles of lockdowns and restrictions have meant that the Government has borrowed £350 billion to help and support families and businesses through Covid. This may have been the right thing to do at the time, but it is clearly unsustainable if we are to prosper as a country. While some of the schemes introduced to support individuals and families through Covid […]

Full quote on Ofcom for Telegraph


The Telegraph reports, Ofcom accused of stifling ‘criticism’ of Government’s Covid response. Here’s my comment in full: “Time and again, the weight of Ofcom rules about coronavirus coverage upon broadcasters’ legal departments has been explained to me by people with direct experience. “While the actual rulings made appear entirely reasonable, we can only speculate on the extent to which risk aversion within the main broadcasters prevented serious broadcast journalists from applying proper scrutiny to policy. No wonder freedom has been […]

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Changing the function of ARIA is the wrong way to protest development aid


UPDATE: I have now written to the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab: “In the meantime however, I would ask you to please examine again whether these cuts to aid spending could be done more sympathetically with respect to those most in need.” 3 June 2021: In order to protest cuts to Overseas Development Aid (ODA) taking spending below the legally-required 0.7% of GDP, rebels have tabled an amendment to the Advanced Research and Invention Agency Bill. This is the text of […]

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Presentation on Tax Freedom Day


Many thanks to the Adam Smith Institute for having me on the Tax Freedom Day panel this evening. I promised I would publish my referenced slides: find them here.

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Coronavirus and wellbeing – we need checks and balances


A leading group of academics from LSE, including former Cabinet Secretary Lord Gus O’Donnell, have today published a report which concludes that the Government’s response to Covid has “been dictated by concerns for lives lost from COVID-19, which represent far too narrow a focus for a full impact assessment.” “Shaping the post-Covid World: Moving towards wellbeing over the lifetime as the unit of analysis in policy” (link below) says that “any policy intervention requires us to capture and quantify all […]

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Vaccine passports


Following today’s news about vaccine passports: In recent months, the Government has repeatedly denied it is looking at vaccine passports, despite The Telegraph reporting lots of evidence to the contrary. Now James Cleverly appears to have confirmed @elliotttimes piece that they are indeed happening. Go figure… — Harry Yorke (@HarryYorke1) February 5, 2021 Steve Baker MP said, I’m alarmed by the present lack of clarity about vaccine passports as well as the poor level of communication by Government on what […]

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