By Tom Addison, Policy Manager, The Physiological Society
After last week’s instalment from the Labour Party conference in Brighton, the beginning of October saw the political media’s attention turn to the Conservative Party in Manchester. In front of a backdrop of fuel shortages and the continuing disruption caused by a shortage of HGV drivers, the Conservative Party was keen to stress its credentials of ‘Getting on with the job’ and tackling long-term structural issues in UK policy making – namely pressures on the NHS and social care and regional inequality (rebranded for the 2019 General Election as ‘Levelling Up’).
Indeed, beyond the conference slogan, the Prime Minister’s conference speech echoed these policy areas as the way in which his Government can demonstrate impact and good governance. The Health and Social Care Levy on national insurance contributions was not mentioned by name but it came with a commitment that ‘responsible conservatives’ would raise funding for ‘your hip replacement, your mother’s surgery’ but that at the same time wouldn’t ‘just…siphon billions of new taxes into crucial services without improving performance’.
More broadly, the Prime Minister also went some way to defining how ‘Levelling Up’ would be achieved. Beyond the references to ‘monkey glands’, ‘royal jelly’ and the poet, Thomas Gray, the Prime Minister brought together 2016 anxieties surrounding the impact of immigration on wages with a recognition that significant health and educational disparities exist. This culminated in a commitment to improve the UK skills base by investing in those already living in the UK to ultimately create a high wage, high-productivity UK economy. The Prime Minister also suggested in his speech that wages had risen for the first time in more than a decade. That his party have been in office now for 11 years and that his assessment was quickly criticised by journalists including Andrew Marr, did little to quell his optimism.
The Physiological Society’s activity at Conservative Party conference
With much talk of national renewal as we emerge from the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Physiological Society’s conference session Following the Science: What Should the UK Learn from the COVID-19 Pandemic When it Comes to the Role of Science in Public Health? was a timely opportunity to hear from the newly appointed Science Minister, George Freeman MP about the role of science in this process.
The new Minister, with a background in life sciences prior to his election, was quick to reinforce the Government’s enthusiasm for science and recognition that R&D would be a key driver of economic recovery from COVID-19. Additionally, the Minister also recognised that a lack of resilience in both health systems and public health more broadly had impacted on the country’s ability to respond quickly and effectively to COVID-19 back in March 2020. He also spent significant time discussing the potential of science R&D to respond to the Prime Minister’s call for high-wage, high productivity jobs beyond the ‘Golden Triangle’.
Also on the panel was Richard Maugham from Pfizer who noted his companies £70m investment in their Swindon plant and Susan Mitchell from Alzheimer’s Research UK, who previously worked as part of The Society’s Growing Older, Better Steering Group. Susan’s contribution focused around how COVID had impacted on attitudes towards ageing, physical resilience and age-related disease. Additionally, she spoke about the importance of positive health messaging, noting the change in messaging from ‘dementia risk’ to ‘brain health’ as a way of encouraging people to think about their long-term health and physical activity levels.
Following positive engagement with the Minister both during and after the session, The Society will work to engage him on subsequent projects, particularly as we approach, and assess the impact of, the Comprehensive Spending Review later this year. Furthermore, The Society will be back in Parliament on Thursday 4 November to launch our report into interdisciplinary research following the conclusion of the latest REF cycle this year and the Minister’s call to action on global health challenges will be one of the major issues the report hopes to address.
A recording of the session can be found here.
A link to The Society’s parliamentary event registration page is here.