Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has launched an attack on the way the NHS is run, describing it as a service in "crisis". In his first major television interview since becoming leader, Mr Clegg said: "It is one of the most unequal health services in the modern world."
John Barrett speaks at debate on Children With Disabilities
Laurie Young spent seven months in hospital with an inflammatory bowel condition. Laurie, who has Parkinson's disease, was in intensive care three times and his heart stopped once - his family were told he was not expected to survive. He could not eat, lost the ability to speak walk and was hallucinating.
Lib Dem MP for Manchester Withington, John Leech, has moved an Early Day Motion in the Commons condemning the Arts Council's cut of funding for the It's Queer Up North arts organisation and festival. It has been a key part of the lesbian and gay cultural scene in the North West for over a decade.
Proposed changes to Essex County Council's highways maintenance strategy, will mean that people in Essex will have to get used to bigger potholes being around for longer, as the ruling Conservative party fail to balance its funding of road maintenance. The proposals come just weeks after the Conservatives announced a £10m overspend on the highways budget.
2008 marks some significant anniversaries. It is exactly 100 years since the first Old Age Pensions were introduced in 1908 by Lloyd George and the Liberal Government (to be followed in 1911 by the Liberal Government introducing the first Sickness and Unemployment benefits). It is 60 years since the NHS was created in 1948- by a Labour Government but based upon a blueprint drawn up by the Liberal William Beveridge. The same William Beveridge who drew up the 1919 Act, that under Prime Minister Lloyd George introduced large scale Council Housing.
