Lord Price: Britain will excel in wake of Brexit
LORD PRICE, the former trade minister, has said he believes the Government can deliver a successful Brexit which will boost Britain’s competitiveness.
In his first monthly column for The Daily Telegraph, Lord Price, who ran Waitrose for nine years until joining the Government in April 2016, argues that Britain can excel once unshackled from the EU. He claims that emerging economies such as China and Vietnam are “hungry” to sign free trade deals, engage in private investment, and learn from Britain’s “entrepreneurial spirit”.
Lord Price stood down from the Government at the start of September, and has since been replaced by Rona Fairhead, former BBC Trust chairman. He latterly worked under Liam Fox in the Department for International Trade.
BRITAIN has become a “sick society” that has “outsourced” its duties to the most vulnerable, a Tory minister has warned.
Dr Philip Lee said families needed to learn from Muslim and Hindu communities who care for their old, instead of creating an “atomised” nation which is failing those in need.
The justice minister, who also works as a GP, suggested society had become too selfish, with help only delivered by workers who were “paid to care”.
He said Britain needed to face up to truths about the responsibilities fami- lies held, rather than expect an overstretched state to keep picking up the tab.
“Our society is quite sick and no one really wants to talk about it,” he told a meeting with Age UK. “When I used to do visits, I would go into residential nursing homes and I would rarely meet a Jew, a Muslim or a Hindu,” Dr Lee said. “In those communities, it’s a responsibility that they look after their own; that they care for each other at different stages of our lives.”
“And we don’t do that,” said Dr Lee. “We are outsourcing the care of our parents. Why have we gone down that path – is it because we have become a bit selfish?”
Too many families expected councils to take on duties that were better performed with love and a sense of responsibility, he suggested. “I want to be cared for and looked after by people who know me and I know them,” he said. “I don’t want to see a stranger knocking on the door with a meal. I want to see somebody that I know. Care is much better delivered by people who truly care, not people who are paid to care.”
Brexit could worsen strain on social care services, which were already overstretched, he added.
“We are putting our families all over the place and we are expecting people – invariably from abroad – to look after our elderly. We are relying on migration – the irony is that the old voted for Brexit.”
“This is not going to be solved by taxing and spending more,” Dr Lee said. “As Conservatives, there is a huge scope for us to step forward and say actually it is not about spending more and higher taxation, it is actually about saying to people it’s your responsibility to spend half an hour a week with that lonely old lady down the road.”