What the 2020 party conferences told us about the NHS’s future

The main political parties’ annual conferences are usually important, newsworthy, and curious parts of each autumn’s political scene, and they serve a variety of functions. Conferences are an opportunity for party activists to meet, scheme, and gossip; for opposition parties to tell us what they’d do if given power; for well functioning governments to assert their authority and trumpet their successes; and for poorly functioning governments to relaunch themselves and “take back control” of the political news agenda.

Given the importance of public policy and public spending to the health service, and the NHS’s totemic role in British culture, it’s generally worth paying attention to these events. This year, as in so many areas of life, the covid-19 pandemic has forced radical changes to this annual ritual. Like almost all live events, the party conferences became online only affairs.

The most striking thing about the 2020 conferences was how little attention was given to the NHS and the broader health, social care, and local government system at any of the three main Westminster parties’ events. Given that we’re entering the second wave of covid-19, party …