Talk:Patricia Hewitt

Biography assessment rating comment
WikiProject Biography Assessment

The article may be improved by following the WikiProject Biography 11 easy steps to producing at least a B article. -- Yamara 13:57, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

Unsourced comment
The following was pasted in without a source. Removed to here:

"She has one son, Nicholas Birtles, who currently attends Camden School for Girls in North London, and one daughter, Alexandra Birtles, who is a freshman at Princeton University in America." Secretlondon 02:27, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

David Cameron quote
i cant stand the patronising old cow but Of late Patricia Hewitt has been criticised as being one of the worst Health Secretaries to ever hold the title in Britain doesnt say by who why when ect 86.149.116.251 14:02, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

The above ciritism is unfair. The "one of the worst health secretaries" is fully referenced later on: - You can even watch the video and see it for yourself. See extract:

David Cameron (leader of the conservative party) stated that there are people in parliament who have described Hewitt as the "worst Health Secretary in the history of the NHS"

this page seems to be written by a Doctor, or someone biased towards Doctors, in particular GPs.


 * I've removed David Cameron's comments.

JRPG (talk) 17:16, 23 June 2010 (UTC)
 * He is not necessarily a neutral source.
 * He doesn't say who in the HOC described her as such or why so his statement is a slur containing weasel words
 * If he had himself said she was the worst ever health secretary outside the HOC, he would have been at the same risk of libel proceedings as journalists. In short there was no proper check on his comments.  For the record the Youtube source has also vanished.

DTI
So far as I can tell, this MP was the minister who subsised a quango for "social firms" like worker co-ops while the British Fashion Council and offices it funds were promoting shoes made in autocratic states like China. There was a 120 year-old worker co-op in her constituency, Equity Shoes, that reduced staff from 200 to 100 and has just closed in 2009 because (I think) events like London Fashion Week and and the 30-strong staff of the British Fashion Council were not promoting UK factories and UK social enterprises. So what to make of this? Was the minister only interested in "eye catching initiatives associated with my name" as her boss instructed, or was she just busy and thick and prejudiced against manufacturing? Anyway I've done a slightly awkward edit with a link to Writetothem.com which will be a good source for what she did for social firms. I think the idea of the link is good but changes to polish it and make it nice would be welcome. Veganline (talk) 18:12, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Npov tag
Tag has been added in light of the above concerns. My view is that the coverage of this article on her tenure as Secretary of State of Health is particularly one-sided. Catchpole 17:49, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Yeh, that's your view but you almost certainly 1) don't have any interaction on a day to day basis with the health service 2) are a card carrying member of the labour party. The argument about how good or bad she is as health secretary should be left to those directly affected by her decisions not those with alterior motives. If she is as pisspoor as the health professionals say then obviously the article will be one-sided!
 * see WP:NPOV, comment on the article content instead of misguided speculation about editors. Catchpole 09:12, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm not active on Wikipedia at present because of personal reasons, but I'm not sure how this article could actually be worked on towards being more neutral. Possibly if there is a quote somewhere stating Hewitt as having done something good would be a start (maybe from the Guardian Online?) My politics and history aren't up to scratch, but if memory serves me correctly MTAS isn't the only computer system Hewitt has been involved in that has had problems - then again, I can't think of a single Government IT System that has worked on-time, on-budget, and not had major flaws later on. I feel that the article is also missing details of her previous posts in Parliament including the reasons of Hewitt being moved from one post to the next. Also, there is a line of text at the end of one of the sections about her being asked to resign and Junior Doctors among others will sorely miss her - if that has a reference add it because to me it sounds tongue-in-cheek. This is just my opinion, and even if I was actively editing I wouldn't go near this article because of personal views. Anyway, just thought I'd put my point of view here since Hewitt should be making a statmenet regarding Modernising Medical Careers sometime today. —TheJC (Talk • Contribs • Count) 10:45, 24 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Could parts of the article be written to make it more factual, and less opinion expressed as fact? That may help? e.g. (under "Growing discontent") "On 12 April 2007, independent newspaper 'Hospital Doctor' reported a poll that officially confirmed Patricia Hewitt as the "Worst Ever" Health Secretary" - personally, I would say that "officially confirmed" is inappropriate regarding this statement. The tone of the article is (imo) more damaging to the article's neutrality than the article's content. (p.s. I'm a medical student and not a member of the labour party, so I am acutely aware of the changes made by Mrs Hewitt. Just thought I'd point that out) Ged3000 15:07, 6 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I am no fan of Patricia Hewitt but I concur that this article is far from neutral. Much use of weasel words etc. Ben Finn 11:25, 14 June 2007 (UTC)


 * This article is so transparent. It seems as if junior doctors of the UK have united to try and besmirch Hewitt via her wikipedia article. I mean choosing to say that she has been described as "the worst Health Secretary ever" is really misleading, given that the quote is actually from David Cameron, LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION! Even if one disagrees with Hewitt (and I'm hardly a fan) there is no need to mislead people and jeapordise the integrity of the article, surely any criticism shall be effective on its own. (AJMW 15:52, 21 June 2007 (UTC))

I have met Hewitt 3 times as the local leader of a strictly non party political group campaigning on Company Pensions. This article is seriously biased and damages Wikipedia's reputation. The item about vote rigging should go as no evidence was found. The "Worst Ever" Health Secretary" title is merely debateable trivia ..there are many excellent candidates!   Hewitt should be given more credit for the important smoking ban and the courage she showed supporting it.  I intend to make the article a little more serious. JRPG (talk) 16:08, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

Removing reference to vote rigging on the grounds that it was completely rejected by the police and appears to be a simple slur. Removing reference to cannabis for the same reason as it isn't notable given many other MPs did the same, see http://www.ccguide.org.uk/yourmp.php Removing reference to worst ever health secretary as it is a matter of opinion albeit some newspaper poll, the reader can judge based on facts. Feel free to email me or use my talk page. JRPG (talk) 18:45, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

April Fool's Quote
Many people will have heard of Hewitt's response to “the humiliating circumstances in which 15 [British] sailors and Royal Marines were captured by just six Iranians [which was] ‘It was deplorable that the woman hostage should be shown smoking. This sends completely the wrong message to our young people.’” Except that she didn't say that: that quote was an April Fool's Joke in The Daily Telegraph, as explained here and here. Maybe this should be mentioned in the article? Cheers, CWC 14:38, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Paedophile Information Exchange News
More news on the Paedophile Information Exchange front:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100185799/how-hatties-friends-defended-paedophilia/ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2221078/Jimmy-Savile-liberal-left-encouraged-sexualisation-children.html Twobells (talk) 12:19, 9 November 2012 (UTC)

Biography Ammends
Requested ammends for incorrect facts in biography section

"Born in Canberra, Australia, she is the daughter of Sir Lenox Hewitt (b. 1917), a leading civil servant (Secretary of the Australian Prime Minister's Department, and later chairman of Qantas), and Lady (Hope) Hewitt (1915–2011). She was educated at Canberra Girls' Grammar School (formerly Canberra Church of England Girls' Grammar School),[2] and the Australian National University. She went on to study at both Newnham College, Cambridge and Nuffield College, Oxford where she was awarded two master's degrees."

Patricia actually did her undergraduate degree in English Literature at Cambridge where she received a BA/MA. She later became a visiting fellow at Nuffield Collage Oxford and was awarded an honorary MA.

Abbie_wolfstarpr 27/5/15

Early Life Section
Requested amends for the Early Life section as some parts were incorrect

1 - they have a daughter (born September 1986) and a son (born February 1988).

Patricia's daughter was born in August

2 - She was a member of the advisory panel of the New Statesman magazine for ten years from 1980,

Patricia was not ever on the advisory panel for the New Statesman magazine

Abbie wolfstarpr (talk) 14:51, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Anti-father views?
"The Family Way document seems to have been more quoted than read, and doesn't really on closer investigation seem to have been an attack on fatherhood. I haven't read it, but Peter Hitchens wrote a bit here about it, having had to privately borrow a copy, and although the quote is authentic, it's pretty clear it refers to criminal fathers, especially those who are violent against the rest of the family. The report actually calls for fathers to be involved with their children, partly to avoid father-child relationships disappearing altogether after a divorce. Most of the recommendations are fairly ordinary left-wing things that Hitchens is against but which aren't particlarly surprising for Labour politicians campaigning against the 1990 status quo - easier divorce, parental leave from work, more taxes for more benefits, more suport for childcare. I don't really see this setting out "her theory that fathers may not be a useful influence in the upbringing of children" for which the citation is a hardline men's rights activist, or needing a place in the lead section, or as being as important as Hewitt having been ruled to have unlawfully discriminated. Billwilson5060 (talk) 10:53, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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