The NHS - Safe in their hands?

By Dick Symonds

No-one thinks so – but why do the Tories hate the NHS and persistently want to change it?

It wasn't always like this. The NHS and the Welfare State was the overwhelming democratic choice in 1945, when the country was nearly bankrupt and in hock to the USA. Some of the older among us will remember the basically decent Tories of the '50s and '60s, who were quite happy with the NHS the way it was – the 'consensus on the welfare state', they called it. Times were different then. Society was more equal, wages were proportionally higher, unemployment was low and your job was secure, and that trend was continuing. This worried the super-rich, the controllers of the growing multinational corporations. The call came for a politics which would be more to their liking, which would end all regulation of the private sector, reduce the State to a minimum, control the unions, push down the wages and use the threat of unemployment to keep the working class in its place. Thus Margaret Thatcher, the present Tories and what is now called 'neo-liberalism'. Thatcher hated the NHS precisely because it proved the opposite: a superb public service, with a caring and not a commercial basis, for all the people and removed the need for money up front, administered by a strong and confident State. 

So, once secure, Thatcher started to change all that. First the commercialisation, providing more and more managers, making professional staff talk business mumbo-jumbo, setting up the silly game of pretending to be a real business, by having 'purchasers' and 'providers'. The powers of the Crown were removed, the efficient organisation of health authorities turned  into Trusts, run by failed businessmen and retired colonels, and our NHS property increasingly mortgaged to the future by loans from private finance. Given the chance, after the fall of the Tories, New Labour failed to make more than cosmetic changes (though put more money into the NHS, and did improve the service).

And so today, our unelected Coalition government wants to dispose of what we democratically constructed. It wants more of the business game, to give the private sector more power. This may start small, but it is in the nature of capitalism to grow like a cancer, and there is at present no effective barrier to international private health corporations gobbling up any local private health enterprises. The ultimate goal of the Tories, and some have stated as much, is to have a health 'system'  like the USA: where the poor can die in the street because they can't buy private health insurance, where the doctor is forbidden to prescribe treatments the insurers will not support, where 25% of the cost goes in administration. That's what private medicine means for the majority in the USA, whose biggest concern is that they will fall and for them it could mean destitution.  Meanwhile the super-rich, the directors of the private health corporations, cream off the profits.

Our NHS is big and powerful, as big as the old Red Army, the Indian Railways and many small countries. Given the right political lead (or rather the left political lead), it could compete with any capitalist enterprise, by using its purchasing power, for bulk buying any medicines for example. No private corporation has such dedicated and qualified staff. We could strip out the whole commercial and business structure , make it democratically accountable, get rid of commissioning  and consortia, and have a planning department and the delivery service.

So what is the problem that the Tories want to solve? They say our population is growing older and this is the problem. Well, it has been for centuries and it should be a blessing: our NHS has to be preventative and keep people healthier in old age. They say our cancer detection and treatment is poorer that some EU countries, but it varies from year to year. And these constitute the problem for which the NHS is to be risked?

ñ  We, the people, have to give a resounding 'NO' to this unelected government’s plan

         

ñ  The NHS is the Best of Britain: we'd be mad to let it go

Hands off our NHS!

Tories shop local - but not for their leaflets!

By Clive Hart

NO WONDER THE CONSERVATIVE SHOP LOCAL SCHEME IS A FLOP. THE TORIES DO THEIR OWN BUSINESS IN CANTERBURY.

Thanet Conservatives boast on their election leaflets that they have 'helped traders by encouraging residents to shop locally'.  So why are their election leaflets printed in Canterbury?

 

At a recent local business meeting in Cliftonville a discussion took place regarding their Thanet Tory 'Shop Local' scheme.  It appears the Conservative administration at TDC now want businesses to pay £35 to be members of the scheme, instead of the original £25 first year cost.  But here's the real rub - they also want the businesses to 'run the scheme themselves'.  Yes, a  £10 increase and 'do it yourself from now on'.  Sounds like more of that Big Society nonsense!

 

The meeting was also informed that at least 35 businesses in Northdown Road alone, would have to join the scheme for it to be viable.  The vast majority of businesspeople attending the meeting just laughed out loud when that '35 business' requirement was read out.  'What planet are they on' was one comment shouted from the floor.

 

Hardly anyone at the meeting could name a business involved in the scheme.  The few businesses that were, at some point involved, had apparently failed to give either the discount or incentive required through the scheme to make it work.  No-one at the meeting could think of any benefits that have come to businesses from the scheme to date and the general consensus was that it was a complete and total farce.

 

A representative from Margate then explained that Margate shops would 'probably not be involved in the scheme from now on'.  Margate had a requirement to find 45 interested businesses.  The representative also explained that problems had developed with the Shop Local scheme following staff changes at TDC that had moved people into different departments and even sometimes into different districts.

 

That brings us to yet another boast on the Conservative election leaflet, yes the Tories have 'implemented a shared service programme with neighbouring districts.

Dover County Council By-election

Dover Town Division, Kent CC. Lab gain from Con. Lab 1491 (43.7%, +14.3), Con 1348 (39.5%, -4.3), UKIP 404 (11.8%, +11.8), LD 170 (5%, -21.8). Swing of 9.3% from Con to Lab since 2009.

Fantastic result right in the heart of the south-east. The Conservative party lost support in this area, but most notable is the collapse of the Lib Dems who haemorrhage support to the sum of 21.8%!