There is no assault on our country quite like an assault on the NHS. An NHS already on its knees.
But that’s what this outrageous government wants to do with its Health and Care Bill.
We can’t fight every malicious manoeuvre, but we must fight this one.
What’s wrong with it?
The Johnson government’s NHS Bill is a Privatisation Bill.
We’ve all seen in the pandemic how bringing in private firms has wasted vast sums, and absolutely failed us as patients and as a country. What on earth are Johnson and co thinking?
Not just that. The Johnson government’s Bill is also a Corruption Bill.
We’ve seen incredible corruption, so what on earth are they thinking when they propose removing the obligation for public tendering for NHS Services? More dodgy VIP lane contracts? No thanks.
Not just that. The Johnson government’s Bill is also a Service Withdrawal Bill.
It removes the statutory duty on the Health Secretary or on the new NHS Boards to provide hospital care. Yes, you read that right. No obligation to provide hospital services! -
– and therefore no right for you and me to challenge them in court when services are withdrawn.
What can we do?
On Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd this Privatisation, Corruption and Service Withdrawal Bill is in Parliament.
1 DEMONSTRATE
If you can get to Parliament, this is the demo, organised by Unite and the YourNHSNeedsYou Campaign. Meet at Richmond Terrace, Westminster, 5pm.
If we are to succeed, resistance online has to go public. We have to act, and we have to encourage others to act.
Let your neighbours know to expect some noise on Monday at 7, and tell them why. Ask them if they want to join in.
4 BUDDY UP!
Connect with like-minded folk in your area to join you in protest, we have allies on the case. Contact @madgie1941, a champion of local groups (among other talents) and/or @LloydHardy, creator of the innovative GOV2.UK. Try them.
Sajid Javid, the current Health Secretary and the sponsor of the Bill, has made no secret of his devotion to the ideas of Ayn Rand. The Ayn Rand Institute makes no secret of its position either - that "Healthcare is not a right".
Success has many parents. Allow me a brief proprietorial moment. In May 2022, I visited the Shadow Treasury Team and proposed a raft of strategies for Rachel Reeves. (Blame me if you tired of hearing her say she was a trained economist who worked at the Bank of England!)
1/4
My chief suggestion was that the party could put forward no policies, zero, nilch, nada - at least until they could go on Newsnight and not be asked, "That's a nice idea, but how would you pay for it?"
Because that was code for, "Labour is not trusted on the economy."
2/4
The main job, therefore, was to turn that around. No policy with a price tag could be put forward. The team protested; they had policies they wanted to offer, and soon. But the then Shadow Chief Secretary (Pat "smiles" McFadden) supported me. Trust was a necessary prior step.
3/4
I love my followers. A truly humbling roster of wonderful, talented and thoughtful folk. Almost all of them (apart from a certain Mr Tice whom I had to block) 'progressive' of one kind or another. People, in short, of decency and compassion, of moral and scruple.
1/15
People who are most likely to examine policy and pronouncement in detail, and exercise their vote with care and conscience.
These are exactly the people to whom I want to appeal now:
please, don't vote with your heart. Please, forget those fine scruples I admire and love.
2/15
In ordinary times, you should always vote where your beliefs and values are most closely reflected, or least offended. That's democracy, right?
But I put it to you that the usual rules of the game changed in the last few years: because the Tories became literally lethal.
3/15
(They are. They are staggeringly incompetent, dishonest and corrupt. Many of them have knowingly led the country toward poverty and isolation for their own short term gain, and therefore can reasonably be described as traitors.)
1/13
It's that Tory ideas and values have been shown, these last 14 years, to be bogus.
These Conservatives may be awful, but ConservatISM has been exposed as bankrupt.
2/13
Economically, their small state approach has stifled growth. Austerity held the economy back, reducing income to the Exchequer and forcing continued cuts in a doom loop.
In the mid-90s I set fire to myself. My sister and her husband arrived for dinner from the Isle of Wight. I turned up the gas on the stove and threw the pasta into the boiling water.
1/18
As they came in I turned to greet them. The kitchen in our little flat was tiny. I leaned back and saw their faces turn from glad-to-be-here to sheer horror. Then I felt the flames at my back. My shirt was on fire.
/2
I'll spare you the details but I was extensively burnt. At Hammersmith A&E I waited many hours with no treatment for a doctor to examine me, just a protective pad over my back.
/3
What should we expect from the Tories today? An apology. Because what Sunak called 'a profound economic crisis' doesn't happen overnight. This mess has been 12 years in the making. Failed austerity and a botched Brexit left us an economy without resilience.
1/17
What should we expect from the Tories today? An apology. Because an economy weakened after 12 years of public service cuts, high taxes and botched Brexit could not cope with the shocks of the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine.
2/17
What should we expect from the Tories today? An apology. Because the failed, ideological economics of austerity 1.0 caused hundreds of thousands of excess deaths, and now all they can think of is more of the same.
3/17