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– and therefore no right for you and me to challenge them in court when services are withdrawn.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".
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
I don't feel safe under Sunak, It was Sunak who pressed Johnson not to heed SAGE's 21st September 2020 advice to lock down, and brought pseudoscientists into Downing St to argue for more Covid denial. That bollox brought us 30,000 deaths per month by Jan 2021.
I don't feel safe under Sunak. It was Sunak who, in this year's Spring Statement, with the economy clearly tanking and the cost of living clearly out of control, insisted that the government 'can't be expected to solve every problem' - and so he did effectively nothing.
I don't feel safe under Sunak. It was Sunak who promised "whatever it takes" when Covid landed, but his furlough scheme left millions unsupported, and he remained steadfastly deaf to their pleas.
Rising panic over the energy crisis brings it into sharp relief: the Tories, despite being populists, failed on every front to govern for the people. But don't be fooled. They may have failed us, but they were busy. Busy using their majority to ram through a raft of legislation.
This raft of legislation did nothing for you and me, but it did a lot for authoritarian government - taking away rights, preventing scrutiny, reducing democracy and criminalising protest. Their populist slogans have been nothing but a mask for their authoritarian agenda.
There's been no levelling up, no Brexit boost to the NHS, no amazing new deals to replace lost trade with the EU, no real terms increase in pay, no new hospitals, no new doctors, no nothing. But there HAS been plenty of energy for taking away our rights.