Riots and condemnation without context

very eloquently written by John Wight

Just as the explosion of social unrest that has engulfed working class communities all over London are a predictable outcome to the enormous economic and social pressure said communities have been under as the Tory-led coalition government doles out its punishment to the poor and the working class in response to an economic recession not of their making, and with the tension that has long existed between the alienated youth of our inner cities and the police, so has been the response by the political class and mainstream commentators.

Condemnation without context has been the stock in trade of those sitting at the apex of society, as they seek to explain away the unrest as nothing more than “wanton acts of criminality” or the actions of “mindless thugs”.

While this may be the accepted truth according to the norms of polite society, it fails utterly to get at the root causes. But no one should be under any illusion that this failure is the product of ignorance. On the contrary it is exactly as intended. Assorted right wing commentators and politicians clearly have a vested interest in refusing to admit their own culpability in shaping a society more unequal than at any time since Charles Dickens was in his pomp as a searing critic of Victorian barbarism in the treatment of the nation’s poor and working class over a century past.

In the name of NHS Reforms

The Government is planning huge changes in the NHS.  In the past few weeks it’s had to amend some of its proposals, because of opposition from NHS workers, the trade unions, the Labour Party, and the general public. But most of what the Government wanted to do, it’s still doing. The NHS is in grave danger.

STRATEGIC HEALTH AUTHORITIES AND PRIMARY CARE TRUSTS TO BE REPLACED BY GP GROUPS

The Government wants to scrap SHAs and PCTs by April 2013. In fact SHAs and PCTs have already started restructuring, downsizing, and making staff redundant.

Instead of having SHAs and PCTs to coordinate local NHS services, the Government wants to hand over the health budget to groups of GPs. These groups were originally going to be called “GP consortia”. Now the name has changed to “clinical commissioning groups”. The groups will have to have a token doctor and nurse on their board, but they’ll still be GP-run. Other parts of the NHS workforce are unlikely to get a look in.

These GP groups would have to buy the services they want direct from providers, which is a bad idea. GPs would be put in an awkward position, because they’d control the purse-strings. GPs would have more opportunities to make money off the NHS. They may even be allowed to charge patients for services currently provided free on the NHS.

NHS TRUSTS TO BECOME FOUNDATION TRUSTS

The Government says it “strongly expects that the majority of remaining NHS trusts will be authorised as Foundation Trusts by April 2014″. Foundation Trusts are semi-independent organisations. They have more ability to change staff terms and conditions. More Foundation Trusts means a worse deal for patients. The Government wants to allow Foundation Trusts to take in as many fee-paying patients as they like. NHS patients would be pushed to the back of the queue.

MORE PRIVATE COMPETITION

The Government originally said it wanted the healthcare regulator to “promote competition” in the NHS. Because of the public outcry, the Government changed its wording slightly. It now says it wants to “prevent anti-competitive behaviour”. That’s not a big difference! Hospitals would be fined for any collaboration which the regulator thinks is “anti-competitive”. The idea is to make it easier for the private sector to muscle in on NHS contracts.

The Government doesn’t want the NHS to be the “preferred provider” of healthcare any more. Instead, “any qualified provider” will be free to operate under the NHS brand. The Government is planning to push the “any qualified provider” initiative from April 2012. It’s essentially another way of opening up the NHS to more private competition. In case the competition gets too fierce, the Government is having to put in place measures to deal with hospitals that become insolvent.

The Tories and Lib Dems are running down the health service. The NHS faces a four-year budget freeze and £20bn of “efficiency savings”. This is despite the Government having pledged to increase NHS spending in real terms every year. Yet Tory Health Minister Andrew Lansley is willing to waste upwards of £3bn on implementing his “reforms”.


NHS staff are bearing the brunt. Pay for many NHS workers has been frozen. There is growing job insecurity as well as downward pressure on terms and conditions. Downbanding is a big problem. Because of the cuts and reorganisations, the ability of staff to deliver patient care is deteriorating. More treatments are being rationed and waiting times are up. And if the Government’s plans for the NHS go through, there will be plenty more trouble ahead.

Public sector workers strike

When hundreds of thousands of public sector workers go on strike, the government should take note. These are not the ‘militants’, the ‘extremists’ or the ‘bully boys’ that feature in the fantasies of the Tory media.

These are hard-working, mostly low paid, men and women who keep our vital public services going despite inadequate resources and ever worsening conditions. When these people, who are at the heart of our communities, feel they have no other choice but to walk out, we should all realise that there is a serious grievance that must be addressed.

What on earth does Labour leader Ed Miliband mean when he opposes the strikes by saying, “we are on the side of parents and children"? As if the hundreds of thousands of strikers are not themselves parents or users of the very same services that they work so hard to provide!

Public sector pensions are under attack from a government that values the work of the millionaire banker more than they value the work of a classroom teacher. Home care workers who do the most difficult jobs looking after vulnerable elderly and disabled people face massive cuts in their wages, and changes to their working conditions, that would make it impossible for many of them to survive.

First and foremost, this is an issue of justice. Low-paid public sector workers are not responsible for the economic crisis we are in. Yet they are the ones who will struggle to pay their mortgage, and put food on the table, while Tory bankers only struggle to think how to spend their obscene bonuses.

Yes, people will be inconvenienced by strikes. That is because the services these workers provide are so important to our society. But on this issue we really should be “all in it together”. Those men and women who take strike action this week are fighting for us all

Arrest of leading Palestinian activist

Protests have been called across the country in response to the arrest of leading Palestinian activist Sheik Raed Salah in London. He had been due to speak at a meeting in the House of Common this evening organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign attended by Labour MP's including, Jeremy Corbyn and Birmingham's Richard Burden.

A vigil is being held at 6.30pm today outside Waterstones in the city centre. Please email the Home Secretary and request a reconsideration of the deportation order to allow a court appeal. Call the Rt Hon Theresa May on 02072195206 or email at: mayt@parliament.uk

Brian Haw Rest In Peace

Some sad news. After a long illness the peace campaigner Brian Haw has died. Brian was the instigator on June 2 2001 of the peace camp opposite parliament. He maintained the camp for 10 years, literally around the clock, in opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Explaining his motivation, Brian said, 'the children of Iraq and other countries were every bit as valuable and worthy of love as my precious wife and children. I want to go back to my own kids and look them in the face again, knowing that I've done all I can to try and save the children of Iraq and other countries who are dying because of my government's unjust, amoral, fear - and money-driven policies'.

For his conscience and dedication, we are all in his debt. May he rest in peace.

Solidarity with Saudi women car drivers

The struggle for women's rights in Saudi Arabia put down an important marker on Friday when at least 29 women defied the country's de facto ban on driving.

The campaign has been inspired by Manal al-Sharif, a young mum and computer expert who has received international attention, and a week in jail, for posting a film of herself driving on YouTube.

Although women are not formally banned from driving, to all intensive purposes they are. Women who drive get harassed and arrested by the authorities. In 1990 50 Saudi women were sacked from their jobs and banned from foreign travel for organising a similar protest.

Saudi Arabia is a deeply reactionary country. Women are banned from voting and must get 'written permission from a male relative – even an underage son – to work, travel, seek treatment or study'.

Protests are banned and there is great fear about expressing even the most elementary of rights, especially if you are a women.

And yet... these handful of women are scaring the daylights of Saudi authorities fearful that any campaign for more equality could inspire calls for more widespread democratic reform.

They are right to be scared. As the Arab Spring highlights, once people who have been oppressed get a taste of freedom, who knows where things will end up…

Dutch Muslims and Jews unite to oppose ban on religious slaughter

In a sign of growing religious intolerance in Holland, the Dutch parliament is set to introduce a law which will essentially ban kosher and halal slaughter. The proposals has united a coalition of animal rights and anti-Muslim groups.

The measure is being viewed as part and parcel of a European wide attack on multiculturalism: ‘Many Jews and Muslims see the ban as part of a growing European hostility to immigration and diversity. Geert Wilders the far-right Dutch politician, has called for the Netherlands to ban the burka after France curbed the public wearing of the Islamic face veil; politicians including Germany’s Angela Merkel and Britain’s David Cameron have proclaimed the failure of multiculturalism; and anti-immigration parties such as Finland’s True Finns have been increasingly successful at the polls’.

The Amsterdam Jewish-Moroccan Council has organised protests against the law with imams and rabbis marching together in opposition to it.

CRISIS AT SOUTHERN CROSS

Jamie Buchan Chief Executive of Southern Cross recently told national media that "if the company does not reach agreement with its landlords and lenders the group is unlikely to be able to continue to trade."

So Southern Cross could go under at anytime since the rents it pays on the homes is £100m too high. If they do, the world of the 31,000 residents in their care will be turned upside down. To say nothing of worlds of the 44,000 staff and the residents' families.

The residents, their families and the staff in the 736 care homes all over UK are living in a state of massive uncertainty. No one should suffer this kind of worry, least of all the elderly and the vulnerable: those least able to defend and protect themselves.

Only the government and politicians have the power now to end this uncertainty. Only the politicians can answer the question who will look after the 31,000 elderly and vulnerable if Southern Cross goes under.

These care homes, run by Southern Cross, are not factories that are failing from lack of demand but are an essential part of every community which now face ruin due to the combination of privatisation and private equity. Everyone knows, moving the elderly and vulnerable is the worst thing that can happen to them and can lead to premature death.

Support the Connexions service

More than a million young people are unemployed. Yet the government is taking an axe to Connexions, a vital service that helps young people find work, education and training.

An early day motion has been tabled in parliament that calls on the government to “reverse its policy and instead to provide sufficient funding to the Careers and Connexions Service to help our young people plan and organise their futures”.

The Early Day Motion, and the names of the MP’s who have signed it, can be viewed here.

If your MP hasn’t signed it yet, please contact them and ask for their support. You can contact your MP directly, using this website: www.writetothem.com

University campuses are not 'hotbeds of radicalisation'

With the government set to release a revamped version of their counter radicalisation strategy, Prevent, I am expecting there to be new clamp downs on freedom of speech.

The 'mood music' for this has been created by right-wing think-tanks and commentators who have been creating the impression that our universities are virtual breeding grounds for violent extremism among Muslim students.

Well, not according to chief executive of Universities UK, Nicola Dandridge.

In an interview in the Daily Telegraph she upholds freedom of speech, dismisses claims that 'that because wild things are said at university that automatically equates to radicalisation”, and cites advice from the security forces that “that there is not necessarily a link that they can prove between open debate in universities and violent extremism subsequently.”

More here.