Will benefit cuts help patients? No.

by Dr Kay Phillips, a GP in Manchester.
David Cameron's recent pronouncements about ending the ‘something for nothing' culture around welfare made me shudder in horror. He talked about working-age people being ‘encouraged to sit at home' on benefits, and the need to end this ‘culture of entitlement'.

This amounts to nothing more than scapegoating the poorest in our country and a strategy of stoking resentment between the poor and the very poor. I've always been proud of the welfare state and thought of it as being the bedrock of decent society in Britain.

When travelling around other parts of the world you appreciate the fact that we have a safety net, whereby the poorest and most vulnerable are looked after. We have a right to medical care, education and enough money to be able to eat and feed our families. None of us know whether one day we may fall on hard times and need the welfare state to be there for us.

Our NHS is our common wealth


The notion of madness is widely understood as a health condition that requires treatment. Market madness is not. If we are to save the National Health Service, there must be treatment for this appalling condition that now afflicts our hospitals and GP surgeries.

In South London, a hospital trust is collapsing due to its debts. Fifty more hospital trusts around the country are in a similar position. Why? Because both Labour and Conservative governments insisted on cooking the books to make it look like they were investing in our healthcare. They did this by giving private companies very lucrative contracts to build and maintain hospitals. These contracts allowed these companies to charges huge interest rates on loans that they gave to allow the NHS to build hospitals. Because these loans would need to be paid off over 25-30 years in most cases, the cost would be more than ten times the cost of direct government investment to build a hospital and would entail a very large amount of profit for the private financers. This policy was called the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). It is a disaster for the NHS and government finances.

The capital cost of rebuilding Calderdale Royal Hospital in Yorkshire is £64.6m but the scheme will end up costing Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust a total of £773.2m. Building the new Walsgrave district general hospital in Coventry will jump from an initial £379m to an eventual £4bn.

Current estimates of the final cost of the PFI programme in health and education are £301billion in repayments. These repayments do not come from the idiotic politicians obsessed with the notion that the private sector does things better (take a look at the mess in the banking system) who organized and negotiated these awful contracts. They do not come from the politicians and private financiers who cheerlead this private money making scheme at the expense of our health. It comes from the taxpayer who now has huge governmental debt built in for the next 30 years when all the investment could have come at less than a tenth of the cost.

The Labour government moved to creating an internal market in the NHS by launching the Foundation hospitals and trusts. The layer of managers and accountants that Margaret Thatcher brought into the NHS swelled in this internal market. Now the logic of a market has hit home as some will be wealthy while others collapse. The problem is that this means hospitals closing, poorer standards of care, less staff being paid lower wages and more selective healthcare with those most in need being turned away.

What is the solution of the ConDems? To increase the market in healthcare by getting GPs involved and letting private companies take over parts of the health service. When a cure doesn’t work, just do it more and more while looking the other way and hoping no one blames you. Since sliding into government, the ConDems have quietly added 39 new PFI contracts and £5.36billion to the debt. It has been quiet because both parties attacked Labour for going for PFI.

The National Health Service is one of the greatest prides of British social life. It is the most wonderful gain for working people in the last hundred years. It is now in real danger from the profit takers and the politicians who do their bidding. It must be stopped.

These contracts should be scrapped and replaced with direct government investment in health care. If effective taxes were levied against the financial sector and the private hospitals that make people pay for health care, the government could afford this investment. If the layer of managers and accountants were removed from the NHS, it would free significant resources for health. If the false market was removed, health care could be more organized and effective.

This country needs more nurses, more hospitals and clinics and less debt so why are the politicians helping the corporate looters to destroy our NHS. It is too important to lose and an alternative strategy is urgently needed.

GOVE ACCEPTS GALLOWAY'S BRADFORD SCHOOLS' INVITE


Bradford West MP George Galloway met the Secretary of State Michael
Gove today (Thursday) to discuss the crisis in Bradford secondary education,
where the GCSE results are among the worst in the country.

'It was an extremely productive meeting,' said Galloway. 'Both of us
agreed that the London Challenge had raised standards in
London schools. I suggested a similar approach, a Bradford Challenge.'

The London Challenge school improvement programme was established in
2003 to improve outcomes in low-performing secondary schools in the
capital. The programme uses independent, experienced education
experts, known as London Challenge advisers, to identify need and
broker support for under-performing schools. The advisers are supported
by a small administrative team based in the Department for Education
(DfE). The cost of the support and the services brokered comes
directly from the DfE and is spent as the adviser directs. Many of
these advisers are also National or Local Leaders of Education.

The Secretary of State accepted Galloway’s invitation to come to
Bradford in the autumn, bringing with him educationalists who had been
at the heart of the London Challenge project. They will meet with,
discuss and have lunch with community groups and others on a
fact-finding visit. Following that visit, the Secretary of State and
George Galloway will look forward to receiving proposals for a pilot
project.

Anatomy of a Tory U-turn

The government, after repeatedly pledging it wouldn't do, performed another spectacular U-turn after pressure from a powerful group of MPs including George Galloway.

Chancellor George Osborne announced today that the proposed 3p rise in fuel duty, trailed in the 'omnishambles' budget, was to be scrapped. 'He clearly realised that he couldn't win in the House in the debate next week and rather than face defeat, caved in. It's great news for motorists and the transport industry and another massive failure by his government which is now a total laughing stock,' George Galloway said.

George Galloway was a sponsor of an amendment which would have have been debated next week and, if carried, would have ruled out the increase. 'It was clear that the Cameron government would face a massive defeat in the Commons and that our amendment would have won the day. This is yet another reverse in policy by a befuddled and completely out of touch government. It's another fine mess George Osborne has got his boss into. How long can this incompetent remain in power before the men in grey suits visit him with the resignation letter to sign?'

Who feels 'entitled', posh boy? Cameron's welfare witch hunt

David Cameron spoke yesterday of wishing to end a ‘culture of entitlement’ on welfare benefits. He did so with a straight face just as he managed to claim that Jimmy Carr’s tax affairs were ‘morally wrong’ without a cheeky wink or raised eyebrow.

The utter hypocrisy of this Tory government (with a Liberal Democrat poodle yapping at its side) plumbs new depths every day. The Prime Minister’s family made its fortune from the use of tax havens. Over half of the Conservative Party’s donors operate offshore from the UK to avoid paying tax. They are the richest of the rich in this society yet do not wish to contribute to helping the society to function for the poor as well. As Gideon Osborne admitted ‘some of the very wealthiest people in the country have organised their tax affairs... so that they were regularly paying virtually no income tax.’ Cameron himself is worth over £30 million yet he claimed expenses from Parliament on his mortgage.

If there is a ‘culture of entitlement’ in Britain, it is evident among the richest. After all, how many large banks have trumpeted tax avoidance schemes yet ask for public bail outs when their gambling on the financial markets went wrong?

Why doctors are taking industrial action to defend their pensions on 21st June



Manchester GP, Dr kay Phillips explains why thousands of doctors like her will be taking action to defend their pensions on 21st June

UK Uncut - The missing billions

MPs act over Thomas Cook closure

Bradford MPs George Galloway and Gerry Sutcliffe today met with the national leader of the trade union representing the Thomas Cook employees at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday 19.
 
The MPs pledged their full support to the union and its general secretary Manuel Cortes in their fight to save more than 500 jobs in Bradford city centre.
 
The MPs are commissioning an impact assessment from Bradford University and are asking the chief executive of Thomas Cook to meet them urgently so that the building 'does not become another shrink-wrapped mausoleum in the city centre,' Galloway said.
 
The union is still involved in the 90-day consultation process with the Cook management, with the jobs slated to go next March.
 
Galloway added, 'Gerry and I are determined to do everything we possibly can to save these crucial jobs.'

Bradford gets Respect

The Respect Party Conference takes place this Saturday, 16 June in Bradford, the scene of Respect's recent by-election and council election successes. The venue is the magnificent Connaught Rooms, Manningham Lane, Bradford, BD1 3EA.

The conference will discuss the way forward for progressive politics that challenge the three major parties which all say the same things. It will also include an afternoon session on the world in chaos, with a specific focus on the further attempts to foment war in the Middle East and the huge crisis in Europe.
Starting with registration at 10am, the opening address will be delivered by Salma Yaqoob, Respect's outstanding Leader followed by George Galloway, Respect MP for Bradford West who will introduce the session on the Bradford Spring and beyond. The morning will end with breakout sessions on building branches and student groups for Respect.

The afternoon session on the world in chaos will be introduced by Kevin Ovenden, Respect National Council member and Director of Viva Palestina. This will be followed by elections and some closing remarks.

Members and non-members are welcome (though only members will have voting rights). Registration can be booked on this website or at the desk at the entrance to the conference. It costs £5 to register as a member.

COOK PUTS PROFIT OVER PEOPLE

Reacting to the news that Thomas Cook is to close its Bradford operations centre and throw 468 people on the dole, Bradford West MP George Galloway accused the company of a 'heartless disregard' of the people and families involved.

'Once more we see a company put profit before people. There has been no consultation, just P45s all round. It's disgraceful,' the MP said. He called on the company, 'even at this late stage', to get round the table with local MPs, politicians and unions to save the jobs.

'Like any other company Cook has suffered through this shameful government's austerity programme. The economy needs growth, not retraction like this,' he continued. He pointed out that Bradford West had suffered the highest year-on-year increase of any of the country's 650 constituencies - almost 30% - and that more than one-in-five families were in fuel poverty. 'We need urgent action from the government to save these jobs and to grow the economy rather than stifle it. I am challenging David Cameron and George Osborne, the real people ultimately responsible for this tragedy, to come here to face the people and tell them why their job losses - and all the others suffered in the last year - are helping build the economy.'