BNN’s Report of Labour’s Plans for the NHS

I found this report by Ayesha Mumtaz in my internet news feed, ‘The Future of the NHS: Labour Party’s Vision for a Modernised Health Service’ covering a statement by Wes Streeting on the party’s plans for the NHS. It begins

‘In a recent statement, Wes Streeting, a prominent member of the UK Labour Party, underlined the urgent need for the National Health Service (NHS) to evolve with the times to ensure its survival. He argued that embracing new technologies and innovative ways of working is crucial to meet the shifting healthcare needs of the population. His warning was clear – failure to adapt and modernize could potentially lead to the NHS’s downfall.’

The article also states that the party backs Sunak’s anti-smoking plans, and has a set of policies to make children healthier. This includes banning junk food advertising aimed at children, acting against e-cigarette companies selling to minors, breakfast clubs in every school, and supervised toothbrushing. It also stated that

‘During the Labour Party conference, Streeting’s reiteration of other pledges, such as allocating £1.1 billion to reduce the NHS backlog, increasing the number of dentists, reinstating GPs, and ensuring a fair pay deal for care workers, was met with multiple standing ovations.’ It also reported that Streeting stated that the party was still committed to the fundamental principles of the NHS:

‘Streeting emphasized that Labour would never abandon the NHS’s fundamental principles as a publicly funded public service that is free at the point of use. He advocated for reforms that align with these principles, stating that the NHS must modernize or face an existential crisis. He envisions a neighborhood health service that pioneers cutting-edge treatment and technology, not just disease prevention.’ He also went on to say that he imagined a future where a child born today would live to see the 22nd century.

The article ends with

‘In conclusion, Streeting argued for an NHS that meets the shifting healthcare needs of the population and emphasized Labour’s commitment to improving the nation’s health, particularly for young people. He sees these reforms as essential for the NHS’s survival and success.’

These are good policies, as far as they go. We need more doctors, more dentists and more NHS staff generally. But a large part of the problem is the privatisation of the Health Service that Streeting and Starmer refuse to act against, and which this speech suggests they fully support with all the talk about innovation and adaptation.

That’s if any of this speech can be trusted, of course, given Starmer’s record of breaking every promise he’s ever made.

Boris Back to Lying about Giving Money from Brexit to the NHS

Late last week, Boris Johnson threw the Tories into further chaos as he published his own, 4,000 word document outlining his vision for Brexit. It’s clearly another bid for power from someone, who desperately wants to be in the driving seat and doesn’t care what he says or who he betrays to get there. May responded by calling him a ‘backseat driver’ and insisted that she is in control. Well, as people have commented, if she has to say it, then she obviously isn’t.

And Mike the other day put up a piece showing that Johnson is back to repeating the old Brexit lies he used last time. Yup, he’s told the British people once again that we pay £350 million a year to the EU, when with rebates and other considerations it’s far less than that, and in fact Britain has a net benefit from remaining within the European Union. And he’s also trotted out the old lie that some of this money will be spent on the NHS when we come out.

In fact, Johnson and his fellow Brexiteers have absolutely no intention of doing this. No surprise there. They didn’t when Britain narrowly voted to Leave the European Union. Instead, Johnson did what Tories always do, and reneged on the promise. He made a lot of huffing and puffing about not actually having promised to give that money to the NHS, and only said that if we left the EU, some of that money, for example, could be spent on the Health Service.

Despite the fact that the buses that went round the country clearly stated that the money would be spent on the NHS.

Johnson lied. And he’s doing it again.

It’s all part of his cynical maneoevrings to get himself into No. 10. He was a Remainer, until he decided to throw in his lot with Michael Gove. Whom he then betrayed. And how far he really believes that leaving the EU will benefit Britain is a very good question. From the ashen expression on his face when the result came in that Britain, well, really only England, had voted to Leave, he doesn’t believe in it at all.

The man has no principles, and is just cynically repeating an old, tired lie to get himself a bit closer to becoming PM. Don’t be taken in.

Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.

As George Dubya nearly said correctly.

Boris Johnson’s £350 million EU claim is still a lie, no matter how he dresses it up

Mike’s article is also worth reading for what the folks on Twitter have to say about this latest resurrected falsehood from Johnson. One of the more interesting observations comes from a Beeb journo, who reports that they were under pressure from their bosses to find a positive story about how Brexit would benefit the UK. They couldn’t find any. Eventually, they were going to have to settle for the news that the vaping canisters for e-cigarettes would be bigger. But even that was wrong.

And the piccie Mike uses for that article is also quite fun. It shows one of the buses with Johnson’s infamous lie on its side, stuck halfway up a cliff face.

Which is rather like one of the urban legends that went round in the 1990s, and which got into the pages of Private Eye. According to this tale, American police had found the remains of a chevy out in the Nevada Desert. It seemed the former owner, with a need for speed that went beyond even Jeremy Clarkson’s, had had the bright idea of sticking a JATO engine on his car’s roof. These are small rocket engines that are used to assist air force jets to take off from small runways. This clown forgot just how powerful these engines are, and was completely unprepared for the 8 G acceleration which kicked in when he fired it. According to the story, under its thrust the car left the road and ‘the surly bonds of Earth’, flying five miles before ending its journey by crashing 30 feet up into a cliff face. The impact was so severe that all that was left of the driver was his false teeth.

Fortunately, this story turned out to be untrue. It was a lie, just like Johnson’s porkie about £350 million being paid to the EU, and how that will instead go to the NHS. It never happened, though there isn’t actually anything improbable about the details. Burt Rutan, a former NASA engineer, and the man designing SpaceShip Two for Beardie Branson’s Virgin Galactic, built his own spacecraft, the Volksrocket, for $70,000 using rocket motors that the government had manufactured, then discarded in the local rubbish dump. It shows what private individuals could and are doing in developing space technology, that has the potential to make space vastly more accessible.

As for Johnson, all I can say is that I hope his lies about Brexit, and indeed his entire political ambitions, go the same way as the JATO propelled rocket in the story, and meet a very sudden, and well-deserved end.