Starmer’s Plans for the Health Service: Some Good Promises, but More Privatisation?

This is the sequel to my post earlier today speculating on whether Starmer is planning to privatise the health service even further. I based that on his interview on the Beeb this morning, where he said he wanted to use private enterprise to clear the backlog, and that his reforms may include a greater use of private healthcare companies. I caught more of this on the ITV evening news, and while some of it looked good, it still included private healthcare companies. He laid out his plans for reforming the NHS in today’s Torygraph, which is a warning from the start. From the choice of paper it’s clear that he’s aiming at Tory voters rather than traditional Labour. Which, by previous experience of the way he and the Blairites generally side-line traditional Labour supporters and members, is what you would expect. According to ITV, he promised to recruit more NHS staff. This is good, but so blindingly obvious that the Tories have also been making the same promise over the past few years. They’ve repeatedly broken it, and working for our health service is now so bad that a large proportion of them are planning to leave. This leaves questions of how Starmer is planning to persuade more people to work for it and retain them. The report said nothing about Starmer promising them better wages or reducing the workload. He also promised to make doctors NHS employees. This is excellent. Pro-NHS groups like We Own It have said that doctors should be NHS employees in order to avoid the privatisation and sale of GP surgeries to the private healthcare giants. These have enhanced their corporate profits by closing those surgeries they deem unprofitable and sacking staff. The result is that many patients find themselves without a doctor, and the remaining doctors and staff have poorer working conditions. But hey, you gotta keep that tax money rolling in for the private healthcare firmes!

And then there’s the bit that worries me. Starmer has said he wants to make better use of private healthcare, but is still concerned to keep it free at the point of delivery. This says very strongly to me that he’s going to privatise more of the NHS and outsource services to the private sector. And as I’ve kept saying, this is one of the problems with the health service. Privatisation had resulted in poorer services and massively increasing bureaucracy and administration costs. Starmer has said he wants to cut down on the bureaucracy, which is more Tory cant. He could, if he renationalised the NHS. But he obviously doesn’t want to do that.

Among the people responding to Starmer’s proposals was someone from the NHS unions, who said that it wasn’t true that they were against change. They just wanted to see everything costed. The fact that Starmer hasn’t done that, or at least, not in the article he wrote for the Torygraph, suggests to me that he really won’t increase funding, or perhaps not by the amount necessary. With the exception of the proposal to make doctors state employees, his reforms come across very much as something the Tories would also say, while also crossing two fingers behind their backs. He did make a fourth commitment, but I’m afraid I’ve forgotten it.

I want the Tories out, but I do not want Starmer to carry on with their policies, as the Blairites have done in the past. And I think that if he gets the chance, he’ll ditch the promise to make the doctors employees of the state. It’s socialist, and he hates socialism and socialists.

Thatanna’s Viewers Think the NHS Is irreparably Broken. As the Tories Wish.

Recently I’ve been getting on my Iphone videos from somebody called Thatanna. I have absolutely no idea who he or she is, but this morning they put up a poll. Is the NHS broken beyond repair – Yes, or No? I responded and voted ‘No’, of course. But apparently, I was only one of a few. Most of those polled agreed that it was. And that is exactly how the Tories want it. A properly run state healthcare system will always outperform private industry, as Raymond Tallis and Jackie Davis amply demonstrate in their book NHS – SOS. It’s why the Tories have been deliberately running down the NHS over the past forty years, cutting funding and holding down wages while outsourcing work and medical care to private corporations. This past week we even had a drunken Tory stand up and say the quiet bit out loud. He demanded the privatisation of the NHS and its replacement with a continental social insurance scheme. In fact, 78 per cent of the British public, according to polls, support the NHS and there are groups and organisations fighting for it, such as We Own It. But the Tories are doing their best to destroy it economically and as an idea that people will defend. And apparently this has worked on Thatanna’s audience.

Fight back. Support the NHS. Get Truss and the Tories out!

We Own It Petition for the Nationalisation of Failed Energy Company Bulb

I got this email this morning from pro-nationalisation organisation We Own It:

‘Dear David,

Privatisation has failed.

The Guardian is saying water should be nationalised. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown is saying we need to bring energy into public ownership temporarily. Even the Telegraph and the Times are questioning privatisation.

Meanwhile, 100,000 people have pledged to stop paying their energy bills.

YOU can put a solution on the table – sign our new petition for the government to turn Bulb into a new public energy supplier which can cut people’s bills.

Nationalise Bulb

Private energy company Bulb collapsed in November 2021 and the government is planning on spending £2.2 billion to prop it up.

Right now the government is considering giving a further £1 billion to private company Octopus to take over the company.

This makes no sense. Other countries like France, Germany, Italy and the US all have public suppliers of energy. France has used publicly owned EDF to limit energy bill rises to 4% while our bills have gone up by 54% and that increase will go up to 119%!

The government could take Bulb’s 1.7 million customers as the basis of a new publicly owned energy supply company.

Sign the petition now

The situation is desperate and politicians know it. You can highlight this huge opportunity to politicians and the public. You can push for public ownership that can cut everyone’s bills by spreading the word.

Please sign and share now – before the government hands Bulb back to the private sector.

THANK YOU for your support.

Cat, Alice, Johnbosco, Matthew, Jack and Kate – the We Own It team’

I’ve had absolutely no reservations about signing the petition. It makes sense, far more sense than successive right-wing government spaffing public money against the wall trying to prop up failing private companies from a doctrinaire, inflexible belief in the superiority of private enterprise and in order to shove more public money into their friends’ pockets as management and shareholders. And this is an important first step to the nationalisation of the energy sector as a whole.

When even Gordon Brown, Blair’s right-hand man, the Torygraph and the Times are having second thoughts about the privatisation of the utilities, it’s clear that something is profoundly wrong with privatisation.

Thatcherism has failed.

Nationalisation is the solution.

Tories out!

To go directly to the petition if the above links aren’t work, it’s address is at: https://weownit.org.uk/act-now/nationalise-bulb

We Own It and Bring Back British Urge Supporters to Fill in Public Consultation Survey

This is very last minute, but I hope there’s still time for people to fill in the latest government public consultation theory. I had emails from the pro-nationalisation organisation We Own It and Bring Back British Rail alerting me to the fact that the government has published a public consultation document about their proposed changes to the rail network. It’s to be rebranded as Great British Railways, but despite this nod to Brunel, it’s still the same public- private partnership and rail franchising nonsense. The survey closes tomorrow, so if you want the return of a public railway network that works to the British people, not the rail companies, you have to fill out the questionnaire quickly. I’ve already done so, using the responses recommended by We Own I(t. Here’s their email

‘Dear David,

After the last 30 years of disastrous rail privatisation, you have an incredible opportunity to demand that our railway starts working for people and not profit.

The government wants to hear from the public about our railway. The more of us respond, the bigger our impact.

Can you respond to the public consultation and demand that they take our railway into public ownership?

We have prepared suggested answers and tips for responding to make it easy for you. You have just 48 hours to get your response in. 

Demand public ownership – respond to the consultation

Our railway system should work for all of us, and not for the private companies who suck a billion pounds out of it every year.

If we ran our railway in public ownership, we could save £1 billion every year. That money could be used to cut rail fares by 18%, instead of the annual hikes we see.

And public ownership is hugely popular with the public. 

64% of the public, including a majority of people who voted Conservative at the last election, say our railway should be run in public ownership.

The government’s rail consultation is your opportunity to make sure they know that thousands of us want the government to take our rail into public ownership now.

The consultation closes on Thursday 4th August, which means you have just 48 hours to get your response in.

Respond to the consultation now

We know that even this Conservative government recognises that privatisation has failed. 

Over the last few years, they have taken some rail franchises into public ownership when private companies have failed.

When Northern Rail and East Coast Rail were thrown into chaos by private companies, the government stepped in and took them into public ownership.

Wales and Scotland both took their railways into public ownership during the pandemic showing that public ownership is the only remedy to private chaos.

It is time to demand that the government end their “public ownership only as a final resort” policy and take on a “people before profit” approach.

The government wants to hear from you. It is your opportunity to make sure they know that thousands of us want public ownership, not private chaos.

Respond to the consultation now

This is a big opportunity to demand public ownership of our railway. Please fill out the consultation now. Also, share the link with family and friends and ask them to do it too. The more of us respond, the bigger our impact.

Thank you so much for standing up for a railway that works for people and not profit.

Cat, Alice, Matthew, Kate, Jack, Johnbosco – the We Own It team’

My Message for We Own It Against NHS Privatisation

My last post was about the email I received earlier today about We Own It’s campaign today against the government’s intention to place private healthcare companies on the boards of the NHS. Among their activities they were asking people to write the following message on a piece of paper “Dear [*write the name of your town here*] NHS leaders, let’s rebuild our local NHS together and keep private companies out”, then take a selfie of you with the message and tweet it or, if you’re not on Twitter or in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, email it to them at nfo@weownit.org.uk .

I’ve done this, and here’s my piccie with the message below.

Yeah, I know it’s faint and hardly legible, but I hope it still makes the point.

We Own It Petition to Nationalise the Energy Companies

I got this email from the pro-NHS, pro-nationalisation organisation We Own It Wednesday night. It’s a petition appealing to the government to nationalise the energy companies as a response to the massive rise in electricity bills. The email runs

Our energy system is broken. 

Your energy bills are expected to go up by nearly £700 in April. While companies like BP are reporting eye watering profits of  £9.5 billion! 

But energy could work in public ownership for people and the planet – not profit. 

We are calling on Rishi Sunak as the chancellor and Kwasi Kwarteng as the minister for energy to end the chaos in our energy system and commit to bringing energy into public ownership by the 1st of April.

By signing our petition you can tell Rishi Sunak and Kwasi Kwarteng to bring energy into public ownership now.

SIGN THE PETITION

There are news stories everyday about the energy crisis we are facing. 

These are the solutions. 

1) Introduce a permanent windfall tax on oil and gas companies like Shell and BP, at the same rate as Norway

2) Stop wasting money bailing out failing energy supply giants – set up a publicly owned energy supplier instead

3) Bring the privatised monopolies of the National Grid and regional distribution into public ownership

4) Set up a new state-owned renewable energy company to help tackle climate crisis

Lots of voices are calling for a windfall tax and we agree!

But the government should go further.

This petition will highlight what should be done and help push for action on energy bills right now.

The deadline for this petition is the 1st of April when energy bills are expected to rise. 

Now is the time to push the debate as far as possible. Add your name and join the voices calling for a genuine fix for our broken energy system. 

I’LL ADD MY NAME

The eye watering profits of companies like BP are an outrage.

Since 2010 BP has handed out almost £200 billion pounds in profit to shareholders while right now 6 million households in the UK are facing fuel poverty.

It really doesn’t have to be like this.

In countries like Norway, oil and gas companies pay a corporation tax of 22% AND a special tax at the rate of 56% upwards! 

The Norwegian state owns Statkraft, the largest renewables generator in Europe. While Denmark owns 50% of Ørsted which is the world’s largest developer of offshore wind power.

These are sensible, tried and tested solutions that we know can get to the root of the problem. 

You can join the thousands of others calling for urgent action instead of more government sticking plasters.

Sign and share our petition and tell Rishi Sunak and Kwarsi Kwarteng that now really is the time to bring energy into public ownership. 

I’LL SIGN

Thank you for your support with this campaign and let’s start the fight to bring these essential public assets back into our hands.

Solidarity’ 

I’ve signed it, as this is further proof that the Thatcherite privatisation of the utilities has been a massive failure. It hasn’t brought the investment Thatcher expected it would and has, as this email shows, led simply to massive profiteering. The energy companies also know they are extremely vulnerable to this criticism, as an executive from one of them was on TV the other day blustering about welcoming government regulation while fervently denying that the government could run industry. Anyone who believed that, he sneered, was stupid. If so then 50 per cent of the British population were stupid even under Thatcher, as the support for her privatisations never went above that level. And since then more people want to see the utilities renationalised. It was a central plank for Corbyn’s programme and remains extremely popular. Which is why the Blairites and the Tories could only combat it by smearing him as a Communist anti-Semite.

Thatcherism is zombie economics, a shuffling, putrefying corpse whose dead hand is holding Britain back and its people in poverty. It’s long past time it was consigned to the dustbin and reversed.

End privatisation; end energy poverty; renationalise the utilities!

Email Campaign by We Own It Against Channel 4 Privatisation

I got this email yesterday from anti-privatisation, pro-NHS organisation We Own It about the government’s latest sell-off. They’re planning to privatise Channel 4. Their email explains that this is disastrous because Channel 4 are one of the few media outlets holding them to account. At the same time they have been instrumental in producing quality television, which is funded through the channel’s advertising revenue. The government’s proposed privatisation is such a terrible idea that even many Tories are protesting against it. To counter it, the organisation is asking people to write to their MPs using a form letter they have devised. Here’s the email:

“Dear David,

There is absolutely no reason to privatise Channel 4, but the government is planning to do it anyway.

You can take a quick, easy action today to stop them in their tracks.

Take action now

Why is this so important?

Channel 4 News is one of the few news programmes that really holds this government to account, on issues from the NHS to the climate crisis. In fact, that’s probably a big part of why the government wants to privatise it. 

(Remember when Boris Johnson failed to attend the Channel 4 leaders’ debate on the climate crisis, and they replaced him with a melting ice sculpture?)

If you want decent news coverage at the next general election, please take 2 minutes to email your MP, ESPECIALLY if they’re a Conservative.

Email your MP now

Privatising Channel 4 would be an incredibly destructive act that would damage the UK film and TV industry. The creation of Channel 4 is the reason why the independent sector in film and TV exists today.

This matters 

• For the quality of programmes and films that get produced
• For young people trying to enter the creative industry
• For the UK’s reputation in the world

There is no problem that privatising Channel 4 is the solution for.

Channel 4 has a unique business model, making a profit from advertising that it reinvests in good programming and nurturing talent. Channel 4 now has offices in Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow and Bristol, so it helps with the ‘levelling up’ agenda, boosting investment and jobs all around the country. They also support local production companies and outreach programmes in Cardiff, Belfast, Bournemouth, Norwich, Wolverhampton, Preston, Doncaster, Corby and Leicester.

That’s why wherever you are in the UK, Channel 4 is a good thing for your area.

Take 2 minutes to take action now

Lots of Conservatives have come out against the proposed sale of Channel 4. Many celebrities, including very right wing ones, have too. This means we have a chance of persuading the government that privatisation is a bad idea.

As Kirstie Allsopp has said, the plan to privatise Channel 4 is incredibly destructive. “I am a fiscal conservative and I’m naturally conservative-leaning and I find [the sale of C4] to be a betrayal of conservatism. It’s bonkers…I stood outside St Pauls when Margaret Thatcher’s coffin went by, and she would be spinning in her grave if she knew what this government was intending to do. Because C4 produces money, it produces jobs, it fosters talent, it brings out the best in people, and it’s very British.”

If you have a Conservative MP, it’s so important that you take this action! Your MP is EXACTLY who we need to shift. You will see that the template email is aimed at appealing to MPs like yours. Please send the text as it is, to maximise the chances of doing that! Thank you.

If you don’t have a Conservative MP, your MP can still really help to raise this issue up the agenda.

I want to stop the Channel 4 sell off

Last time the government tried to privatise Channel 4 they failed – partly because of the campaign we were part of to stop them. 

Let’s win again this time around and protect this much loved, publicly owned asset.

Thank you so much.

Cat, Alice, Johnbosco, Matthew, Zana and Anna – the We Own It team

PS Thank you so much for the incredible response to our Halloween action to protect our NHS from the Health and Care Bill! If you’ve let us know that you’d like to take action locally, we’re getting your action packs ready at the moment and we’ll be in contact with you via email. Get in touch if you want to get involved – there’s still time!”

I’ve supported their campaign, and duly sent a message to my MP because of the reasons they’ve laid out in their email. It’s not just the government that Channel 4’s held to account. They also gave Mark Regev a hard time when during the bombardment of Gaza. Regev tried to tell the British public that if they sent aid to Gaza through Israel, it would still get there. John Snow knew he was lying and told him he was. Which shows that Channel 4 has more backbone when it comes to tackling Israeli lies and atrocities than the rest of our craven media, or at least, they did then.

Channel 4 was set up in the 1980s to be an alternative to BBC 2. News was to be a particularly important part of its programming, and this has been consistently extremely good, even to Tories like former Mail columnist, now scribbling for the Times, Quentin Letts. The broadcaster was also going to offer programmes to minorities and groups not served by mainstream broadcasters. Hence when it started off it broadcast an adaptation of the Indian national epic, the Mahabharata, and a season of Indian films, All India Goldies. I also remember it having a news series of reports from Africa, fronted by Black reporters. It also helped launch a new generation of Black comedians with the series Desmond’s. And then there was the awesome Max Headroom. Unfortunately, the quality did decline in the 1990s as the programme chiefs made it more mainstream, though even then it did broadcast quality material like the American import, Fraser. And it does support the British film industry, or what remains of it. If you’ve seen a British film, or a British/Irish co-production in the past few years, chances are that it’s also been co-produced by Channel 4 films. Kirstie Allsopp is wrong about Margaret Thatcher not wanting it privatised. There were several times when the Conservative government tried to sell it off, or sold shares in it but it hasn’t been totally privatised.

Now it seems it will be. For the same reasons the government is trying to privatise the Beeb. Because both are obstacles to private TV stations that don’t have a public service commitment, and particularly because they’re obstacles to the grasping power of Rupert Murdoch.

I’ve supported this campaign and emailed my MP as requested because I don’t want the channel privatised. If you feel the same, please do so.

We Own It: Hacks Waking Up to Failure of Privatisation

I’ve said many times on this blog that Thatcher’s privatisation of the utilities and the railways has been an utter, complete, unmitigated failure and that these services should be renationalised. I am very pleased to say that a number of mainstream hacks are finally waking up to this. I got this email from anti-privatisation, pro-NHS group ‘We Own It’ reporting that journos on the Times, Torygraph, Herald and the Guardian have written pieces criticising privatisation. They also describe how various rail companies have had to be renationalised, and that nationalisation is part of Labour’s Green New Deal and Shadow Transport Secret Jim McMahon supports the renationalisation of the railways. It also castigates Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves for opposing nationalisation on ideological grounds, even when they claim the complete opposite.

“Dear David,

People are waking up to the fact that privatisation has failed the UK for nearly 40 years.

In the Times, Jon Yeomans talks about Thatcher’s sell offs, saying “More than 30 years later, Britain lives with the consequences of that 1980s revolution. From buses to trains to energy, there are signs that the wheels may be coming off.”

In the Herald, Lesley Riddoch asks on behalf of frustrated Scots “Is there any way to escape privatised Britain other than independence?”

Scotland is bringing its railway into public ownership.

Wales is bringing its railway into public ownership.

The East Coast line was brought into public ownership in 2018 (it’s now run by the government’s operator of last resort).

The Northern franchise was brought into public ownership in 2020.

And this week Southeastern, after defrauding the government of £25 million, has also been brought into public hands.

As the Telegraph (yes, the Telegraph) says “the Southeastern debacle exposes the failure of Britain’s rail privatisation”.

It’s not just rail – with Covid, the bus ‘market’ (never much of a market) is collapsing.

The Guardian comments on the proposed merger of Stagecoach and National Express, saying “Passengers, who have seen rail fares rocket and local bus services wither, may also hope this signals the end of a chapter when a few could profit so enormously from an essential public service.”

Meanwhile Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, who has committed to re-regulating the buses there (a victory of our campaign!) comments about himself and Mayors Tracy Brabin and Dan Jarvis “Between us we are rolling back the 1980s, we are overturning the Thatcher legacy.”

At the Labour party conference, shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband talked about the Green New Deal, committing to “a green Britain where public and alternative models of ownership play their proper role in making the transition affordable, secure and fair.”

Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon confirmed his support for public ownership of rail and buses.

And Labour delegates voted for a Green New Deal, including public ownership of transport and energy, with speech after inspiring speech explaining why this is needed.

Despite all of this, Keir Starmer (who hasn’t responded yet to our open letter) and his shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves have said they don’t support nationalising the energy supply companies. They’ve said they don’t want to be “ideological” about it.

But the truth, as Cat writes in the Guardian today, is that privatisation is an extreme ideological experiment that has failed us all for decades, and people have had enough of it.

When the Times, the Telegraph, the Herald and the Guardian are questioning privatisation, when more and more of our railway is being brought into public ownership, when Mayors are re-regulating buses, and when the energy market is in crisis – there’s a shift happening.

On moral and on economic grounds, privatisation just isn’t making sense anymore.

Don’t tell Sid

Cat, Alice, Johnbosco, Matthew, Zana and Anna – the We Own It team

PS Who’s Sid? In 1986, when Thatcher sold off British Gas, the company was floated on the stock market, accompanied by the famous ‘Tell Sid’ advertising campaign.

This shows precisely how out of touch, far right and ideological Starmer and Reeves are. They’re still pushing Thatcherism when it’s increasingly obvious that Thatcherism is dying. As for the Tory privatisation slogan in the 1980s, this was ‘If you see Sid, tell him’. It was a hidden gibe at Sidney Webb and the Fabians, who advocated the nationalisation of the utilities. Now it seems Sid is may just have the last laugh yet.

If you see Maggie, tell her: privatisation is disaster.

We Own It Tear Apart Boris’ NHS Funding Bill

Mike’s already put up an excellent piece ripping apart Johnson’s proposal to raise National Insurance to pay for increased funding for the NHS and social care. And Mike and so many others are pointing out, this is actually a disastrous tax on the poor, while once again the rich are protected from the taxman.

I got the following email from We Own It yesterday evening. They point out that £36 billion may sound a lot, but the NHS will still be dangerously underfunded. Furthermore Johnson’s plan does nothing to reverse the disastrous privatisation of the health service and so much of that money will find its way into the pockets of shareholders. Here’s the email.

“£36 billion for the NHS and reforming social care – that sounds like a plan from Boris Johnson. Or does it?

Putting aside the major issue of whether a National Insurance tax is a fair way of increasing funding (it isn’t), here are four reasons why Boris Johnson’s plan isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

1) Our NHS has been underfunded for a decade, and this new funding isn’t anywhere near enough. As we said in the Mirror yesterday, ‘Since 2010 our NHS has lost 20,000 beds, more than 100 A&Es and it’s short of 90,000 staff. This Government has been underfunding the NHS for 10 years. We have to fund our NHS at the level of countries like Germany.’

2) £36 billion over three years sounds like a lot, but in terms of the NHS budget of around £140 billion a year (and especially given how budgets have been squeezed for 10 years) it isn’t actually that much, especially to cover health and social care. For example, the government handed out £37 billion for Serco and Sitel’s privatised Test and Trace operation, it failed badly and the government didn’t even blink – let alone set up a new tax to cover the cost.

3) The organisations representing NHS trusts said they needed £10 billion this year, in the next six months, to tackle waiting lists and cover Covid costs. Instead the government has offered them £5.4 billion. (The new money and tax won’t kick in until April 2022.) This means waiting lists will continue to be an ongoing issue. Many of you have shared your stories about how this affects you and some of these have been published in the Evening Standard and the Mirror – read more of your stories here.

4) Boris Johnson’s plan does nothing to stop public money leaking out of the system into shareholders pockets. In our NHS, the new Health and Care Bill would mean more privatisation. And social care – both care homes and care work (where carers visit people in their homes) – is largely privatised and outsourced. A plan for social care should involve bringing it into public ownership so it can work for people not profit.

Together with you, we did our best to make the call for NHS funding as loud and clear as possible – the photos from our weekend protest are everywhere! (See the Times, the Independent, ITV and lots of local newspapers..)

But in the last few days Johnson has done his best to reframe the narrative on NHS and social care funding. He’s turned the conversation into one about tax, instead of about what these public services need.

So we have to keep getting the message out there.

Our NHS needs serious funding after years of cuts and the money is there – it’s a question of political will. We need to kick the private companies out of NHS structures and oppose the Health and Care Bill (Corporate Takeover Bill) that would give them a seat at the decision making table. There’s no point in a plan for social care that doesn’t look at how money is leaking out to private shareholders.

Sadly, our NHS won’t be fixed by Johnson’s plans, and neither will social care.

The fight for OUR public services, for people not profit, continues…we’ll be in touch soon with more actions you can take.

Solidarity – and thank you for everything you do.

Cat, Alice, Johnbosco, Matthew, Zana and Anna – the We Own It team

PS Tonight at 7pm, Keep Our NHS Public is holding a rally on how to protect our NHS from the Health and Care Bill (aka the Corporate Takeover Bill). Cat is speaking alongside actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, Michael Rosen and Jon Ashworth MP, Labour’s shadow health secretary. Sign up here.“

Johnson’s NHS funding bill looks to me like another piece of Tory deception. It looks like their increasing funding to the NHS while all the time carrying on with the same policies that will lead to its privatisation.

Protests Planned Saturday against the Privatisation of the NHS

I went to an amazingly great pro-NHS zoom meeting last night organised, I think, by the anti-NHS privatisation organisations We Own It and/or Keep Our NHS Public. The speakers included Dr. Louise Irvine and Antonio Perez-Iranzo, a Spanish doctor working in the NHS, who described how Centene, the private health care company that’s being given positions on NHS boards and allowed to take over doctors’ surgeries, has managed to wreck healthcare in his home country. They were so terrible that eventually the Valencian government was forced to take the service back inhouse and kick them out. Rabina Khan, a Lib Dem councillor in Tower Hamlets, talked about her experience of the poor service they delivered when they took over the traditional GP’s surgery at which she was a patient. She was particularly concerned about the effect of privatisation on the elderly, and on Black and Bangladeshi women. Another speaker told of the vastly poorer service they gave when they were given NHS contracts and acquired GPs’ surgeries in Nottingham. The final speaker was Jeremy Corbyn, introduced as the ‘best Prime Minister this country never had’. Absolutely. He provided more details on the continuing NHS privatisation, showing his absolutely and unfailing commitment to the great institution created by Nye Bevan. He reminded everyone that one he waved the documents showing this was going to happen in parliament and asked Johnson about it, prime ministerial liar called him a liar. But he was right, and if, anything, understated the case. There was also time given for ordinary folks to ask their questions and give their experiences of the destruction of the NHS by these parasites.

In every case, the story was the same. Centene are given the contracts without warning, over the heads of local people, patients and even other doctors. Notification of the change comes from a bland, corporate letter and people are urged to get on Zoom for further information. This is a problem for older people, those not on the internet or who have problems using it, and people for whom English is not their primary language. Centene is a for-profit American health insurance company. Already big, it became massive in America with the introduction of Obamacare. It states in its corporate literature that it is only interested in making a profit, and that if this doesn’t happen, it will divest itself of those loss-making interests. Louise Irvine stated that, as a doctor, you don’t think of making a profit, even though since the inception of the NHS doctors are actually private businessmen, who contract in to the NHS. The only way to make a profit is to reduce costs. Which means sacking people and actually providing a worse service by reducing the amount of care given. In Nottingham, when Centene took over the service, they dispersed 3,000 of the 11,000 patients in their newly acquired GPs’ surgeries to others.

They are purely in it for the money, the profits of which go outside this country to their American shareholders.

Keep Our NHS Public is planning a demonstration against the privatisation of the NHS In London on Saturday, 3rd July 2021. This also includes issues like patient safety, and pay justice. They are going to assemble outside UCH on Euston Road, NWI at 12.00 before marching to parliament square. There are other protests also planned elsewhere in the country for the same day. Details of them can be found at their website https://keepournhspublic.com/ They also recommended people looking at an essay on this privatisation by a member of the Socialist Health Alliance, whose website is https://sochealth.co.uk.

They are naturally extremely keen for people to join their organisation or set up their own. Whatever we do, we have to organise to show the strength of opposition to this privatisation. They state it will be a long struggle, but people have succeeded in getting contracts taken away from the profiteers Serco, Circle Health and others.

The message is clear: Get rid of Centene and the other private companies profiting from the NHS. Get Boris out, and a proper government in, one committed to ending NHS privatisation.

And that does not include the Labour Blairites, who were as keen to privatise the NHS as their Tory heroes.