AS CIVILISATION DEVELOPS, THIS IS EVEN MORE VALID

“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”.
Mahatma Gandhi

THE TORIES NEED LESSONS FROM GANDHI

“I suspect that what most people want is to see the establishment of safe and legal routes for those fleeing harm in their countries, a humane and speedy system of assimilation for refugees and asylum seekers and an end to the posturing of an entirely inhumane Home Office / Government.”
Jackie Bartlett, The Guardian, 10 March 2023.

AN NHS FOR ALL

“The Conservatives are again testing the water for a different kind of NHS…. The NHS refinancing that Labour achieved – a real terms annual increase of 6.3% between 2000 and 2010 – had to be revisited every decade. This hasn’t happened under the Conservatives, and the consequences are visible to all of us. The pressures the NHS faces makes the case for comprehensive funding through National Insurance even stronger; and show why this is to be preferred to either the European-style social insurance, or in private insurance…. A system that guarantees comprehensive cover paid for by general taxation and that shares the cost across the whole population, is the best insurance policy we could have – and indeed, if properly funded, is bound to be the best in the world…. Conservatives may prefer, as a matter of ideology, a private sector performing inefficiently, to a public service delivering well. Indeed neo-liberals seem to find more joy in one person joining BUPA than 60 million using the NHS…. As we celebrate 75 years of the NHS on 1 July, we should recall the words of Aneurin Bevan, who said that our NHS would ‘lift the shadow (of fear) from millions of homes’, by providing what Bevan called ‘serenity’.”
Gordon Brown, WHO ambassador for global health financing, The Guardian.

INSIGHT INTO THE THREAT TO THE NHS

“The NHS has certainly been privatisex by stealth. When I was informed that I had been put on a 14-week waiting list for a minor medical complaint, I asked to be removed from the list as I would seek a private consultation. I was immediately transferred to another NHS department and told that for a fee of £200 I could see a consultant within 48 hours. The consultation lasted approximately 10 minutes, ie £1,200 per hour for the consultant – nice work if you can get it, but a huge disincentive for anyone to work at NHS rates of pay.”
Dr Allan Dodds, letter in The Guardian.

“WELFARE” IS SUPPORT AND COMPASSION NOT A FORM OF DISCIPLINE

“Michael Gove suggests that child benefit should be withdrawn from parents whose children are persistently truant. The Tories see ‘welfare’ merely as something to discipline the most vulnerable, rather than support those in need…. Mr Gove should talk to the parents, educators, and organisations who are dealing with this issue. And try a different approach of support and compasion….educators cannot educate in an inflexible, underfunded system, where success is measured in numbers and grades, rather than welfare and opportunity”.
Fran Morgan and Derrick Cameron, The Guardian.

Addendum:
“In late 2022 the number of people sleeping rough was up by 74% since 2010.”
The Evening Standard

CARE HOMES – A NATIONAL SCANDAL – THEY SHOULD BE NATIONALISED

In the 1980s, responsibility for care homes was transferred from the NHS to local councils. Now some some 85% of the UK’s 22,000 care homes are owned by private firms, that load them up with debt and employ staff on zero-hours contracts. Given their current lack of funds, many local councils are paying less than they should to support residential care homes. There is only one long term answer and the arbitrary distinction between NHS and social care and nationalise care homes under the NHS.  This is what Ros Altmann, Tory peer and former pensions minister has said – “The arbitrary distinction between NHS and social care must end, with basic personal care provided to all when they need it….Offshore, highly geared structures are not suited to long-term care. If operators cannot inject capital and increased equity, they could be nationalised, perhaps temporarily.”
The Guardian.
P.S. Not so long ago, Ros was a Labour Party member.

THE TWO-FACED BBC

“Curious that Gary Lineker was free to raise questions about Qatar’s human rights record – with the blessing of the BBC – over the World Cup, but cannot raise questions of human rights in this country if it involves criticism of government policy”.
Emily Maitlis, former Newsnight presenter, The Guardian.

HANCOCK’S TEXT MESSAGES PROVE THAT THE EXPERTS WERE RIGHT

• Recommendations from Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, were that anyone going into a care home should be tested for Covid. Instead Hancock, opted to test only those coming from hospital – while publicly claiming to have thrown a “protective ring” around care homes. Hancock has now said that it wasn’t logistically possible to test everyone. Result – the huge tragedy in care homes.
• Helen Whately, the social care minister, warned Hancock on 8 April 2020 that “lessons learned internationally suggest we should be testing all care home residents and staff who have had Covid contact”, regardless of symptoms, to which Hancock initially agreed. But, he had rowed back on this by 14 April, and regular testing in care homes of those without symptoms didn’t begin until early July.
• In the severe Covid testing backlog in September 2020, the text messages show Hancock personally arranging for a testing kit to be sent to Jacob Rees-Mogg for one of his children, then sent straight to the lab for processing. This fits with the pattern that we recognise from the Partygate allegations, of one rule for the elite and another for the British public.

“Lockdown was a late and chaotic emergency button, enforced by a lack of preparation. By acting too late, and then with its conduct throughout the pandemic, the government let the public down.”
From an article by Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University, The Guardian, 2 March 2023.