By coincidence two quite different processes are dramatising simultaneously the market shocks now being applied relentlessly to the NHS. Sir Bruce Keogh, the NHS clinical director, is demanding that hospital closures must be accepted in order to concentrate scarce specialist skills ‘for the good of the patient’. The buzzword for this latest upheaval is “reconfiguration”, [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Public Service Cuts’
Cut Trident, not jobs, homes, and health
Jan 17th, 2013 by Jeremy Corbyn.This afternoon, the House of Commons debates Britain’s nuclear deterrent: Jeremy Corbyn puts the case against the replacement of Trident in the context of austerity. An incoming Labour government will be faced with massive expectations and demands of jobs for young people, increased health expenditure, huge demands on the benefits budget, student fees, and infrastructure [...]
How is this avalanche of cuts really hitting the poor?
Jan 16th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.My own constituency, Oldham West, is one of the poorest in the country. How are they being affected by the cascade of cuts? Housing benefit cuts in April will particularly impact on pensioners, families on low incomes, disabled people (many already traumatised by Atos assessments of their alleged capability for work), the long-term sick , [...]
Benefits, an increasing deficit and the obsession with cuts
Sep 25th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Pace Andrew Mitchell, Osborne’s proposed £10bn benefit cut for poor families looks set to become the litmus test for the party conference season. It is almost incredible that Osborne should be demanding this when (i) £18bn is already being sliced from benefits, (ii) no increase in taxes at all is being proposed to fill the [...]
Are Osborne & co. insane, deluded or just suicidal?
Jul 25th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Et tu, Brute? We have now reached a point where it seems impossible to present a plausible rationale for continuing with the government’s economic strategy (for want of a worse word). Osborne, a nasty piece of work even at the best of times, is now being assailed by all those global or national financial authorities [...]
The future isn’t what it used to be
Apr 13th, 2012 by Newsdesk.UK Uncut, the anti-cuts direct action group, has today announced a new plan of action to start shortly before the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations and the Olympic period. The group, best known for targeting tax dodgers, will hold street parties in major towns and cities across the UK in the run up to the Jubilee and [...]
Austerity isn’t working: protest on Budget Day
Mar 9th, 2012 by Jon Lansman.This appeal is made by UK Uncut. In two weeks, George Osborne, the man in charge of Britain’s sinking economy, will present his government’s third austerity budget. In it, he will set out a continuation of the cuts that have decimated Britain’s public services and put up to 6.3m people out of work. George will tell us [...]
Leftwing disruption of sporting events: a proud tradition
Feb 29th, 2012 by David Osler.Emily Wilding Davison famously threw herself under the King’s horse at the 1913 Derby, in order to publicise the suffragette cause. She died in hospital a few days later. I truly hope her bravery will be suitably commemorated on its centenary next year. Bookmarks Hide Sites
Austerity Isn’t Working – time to invest in growth and jobs
Feb 28th, 2012 by Lee Brown.Austerity isn’t working. The disastrous Tory economic experiment has left the economy stagnating, household incomes falling at their fastest rate in decades and unemployment soaring towards three million. Even by the criteria the government has set itself, that of reducing the deficit, it is failing. The Tories are set to borrow £158 billion more than [...]
Unemployment shows we need alternatives to austerity
Feb 15th, 2012 by Cat Smith.Today marks the three year anniversary of unemployment breaking the 2 million mark, and figures out today show the 8th consecutive month of rising unemployment. Unemployment jumped by 48,000 in the quarter to December to 2.67 million, a jobless rate of 8.4%, the worst figure since the end of 1995. The Government’s austerity plan is [...]
