Whoever wins on 18 September, the old order of the Tory-dominated Westminster establishment is finished. If the Yes vote wins, it will have enormous negative repercussions for the London-based power structure and will spark huge and largely irresistible demands for real devolution of power for Wales and Northern Ireland as well as the metropolitan city regions in England. If the No vote wins, the constitutional package now being offered to the Scottish people goes a long way to promoting a federal structure. Gordon Brown on behalf of Coming Together is already advocating in his 12-point plan something akin to Home Rule. Continue reading
Tagged with Privatisaion
Leaks show US multinationals now directing doctors’ commissioning groups
Evidence has now been leaked which proves that big healthcare corporations, including some of the biggest US healthcare multinationals, are now taking the lead in directing GPs’ clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in allocating the £80bn NHS budget at their disposal. The previously unknown Commissioning Support Industry Group (CSIG) has been seeking to win contracts worth some £1bn for advising CCGs on purchasing patient care.
Those awarded these contracts will be involved in drug purchasing, negotiating hospital contracts, outsourcing services to the private sector, and (ominously) patient care reforms. The leaks show that United Health, the huge US health insurer which significantly previously employed Simon Stevens, now NHS England’s chief executive and formerly of Blair’s office, actually chairs this group, provides its secretariat, and recently covered the funding for senior UK health managers to visit its care centres in the US and to “explore their applicability in the UK”. What has also been uncovered is that all the big consultancies – KPMG, Capita, McKinsey, Ernst & Young, and PWC – are all members of CSIG. Continue reading
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Living where privatised railways mean subsidising foreign state-run services
The railway that passes our constituency Labour party office in Bethnal Green and Bow is owned by Abellio, the Dutch state railway company. Am I alone in thinking this is somewhat surreal?
We supposedly put these franchises out to tender because we wanted the private sector to provide their management know-how. It turns out that this company is not private sector but is the state sector of Holland. So rather than having the British state running British railways, we have the Dutch state running British railways, because they outbid the private rail companies, presumably because they have better management know-how.
Meanwhile, we customers have to pay higher fares, in order that a profit can be made to subsidise the Dutch rail system. We might consider that the Dutch are very good at doing socialism, but they must consider us to be a bunch of mugs. Continue reading
