Dissatisfaction With Health Inequalities

A recent British Social Attitudes Survey has shown a significant drop in public satisfaction with the NHS, from 70% to 58% in a year; this is the largest annual drop since 1983, but that was when the Survey started, so it could be the largest drop ever! There are obviously myriad reasons why this could be so, the main one probably being the coalition reforms to introduce competition into the National Health Service. But I want to focus on one local example. At Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, patients who are able to afford to be treated privately as part of the Care Plus private treatment programme are able to park for free, while monthly charges for staff at the hospital have risen from £15 to £19.50! So hard-working staff pay more, while rich people get it covered. In a health institution which was designed purely with fairness and equality in mind, it’s no wonder that people are becoming dissatisfied.

Royal Waste

Okay, I’ll keep this short and sweet folks - well, maybe not so sweet. As far as I’m concerned (and yes, I realise that I’m in the minority as usual) the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations range from unnecessary pomp and outdated ceremony to an egregious waste of taxpayers’ money. Regardless that she brings tourists to this country, the amount of wealth that is spent on her and the rest of the royal family could be distributed to much more deserving areas such as NHS healthcare, public transport, reducing energy bills, building affordable accommodation, increasing the minimum wage, and on and on. I understand that some of the celebrations such as the Thames Pageant were funded privately, but the monarchy is annually awarded millions of pounds of government cash which is often spent on grandiose events like the diamond jubilee. I’m not saying we have to scrap the monarchy altogether (even though that wouldn’t particularly bother me), but at least scale down the expense to a significant degree considering the UK is currently going through a recession amidst a seemingly long-term global economic downturn. How hard-working people can applaud one family living in such financial heights is beyond me.

Medical Greed

Doctors have voted this week to take industrial action in the non-urgent care sector because of proposed changes to their pensions. Under the new plans, NHS medical practitioners in England and Wales would see their retirement age rise from 65 to 68 by 2015. Contributions to pension plans would also rise, and a new doctor joining the scheme could only expect to receive £68,000 per year when retired … I’m sorry, what? Did I read that right? Doctors are preparing to strike because they will only be receiving 68 grand a year?! Most people won’t ever get anywhere near that amount! Patients should not have to suffer a loss of medical care (even if it is non-urgent) just because doctors have become greedy in their old age. The NHS is meant to be a public service, not a golden handshake freebie giveaway! And as far as the retirement age goes, when state pensions were first widely delivered to the population after World War II the retirement age was set at 65 because life expectancy at that time was less than 70. A pension was intended to give a working person some peace and quiet in their final years. Yet over the passage of time, retirement has become a period of luxurious indulgence, foreign holidays and the start of new adventures! So the fact that we are now having to redress that balance should really come as no great surprise - well, not to anyone who studies history, anyway.

Counterproductive!

Len McCluskey, the Unite (a major trade union) general secretary has suggested that civil disobedience could be timed to coincide with the Olympics. This is a bad idea.
In the winter of 1978-9 (the winter of discontent), unions disrupted Britain to such an extent that the majority of the voting public decided that Margaret Thatcher was a necessary Prime Minister. Her seeming ability to restore order to a chaotic situation was more important to people than workers’ rights. But the British public cannot be blamed for this; if bin bags are piled high in the street, gravediggers won’t dig, and the NHS is only open for emergencies, then of course people will lose faith in the current system. This may seem like an extraordinary analogy, but nowadays unions are much more easily condemned than they used to be, so it is vitally important to preserve the public faith.
I personally am not a fan of the Olympics; I would prefer to see millions of pounds spent elsewhere. But there are a significant number of people who are delighted that the Olympics has come to London, and this section of society cannot afford to be isolated. If they are, then how long will it be before the majority of people resent the unions and begin to feel that right-wing governments are necessary for orderly preservation? Then we will see another government like Thatcher’s! The one that made greedy, materialistic capitalism an acceptable aspiration. We must never promote that again to such an extent!
So please, for the sake of socialism and equality, do not strike during the Olympics.

Brown And Thatcher?!

When Gordon Brown - the Labour Prime Minister - invites former right-wing extremist Margaret Thatcher to a pleasant meeting at Downing Street, something is going seriously awry in the world of politics. This is a woman who if she had her way would decimate the NHS and make the meaning of life become getting rich! Of course Brown is never going to return to the glory values of Old Labour socialism, but to have tea and cakes with the arch-nemesis from the past is slapping previous leaders and reformers in the face. I imagine Tony Benn must be fuming while Clement Attlee turns in his grave. Up until this point Brown has acquitted himself with a steady, forthright attitude towards politics which I condone (and I certainly have no problems with the word 'stoical' as some of the media seem to), but this latest betrayal of great ideologies is an unnerving glance into what the future may bring. Hopefully, it will just be a glitch and policies will continue to rule news rather than self-promotional spin of being a 'conviction politician', or should that be 'conceited'.