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Morning Star: The Tories have wrecked the NHS – but that doesn’t mean Labour will rescue it

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/tories-have-wrecked-nhs-doesnt-mean-labour-will-rescue-it

The NHS overtook the economy as voters’ biggest concern in February, according to polling by Ipsos. Small wonder when waiting lists have hit 7.5 million: there can hardly be a person in the country who doesn’t have a friend or relative who has been affected.

And the Conservatives bear a heavy responsibility.

In the decade up to the pandemic, real-terms healthcare spending per head rose on average by just 0.4 per cent a year — in four years it actually fell, despite rising pressures on the service.

That compares very poorly to the record of the last Labour government, which raised spending by 5.7 per cent a year on average from 1997-2010. It even compares badly to that of the Thatcher and Major Conservative governments, which averaged a 2.1 per cent annual increase.

But we should be more cautious than Poulter about endorsing Keir Starmer’s solution.

Starmer and shadow health secretary Wes Streeting have pointedly refused to offer the increases in NHS budgets that the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments delivered. Streeting is emphatic that he will not “pour money into a 20th-century model,” instead demanding reforms which, in increasing reliance on the private sector, both mimic existing Conservative policy and are unlikely to make a difference to waiting lists (because private healthcare in Britain recruits from the NHS, so overall capacity will not grow).

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Britain’s public services are collapsing under the strain of decades of neoliberal policy. In the NHS, hospitals have been undermined through outsourcing services to the private sector as well as by the cost of PFI debt — both issues with their origins in the Blair years.

To restore our NHS to health, we need a reversal of privatisation and outsourcing and a forced end to all PFI contracts, as well as a significant increase in overall funding to bring us closer to healthcare spending levels in France or Germany.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/tories-have-wrecked-nhs-doesnt-mean-labour-will-rescue-it

Continue ReadingMorning Star: The Tories have wrecked the NHS – but that doesn’t mean Labour will rescue it

Government failure to tackle NHS dentistry crisis has left morale at all-time low

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-failure-tackle-nhs-dentistry-crisis-has-left-morale-all-time-low

A dentist at work, May 19, 2011

THE government’s failure to tackle the growing exodus from the NHS workforce has left morale among dentists at an all-time low, official data shows.

Figures reveal that 64 per cent of dentists in England are thinking of leaving the NHS.

The British Dental Association (BDA) has described the government’s recent recovery plan as “unworthy of the title” and hit out at the “non-stop spin from ministers attempting to defend their unambitious and unfunded policies.”

It also slammed the Tories for rejecting the health and social care committee’s key recommendation to break with the discredited NHS contract, “which is fuelling this exodus.”

Any progress will “hinge on real reform and sustainable funding,” it said.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-failure-tackle-nhs-dentistry-crisis-has-left-morale-all-time-low

Continue ReadingGovernment failure to tackle NHS dentistry crisis has left morale at all-time low

Tory-run Facebook groups contain ‘appalling racism’ investigation finds

https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/tory-run-facebook-groups-contain-appalling-racism-investigation-finds/

Anti-Ulez groups managed by Conservative-linked individuals found to be ‘a cesspit of vile racism and hate speech’

Facebook groups run by Conservative Party operatives that oppose London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) are ‘a cesspit of vile racism and hate speech’, an investigation by Unearthed has found. 

A network of 36 private Facebook groups set up to oppose the expansion of Ulez and almost all run by people with close professional ties to the Conservative party including councillors, campaign managers and a borough mayor, have hosted nasty and violent content, the investigation has uncovered. 

Reporters found widespread racism and Islamophobia as well as conspiracy theories and celebrations of criminal damage on the pages, including sharing the white supremacist slogan and antisemitic videos. 

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was targeted with much of the racist content, the investigation found, including a commenter describing the capital as “Londonistan” and claiming England is “overrun and being run by a load of foreigners” and subject to “third world people”. 

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Ami McCarthy, political campaigner for Greenpeace UK described the groups as “an absolute cesspit of vile racism and hate speech” and “a breeding ground for dangerous conspiracy theories”.

“That they’re being managed by Conservative operatives speaks volumes about the direction in which the party has gone, and just how toxic these anti-ULEZ campaigns have become,” said McCarthy.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/tory-run-facebook-groups-contain-appalling-racism-investigation-finds/

Continue ReadingTory-run Facebook groups contain ‘appalling racism’ investigation finds

Home Office to detain asylum seekers across UK in shock Rwanda operation

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/28/home-office-to-detain-asylum-seekers-across-uk-in-shock-rwanda-operation

Officials plan to hold refugees who turn up for routine meetings at immigration service offices. They will be transferred to detention centres. Photograph: Benjamin John/Alamy

The Home Office will launch a surprise operation to detain asylum seekers across the UK on Monday in preparation for deportation to Rwanda, weeks earlier than expected, the Guardian understands.

Officials plan to hold refugees who turn up for routine meetings at immigration service offices and will also pick people up nationwide in a two-week exercise.

They will be immediately transferred to detention centres, which have already been prepared for the operation, and held to be put on later flights to Rwanda. Others identified for these flights are already being held.

It is thought the launch of the operation has been timed to coincide with Thursday’s local council elections in England, to boost Rishi Sunak’s claims he is cracking down on illegal migration.

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/28/home-office-to-detain-asylum-seekers-across-uk-in-shock-rwanda-operation

Continue ReadingHome Office to detain asylum seekers across UK in shock Rwanda operation

The truth behind Labour’s plans to ‘renationalise’ rail

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/truth-behind-labour’s-plans-‘renationalise’-rail

One thing about an incoming Labour government looks great: taking the railways into public ownership. But we won’t actually own the trains, warns SOLOMON HUGHES

LABOUR’S plans to renationalise the rail firms by taking over the train operating companies (TOCs) as their contracts come to an end is a big deal.

These are privately run but very heavily publicly subsidised companies that want to pump cash out of the government and passengers and then pump it into their investors’ hands. They are so keen to get the cash that they are rubbish at running the railways. Renationalising them is a good idea.

But if you want to know how some rail privatisation will continue even after Labour’s plans — and how it will continue to squeeze private cash out of public services, it’s worth having a look at the annual accounts of Eversholt UK Rails Ltd, which were published to zero media interest at the end of last month.

The newspapers weren’t interested in the company’s accounts, even though they showed the movement of millions of pounds from the taxpayer to a Hong Kong billionaire’s company. Passengers also won’t generally know Eversholt even exists, which is part of the trick of privatisation.

When the nationally owned British Rail was privatised in the 1990s, it was broken up into three main parts. The track was privatised and handed over to Railtrack, which had to be renationalised in 2002 after the firm did such poor maintenance that passengers started dying in crashes and train speeds were cut to a crawl.

Different regional TOCs were given contracts to run the services on this track. Labour will slowly renationalise these. But TOCs don’t own the trains: the “rolling stock,” the actual engines and carriages were sold off cheaply to three private rolling stock companies or “Roscos.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/truth-behind-labour’s-plans-‘renationalise’-rail

Continue ReadingThe truth behind Labour’s plans to ‘renationalise’ rail