UK
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Low-income UK residents pay higher tax rates than the wealthy By Robert Stevens
Low-income UK residents pay a higher tax rate than the wealthy, according to a report published Monday by the Equality Trust think tank. Explaining the reality of a tax system massively skewed in favour of the richest 10 percent in society, the report details, “A household in the lowest 10% income group pays 43% of… Continue reading
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Tony Blair, Phantom of the Opera (and scum of the Earth) goes unpunished By Pepe Escobar
The fact that the Phantom (Tony Blair) keeps getting away with his vast desert of convoluted lies — instead of languishing in some rotten, extraordinary rendition hotel — spells out all we need to know about so-called Western “elites,” of which he’s been a faithful, and handsomely rewarded, servant. Continue reading
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On being a domestic extremist By Kirsty Styles
I’m not sure how long I’ve been a domestic extremist, or even whether I really am. But if my name has made it onto Scotland Yard’s list, I’ll be there alongside Green peer and London Assembly member Jenny Jones. And no doubt the information compiled about me would be nothing a seven-year-old couldn’t find in… Continue reading
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The Labour government was to blame for the NHS’s biggest disgrace – why should we listen to them now? By Caroline Molloy
The latest ex-Blair advisor to lambast the NHS for being ‘slow’ to adopt privatisation is Paul Corrigan. But his past hastiness had a little-noted role in the NHS’s darkest episode. If you were going to release a report arguing for the UK’s health system to become more like that of the United States, you probably… Continue reading
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TOR is ’90 per cent of the net’ claims City of London Police Commish – and he’s dead wrong By Richard Chirgwin
I can’t tell you whether Leppard said “BitTorrent” and was mis-transcribed, or whether he slipped, but I’d like to address the assertion that TOR – The Onion Router – is “90 per cent of the Internet”. It’s a piece of silly scare-mongering, and would be laughable except that numbers like this are being used to… Continue reading
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Personal Health Budgets lead to individualism and isolation By Richard Blogger
A Thatcherite ‘voucher’ system is being imposed on the NHS is the worst way to deliver ‘personalisation’. From April 2015 all Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) must be able to offer Personal Health Budgets (PHBs) to all patients who have a long term condition (LTC). Personal Budgets were mentioned in the Conservative 2010 manifesto, but the… Continue reading
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How to commercialise and cut health and social care without anyone noticing By Jenny Shepherd
Plans to ‘create a local market’ in health and social care, including personal budgets, threaten to undermine our collective rights and our systems based on social solidarity. The final part in our View from the Grassroots series. Over the last week our ‘View from the Grassroots’ series has been looking at an interlocking set of… Continue reading
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What might a trip to your GP look like in future By Jonathan Tomlinson
The government’s plans for the future of primary care are long on gimmicks, but short on cash. Jonathan Tomlinson sees a more interesting vision of the future – if sufficient funding is there. Continue reading
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Will volunteers become the sticking plaster holding the NHS together? By Jenny Shepherd
Not a week goes by now without some part of the establishment warning us that the NHS is ‘unaffordable’ in its current form. This austerity mood music struck up in 2008 when New Labour asked the American management consultants McKinsey for advice on how to run the NHS more cheaply, after the government had spent… Continue reading
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Saving NHS money – or a bonanza for Big Pharma and Big Tech? By Jenny Shepherd
Are big NHS changes in England including local closures and more ‘care at home’ driven by the need to save money – or something else? The second of our View from the Grassroots series. Continue reading
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Are plans to move the NHS ‘into the community’, a wolf in sheep’s clothing? By Jenny Shepherd
Plans to close swathes of Yorkshire hospital services will ‘improve care’, say local NHS bosses. Campaigners are unconvinced. In the first of a four-part series Jenny Shepherd asks who – and what – is really behind similar claims being made across the country. Continue reading
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Iraq’s civil war provokes UK political crisis By Julie Hyland
The catastrophe engulfing Iraq—with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) controlling much of its northern and central regions—is as much a crisis for British imperialism as it is for its US ally. Heaping lie upon lie, Blair denounced as “bizarre” the notion “that ‘we’ have caused this”. Calling for renewed intervention against Iraq… Continue reading
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British NHS patients left without medications by private contractor By Tony Robson
The failure of UK private contractor Healthcare at Home (HaH) to provide the home delivery of medications correctly and on time has placed thousands of National Health Service (NHS) patients at risk…As many as 7 percent of patients have not been delivered their medications on time. In addition to the risk and anxiety these patients… Continue reading
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Disabled Protesters Heading Back To DWP As Fight To Save Independent Living Heats Up
The fight to save the Independent Living Fund (ILF) is heating up with a fresh court challenge to this needless cut which could lead to some disabled people being institutionalised to save money. Continue reading
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New research documents heightened social inequality in Britain By Simon Whelan
According to research conducted for the UK’s Post Office, the richest fifth of British society have a spare £18,680 annually after living costs to place in savings. This is more than many workers and unemployed have to budget for an entire year. Meanwhile, the poorest fifth of society will spend almost £2,000 (£1,910) more than… Continue reading
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Austerity forces British children into record levels of poverty By Joe Mount
By 2020, an estimated 5 million children—one-third of all children in Britain—will be “sentenced to a lifetime of poverty,” according to new research from the Save the Children charity. An additional 1.4 million children will be forced into poverty during the next six years, according to the research. Continue reading
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Grand Geopolitical Project: Russia’s Gazprom signs Agreement to Abandon the Dollar By Umberto Pascali
Despite the pressures from Wall Street and its military, propaganda and political apparatus, 9 out of 10 consumers of Gazprom’s oil and gas agreed to pay in Euros. Of course, the big watershed was the Gazprom unprecedented 30-years $400Bl natural gas supply to China signed in Shanghai last May 21 in the presence of President… Continue reading
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Grand Geopolitical Project: Russia’s Gazprom signs Agreement to Abandon the Dollar By Umberto Pascali
Despite the pressures from Wall Street and its military, propaganda and political apparatus, 9 out of 10 consumers of Gazprom’s oil and gas agreed to pay in Euros. Of course, the big watershed was the Gazprom unprecedented 30-years $400Bl natural gas supply to China signed in Shanghai last May 21 in the presence of President… Continue reading
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Our political system is stagnant – let in the air By Giselle Green
Current rules give smaller parties like the Greens and National Health Action Party little chance to break through – could a few small changes breathe fresh air into Britain’s failing political system? Continue reading
The New Dark Age 