UK
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Kings Fund suggests NHS fees – but is it really ‘independent’? By Gary Walker
The question of NHS ‘affordability’ is used by think tanks and politicians to browbeat us into accepting regressive changes that suit the few, not the many. Better options to save money are ignored. Continue reading
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“If Stones Could Weep”: Syria, Blair’s Plans and an Archbishop’s Son By Felicity Arbuthnot
Not only is Middle East “Peace Envoy”, Catholic convert and Butcher of Baghdad, Tony Blair gunning for another overthrow and mass destruction in Syria, he has recruited the son of an Archbishop to help him. Continue reading
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Britain’s Dirty Drone Secret
On Monday the House of Lords will debate Clause 64 of the Immigration Bill. If passed this Clause will allow the Home Secretary to remove citizenship from British citizens, regardless of whether this may render them stateless. Continue reading
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Don’t believe the hype – the Welsh NHS has much to teach England By Julian Tudor-Hart
Cameron this week labelled the Welsh NHS ‘a scandal’. But this is largely a propaganda war, designed to discredit the non-privatised path the Welsh have taken. The Welsh created the NHS, modeled on miners’ mutual aid schemes. They have so far strongly resisted attempts to return healthcare to market competition. Since devolution a new generation… Continue reading
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#IPCCFail – the police complaints watchdog’s “decade of failure” By Kevin Blowe
It’s ten years since the Independent Police Complaints Commission was founded, and they’ve utterly failed. Tuesday was the tenth anniversary of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), set up in 2004 to replace another public body, the Police Complaints Authority, which had been wholly discredited by its failures during the 1990s. Continue reading
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Series of scandals shakes public trust in the police By Ben Gliniecki
A recent report by the Inspectorate of the Constabulary (HMIC) announced that public trust in the police has been severely shaken by the long list of scandals that have been revealed in recent months. Clearly someone at HMIC is being paid a large salary to say things that everybody else already knows. The working class… Continue reading
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Barton Moss: policing in the absence of democracy By David Cullen
Violence has been a running theme within the policing of anti-fracking protests at Barton Moss. Individual officers are acting with impunity. Is this reflective of a policing strategy seeking to disrupt the protests on behalf of vested interests? Continue reading
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Who is behind Reform’s call for NHS charges? By Tamasin Cave
The private health insurance industry has been trying to get think tanks to help it make money in Britain for the last 10 years. Is today’s report by Reform calling for NHS charges the result? Continue reading
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UK benefits claimants victimised and driven into destitution By Barry Mason
The British government has greatly increased the number of sanctions against benefit claimants, resulting in their benefits being “stopped.” Continue reading
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Britain seeks to make up lost ground with US over Ukraine By Julie Hyland
Lord Dannatt, the former chief of the UK’s general staff between 2006 and 2008, has called for an increase in the number of Britain’s Armed Forces. The retired Army officer, writing in the Daily Telegraph, said the change was necessary in response to events in Ukraine. Continue reading
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Shock U-turn as sell-off of George Eliot hospital cancelled By Caroline Molloy
The planned sell-off of George Elliott hospital has been cancelled, hailed as a victory for common sense by unions and campaigners. Continue reading
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Tory links of health agencies exposed as Hunt lines up next NHS sell-off By Jos Bell
Whilst understaffed wards and surgeries turn to well-connected private sector agencies to fill the gaps created by Cameron’s health ‘reforms’, the NHS’s own in-house recruitment agency is to be sold off, it has emerged. Despite a turnover of about £450million, the agency operates with low profit margins, with most funds going to staff pay rather… Continue reading
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UK Labour Party proposes compulsory cheap-labour scheme By Danny Richardson
Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband has launched Labour’s Jobs Guarantee scheme, aimed at young people age 18 to 25 who have been unemployed for 12 months or more. The scheme will last the lifetime of the next parliament if Labour wins the 2015 election. Those enrolled will be compelled to stay for a six-month period… Continue reading
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Skewed NHS stats are big business By Ewen Speed
Increasingly commercialised NHS data collection is being inappropriately used in ways that could jeopardise hospitals’ futures. Is it any wonder staff might feel under pressure to skew the stats? Continue reading
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Russia and the Ukraine Crisis: The Eurasian Project in Conflict with the Triad Imperialist Policies By Samir Amin
After the breakdown of the Soviet system, some people (in Russia in particular) thought that the “West” would not antagonize a “capitalist Russia” — just as Germany and Japan had “lost the war but won the peace.” They forgot that the Western powers supported the reconstruction of the former fascist countries precisely to face the… Continue reading
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UK parliament approves assault on National Health Service By Robert Stevens
In a move heralding a major assault on the National Health Service (NHS), parliament voted through legislation on March 11 allowing the health secretary to close hospitals and cut services, with virtually no challenges allowed. The vote on Clause 119 of the Care Bill was passed by 297 MPs with 239 against. Continue reading
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Video: Has Anglo-America Capitalism Run Out of Strategies?
On the 30th anniversary of the UK miners’ strike, George Irvin discusses the rise of inequality in Britain and the US since the 1970s Continue reading
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Why the Jimmy Mubenga trial matters. By ex-Chief Inspector of Prisons By David Ramsbotham
On Thursday the Crown Prosecution Service announced that three former G4S guards, Stuart Tribelnig, Terry Hughes and Colin Kaler, would stand trial for the manslaughter of Jimmy Mubenga on a BA plane in October 2010. Long before Mubenga’s death, Lord Ramsbotham was among those who warned repeatedly that Home Office contractors used dangerous methods of… Continue reading
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London’s NHS at the crossroads By John Lister
A duty of candour for NHS managers and ending cash-driven closures – those are amongst the recommendations of the People’s Inquiry into London’s NHS which raises serious concerns of creaking services in the capital. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 