UK
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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
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British care home scandal deepens By Mark Blackwood and Ajanta Silva
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph on May 30, the families of those abused in Winterbourne View said, “Today we have seen the appalling failure of the Government, the NHS [National Health Service] and Local Authorities to meet their own deadline for moving people with a learning disability out of places like Winterbourne View. Continue reading
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Labour embraces UK Independence Party’s right-wing nationalism By Jordan Shilton
The victory by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the May European elections in Britain and its strong gains in local elections have prompted the Labour Party to move even further to the right and adopt many of UKIP’s core positions. Continue reading
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Vodafone Reveals Existence of Secret Wires That Allow State Surveillance By Juliette Garside
Vodafone, one of the world’s largest mobile phone groups, has revealed the existence of secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates in Europe and beyond. Continue reading
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Slaney Street: Birmingham’s new co-operative media project
Slaney Street is a new Birmingham-based co-operative media organisation. Initially starting as a modest blog last year, it has just held its official founding conference and is gearing up for its fourth print edition to be distributed free across the city. Continue reading
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Rewriting history at George Orwell’s ‘Ministry Of Truth’ By Tony Gosling
Britain has been stunned this week by yet another stride a morally bereft Westminster has taken towards totalitarianism. In a process begun by Bilderberg steering group member Kenneth Clarke while he was Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, the Justice and Security Act through “closed material procedures” has opened the way for criminal trials not just… Continue reading
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UK Chilcot Inquiry: cover-up continues over war against Iraq By Robert Stevens
The most critical documents regarding the preparation and instigation of the illegal war against Iraq will never be seen by the Chilcot Inquiry. The Inquiry was authorised by the previous Labour government, fully five years ago. It is now 11 years since the invasion of Iraq. Continue reading
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UK SEP National Secretary interviewed on BBC Daily Politics
On Monday Chris Marsden, the National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in the UK, was interviewed on the BBC 2’s Daily Politics show. The interview, with journalist Jo Coburn, was in response to the SEP’s official complaint that a previous May 21 interview with Marsden on the show ended with interviewer Giles Dilnot,… Continue reading
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“Appalling” service by private firm leaves NHS patients without drugs By Melanie Newman
Healthcare watchdogs and patient groups slam private equity owned ‘Healthcare at Home’ whose failures are leaving frightened patients waiting for desperately needed drugs. Thousands of NHS patients, some seriously ill, have not received vital medicines on time because of problems at the company contracted to deliver the drugs to these patients in their own homes. Continue reading
