Cameron raises Stafford myth again in TV ‘debate’ – Skwawkbox blog
A reminder of the facts about Conservative privatisation of the NHS, and what it does to the service.
In a previous article today, This Writer pointed out a few instances in which David Cameron scraped the bottom of the barrel, scrabbling around for something meaningful to say; one subject that went unmentioned with his resurrection of the Mid Staffs controversy.
The whole affair – the accusations, the inquiry and the aftermath – was comprehensively covered by Steve Walker in his Skwawkbox blog. The debate prompted him into action and here’s part of his response:
“In last night’s political ‘debate’ on ITV, David Cameron once again slandered Stafford hospital and its staff in his desperate attempt to slur the NHS and Labour’s record on it, by repeating the false claim that patients drank out of vases, so desperate were they for a drink. This is unfounded nonsense, as vases weren’t even allowed next to patient beds at the time this is supposed to have taken place.
“The NHS is central to this election and the Tories will stop at nothing to try to attempt to neutralise Labour’s strong record – and to try to turn the British public against it while they sell it off to their chums and sponsors.
“But memories are short and the public can be misled, so I thought [of doing] a repeat of a debate from over two years ago on the subject of Mid Staffs and what really happened there. If you search for ‘Mid Staffs’, ‘Stafford’ or ‘HMSR’ on this blog, you will find lots of fact and analysis that debunks the Stafford myth that the media and the right-wing try constantly to push, from ‘drinking from vases’ to the fallacious death claims. This is a repost of just one of them – a public debate with a ‘pro-death-claim’ journalist. Please read through to the conclusion, because that’s intensely relevant to how the right wing is trying to spin fallacy to neutralise Labour’s strength on the NHS and the damage that the right will always do to it when they can grab power.”
Interested in learning the facts? Click this link and visit Skwawkbox for more information.
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In all of everything mmmmm’ Cameron was interviewed by a tall lanky bbc political correspondent quite recently while he was in his kitchen, I just can’t get ot out of my head when Cameron stated “I THINK I’VE DONE A REASONABLE JOB”. This I quote!!! Nobody in his position is allowed to do a REASONABLE job – they must give it all they can
Thank you Mike we in stafford, and I was one of the people who spent 6 ½ months on a cold wet windy field outside the hospital opposing the theft of our services by Stoke to pay off their PFI debt, know the real facts and when the prime minister of our nation, who has received thousands of complaints every time he repeats this lie, continues to wheel it out without apology one has to wonder if he should be allowed to stand as an mp let alone run a party.
“the false claim that patients drank out of vases, so desperate were they for a drink”
I spent a long time in hospital last April and sometimes a patient has to have their fluid intake controlled. Usually the patient is left a jug of ICE which thaws quickly enough to allow a controlled amount of drinking water over a period. Should the patient’s ice/water run out they are given a fresh jug of ice. No way will they be left thirsty.
It is worth watching ‘Sell Off,’ Peter Bach’s film on the privatisation of the NHS.
CaMoron has never sickened me as much as in the 7 way debate when he talked about NHS. As usual, he used his late disabled son to make his point and try to make him seem sympathetic and caring, and get Voter confidence. That is already tasteless enough and he has used his son many times for this reason. But this time he went even further and said how pleased he was at the service his sone received from the NHS and for that reason he is “passionately” keen on the NHS. So “passionately” keen that he is breaking it up, selling it off in exchange for Donations, Lobbying Fees and Career opportunities for Tory MPs. Furthermore, most of the private companies are foreign, at least some of them do not pay full Tax and only add an extra layer of private Management to existing NHS management. Then just to makes things even worse, CaMoron is “passionately” keen on forcing TTIP on to UK so that these private companies can never be kicked out, or the NHS ever be de-privatised.
His words were not only sickeningly insincere, they were also the most blatant lies I have ever heard a PM utter.
“That’s the standard technique of privatisation: Defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.” Noam Chomsky
At least people are finally on mass identifying that private capital is the problem. I hope that whatever the makeup of the new government is in May, they actually listen to people and stop changing the NHS from a non profit service into a for profit business.