Tag Archives: Barnett formula

NHS Wales should be praised for employing agency nurses to keep care standards high

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The facts about health service pay: If NHS Wales is having to employ agency staff, perhaps it is because the Conservative Government does not provide enough funding for NHS employees. Maybe this is why so many have been lured abroad by higher pay and better standards of living.

A Freedom of Information request by the Welsh Conservatives has revealed that NHS Wales had to spend £190 million on agency doctors and nurses in the last four years. Shame on NHS Wales, right?

Well, no. This merely demonstrates the cack-handed way the Conservatives have been running the health service since taking office as part of the Coalition Government in 2010.

Does anybody remember reports last year that the Conservative-led Coalition Government had dumped 4,000 senior nurses since 2010, considering them to be “disposable” and “a quick way to save money”?

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said at the time: “We are facing a Europe-wide shortage of nursing staff and the last thing the NHS should be doing at this time is treating its highly experienced staff as disposable.

“We need to be doing everything we can to retain the skills we have in the NHS rather than using them as a quick and easy way to make savings.”

These words clearly fell on deaf ears in the Department of Health, which continued to cut nursing staff. Cuts in health spending in England are mirrored, via the Barnett formula, in funding provided to the devolved health services elsewhere in the UK, meaning that the Welsh Government has had to reduce money provided for other services in order to address the cut in spending – and service standard – caused by Tory changes.

That has taken several years to accomplish – as this blog has made clear in previous articles. The Westminster government’s grant to Wales has been cut by a massive 10 per cent since 2010.

And what has happened to our highly-qualified NHS staff members in the meantime? It seems they have been attracted abroad by foreign health services that treat their workforce with more respect.

Vox Political commenter karenmarieuk, responding to a recent article, told us: “My daughter now lives in South Africa and is treated by British staff at both her GP surgery and her local hospital.”

She asked: “Why do our health care professionals have to emigrate to earn the respect they deserve? Our nursing staff are canvassed regularly by Australia, being offered incentives such as housing and vastly improved lifestyles as well as pay that puts the UK to shame! This is just one country from many.

“When, I wonder, will the UK stop this mass exodus and try keeping staff here?”

When indeed? Never, under a Conservative government.

The Welsh Tories have shot themselves in the foot (again) with their ridiculous claims following this FoI request. The total amount spent on agency staff by NHS Wales comes to 1/120 of funding every year, to be compared with the 10 per cent cut from Conservative and Conservative-led Westminster governments.

Conservative politics has caused the problem, not a Labour-run health service.

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Scotland: Who did you say was the enemy, again?

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Vox Political is indebted to Facebook commenter Martin Ballinger, who draws attention to a short article from The Times:

“Downing Street risked Scottish anger last night by reassuring Tory MPs that
public funds given to Scotland would decrease over time.

“The three party leaders vowed to retain the Barnett formula as part of efforts
to persuade Scottish voters to remain in the Union. However, since last
week’s vote, Tory MPs have voiced anger at the funding model, which grants
£1,600 a head more in public money to Scotland than England.

“A source at No 10 said that Westminster would keep to its promise to retain
the formula, but added that it would reduce as Scotland gained more fiscal
powers.”

On the face of it, this may seem perfectly reasonable. More tax-raising powers for Scotland means less need for the rest of the UK to support it from general taxation – right?

But the Scottish population is just one-twelfth that of the whole UK, meaning the tax burden on Scottish people is likely to be much greater, just to receive the same services as before. Think about it – services for a smaller number of people always cost more than for a larger number; that’s why Labour created systems like the NHS to spread the cost of healthcare as thinly as possible.

It seems that, when the dust has settled, the Scottish people will find out that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting.

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Was this the real reason Cameron allowed the Scotland referendum?

Misjudged: It seems David Cameron has found a way to impose the worst excesses of his neoliberal agenda on us all, using English voters as his weapon [Image: Ceasefire Magazine].

Misjudged: It seems David Cameron has found a way to impose even MORE “bloody imperialism” – the worst excesses of his neoliberal agenda – on us all, using English voters as his weapon [Image: Ceasefire Magazine].

Vox Political is grateful to Craig Cartmell for the following, which he posted on the Facebook page as a comment:

Have we all been victims of the greatest confidence trick of the early 21st century?

Let me put a scenario to you:
1. The current government has been slowly putting plans into action to privatise as much of the government as possible, and under the excuse of austerity and the label ‘value for money’ has managed to get rid of a fair chunk:
– Education is increasingly in the hands of mostly unaccountable, private academies.

– The Prison Service is being sold off one prison at a time, and the Probation Service is all but gone.
– The Royal Mail was sold off for a song, a move that benefitted a gang of Tory donors.
– Billions of pounds of NHS contracts are being awarded to private, and often American, healthcare companies.
– The emergency services are next on the list, with Air-Sea Rescue already sold to a private concern.
2. However, there is no way that this programme can be completed within a single term in office. The Tories know that their austerity programme has been exceptionally unpopular, even amongst their core middle class demographic, so it is likely that the 2015 election will be Labour’s to lose rather than the Conservative’s to win.
3. Wales and Scotland are solid opposition territory, and there will be no gains there. So how can the Tories energise the English vote? They need a core policy that will resound at all levels of English society and it cannot be the Health Service as they are busy dismantling that and they would really rather nobody discusses it if possible.
4. The answer is the devolution of powers and the West Lothian question. Now before the Scottish referendum only a few commentators south of the border were discussing the West Lothian question or the Barnet Formula, and only in the context of a victory for the Yes campaign.
5. Immediately after the referendum was won the first words to come out of the Prime Minister’s mouth is that he will hold to his promise to grant Holyrood more powers, but only in conjunction with laying down legislation to effectively ban opposition MPs from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from debating or voting on ‘English matters’. This will be hugely popular with English voters and could deliver the next election to the Tories.
6. This is a major constitutional change that Cameron will try to fast track before May 2015. He is talking about a draft bill to be in place in January 2015.
7. Remember that the referendum was allowed to happen, and to become a binding agreement, by Cameron. He could have simply ignored the SNP’s referendum completely.
7. So was it allowed, or even encouraged, in order to bring this all to pass? Were the ambitions of Alex Salmond and his SNP used as a Trojan Horse? It would explain why Cameron and his cronies only rode in to save the day with promises of more devolved powers at the very last moment.

So what else could Cameron and his Tories achieve in a second term?
a. The repeal of the Human Rights Act to be replaced by a seriously watered down Bill of Rights which shall not hold the government to account. This may also require the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights and thus the European Council and the International Criminal Court.
b. The complete privatisation of all non-core governmental services.
c. The withdrawal of the UK from the EU.
d. Draconian immigration policies and regulations.
e. The deregulation of the financial sector.
f. The removal of all remaining employment rights and the crushing of the last unions.

This neo-liberal agenda would deliver billions of pounds in profits for the mega corporations at the taxpayers’ expense. It would drive down wages and further increase the wealth gap between rich and poor. Services would be seriously reduced in availability and quality as each would be run to maximise profit for the providers’ shareholders.

Welcome to the US of A folks!

What do you think of Craig’s assessment?

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Welcome to North Britain – Bella Caledonia

It seems some of our friends north of England are having a hard time coping with the decision that came from the Scottish referendum. The following article by Mike Small sums up the different strands of feeling – but is it accurate? Isn’t it too soon to say the Westminster parties lied about new powers for Scotland and is it accurate to say they won’t be enough to ward off the next wave of austerity from the evil Coalition government? Here’s the article:

For my friends, the ‘Proud Scots’, congratulations on your victory. Now there’s good news and some bad news for you No voters.

The good news: your vague ‘sense of Britishness’ is secure. Hurrah, no need to worry yourself any more.

The bad news: you have opened the door to £25 billion of austerity measures that will redefine the fabric of our society. On the plus side, you’ll still be able to get The Archers, so while people living in destitution sounds harsh, you won’t be inconvenienced.

The good news: the media is busy telling everyone that ‘home rule’ is coming to Scotland.

Bx7BGk7IMAADXXM.png-largeThe bad news: Gordon Brown just made that up. He’s not in government, it’s not yet 24 hours after the polls closed and the ‘Vow’ is unravelling before our eyes. Already the timetable has disintegrated. Couldn’t they have waited until the weekend before pulling it?

Apparently “Baroness Goldie” thinks appointing “Lord Smith” to reform Scottish democracy is a “strong” move.

The good news: ‘Unionists’ are so happy at the result they’re burning the saltire in George Square, singing the Famine Song and telling asians to leave the area. Is this ‘No Borders’ with a twist? Luckily, you’ve defeated ‘narrow nationalism’.

The bad news: Nigel Farage says “absolutely clear” the Barnett Formula will have to be reconsidered. He’s not alone.

Your victory has left Scotland disempowered and isolated. 73% of over 65s voted No. 71% of 16/17 year olds voted Yes. The young & the poor voted to build a new country & a better future.But the old & the rich said it’s not worth the risk.

45% of Scotland doesn’t want to be part of Britain.

Did you think that by voting for less powers you would get more powers? Funnily enough that’s not what’s going to happen. Already the agenda has moved swiftly on to home rule for England.

So – congratulations Proud Scots – an evening of celebration perhaps? Just avoid George Square, there’s a riot on.

 

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