Who would have thought that this cartoon could be re-used? Now, as when he was Health Secretary, Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has doctors on the rack. He’s not going to pay them the 35% cost-of-living increase he owes them – but he and his colleagues have been happy to take a 42% rise for themselves.
Take a look at the clip below, in which Steve Brine MP, Tory chair of the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, says junior doctors do not deserve the 35 per cent pay increase that would be required to give them parity with their pay in 2010:
Jackie Long, "180 days since Steve Barclay spoke to NHS Consultants, and 140 days since he spoke to Junior Doctors, about pay. If there are no talks about pay the strikes keep going"
Conservative MPs have been worse than useless to the UK since 2010.
They have plunged the country into five times the debt it had in 2005, with nothing to show for it but a crashing economy and nose-diving public services, including a National Health Service that is constantly on the verge of collapse due to intrusive privatisation and over-demand due to the effects of all the Tories’ other policies.
Junior doctors, working within that crashing health service even as it crumbles around them, are far more valuable – for the obvious reason: They are genuine life savers.
But it is the Tory MPs who hold the purse strings.
They could have refused the recommended pay rises that have been offered to them since 2010 but they haven’t. They have taken the money. They have also taken huge wodges of cash in donations from businesspeople, along with the advice of those donors on what to do. You can form your own conclusion about the value of that advice to the majority of us.
And while taking all that filthy lucre – a higher proportional increase than the amount the junior doctors have lost over the same period of time – the Tories have told junior doctors that they do not deserve a pay rise equal to the increase in the cost of living.
No wonder medical professionals are quitting the NHS as fast as they can.
There is a word for MPs like Mr Brine. It begins with a ‘C’ – but it sure isn’t ‘Conservative’.
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Junior doctors have begun four days of strikes to raise awareness of the way the Tory government is crippling the NHS in England, repeating their call for better pay and more investment in the service. At the moment, Tory policy is killing people who should be getting treatment. Can you stomach that?
This is for anybody who still thinks doctors are harming England’s health service by going on strike: they are striking to stop the harm being inflicted by your Tory government!
This post may be quite long so, for those of you who don’t have much time, I’ll try to summarise it, here at the top:
Tory claims that their pay offer to doctors is fair are not true: it is a crappy real-terms pay cut.
Tory claims that their pay offer was recommended by an independent pay review body are also untrue: everybody on that organisation was employed by the Tory government and was told the exact amount the Tory government would make available for pay, before being told to make a decision on it.
Tory claims that doctors’ pay demands are inflationary are lies: junior doctors’ pay has fallen by 26 per cent, in real terms, since 2008. It is impossible for a decrease in costs to be inflationary. Many NHS doctors are now deeply in debt because of Tory pay cuts.
Tory claims that doctors are refusing to negotiate are lies: it is the Tory government that is refusing to negotiate.
Not only are the Tories refusing to negotiate; they are actually preparing to strip doctors of their right to strike, making it impossible for them ever to regain the fair pay and conditions that everybody working in the UK should have as a matter of course.
The NHS in England is currently under severe strain, with the number of people waiting for treatment now standing at 7.6 million – more than at any time in its 75-year history.
These problems were not caused by doctors but by deliberate Tory government de-funding; Tory ministers have taken money away from the health service in order to make it break down. People are dying because of Tory government policy – that is Steve Barclay’s intention; it is what Rishi Sunak wants.
The Tories have made multiple promises over the years that they have claimed will solve the problems facing the NHS – but it is Tory policy never to follow through on those promises.
Doctors are striking because these Tory policies mean they can no longer do their job.
Many of them are themselves facing mental illness due to the stress of being unable to treat people who desperately need help.
Over the same period of time that waiting lists have been lengthening, Tory government policy has been to privatise increasing numbers of NHS services, claiming that the introduction of private, profit-making corporations into healthcare will somehow make it more efficient, rather than draining funds from an already cash-starved organisation. The result has been catastrophic, with almost all parts of the English health service going from an operating surplus into deep debt. This has created even more stress for doctors.
The effect of this state-sponsored incompetence has been to push people into seeking private health treatment in order to jump the NHS queue – whether they can afford it or not. So not only is the NHS now in debt but so are many people who are suffering with illnesses and other conditions whose treatment should be funded by their National Insurance money and public funding.
Of course, it may be possible to get funding for health treatments via private insurance – if the insurer agrees that the policy you have is intended to pay for the treatment you need. Private insurance firms are salivating at the prospect of taking money from people whose health needs mean they cannot wait for an NHS that has been crippled by Tory de-funding to get round to them.
Those are the headline points. Now let’s put some meat on the bones.
Here’s Peter Stefanovic to explain the broad situation:
Ignore the Governments shameless lies about the Junior doctors strike – here are the actual FACTS & this is why I’m standing shoulder to shoulder with them.
Here’s Krishnan Guru-Murthy and the Channel 4 News team to explain why the number of people waiting for help is soaring:
Krishnan Guru-Murthy, "Rishi Sunak pledged NHS waiting lists would fall.. Why are NHS waiting lists so high? Is it covid? Is it junior doctor strikes? Or is it incompetent government?"
Long but expert analysis by the Channel 4 Team on the rising NHS waiting lists. pic.twitter.com/50rpDxBsQ6
You’ll have noticed that the C4 News piece said strikes are disrupting services, and seen the defence of strikes by a doctor under interview. Here’s Grace Blakeley to further explain why doctors are striking:
Junior doctors aren’t causing the crisis in the NHS. They’re trying to end it.pic.twitter.com/erePXRjzd5
And now let’s listen to a junior doctor named Olivia as she explains the facts of NHS life to a prime minister whose facial expression clearly shows that he couldn’t care less:
Olivia(Junior Doctor) rips into Rishi Sunak.
"I think it's amazing that we're blaming the increase in waiting lists on doctors going on strike… everyone is leaving… a happy workforce is your responsibility… your staff aren't happy & that's your fault…"#LBCpic.twitter.com/w0Jg1jsgYC
13 years ago you inherited the #1 ranked healthcare system on the planet and look what you've done: We now have the longest GP, A&E, cancer, and outpatient waiting lists in NHS history. 7.6m people long. You don't deserve power. You deserve prison.#SOSNHSpic.twitter.com/9iwBsTJjFo
Here’s Channel 4 News (again), interviewing a GP on how he and others in his profession have been affected by the Tory-created problems in the NHS:
"We're now down to the marrow in the health service. We're beyond the bone."
A London GP describes his workload to @AyshahTull – as almost half of all doctors in the UK say their mental health is even worse now than during the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/ka0QIZ2HTT
Here’s Dr Meyerson (again) on the medical debt inflicted on patients by Tory government policy:
Dear 🇬🇧,
WAKE UP. You never had medical debt in this country until @Conservatives defunded the best healthcare system in the world and held you all hostage until in desperation, you were pushed to go private. Your family’s health and wealth are not safe in #ToryBritain.#SOSNHSpic.twitter.com/KpMn0Kag6g
Businesses – particularly insurance firms – know an opportunity when they see one. Here’s Axa, explaining why Tory government policy is ushering in an era of insurance-based healthcare, similar to the system in the United States, where health costs are a major cause of bankruptcy:
We must fight this. The public wants the NHS – in public ownership, fully functional, properly staffed, properly invested in.
— Dr Julia Grace Patterson💙 (@JujuliaGrace) August 7, 2023
Now you have the facts. The question is: who do you support – the Tory government, or the striking doctors?
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The puppets: in fact, with today’s information, this image needs to be updated to show a Saudi politician or a private health boss with his hand up Blair.
Labour sinks its candidates’ chances in today’s three by-elections
The UK’s main parties seem to have given their candidates in the three by-elections taking place today (Thursday, July 20, 2023) a shot… in the foot. An entire volley, in the case of the STP (Substitute Tory Party – formerly Labour). In fact, metaphorically-speaking, it would probably be accurate to say that those candidates no longer have any legs to stand on.
Here’s former party leader candidate Liz Kendall showing why members made the right choice by avoiding her like a nasty disease. In defending her leader’s decision to condemn 55 per cent of families with three children and a massive 80 per cent of those with four to poverty, she resorted to the “fiscal responsibility” argument that simply doesn’t ring true:
Here's @leicesterliz responding to being told that 55% of families with at least 3 kids and 80% of families with at least 4 will be in poverty by invoking Liz Truss as to why Labour can't scrap the two child cap, and suggesting that parents of these kids need "better paid jobs". pic.twitter.com/qGpd7KlkvH
The simple fact is that fiscal rules may sound good to the public but all they really do is straitjacket political parties into courses that can harm us all in the long term. There’s no need for them.
Nor is there any justification in saying that (Labour) can’t make promises about where the money for a change will be sourced. The simple fact is that the Conservatives have spent 13 years cutting taxes for the richest people in the UK. The opposition party should be looking at the amount of money these policies have denied to the treasury and making its plans accordingly. Instead, the plan is to leave these tax breaks in place – boosting the rich still further while punishing the poor yet again.
The claim that parents should get better jobs is risible. Even if such employment was available in an economy where pay has been pushed through the floor, how are parents supposed to take them when the massive cost of childcare ties them to their home, looking after their children?
(And please, let’s not engage in the tired old argument that people should not have had more than two children in the first place: you don’t know the circumstances behind those situations, and in any case the UK’s economy requires a larger indigenous population, now that so many workers from abroad have been scared away.)
Elsewhere, Tony Blair has demanded that a future ‘Labour’ government should inflict austerity on the UK:
So, Tiny Blair says what his mate Keir Starmer won’t, which is that austerity is now Labour’s true agenda – even if it sinks our public services, the welfare state and the economy whilst failing to meet public demand. We’re all going to be doomed by this stupidity. https://t.co/H3DFS8bLv9
"Providing you're not forcing people to pay for basic healthcare, I don't think it matters that you have a partnership between public & private sector"
Basic healthcare free at the point of use. Anything else, you've got to pay. Not a problem for the vastly wealthy, of course. pic.twitter.com/H3xz571Nez
We know from the nauseating spectacle of Blair discussing policy with Keir Stürmer in public that the opposition party leader is a Blairite and wants to follow the desires of his ideological leader as much as possible.
Blair is saying he wants austerity, and he wants increased privatisation in the NHS. Only “basic” healthcare should be free at the point of use, he said. Other services would cost money. These are not Labour Party policies, of course – and nobody claiming to represent Labour who supports them, and/or the leaders who spout them, should be allowed into Parliament.
What we’re looking at is “policy capture” – and the organisation behind Tony Blair should be avoided at all costs because it is owned by foreign governments, it seems:
Yesterday we saw, in real time, policy capture of the likely next government & PM by a shadowy organisation with 850 staff which has received millions from overseas. It’s called the Tony Blair Institute @InstituteGC.
So candidates in today’s by-elections – by the words of leading party members – are not going to help working and working-class people but may well be following the demands of foreign governments instead, with plans including making us pay for anything more than “basic” healthcare.
Would you vote for that?
Grant Shapps shows why Tories should not be allowed near power
While leading members of the STP (Substitute Tory Party – formerly Labour) have been hobbling their by-election candidates, Grant Shapps has been doing the same for the real Tory Party’s credibility.
He has written to Keir Stürmer, demanding that the STP pay for damage caused by Just Stop Oil protests, on the grounds that the STP is the political wing of Just Stop Oil:
I’ve written to @Keir_Starmer to request he pays for the criminal damage the Just Stop Oil attacks on the Energy Security Department caused this morning
As the political wing of Just Stop Oil, it is the Labour Party not the taxpayer that should be paying the bill pic.twitter.com/UAPT6gWUEK
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) July 19, 2023
This is boneheaded stupidity. In doing so, Shapps is publicly acknowledging that any politician or political organisation that takes money from a donor will do what that donor demands in the future.
If Stürmer’s STP had said that, we could point to the donations its members receive from Trevor Chinn and say this is an admission that that party is now a sockpuppet of the so-called Israel Lobby (amongst others).
But because a Conservative has said it, we can rifle through all the donations that party and its MPs receive instead. Obviously Shapps is admitting that the Tories are all in thrall to private health firms (for example), and that’s why the NHS is being increasingly privatised.
He has opened the door for us to tell the world that the Conservative Party – and more importantly the Conservative government – does not work for the people of the United Kingdom, despite taking huge amounts of our cash.
Instead, it works for those shadowy donors, despite all the claims over the years that it did not, which we are now free to conclude are lies.
And that means any Tories elected in today’s (Thursday, July 20, 2023) by-elections will do the same and should therefore be blocked from ever entering Parliament.
Nice one, Shapps!
Rishi Sunak blames striking junior doctors for his own government’s health service blunders
Here’s another Tory failure that should cut into that party’s vote in today’s by-elections: Rishi Sunak’s attempts to blame striking junior doctors for weaknesses in the National Health Service.
I’ll let Peter Stefanovic explain:
The Prime Minister blaming Junior doctors for hospital waiting lists is one of the most despicable things he’s said
& for the record he’s offered them a crappy real terms pay cut
If like me you stand with the junior doctors who sacrificed so much to keep us safe RT this widely pic.twitter.com/hv8JLS5d0N
As a result of Tory pay cuts since 2010, you are £11,000 a year worse-off than you would otherwise have been, and Sunak wants you to take further pay cuts (not just just junior doctors). Meanwhile, average pay for MPs, once their multiple other jobs are taking into account, is more than £200 per hour.
The “Independent” Pay Review Body is nothing of the sort. Its members are all employed by the government and are told how much money the government is willing to pay public sector workers before making any decisions. Those decisions are then made to fit in with what the government tells them to do, rather than with what public sector employees need.
Daily Express fails at basic maths. Just because inflation has fallen, that doesn’t mean prices are dropping
Carol Vorderman explains basic mathematics to the writers of a national newspaper.
It seems the Daily Express and its employees don’t understand that a fall in the rate of inflation does not mean that prices have dropped – despite the fact that it has been drilled into all of us over many months that such a fall really means the rate at which prices increase is slowing down.
So the following headline betrays a lack of economic credibility:
Tory Daily Express failing primary school maths test this morning!
Inflation has fallen to 7.9% which means that 'prices' have gone UP. They continue to go UP just slightly less quickly. Food inflation is 14.9% Maybe my online maths lessons https://t.co/EO8lwRzGs7 could help? pic.twitter.com/vyp57n9C9v
This Writer understands that we still don’t know who won the contract to provide these barges, that have been modified to accommodate 500 people rather than 240, meaning less space is available for each of them.
And we don’t know whether there was a proper tendering process, with multiple interested parties invited to bid for the contract, or if it was just handed over to a Tory crony via the illegal “VIP lane” or any successor route.
It’s another point for voters in today’s three by-elections to consider.
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Number of people waiting long periods for PIP claim result has plummeted
The number of disabled people waiting longer than six months to be told whether they have been successful in their claim for a key disability benefit has plummeted over the last year, new figures have shown. https://t.co/JTU40FEfCz
— Disability News Service (@johnpringdns) July 8, 2023
The number waiting longer than six months has dropped from more than 20,000 to just 300 within 12 months, and the DWP says it has halved the time it takes in acting on a claim.
But how many claims are the DWP processing now, in comparison to 12 months ago? What is the figure as a proportion of all claims received? And – more to the point – how many are successful?
Ofgem asks energy suppliers to publish all their tariffs, so customers know what deals are worthwhile
Pleased to say, after my letter to @ofgem asking it to ensure all energy firms publish all tariffs (even existing customer only tariffs) for transparency & scrutiny, its now asked them to do so. Hopefully it works, if not we'll push for rule change. See https://t.co/bZ2bpr3gvA
Scam adverts: the government has STILL enacted no laws to protect you against them
It's 6yrs since we started seeing mass proliferation of scam ads 5yrs since I sued Facebook. 4yrs since they settled (for £3m to charity). 4yrs since the online harms white paper (still not law) 18mth since they agreed to inc scams in it. 1 day since first deep fake scam ad…
Are doctors in Scotland well-advised to suspend strikes after pay offer of 17.5% over two years?
Doctors in Scotland have suspended strikes following a revised pay deal
BMA Scotland said it would recommend its members accept a pay increase of 17.5% over two years. They had been poised to walk out for three days next week
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) July 8, 2023
It may seem a lot but doctors in Scotland have only suspended their strike action for a pay deal of 8.75 per cent per year – that’s still less than the current rate of inflation and therefore a pay cut.
But it is more than junior doctors have been offered by Health Secretary Steve Barclay – whose own pay packet has not been reduced by inflation.
Meanwhile, teachers are being told their own job is a “vocation” – meaning it is especially worthy of dedication – and they should be happy with £27,000 a year, by Heather Wheeler. Take a look at this point:
Teaching isn't a vocation any more its the recommendation once you get a degree in any subject – "you can go & teach now" – unqualified, no teacher training – no wonder they quit after a couple of years. https://t.co/F8PV3cAHpt
There is no degree in being a member of Parliament, and most of the degrees in politics don’t seem to be worth the paper they’re written on (look at the havoc wreaked on the nation by graduates of Oxford’s Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) course). It is a career for which there is no qualification and cannot be described as a vocation – but Heather Wheeler draws down a salary of £82,000 a year, plus expenses.
And it is important to remember that teachers aren’t just striking to get better pay for themselves. Government spending on education suffered its longest-ever decline under the Tory governments between 2011 and 2019, and teachers are striking to ensure that education as a whole is properly funded:
In yesterday’s debate in Parliament on education I tried to bring sense of reality explaining what’s happened to education spending since 2010 & why teachers were striking & marching outside not just for fair pay but also proper funding for schools. Solidarity to @NEUnion pic.twitter.com/uKmwUdt6G9
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) July 6, 2023
And the Tory arguments that pay increases would raise the rate of inflation have already been proved false.
So there is no good reason for refusing to pay doctors, teachers and other striking workers what they are due – which would bring them to parity – in real terms – with their pay in 2010. And there’s no good reason for refusing to properly fund education and the NHS either; taxation is currently at its highest in something like 70 or 80 years, which should mean public money is available for such projects. What have the Tories done with it?
All of the above supports the following short clip, making an important point that should be remembered by everyone who complains about strikes:
Did Jeremy Corbyn grab Israel Advocacy member – as he claims – or was the MP the one who was assaulted?
From this "Israel Advocacy Movement" video, it looks very much like (despite false claims to the contrary in the voiceover) their YouTuber Joseph Cohen assaulted @jeremycorbyn at the Palestine demo yesterday.
Here’s video footage of what happened. The context note beneath it clarifies exactly what really did happen. Reggie D Hunter’s comment is pertinent too:
I respect Jeremy Corbyn but if he physically overpowered me in any way, I would go somewhere and eat a bowl steroids https://t.co/IPQiQzvYNZ
— Reginald D Hunter (@reginalddhunter) July 7, 2023
These aggressively Zionist, pro-Israel goons think they can do whatever they like and then lie about it when we can see what’s really happening via their own recordings.
Remember that, next time one of them makes a wild accusation.
Most train ticket offices in England to be shut within three years, no matter how many people it disadvantages
Most train ticket offices in England to shut within 3 yrs.
Companies got £13.3bn subsidy last yr.
They chase profits. No concern about passengers – no guards, ticket office, advice, security
From a friend who works in a station ticket office. This is why staffing CANNOT be cut.
“Just this afternoon during our shift changeover a lady knocked on our ticket office window asking for help. She is partially sighted and cannot use the ticket machines. I went straight out…
— Simon Harris – Man Behaving Dadly (THAT’S DADLY) (@simonharris_mbd) July 7, 2023
Does anybody remember a piece of law called the Disability Discrimination Act? Did it not make provision for a situation like this?
If not, is it time that Act was amended?
Jeremy Hunt to appear on Martin Lewis ITV show about mortgages – and you can help grill him
NEWS: I'm pleased to say the Chancellor @Jeremy_Hunt's agreed to join me for my emergency Mortgage Special @itvmlshow 8pm Tue. If uv questions to suggest for me to put to him, especially based on ur circumstances (remember it's a practical not political show) pls reply with them.
Tin-eared airport bosses want to increase pollution there by 60% amid public fury over environmental harm
At a time when it is vital that people fly less often London’s Gatwick airport submits plans to increase capacity by 60%. Are people really that indifferent to the fate of our life on this planet? https://t.co/JTIyp5nVBN
Minister for disabled people refuses to discuss his disability action plan with them
The minister for disabled people has been criticised by one of his own MPs for failing to consult properly with disabled people’s organisations over his forthcoming disability action plan. https://t.co/tQJ1uttGZ1
— Disability News Service (@johnpringdns) July 7, 2023
Perhaps Tom Pursglove doesn’t want disabled people to object to the plan to close railway ticket offices?
Perhaps there are a multitude of other omissions in his plan that he doesn’t want to allow under the spotlight until it has been rubber-stamped?
Whatever the excuse, this is unacceptable behaviour from any government. Nobody’s life should be changed by the government if they haven’t had a chance to participate in the process.
“Nothing about us without us,” remember?
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Helen Whately: she’s smiling in the photograph, possibly because she’s just had her foot removed from her mouth. Shortly after it was taken, she would have re-inserted it.
Tory social care minister Helen Whately should spend half her life in hospital, considering how often she gets her own feet lodged in her mouth.
Here she is, discussing the forthcoming three-day junior doctors’ strike, starting on July 13 – saying the Tory government doesn’t habitually accept the recommendations of independent pay review bodies, followed by historical contradictions from the health secretary and prime minister (courtesy of Peter Stefanovic).
When it comes to pay review bodies never underestimate just how thick this Government thinks we all are… pic.twitter.com/58iLn6pJW8
We can’t expect better from a minister in the Department of Health and Social Care who lies about the number of doctors and nurses available to the public who pay for them, as we see here:
Left: Helen Whateley says that since 2010 we have 'record numbers' of staff in the NHS
Right: GMB citing King's Fund report, "NHS has fewer doctors, nurses and beds than many other western countries." pic.twitter.com/7E4ZbiEk5o
For the sake of balance, I should add that the Conservatives have succeeded admirably in their ambitions for the National Health Service: they wanted to reduce it to a lower-quality, postcode-lottery system that provides no value for money to the people who pay for it, because their donors in the private health sector wanted to take public money that was formerly used on healthcare and put it in their offshore bank accounts as profit.
The amount of money that is wasted in such a manner is phenomenal – but then, the healthcare firms do spend millions funding ministers and shadow ministers.
As far as those ministers, shadow ministers and healthcare executives are concerned, all the right people are benefiting from this situation.
The only people who don’t are those who rely on the NHS – and who cares about them?
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The Tory government’s policy on strike action by junior doctors was shredded into mincemeat when health minister Rachel Maclean tried to argue it out with Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chair of the British Medical Association’s Junior Doctors’ Committee on the BBC’s Politics Live (June 14, 2023).
Challenged over whether junior doctors should begin a strike in a heatwave, he pointed out that the NHS is in crisis whether in a heatwave or not – and specialist staff were in place to handle any respiratory issues (for example).
He pointed out to the government minister, whose salary has remained stable up to the present day, that her government has cut pay for junior doctors, repeatedly, for the past 15 years.
This is in line with overall pay stagnation across the UK since 2005, that has been reported recently. Tories like Ms Maclean have presided over the longest period of pay stagnation since Napoleonic times, while making decisions that made inflation skyrocket. Ms Maclean had claimed that pay is rising and this is not true.
The housing minister said strikes must be called off for talks to continue, but Dr Laurenson pointed out that this is not practical for junior doctors – they would be disarming and putting themselves in a position where the government could simply continue to cut pay, year on year.
The government didn’t even recognise the full recommendations of the “supposedly” independent pay review body that said without addressing junior doctor pay there would be a significant impact on patient safety, not because of strikes but because of the effect on productivity and staff retention, said Dr Laurenson.
Challenged over whether it was practical to give junior doctors the 35 per cent rise that would replace all the pay they had lost, he said it’s an increase from £14 per hour to £20 per hour, which is not a huge hike.
And when MPs have managed to keep their own already-high pay at parity with its level in 2010, they don’t have a leg to stand on.
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Stella Creasy in Parliament: if she’s working for a private health insurance firm outside its walls, what is she saying within them?
Campaigning group Every Doctor has rejected a demand by Labour’s Stella Creasy to remove her from an interactive map listing every MP who has received a donation from companies involved in the private takeover of the UK’s National Health Service.
Creasy thought that she should not be included because she donated a payment from insurance firm Aviva to charity.
But after consulting its lawyer, Every Doctor pointed out that the concern is not where the money goes, but how it was obtained.
Here’s the full explanation:
…removed.
We have responded to the situation urgently; any suggestion of inaccuracy is taken extremely seriously by our team. We have reviewed Stella Creasy's query. She feels that because she gave the money to charity, her entry should be removed from the map.
…A transaction took place between an organisation associated with the private healthcare sector (Aviva) and Stella Creasy. The fact that she chose to give this money to charity is immaterial, in our view.
What we are interested in is the receipt of financial benefits, or…
…a field trip which can further a cause the politician supports.
Any of these things enable politicians to do something beneficial to them (or to build relationships or their public image) as a result of taking money from the private healthcare industry.
We (the public) didn’t know from the Register of Members’ Interests which charity benefited, and we don’t know what Creasy said during the panel appearance for which Aviva paid her; we must presume she was putting forward a view held by that firm, otherwise it would not have employed her.
The inclusion of Aviva on the map has been questioned because it insures other things besides health – but Every Doctor has answered that concern:
They had £100 million + turnover in Q1 2023 from private healthcare. An increase of 11%. They’re very happy with themselves 👉🏻👉🏻 https://t.co/W0pzD4wjMt
(This should worry anybody who supports the NHS because it indicates that the Tory policy of turning people away from the NHS to seek private healthcare – supported by insurance – is working.)
Critics have also claimed that receiving payment from a health (among other things) insurance firm is okay because it was donated to a charity shelter for homeless people – that Aviva already supports.
From This Writer’s point of view, it is unacceptable that Creasy provided a service for Aviva and took money for it, no matter where it went.
By handing the cash to a homeless shelter, she get kudos for being a humanitarian. But the shelter is funded by the company that paid her in any event, so it seems possible that she was advised (directed?) to send it there – and that would be a questionable act.
But the fundamental issue is that she provided work for a private healthcare firm when her only concern should be working in the interests of the people of the UK.
We don’t know what she said on this panel for which she was hired by Aviva. We may assume that, as Aviva paid her, she was there to represent that company’s interests – but because she is an MP, attendees may have been misled into thinking she was putting forward Labour Party policy.
And we don’t know how working for Aviva will affect the way she’ll vote on health issues in Parliament. Did the payment depend on her support for private health involvement in the NHS in the future? We don’t know.
I think it would be advisable to watch her future behaviour in Parliamentary votes very carefully – and for that to happen, we need to know why it is important to do so.
Therefore I support Every Doctor’s decision. Creasy should remain on the map and the fact that she received this money in this way should be visible to everybody.
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Junior doctors are to strike again (as they did in 2016 when this image was taken).
This speaks for itself:
Junior doctors in England have announced a new 72-hour walkout in June after the latest round of government pay talks broke down.
The strike will take place between 07:00 on Wednesday 14 June and 07:00 on Saturday 17 June.
The British Medical Association (BMA) union, which represents doctors and medical students, said a government offer of a 5% rise was not “credible”.
Ministers said pay talks could only continue if the strike was called off.
Clearly, junior doctors are refusing to be bullied by the Tories, in the face of the anti-strike Bill that’s going through Parliament right now.
Perhaps they agree with Jeremy Corbyn, who has stated that
Doctors and nurses are striking because patients are dying.
In scapegoating NHS staff, teachers, railway workers, posties and civil servants, the government is forcing ordinary people to pay the price for a crisis caused by decades of austerity, economic mismanagement, and corporate greed.
Good; because the Tories might carp about needing “minimum service levels”, but these strikes are happening because the Tories have made it impossible for any such minimum to be met.
The only way to get “minimum service levels” in the NHS is for these doctors to succeed with their strike action.
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Steve Barclay: he holds NHS staff in contempt, even though he’s surrounded by kit that he can’t make work – and they can.
It’s as though NHS employees – doctors, nurses or whoever – are the children of an abusive parent.
And Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s mistreatment of (among others) nurses has not gone unnoticed.
So the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing has condemned as “disgraceful” his decision to “bully” nurses into submission with legal action against their next two-day strike.
Her response echoes that of an abused family member who has taken too much and refuses to accept any more…
The leader of the Royal College of Nursing has said a legal attempt by the health secretary to block next weekend’s strike in England is “frightening for democracy and very frightening for trade unionism”.
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said it was “disgraceful” that Steve Barclay was attempting to thwart the strike via the courts, and said nurses would “not be bullied into silence”.
“We have instructed our legal counsel and we will stand up for nursing. This is about standing up not just for nursing but for trade unionism and for democracy,” she told the Observer.
“It’s utterly disgraceful that he [Barclay] would prefer to use money to challenge nurses than to pay them, at a time when those nurses are struggling to pay their bills. He is using public funding, patients’ money, to challenge nurses through the court.”
She added that a claim by Barclay that the government’s legal action sought to protect nurses who could “otherwise be asked to take part in unlawful activity that could in turn put their professional registration at risk” was a “blatant threat”. “He is trying to frighten nursing staff. That registration is their livelihood,” she said.
It’s actually insulting. Barclay is playing the ‘kindly uncle’ character, who fakes concern for youngsters in his charge while actually subjecting them to harm.
Sadly, his attitude is rubbing off on members of the general public, who are also starting to treat NHS staff as government property, in the same way some children have to comply with parental wishes (whether they are benign or not – and in this case they’re malign).
… to have.
If the government wants to retain NHS staff, they’re going to have to apply the market forces they’re so fond of, and start paying these professionals properly.
— Dr Julia Grace Patterson💙 (@JujuliaGrace) April 23, 2023
And what’s the upshot of all this abuse?
Let’s skip across to see what’s happening to doctors:
Like a child suffering mental health problems as a result of living in an abusive household?
You may be thinking that the comparison is false. Doctors and nurses are, after all, highly-trained professionals who could merrily move out to any other health organisation in this or other countries.
But the UK’s National Health Service has an emotional hold over almost everybody in the UK (Tory MPs and private health executives/shareholders excepted). It inspires almost familial loyalty in that respect.
That is a great strength in retaining staff – but also part of the problem because it gives Tories carte blanche to cut pay and otherwise abuse staff, which leads to the mental health problems that we’re seeing too.
It is vital to point out how this demonstrates the contempt in which the Tories in general – and Barclay in particular – hold NHS staff.
Without that understanding, it would be hard to understand why the Tories are obstructing pay negotiations the way they are.
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Steve Barclay: he doesn’t know how any of this equipment works and he is attacking the people who do, while the UK’s medical patients go without treatment.
This looks very bad for the Tory government.
The BMA, which represents junior doctors, supports mediation via ACAS. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has intervened to call for it.
But Steve Barclay refuses to accept it – according to The Times. And, unlike the doctors, he wants to impose preconditions on any talks. Why?
To all those eminent medics helpfully appealing to "both sides" to talk, can we please be really clear that one side – junior doctors – *is* appealing to the other to negotiate?
But @SteveBarclay fears ACAS might agree with juniors.
Is that really it? Barclay’s afraid that a mediator will oppose him and side with the doctors?
If so, then the cat’s out of the bag and he’ll look bad, whatever he does now.
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