Some News

You may or may not (sob) have noticed that I've been quiet for a while. That was because I was running in the local elections as an SNP candidate in Coatbridge. Well, the news is; I got in! For the past couple of weeks I have been attending terrifying sessions on 'how to be a good councillor', I've been juggling more mobile phones than a drugs dealer and trying not to panic at the ability of my doocot to fill up when my back's turned for more than five minutes. But I'm getting there and I'll be returning to blogging shortly. Watch this space..

This is What We're Dealing With

I reproduce, without comment, a reply from Richard Wellings on possible sources of funding in a free market healthcare model. It is a comment from an article he wrote called 'How to Abolish the NHS.'

Firstly, insurance would only be one option once markets had been freed. Charitable organisations could provide treatment for those unable to afford insurance. Indeed many of Britain's most famous hospitals were founded as charitable/religious institutions in the pre-NHS era, often with money donated by generous philanthropists. Moreover, in the late 19th century a large proportion of the population obtained health cover through mutual organisations such as friendly societies. Numerous options would emerge if voluntary solutions were no longer crowded out by coercive state provision.

Secondly, I don't accept the arguments about the limitations of health insurance. Insurers can lay off risk using reinsurance markets. And there is no good reason why elderly people can't be insured - for example through long-term plans that smooth out premiums over time. Equity release schemes could also be used to fund healthcare premiums for the many asset-rich but cash-poor pensioners.

Finally, it's important to point out that funding problems in general would be diminished by the deregulation advocated in the article. Entrepreneurship and innovation would increase productivity in the health sector, making treatment more affordable.

*facepalm*

Defend Max Pemberton - Go Spartacus

I have just received from a reliable source that Richard Branson is spitting teeth about an article printed in the Telegraph on Sunday by Max Pemberton. What Pemberton is saying is fairly unremarkable; it's just what everyone else in health has been saying about what a crock of crap the Health Bill is. What is remarkable is that apparentlyBranson is demanding a half page reply; and that a high court injunction was served on Sunday to try to prevent the article being published. Branson is said to be unhappy too about tweeting on the subject and Max could be facing heavy costs because of this; £90 000 has been mentioned as a ballpark figure.


Now we really can't have this at all. I mean, what has the world come to when we have a potential headline 'Leftie Telegraph in Sue Threat by Branson over NHS'? There's really only one answer to this and that's to go Spartacus on it. Is the battle for the NHS over? No. We have only just begun to fight..

Of Conscience, Compromise and the Oaths which Bind Us

“When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties, they lead their country by a short route to chaos.”

More years ago than I care to remember, I was given ‘A Man For All Seasons’ by Robert Bolt at school to study for my English Higher. I am an avaricious reader of books, but I seldom read a book more than once. This book was different. It’s not what you would expect – although it’ s about a Catholic saint Sir Thomas More- it’s not a hagiography. What it is, is a study of the maxim ‘Every man has his price’. More was unique, Bolt argues, because there was a part of him that simply was not for sale. Against the backdrop of the Tudors and Henry VIII, Bolt states his case in stark beautiful language. And this week I returned to it. I was prompted both by the circumstances surrounding the Health and Social Care Bill and a post by Dr No, on what course of action we could or should take, now that the HSCB has been passed. Should we continue to resist and disrupt the bill by any means? Or should we accept it, and try to minimise the harm to the patient? To answer that, we have to look at just what exactly has happened to Westminster and how that has affected what has happened this week.

After the Westminster elections in 2010, the Lib Dems joined the Conservatives in a coalition. I was initially shocked by this. I shouldn’t have been. It simply crystallised something which I had been thinking for a while; that there had been a change in the kind of person entering politics at top level in Britain. People are very cynical about politicians and I understand this, because many politicians are self seeking. However, what you also find in politics are many idealists. You find idealists in politics because it is a place where ideals can be given shape, where the plan of a city can become bricks and mortar, where a vision of humanity like the NHS can become a reality. Politics is both a haunt of demons and a cloister of saints. The difference between the self seekers and the idealists in politics is this; self seekers are content simply with the trappings of power. The title, the money and the fancy cars are enough. But an idealist is not interested in these things. To them, the prize is having the power to change things. For a self seeker, the illusion of power is enough. For the idealist, political power is a tool for change.

That was why I was so shocked. The Lib Dems for the first time, had been handed the opportunity to hold the reins of power. To make a difference. They could have done this by playing honest broker and allowing the Conservatives to form a minority government. They could have voted with the things they liked and against the things they didn’t. They could have stopped student fees, the Welfare Reform Bill and of course, the Health and Social Care Bill.

They went into coalition and substituted the reality of power for its illusion. And to myself, the voters and the grassroots members of the Lib Dems and the Tories, this was totally incomprehensible. It could only mean one thing; that Westminster had been completely, utterly subsumed by self seekers. Some have talked of a tri-partite system, but this is not the correct way to understand what has happened. What has happened is that slowly but surely, these three parties have been taken over by the same elite of corporate lobbyists representing the biggest commercial interests in our country and they are now ruling in complete defiance of the wishes of the electorate. They do not listen to us and they do not listen to the grassroots members of the parties they supposedly espouse. There is always tension between the top and bottom of a political party, but the root has now become separated from the branch. They are accountable to no one apart from themselves and this malaise has spread from the second estate to all the others. Think on this week. First of all, government ignored the rule of the courts to print the risk register. They put themselves above the law. Then they sent out riot police to meet a handful of protestors opposing them and abused the proper function of the police. They shut down the BBC on commenting on the passage of the bill. Did you know that we were the first in the world with a police force and a broadcasting company ? Do you have any idea how respected both of these are; our police for being one of the few forces that has doggedly refused to go quasi military and arm itself and the BBC, for being a voice of freedom in countries that have none? And yet in the UK, its voice has been silenced.

So should we resist the change? To me, the answer is clear; we must. There is a time for compromise and there is a time when in truth we are no longer compromised; in truth we are corrupted. We must oppose this, because it isn’t simply about party politics; it’s about who we are and what our values are. I’m going to make a confession now. Last year, after the Lib Dems joined with the Tories, I joined the SNP. I did it because I could see no other way of tackling the toxic mire that Westminster had become. And yet, I have realised something this week. I also did it because I am British. Because I wanted to preserve the things I value about Britain, especially the NHS , in Scotland. And I have never felt so British as I have this week as I have watched our courts, our police, our BBC and our NHS being trashed in such a vulgar and disrespectful way. How sad that in the Queen’s Jubilee Year, when the Queen renews her coronation oath and re-dedicates herself to the preservation of our laws and constitution, that they are trampled underfoot in an unparalleled act of cultural vandalism. It is shameful.

In this week when the Queen renews her oath, I would urge doctors to renew theirs; the oath to first do no harm and to consider if they can truly keep this oath under the law that has just been passed. What it means if they cannot keep that oath. I’ll leave you with More’s/Bolt’s take on it.

When a man takes an oath, he's holding his own self in his own hands. Like water -and if he opens his fingers then-he needn't hope to find himself again..

NHS Protest Videos

Have been looking for footage of just what happened on Saturday. Here's the armed police incident;



Maybe, just maybe, their being there was a coincidence. They should not have got out of their van and threatened people in the manner they did. However, the large numbers of riot police who were there was certainly not a coincidence and was ridiculous for the numbers who were there. Watch the next video right through; it is worth it. It gives you an idea of just how many riot police were deployed during the day and how much the protestors were hassled. Kudos to the doc at 2.30 who told them to go away and stop creating rioting. Just shows you how far a BBC 4 announcer voice can take you. And a gold star to the policeman at the end of the video who seemed to be the only guy there who knew how to police.

The Death of Democracy

I am furious. Absolutely furious.

The picture above, ladies and gentlemen, is from the NHS protest yesterday outside the Ministry of Health. Yes, that is a policeman armed with a machine gun. They're known as the diplomatic cops (ha, ha) and they were called out in case our protestors got frisky. So were the riot police. For more pictures and info on this go to Latent Existence. Don't bother going to the BBC web pages, because they did not report this.

I don't know what I find more disturbing here; the fact that there were armed police at an NHS protest or that it was not reported by the main news channels. I thought democracy was ailing in
Britain. I now realise that I misdiagnosed the patient. It's actually dead.

Pass this on and let everyone know. We owe it to those who turned out for this protest and we owe it to the NHS.

The Dog that Refused to Bark - The Lord Falconer Commission

I came across this post by Peter Saunders in my hunt for information about who the members of the Lord Falconer Commission on Assisted Dying were. It's a list of those who were asked to give evidence to the commission and refused. Amongst them are the BMA, the BMA Ethics Committee, Alzheimers UK, most of the royal colleges, Carers UK, MacMillan Cancer Support, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, the Association of British Neurologists, the Huntingdon Disease Association, the Multiple Sclerosis Association and many others. Why did they refuse? Maybe because they knew that the deck was stacked..