You Voted For This
By ‘you’ of course I mean you people who voted Tory. I do hope you Lib Dem voters don’t make the same mistake twice:
Anyone who thought Andrew Lansley‘s political career was over had better think again after tonight’s meeting of the Tory 1922 committee.
The health secretary was cheered to the rafters when he appeared before the 1922 committee to explain the “pause” in the government’sNHS reforms.
My mole described the scene:
The minute Andrew walked in there was sustained banging of desks. He was very very very well received. The support was genuinely warm.
The enthusiastic reception for Lansley was designed to send messages to two people:
• David Cameron needs to tread with care amid concerns among some Tory MPs that No 10 has suggested that Lansley is an isolated figure in the government’s “listening exercise” over the health and social care bill.
• Nick Clegg, who announced his support for major changes to the bill at a meeting of his parliamentary party on Tuesday night, will face a furious response if he turns too harshly on Lansley.
You voted against AV, which might have better represented the majority who don’t agree with any of this. But no, in your ignorance you enabled this party to continue dismembering the NHS, to continue its unnecessary policy of ‘savage’ budget cuts, its thorough marketisation of higher education (which will destroy it for the – you guessed it – majority). You voted against the Lib Dems in the local elections, when they haven’t acted as a discernible brake on the Tories, and in doing so sent the Tories the message that they could do as they pleased. Even the police hate them! We have a voting system which allows a party which most people didn’t vote for to try its utmost to dismember as much of the areas of the public sector which most people value and a population with attitudes so insufferably stupid that given the chance to send a message that this has to stop then didn’t!
You people have brought what’s to come on yourselves. The destruction of London Metropolitan University is only the start for higher education, and when one of Cameron’s advisors says the NHS will be shown ‘no mercy’, you can only imagine what’s next. There’s no alternative, I hear you idiots cry? Of course there bloody is. Even the ultra right Sarkozy in France is talking about a Robin Hood tax to make the bankers pay the financial cost of the damage they caused. And of course even the senior doctor brought in by Cameron to review the ConDems’ reforms is utterly opposed to them:
Prof Steve Field, chairman of the NHS Future Forum – set up last month to undertake the coalition’s “listening exercise” – flatly rejects the health secretary’s plan to compel hospitals to compete for patients and income, which he says could “destroy key services”. The proposal, contained inAndrew Lansley‘s health and social care bill, has led key medical organisations to warn that it will lead to the breakup of the NHS and betray the service’s founding principles.
Andrew Lansley Rap
I’m going to the March for the Alternative on the 26th March (2 days from now as I write) to stand up against these bastards. If you have any shred of intelligence or decency you should too. I’ll be damned if I’ll just stand by and let them dismantle what little there is left of this society which actually works…
Living with Alzheimers
Todays press release by the Alzheimer’s Society has finally pointed out the giant elephant currently in the room of the UKs health system. Stating that the NHS currently does not have the training or resources in place to deal with the rising levels of patients with mental health issues this report is something that every single person in the country should be listening to, and getting angry about.
Please do not take this post to be anti-NHS as a whole, or an attempt to undermine the people working in it- far from it, I have been dealing with a close family member suffering from vascular dimensia (a very common form of Alzheimers) for the last 5 years – and have always found them to be beyond exceptional, working long and hard whilst being fustrated by lack of funding and assistance to go about their job to the best of their ability.
Alzheimers is one of the great unspoken diseases that is still (rather like most mental illness) hidden away, ignored and hoped to be avoided. In reality with a aging population this is a problem that will very soon be unavoidable, and out of control. In short (and I desperately hope this is a false prophesy for you) it is extremely likely that you will have to deal with the affects of Alzheimers to either yourself, or someone you hold dear.
So todays press release, a result of several months of research and investigation should worry us all- and whilst we are in a position to do something to make a difference, should be ringing every bell for it to become one of the major manifesto pledges of parties regarding the NHS in the forthcoming election.
I would like to make this a continuing story over the next few weeks, and would be really interested to hear your experiences and thoughts on the matter also. If you’d like to get involved feel free to drop a note below.
