"Did any of us ask for this? Are there crowds on the streets demanding the privatisation of the NHS? Even the Tories have come out against it: David Cameron's speech last week placed them to the left of Labour. Why, after the 60-odd quarters of consecutive growth that Gordon Brown keeps boasting about, can he not maintain a public service founded in the midst of poverty and rationing? What mysterious hold on policy do the corporations possess, that they can persuade this government to wreck Labour's finest achievement and damage its chances of re-election?"
writes George Monbiot in his excellent article in today’s Guardian on the government’s plans to replace local GP surgeries with giant privately-owned polyclinics.
The ‘mysterious hold on policy' that the corporations possess is of course, money power. Money power has corrupted our democracy in the same way it has corrupted democracy in the US. On issue after issue, the policies the government adopts are not those which the majority of people want: such as renationalisation of the railways and a fairer, more progressive taxation system, but the policies the banks and the big corporations want.
And make no mistake: ending this sorry state of affairs is the greatest democratic challenge of our times.
5 comments:
I am having a procedure in a week or so and the nurse said: 'You must be worried that our doctor practices as a private business, rather than like your public medical system in England.'
I said: 'Quite the opposite. The fact that he makes a living from his surgery makes me more confident he's limiting his potential to make mistakes.'
After an NHS doctor misdiagnosed my wife's ectopic pregnancy as a urinary tract infection - and looked thoroughly bored and arrogant while doing so - makes me believe that private medical care has much more accountability than the NHS.
"After an NHS doctor misdiagnosed my wife's ectopic pregnancy as a urinary tract infection - and looked thoroughly bored and arrogant while doing so - makes me believe that private medical care has much more accountability than the NHS."
Which is all fine and dandy if you can afford it, you smug tosser.
Never mind about the rest of us in Low-Wage/No-Wage Britain, who have had our medical care taken away to enhance the profits of your beloved private sector.
Might want to watch those conclusions you jump to!
I live in America, Davros. We have to pay for medical care here. I couldn't afford to go private in the UK.
The upshot is, in America it's superior coverage to the NHS.
Before I moved to America, I hadn't been able to see a dentist for 15 years (unless I was willing to pay £300.)
That's what the free 'nationalised health service' delivers. Exactly what you pay for it.
Yes, you're absolutely right. The UK isn't sufficiently like America yet.
We should privatise what remains of the NHS, to keep poor people from cluttering up the waiting rooms and making them look untidy.
We could also improve everyone's safety and quality of life by selling machine guns at the all-night garage. We should abandon the use of the letter "u", and start writing our dates arse-backwards too, that way, everyone will know just how goddam smart we are, or else.
You are in America living happily with your American sytem, that's fine. Enjoy
We are in Britain. Are we allowed not to want to pretend to be Americans or like the American health system?
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