A "die-in" for the NHS, on the road in front of Parliament
On March 26, 2013, when hundreds of campaigners from across London and the rest of England converged on Parliament for a protest against the Tory-led coalition government's attempts to subject almost the whole of the NHS to privatisation, a small number of the protestors staged a brief "die-in," lying down in the road in front of Parliament and temporarily bring traffic to a halt.
The main focus of the day was a powerful and rousing meeting inside the House of Commons, featuring the Green MP Caroline Lucas, the Labour MPs Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Heidi Alexander, and the Labour peer Philip Hunt (Baron Hunt of Kings Heath). The government plans to achieve this underhand privatisation through secondary legislation relating to Section 75 of the wretched Health and Social Care Act that was passed last year, and the regulations first came to light just a month ago.
Although 350,000 people recently signed a 38 Degrees petition opposing the plans, and Lib Dem minister Norman Lamb promised that the key regulations on competition in the NHS would be rewritten, the rewritten regulations have barely changed, and they still oblige the NHS -- and, specifically, the Clinical Commissioning Groups of GPs who will take over responsibility for 80 percent of the NHS's budget from April 1 -- to put almost all NHS services out to tender, allowing private companies to begin to devour the whole of the NHS or face legal challenges that they will probably lose because enforced competition will have been made into a key component of the provision of NHS services.
The need to oppose the implementation of the Section 75 regulations is hugely important, and we only have until the third week of April to persuade members of the House of Lords (and particularly Lib Dem and cross-bench peers) to join with Labour peers in striking down the legislation. Opponents of the government's plans are also encouraged to write to their MPs to ask them to sign an Early Day Motion calling for the regulations to be overturned.
Find out how to write to members of the House of Lords -- and what to say -- here: www.savelewishamhospital.com/write-letters-to-lords-now/
Contact your MP here to ask them to sign EDM 1188, calling for the Section 75 regulations to be annulled: www.writetothem.com/
And here's the EDM: www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/1188
For my article about the regulations, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/02/25/urgent-save-the-nhs-...
For the 38 Degrees petition, see: secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/nhs-section-75
For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/
For all my NHS protest photos, see: www.flickr.com/photos/andyworthington/tags/nhs/
For my most interesting photos, see: www.flickriver.com/photos/andyworthington/popular-interes...
UPDATE JUNE 2017: I've just set up a Facebook page, 'The State of London', featuring, every day, a photo of London from my five years of cycling around and taking photos of the capital. Please join me! www.facebook.com/thestateoflondon/
A "die-in" for the NHS, on the road in front of Parliament
On March 26, 2013, when hundreds of campaigners from across London and the rest of England converged on Parliament for a protest against the Tory-led coalition government's attempts to subject almost the whole of the NHS to privatisation, a small number of the protestors staged a brief "die-in," lying down in the road in front of Parliament and temporarily bring traffic to a halt.
The main focus of the day was a powerful and rousing meeting inside the House of Commons, featuring the Green MP Caroline Lucas, the Labour MPs Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Heidi Alexander, and the Labour peer Philip Hunt (Baron Hunt of Kings Heath). The government plans to achieve this underhand privatisation through secondary legislation relating to Section 75 of the wretched Health and Social Care Act that was passed last year, and the regulations first came to light just a month ago.
Although 350,000 people recently signed a 38 Degrees petition opposing the plans, and Lib Dem minister Norman Lamb promised that the key regulations on competition in the NHS would be rewritten, the rewritten regulations have barely changed, and they still oblige the NHS -- and, specifically, the Clinical Commissioning Groups of GPs who will take over responsibility for 80 percent of the NHS's budget from April 1 -- to put almost all NHS services out to tender, allowing private companies to begin to devour the whole of the NHS or face legal challenges that they will probably lose because enforced competition will have been made into a key component of the provision of NHS services.
The need to oppose the implementation of the Section 75 regulations is hugely important, and we only have until the third week of April to persuade members of the House of Lords (and particularly Lib Dem and cross-bench peers) to join with Labour peers in striking down the legislation. Opponents of the government's plans are also encouraged to write to their MPs to ask them to sign an Early Day Motion calling for the regulations to be overturned.
Find out how to write to members of the House of Lords -- and what to say -- here: www.savelewishamhospital.com/write-letters-to-lords-now/
Contact your MP here to ask them to sign EDM 1188, calling for the Section 75 regulations to be annulled: www.writetothem.com/
And here's the EDM: www.parliament.uk/edm/2012-13/1188
For my article about the regulations, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/2013/02/25/urgent-save-the-nhs-...
For the 38 Degrees petition, see: secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/nhs-section-75
For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/
For all my NHS protest photos, see: www.flickr.com/photos/andyworthington/tags/nhs/
For my most interesting photos, see: www.flickriver.com/photos/andyworthington/popular-interes...
UPDATE JUNE 2017: I've just set up a Facebook page, 'The State of London', featuring, every day, a photo of London from my five years of cycling around and taking photos of the capital. Please join me! www.facebook.com/thestateoflondon/