Britain

In 1948 all the Tory MPs in the House of Commons dutifully voted
against the setting up of the National Health Service. For more than
sixty years since, the NHS has been one of our most loved institutions,
relied on by millions of people to look after their health.  The Tories
have publicly regretted their stance and pledged that, “the NHS is safe
in our hands.” We now see that was a lie. If new Health Secretary
Andrew Lansley’s plans, called ‘Liberating the NHS’, goes through the
NHS will be in tatters in five years time.

On the morning of Saturday 28th August Bradford had become a ghost
town. Pubs, shops and cafes were boarded up and the Saturday shoppers
stayed away. Some landlords had gone one further by piling up all their
beer garden tables and chairs against the doors to keep the trouble
out. The EDL were in town to “peacefully protest” against the supposed
takeover by radical Islam.

The cuts outlined in the 2010 emergency budget will come as a
hammer-blow to all workers. However, it is working class women –
especially the low paid and single parents – who will be amongst the
hardest hit. For them, the changes to Child Tax Credits and benefits
will be a particularly bitter pill to swallow.

Journalists usually refer to August as the silly season. It
is in that context that we have the latest madcap idea to come from the Con-Dem
coalition. According to plans leaked by the Guardian newspaper, council housing
tenancies will no longer be ‘for life.’

When David Cameron announced "The Big Society" (a name nicked from the
American President LBJ who used it in the ’60s) during the election,
most people laughed and assumed that would be the last we would hear of
it. Tory spokespeople said that they had no idea what it meant and one
Tory MP described it as "Bollocks." Indeed. However, now safely inside
Number 10, Cameron has brought up it up again.

On Saturday 10^th July, around
200 trade unionists, local residents, and health campaigners took to the
streets in opposition to plans to franchise the management of
Hinchingbrooke
Hospital in Huntingdon to the private sector. Protestors received
support along
the route of the march through the centre of Huntingdon chanting, “Hands
Off
Hinchingbrooke; Defend the NHS”.

Campaigners, trade unionists, and local
residents are set to take to the streets in Huntingdon this Saturday
10th July to
protest against plans to franchise the management of Hinchingbrooke
Hospital to
the private sector.

The draconian budget rolled out in June is only the first instalment in
a five year programme of austerity to be inflicted upon the British
people. The Tory-dominated government is telling us that the economy is
in a hole. This is true. They are softening us up for drastic cuts in
public spending, saying we can’t afford it and (in the words of
Thatcher) that there is no alternative. This is a lie.

We conclude Dan Morley’s three part study of the crisis inside UK housing.