This is a very personal concern about Cameron and his cohort Lansley and what they are doing to MY beloved NHS.
In my life not just myself but one of my daughters owe our lives to this magnificent institution and the wonderful people that work for it, literally. We see today this creation of the great Nye Bevin (called a Marxist troublemaker by the Tory press of his day) and the Atlee government of post war Britain, being symptomatically destroyed by first Thatcher then Blair and now Cameron.
When I was 10 years old I fell down with TB and Meningitis, my life let alone my mental state were both on the brink, the doctors told my parents they were unsure if I was going to end up severely mentally handicapped. Due to the magnificent care I received from the nurses and doctors of the time I managed to pull through, hence I am here today typing this blog. The disease left me an epileptic which is kept under control by tablets at present free, I wonder for how much longer under this bastard government.
I have had 3 daughters one of whom is a severe asthmatic, although at present we are unsure if it is not asthma but something a little more serious, we are waiting on tests to find out. The other 2 were identical twins, one of whom died just after her birth. The care we received that night from the midwives was second to none. Neither my wife or myself can thank them enough for the wonderful help they gave us that night. My third daughter had a rocky start to her life also at 5 days old and weighing just 2 lb she was rushed to Birmingham childrens hospital where she required emergency surgery for a perforated bowel. We were told she was very poorly and to expect the worse. The fantastic surgeon that operated on her that night saved her life. That is not to mention the excellent care she received in intensive care post op. She came back to Coventry Walsgrave hospital special care (she was born 10 weeks premature) With a colostomy bag the same size as she was. A couple of months later she was rushed back to Birmingham where she undergone a reversal to her prior operation, this due to her failing to gain weight. The same wonderful man operated on her and saved her life a second time. I don't want to go into too much detail but my youngest has had a very hard road to travel down since then, she has a lot of internal problems and has had up to now 6 operations with at least one more serious piece of surgery to come this year. This particular surgery will again be performed by the same surgeon that saved her life twice before , as you can imagine he is my hero. I cannot thank both him another wonderful doctor who has operated on her for subsequent health problems that have arisen since enough. I also cannot finish without a huge tankyou to all the nurses of the special care ward who helped keep both myself and my wife sane through those bleak times. Angels doesn't do these people justice they are much better than that.
My reason for telling this much abbreviated piece is NOT for you the readers sympathy. It is more for an idea of how much I owe to the NHS. Remember at present every piece of care (and heaven knows we have all needed it, including my wife but as she's in bed as I write this blog I won't put her tough life story on it) has cost me and my family not a penny. Also NO stinking money grabbing capitalist company has made a single penny from me and my families suffering.
Now I see the new legislation this EVIL Tory/ Lib Dem government are trying to bring in to destroy this great Socialist institution. As under Thatcher with the help afterwards of New-Labour, they are dismantling bit by bit everything owned by the people and selling it off to big business.
With all this in mind I beg of you on behalf of my 2 girls and all the other children that owe their lives to the NHS not to let these scum destroy it, by taking it off us and giving it lock stock and barrel to greedy businesses. If we do roll over we will live to regret it literally. We know what previous governments have done to prescriptions (which before Thatcher were basically free) how long will it be before we have to pay for hospital stays etc watch this space...
We the people have the power to stop these scum from destroying OUR NHS, we must stand firm for all our sakes before it's too late. Fight these Tories and please don't let them privatise the NHS.
Sunday, 19 February 2012
Thursday, 9 February 2012
ALTERNATIVE PROPOSAL TO HOUSING PROBLEM
Initially I was going to talk about a subject dear to my heart, the NHS. However after reading Darrell Goodliffe's excellent blog today, I have decided to leave you the reader with a chance to read his piece. http://momentsofc.wordpress.com/2012/0209/the-tina-government/ I heartily recommend you read this. Darrell is at present standing for a place on Labour's NEC, I do hope you give him your support. He is a good Socialist and the sort of person that we need in the Labour party hierarchy today, putting across a different point of view to the Blairite wing of the party.
Anyway back to todays idea, it is one I have been pondering over for the last couple of weeks and up to now I find it a much fairer example then the one we are living under at present.
As things stand right now we have home owners at the top, people struggling to pay their mortgages next, then council house tenants, finally those living in private accommodation. With many unscrupulous landlords leeching off them, making a fortune from sub-standard houses. This evil government has now further punished the latter by cutting the housing benefit they are entitled to. The reply, "well they should just move into a council house" does not wash anymore as there are insufficient amounts of council houses available. This courtesy of Thatchers right to buy idea. Without building more council houses for the future generations, which due to low wages are unable to get onto the infamous housing ladder.
So here is my modest solution to this problem, one which does away with the parasite landlords and in my opinion gives us a much more equal situation than we have at present. The councils should take full ownership of ALL properties, even those presently owned by their inhabitants. Every tenant will be entitled to live in the property they abide in until they die. At that point the house will be up for another person/family to move into.
Rent will be paid direct to the council, for arguments sake, £150 per month for flats, £250 for 2 bedroom houses, £350 for 3 bedroom, £450 for 4 bedroom and so on. Those struggling to pay their rent will still be entitled to housing benefit, although I fancy at those prices a lot more will be able to cope in comparison to the extortionate amounts the landlords and mortgage companies today charge.
In a town with say 500,000 homes in it, lets say there are 80,000 flats 120,000 2beds, 200,000 3 beds, 80,000 4 beds and 20,000 5 bed properties. take 10% off for those on housing benefit, the council would end every month with £143 million in its coffers. This huge amount of money would then be spent on maintaining those properties. The council would employ its own electricians, plumbers, builders etc to keep the housing in good condition.
The people will have more money in their pockets at the end of the month, the councils will have more money and there will be more apprenticeships and skilled men and women out there working. Rather than the disgraceful situation we have today with private capitalists and banks becoming more and more affluent as the majority of the working class get poorer. The only losers in this new system are the fat bankers and landlords in the private sector. Do any of the working class with houses falling apart around them, due to not enough money to repair them, or who have landlords who don't give a damn as long as they get their rent, care ?
So that's my simple alternative to the present world we live in, if you like what I have said or disagree strongly and would like to point out the failings in my argument, please feel free to comment. Thank you for taking the time to read todays entry, more coming soon.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Anyway back to todays idea, it is one I have been pondering over for the last couple of weeks and up to now I find it a much fairer example then the one we are living under at present.
As things stand right now we have home owners at the top, people struggling to pay their mortgages next, then council house tenants, finally those living in private accommodation. With many unscrupulous landlords leeching off them, making a fortune from sub-standard houses. This evil government has now further punished the latter by cutting the housing benefit they are entitled to. The reply, "well they should just move into a council house" does not wash anymore as there are insufficient amounts of council houses available. This courtesy of Thatchers right to buy idea. Without building more council houses for the future generations, which due to low wages are unable to get onto the infamous housing ladder.
So here is my modest solution to this problem, one which does away with the parasite landlords and in my opinion gives us a much more equal situation than we have at present. The councils should take full ownership of ALL properties, even those presently owned by their inhabitants. Every tenant will be entitled to live in the property they abide in until they die. At that point the house will be up for another person/family to move into.
Rent will be paid direct to the council, for arguments sake, £150 per month for flats, £250 for 2 bedroom houses, £350 for 3 bedroom, £450 for 4 bedroom and so on. Those struggling to pay their rent will still be entitled to housing benefit, although I fancy at those prices a lot more will be able to cope in comparison to the extortionate amounts the landlords and mortgage companies today charge.
In a town with say 500,000 homes in it, lets say there are 80,000 flats 120,000 2beds, 200,000 3 beds, 80,000 4 beds and 20,000 5 bed properties. take 10% off for those on housing benefit, the council would end every month with £143 million in its coffers. This huge amount of money would then be spent on maintaining those properties. The council would employ its own electricians, plumbers, builders etc to keep the housing in good condition.
The people will have more money in their pockets at the end of the month, the councils will have more money and there will be more apprenticeships and skilled men and women out there working. Rather than the disgraceful situation we have today with private capitalists and banks becoming more and more affluent as the majority of the working class get poorer. The only losers in this new system are the fat bankers and landlords in the private sector. Do any of the working class with houses falling apart around them, due to not enough money to repair them, or who have landlords who don't give a damn as long as they get their rent, care ?
So that's my simple alternative to the present world we live in, if you like what I have said or disagree strongly and would like to point out the failings in my argument, please feel free to comment. Thank you for taking the time to read todays entry, more coming soon.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Wednesday, 8 February 2012
RISING FUEL BILLS
My apologies for the long gap in blogs, but hopefully all being well I can get started, fingers crossed!!
My first moan is about the fuel bills and what we can do about them. Since the Thatcher government privatised our country in the 80's our gas and electric bills have gone through the roof. Now just suppose the voters of this country weren't fooled by the lies spewed forth from the iron bitch and she was never voted into power. We never suffered liberalisation and we as a population still owned our gas, electric, trains, telecommunications etc. Now how much would our fuel bills be today? Granted they would obviously have to rise, but with no greedy shareholders demanding more from greedy capitalist companies, somehow I can't see how they would be as astronomically high as they are today. Who knows we may not have to give winter fuel allowance pay outs to our pensioners because the bills would be more affordable.
We have of course had a Labour government running the country since then, alas this government was run by the wrong Tony. Instead of Benn or a party member of the same ilk, it was Blair, Thatcher in a pink shirt with a big smile!! Instead of a man who concentrated on equality we had a lover of the bankers and the rich (how many Socialists of the past would have turned in their graves to see him running the party they loved). Henceforth our utilities remained owned not by the people but by the rich foreign companies.
However at present we live in the real world. A world of millionaire cabinet members and a Tory/ Lib Dem coalition government. So we can forget any hope of the poor being helped, at least until the next general election. For the modern Labour party all I can suggest is this, NATIONALISE!!! If we kick the money oriented companies out and own our utilities again perhaps then we can move forward towards a fairer society. One where the old and the poor don't go cold during the winter.
One further thing, eminent scientist Steven Hawkings once said that all we need to do is work out nuclear fusion and our heating and lighting problems would be over. We would have cheap and clean fuel for our homes. So the other little pointer for Ed and his cabinet is sink money into science and the rewards would be bigger than our wildest dreams. Just think no more fuel poverty and no more rich greedy evil companies ripping us off so they can make more. Just a thought...
My first moan is about the fuel bills and what we can do about them. Since the Thatcher government privatised our country in the 80's our gas and electric bills have gone through the roof. Now just suppose the voters of this country weren't fooled by the lies spewed forth from the iron bitch and she was never voted into power. We never suffered liberalisation and we as a population still owned our gas, electric, trains, telecommunications etc. Now how much would our fuel bills be today? Granted they would obviously have to rise, but with no greedy shareholders demanding more from greedy capitalist companies, somehow I can't see how they would be as astronomically high as they are today. Who knows we may not have to give winter fuel allowance pay outs to our pensioners because the bills would be more affordable.
We have of course had a Labour government running the country since then, alas this government was run by the wrong Tony. Instead of Benn or a party member of the same ilk, it was Blair, Thatcher in a pink shirt with a big smile!! Instead of a man who concentrated on equality we had a lover of the bankers and the rich (how many Socialists of the past would have turned in their graves to see him running the party they loved). Henceforth our utilities remained owned not by the people but by the rich foreign companies.
However at present we live in the real world. A world of millionaire cabinet members and a Tory/ Lib Dem coalition government. So we can forget any hope of the poor being helped, at least until the next general election. For the modern Labour party all I can suggest is this, NATIONALISE!!! If we kick the money oriented companies out and own our utilities again perhaps then we can move forward towards a fairer society. One where the old and the poor don't go cold during the winter.
One further thing, eminent scientist Steven Hawkings once said that all we need to do is work out nuclear fusion and our heating and lighting problems would be over. We would have cheap and clean fuel for our homes. So the other little pointer for Ed and his cabinet is sink money into science and the rewards would be bigger than our wildest dreams. Just think no more fuel poverty and no more rich greedy evil companies ripping us off so they can make more. Just a thought...
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