English Labour's road to perdition
Published in the April 13th edition of the Edinburgh Evening News.
English Labour’s Viceroy-in-waiting, Ian Murray, boasts his party will put “our NHS on the road to recovery” when it’s more likely to put it on the road to perdition.
It was English Labour that forced Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) onto the NHS in 1998, crippling it with debt. An investment of £13b costs the NHS £80b in repayments. Toxic PFI contracts have diverted billions away from patient care into private bank accounts, hogtying the NHS and making it impossible to attract capital investment. The PFI vampire has sucked the lifeblood from the NHS. For every PFI hospital, private investors are charging as if for two. It’s PFI deficits that are fuelling service cuts, not patient demand or an ageing population.
Add to that the hapless Wes Streeting who is promising more for-profit corporate meddling in the ravaged NHS. Last year, he received nearly £200k from private health interests so he’s dancing to their tune.
And clueless Rachel Reeves is promising £36b when what’s needed to restore public services is closer to £100 billion. If she were competent, she’d realise that simple changes to tax policy could raise an additional £90 billion. Second, she’d understand that government can create the money needed for decent public services. Finally, she’d know that every £1 spent on healthcare generates £4 of economic activity. Instead, she’s boxed herself in with her silly made-up fiscal rules that spell more austerity for the people of this sad little island.
England’s NHS is further down the privatisation road than Scotland’s. Scots must wake up to the looming danger of an English Labour government that promises to rule us from Westminster with an iron fist, sell off our NHS, continue to steal our resources and deny us our right to self-determination.
"Scots must wake up to the looming danger of an English Labour government that promises to rule us from Westminster with an iron fist, sell off our NHS, continue to steal our resources and deny us our right to self-determination" wrote Leah.
They don't need to go that far, though, to undermine the NHS (and everything else) in Scotland, Wales & N Ireland. Their increased privatisation of the NHS in England means significantly less government spending overall in England, which automatically results in reductions in the Block Grants which finance the public expenditure plans of devolved governments. Devolution was designed to fail and we all have to waken up to this fact before it's too late. They can cripple us wthout being so openly confrontational. The only way Scotland can survive as the nation we want is through independence.
Party Politicians are the problem, all of them. I would love to see 59 independents stand in Scotland, I would even sponsor one!