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June 30, 2006
A Friday Miscellany
The main story in most of the msm this morning concerns yesterday's by-elections in Bromley and Blaenau Gwent.
BBC - Labour and Tories suffer at polls
The Guardian - Labour suffers double blow in byelections
The Independent - By-election blows for Blair and Cameron
Now the Blaenau Gwent result was no real surprise, and Bromley provided the wake-up call to Cameron that many had been expecting.
More interesting though is the cockup made by the Department of Health in prematurely announcing further privatisation of the NHS.
The Guardian - £64bn NHS privatisation plan revealed
A secret plan to privatise an entire tier of the NHS in England was revealed prematurely yesterday when the Department of Health asked multinational firms to manage services worth up to £64bn.
The advertisement asked firms to show how they could benefit patients if they took over responsibility for buying healthcare from NHS hospitals, private clinics and charities. The plan would give private firms responsibility for deciding which treatments and services would be made available to patients - and whether NHS or private hospitals would provide them.
So the Primary Care Trusts would be reduced to contracting out the commisioning of service provision, rather than directly commisioning the services themselves. One problem with this is that it introduces another layer (at least) into an already difficult process, making communication and accountability even more complicated. Then there is the inherent assumption that savings will result from private sector economies of scale, a flawed assumption as the private companies have a legal obligation to maximise shareholder return. The consequence may well be a decrease in the quality of service provision as the private providers attempt to boost their profit. And as numerous PFI project cost overruns have shown, the Government has a poor track record in holding private suppliers to account.
Once again we have privatisation New Labour style, by the backdoor and in the guise of partnership, but privatisation all the same.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Defence seems determined to hang on to its biggest, most flashy and, above all, most useless toys. And if anyone tries to stop it, then it's going to take its bat and ball (or Trident Missiles) home.
The Herald - MoD under fire for snubbing nuclear inquiry
The Ministry of Defence will today come under fire from a parliamentary watchdog for refusing to take part in an inquiry into the future of Britain's nuclear deterrent.
So Blair and Brown want a debate but no vote, and the MoD doesn't even want a debate. Yet there are fundamental principles involved here, including our commitment to the NPT and whether we should be even consideration the expenditure of £25bn on a single, limited use weapons system.
If you really want to get involved in the Trident debate at the grassroots level then I'd recommend joining CND. You'll also gain access to a rich source of useful campaign material in addition to supporting an organisation commited to the global erdication of nuclear weapons.
Posted by Clive on June 30, 2006 11:12 AM in the category Politics