Save Hospitals & Secular Europe: On Saturday fifteenth September 2012 nearly two thousand individuals marched from Southall to fulfill others at a rally in Ealing to save lots of Accident & Emergency Companies at their native hospitals. Later I photographed humanists, atheists and others marching in Westminster.
Hundreds March to Save Hospitals – Southall
A big crowd had come to Southall Park for the beginning of a march in opposition to the the closure of A&E and different departments at Ealing, Central Middlesex, Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals. One other march was going from Acton to the rally in Ealing.
A number of days in the past Keir Starmer talked concerning the disaster dealing with the NHS, and the way it will take maybe eight years to place it on a firmer footing for the longer term. He and Well being Secretary Wes Streeting blamed its present parlous place on the reforms criticised by Lord Darzi as “disastrous” launched by the coalition authorities in 2012 and the shortage of funding in infrastructure underneath the Tory-led years of cuts since 2010.
In fact each this stuff are true, however not the entire image they usually say little that was not stated by these working within the NHS and nearly each commentator on the time about Andrew Lansley’s controversial Well being and Social Care Act which got here into drive underneath his successor Jeremy Hunt, in addition to lack of correct funding.
However in addition they pass over the disastrous results of the various PFI schemes launched underneath New Labour which landed the NHS with big money owed and proceed to impose extreme prices on many hospitals with extreme upkeep and different costs. PFI did present a lot wanted new hospitals, however did so on the expense of the NHS, transferring the prices away to make authorities finance look higher; avoiding short-term public financing however creating a lot larger long-term prices.
New Labour additionally accelerated the privatisation of NHS companies, which has in fact elevated tremendously for the reason that Tories got here to energy. Each events turned enamoured of a transfer away from the unique NHS mannequin to an insurance coverage based mostly system modelled on US Healthcare, a system that leaves many poorer US residents with insufficient entry to healthcare and is chargeable for round 62% of the 2 million annual bankruptcies within the USA when for numerous causes individuals’s insurance coverage doesn’t cowl their remedy prices.
We within the UK spend nearly a fifth much less on well being than the EU common, and solely round a 3rd of the per individual spending within the USA – in keeping with a 2010 article within the Journal of the Royal Society of Drugs evaluating the 2 programs.
All of us now have complaints concerning the stage of service supplied at present by our overloaded and cash-strapped NHS. Ready instances are typically ridiculously lengthy and appointments arduous to get. We want a greater NHS, and to pay extra for a greater NHS, one that’s higher built-in slightly than divided by Lansley’s aggressive marketing-based mannequin. However I’ve little confidence that our present authorities will make the correct adjustments for both the NHS employees or the individuals.
We additionally want a lot better industrial relations, and the efforts by the brand new Labour authorities to type out the disputes with healthcare employees intentionally engineered by the Tories which led to the strikes are encouraging. However many extra adjustments to enhance employees morale and retention are obligatory. To take away the reliance on company employees there must be an enchancment within the remedy of NHS employed employees – and numerous easy measures together with the elimination of employees parking costs would assist. And naturally we additionally want to coach extra healthcare employees in any respect ranges and in all specialities.
The rally on fifteenth September 2012 was supported by native councils and native MPs and there have been many audio system with years of expertise within the NHS who gave quick speeches concerning the results the closures would have – and the inevitable deaths that might consequence, significantly from the longer journey instances via typically extremely congested streets to the remaining A&E companies. Thankfully many of the politicians have been advised they must look forward to the rally on the finish of the march to talk. So I missed them as I walked a couple of hundred yards with the marchers alongside the primary street in direction of Ealing and the rally, however then left them and walked to the station to take a prepare into central London.
Extra concerning the rally and march on My London Diary at Hundreds March to Save Hospitals.
March & Rally for a Secular Europe – Westminster
Round 250 humanists, atheists and others marched from Storey’s Gate, subsequent to Methodist Central Corridor and throughout the street from Westminster Abbey, each of their other ways reminders of the hyperlinks between the state and states and faith. And I presume the rally venue in Temple Place was chosen for a similar cause.
That they had come protest in opposition to the privileged standing of faith and name for a really secular society with freedom of faith, conscience and speech with equal rights for all in nations internationally, however significantly in Europe.
They demanded a secular Europe with full separation between church and state and with no particular standing on grounds of faith, one legislation for all with out execeptions.
The principle banner learn ‘For Common Human Rights‘ and marchers chanted slogans together with ‘2,4,6,8, Separate church and state‘ and naturally ‘What do we would like? A Secular Europe. When do we would like it? Now‘, in addition to stating that Girls’s rights (and Homosexual Rights, Youngsters’s Rights and so forth) are Human Rights.
However maybe the most well-liked chant was one directed specifically in opposition to the Catholic Church, ‘Hold your rosaries Off my ovaries.” And on the rally in Temple Place Sue Cox of Survivors Voice, reminded us not simply of sexual abuse of kids by monks, but in addition of the persevering with failure of the Catholic Church to take care of this, in addition to the sinister energy that that church nonetheless wields in nations together with Italy.
Because the march arrived on the rally there the London Humanist Choir carried out some Monty Python songs earlier than numerous speeches from Peter Tatchell and others. As he stated, many individuals of religion additionally assist each equality and the separation of faith and state, and that “for each bigot there are additionally individuals of religion who’re with us.”
Extra at March & Rally for a Secular Europe.
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Tags: A&E, Accident & Emergency, Andrew Lansley, atheists, austerity, Central Middlesex, Charing Cross, Conscience, cuts, disastrous reforms, Ealing, free speech, freedom of faith, Hammersmith, Well being and Social Care Act, hospital, hospital closures, human rights, humanists, industrial relations, Hold your rosaries, Lansley, London, Lord Darzi, march, New Labour, NHS, nhs CRISIS, Off my ovaries, One Regulation for All, peter Marshall, Peter Tatchell, PFI, privileged standing of faith, protest, retention, save our hospitals, Secular Europe, sexual abuse, Southall, Southall Park, employees morale, staffing, Starmer, Common Human Rights’, US healthcare, Wes Streeting
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