Wednesday twenty fourth April 2013 was a busy day for protests in Westminster. And there was one within the Metropolis.
Protest the Privatisation of NHS – Outdated Palace Yard
The Home of Lords was debating NHS rules which imposed full aggressive tendering on the NHS, a key half within the escalating backdoor privatisation of the NHS.
Unite had arrange a ‘Wheel of Fortune’ sport present hosted by folks sporting ‘David Cameron’ and ‘Jeremy Hunt’ masks and itemizing the seemingly prices of assorted procedures because of the tendering system. They feared “that the coalition’s NHS insurance policies, together with a multi billion pound funding squeeze coupled with a large reorganisation, will destroy the 65 12 months outdated well being service, paving the best way for a brand new marketised system the place paying as much as £10,000 for maternity prices or £13,450 for a brand new hip is the norm.”
Unite mentioned that already greater than £20 billion of well being prices go to non-public corporations, who take their selections on the premise of revenue slightly than the pursuits of sufferers. The Lords had been debating a movement for the annulment of the rules on the grounds that Parliament had been assured “that NHS commissioners could be free to fee providers in the best way they take into account in the most effective pursuits of NHS sufferers“.
Protest the Privatisation of NHS
Deliver Shaker Aamer Dwelling – Parliament Sq.
Following a petition with 117,387 signatures to convey Shaker Aamer dwelling from Guantanamo, a debate had been held that morning by MPs in Westminster Corridor, the place a lot of the 17 MPs who spoke known as for his launch, together with Shaker’s personal MP, the Conservative MP for Battersea, Jane Ellison, who additionally got here out to talk with the protesters.
Sadly such debates, though they do enhance strain on the federal government to take motion don’t have any precise penalties. However maybe it did assist to influence the federal government that it needed to ignore the embarrassment of British brokers at being complicit in his torture by the US and clarify to the US authorities he ought to eventually be launched after being held for 12 years, lengthy after he had been cleared of any involvement in terrorism. As I famous, “The info about torture at the moment are largely public and completely indefensible and it’s time for justice to be achieved.”
Drax Biomass Menace to our Planet – Princes St, CityDrax AGM, wpp
I needed to take the tube to the Metropolis to attend a protest exterior Gocer’s Corridor the place the AGM of Drax, the massive coal-burning energy station close to Selby in Yorkshire was being held. Drax was planning to transform half its capability to bio-mass and develop into the most important biomass-burning energy station on the planet, utilizing 1.5 instances the entire UK wooden manufacturing per 12 months.
The wooden pellets would come primarily from devastating clear-cutting of extremely various forests in North America, and though re-grown will ultimately take away the identical quantity of carbon this may take 100 years or extra – throughout which period the carbon Drax emits – roughly 50% larger than burning coal – might be contributing to disastrous world warming.
Drax already has a disastrous influence in South America had been land is being grabbed from conventional communities for open solid coal mining, often with full disregard for his or her human and civil rights, cleared of its biodiverse forests and diverted from meals manufacturing – usually in locations the place meals is desperately wanted. Conversion to wood-burning at Drax will end in much more environmental and social destruction.
The inducement to vary to wood-burning is that below present authorities insurance policies Drax will obtain large authorities subsidies from funds meant to advertise renewable power, diverting funds from schemes for power manufacturing and conservation that really will assist to fight local weather change.
Drax Biomass Menace to our Planet
Gurkhas Name for equal therapy – Outdated Palace Yard
I returned to Westminster, the place A number of hundred Gurkha pensioners and supporters had been holding a rally on the 198th anniversary of the primary recruitment of Gurkhas into the British Military to ship a petition to David Cameron asking for equal therapy to different British Military ex-soldiers.
British Military Gurkhas who retired earlier than 1997 had been granted the best to settle within the UK in 2009, however their pension stays solely a fifth of that of different British troopers, and is inconceivable to stay on within the UK, being primarily based on the price of dwelling in Nepal.
Gurkhas Name for equal therapy
UK herbalists Need Rules – Outdated Palace Yard
Additionally in Outdated Palace Yard had been UK herbalists, each conventional and Chinese language, protesting towards the failure of the federal government to herald the statutory rules that they had promised to do by 2012.
Below EU rules from 2004, conventional cures then in use may proceed to be offered till 2011, however after that needed to be lined by nationwide insurance policies to control their security and effectiveness. Though the federal government had promised to set this up, it has to date failed to take action, and they’re now unable to prescribe many generally used and efficient widespread natural cures.
Get Britain Biking Report Launch – Parliament Sq.
Lastly, in Parliament Sq., Christ Boardman, a gold medal cylist within the Barcelona Olympics posed with MPs from the All Celebration Parliamentary Biking Group to launch their report ‘Get Britain Biking.’
This requires extra to be spent on supporting biking and that it needs to be thought of in all planning selections. They need extra segregated cycle lanes and for the 30mp city pace restrict to by diminished to 20mph. Kids needs to be taught to trip a motorbike in school and the federal government ought to produce and yearly report on a cross-departmental Biking Motion Plan. Biking has monumental benefits each individually and for us all in higher well being and decreasing air pollution with diminished well being spending.
Get Britain Biking Report Launch
Tags: Massive Ben, biodiversity, biodivrse, biomass, Chinese language medication, Christ Boardman, local weather chaos, aggressive tendering, cyclists, David Cameron, deforestation, Drax, ecocide, environmental destruction, environmental protest, Get Britain Biking, world warming, Guantanamo, Gurkha Veterans, Gurkhas, Herbalists, hospital closures, Home of Lords, Homes of Parliament, human rights, human rights abuses, Jeremy Hunt, London, mature forests, MPs, NHS, NHS privatisation, peter Marshall, privatisation, protest, Shaker, Shaker Aamer, subsidies, torture, conventional cures, UK rules, Unite, wooden pellets, wood-burning
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