FRIDAY’s vote on the NHS in the House of Commons brings the Tories’ desire to privatise public services back on to the news agenda.
For those who haven’t followed these developments, MPs voted in favour of a bill designed to curb the worst parts of the Health and Social Care Act that opened the door to NHS privatisation.
I delivered a 16,442-name petition to Westminster showing how strongly Derby people feel about the issue, and I dearly hope Labour’s long-running campaign to save the NHS will bear fruit.
But while talk of losing something as important as our health service is tangible and inevitably prompts a reaction, another broader issue relating to the future of public services has, to a large extent, slipped under the radar.
Many readers will not have heard of TTIP – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – largely because it has been negotiated behind closed doors, but it’s due to be ratified next year.
It is designed to reduce the trade barriers between the US and EU, and to that end clearly has the potential to reap many benefits on both sides of the Atlantic provided it is drawn up carefully.
But there is a reason that it is causing a rumpus among those who have delved into it most deeply.
TTIP could open all of Europe’s public services, such as the NHS and our education system, to private enterprise.
But the prospect of refocusing our public bodies on making money instead of service delivery is anathema to most British people.
Robust caveats must therefore be inserted into the agreement to ensure that doesn’t happen.
There is also a real danger that corporate interests could become deeply embroiled with our democratic processes.
Imagine the next Labour government implementing our pledge to freeze energy bills, only to find the UK being sued by the giant energy companies for loss of profits.
Yet that possibility could arise through TTIP, which proposes the creation of so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlements empowering big companies to take on nation states.
Not only would that be unthinkably bizarre, but it would also be an attack on democracy. Public policy would be stymied by a corporate agenda, giving far too much influence to multinational companies.
But perhaps the biggest question that needs to be addressed is whose interests the politicians negotiating TTIP are representing – the people who elected them or the private corporations pushing for it?
To my mind, economic development is only beneficial if it serves everyone in the chain, not just fat cat executives and wealthy shareholders.
My fear – and one shared by many commentators – is that if we are not careful TTIP will be another mechanism that widens inequality.
We cannot allow this government to use TTIP to enable the rich to get even richer, without any real impact on working people who are actually creating that wealth.
It would make the whole exercise pointless, and if the politicians locked in the secret negotiations can’t see that then TTIP – which offers so much potential – runs the risk of doing more harm than good
Sunday 23 November 2014
Tuesday 18 November 2014
THE HUNTING BAN IS TEN YEARS OLD - NOW IT’S TIME STRENGTHEN THE LEGISLATION TO STOP HUNTERS FLOUTING THE LAW
Tuesday 18th November 2014 marks the tenth anniversary of the passing of the Hunting Act. Now the League Against Cruel Sports has launched a new report calling for specific improvements to make it even more effective.
The Hunting Act has proven to be an effective and popular piece of legislation, with a higher number of convictions than similar wildlife laws. Public support for the prohibition of hunting has always been high, but this has also increased substantially over the past ten years.
Yet, since its introduction, the Act has been the target of considerable attack from the pro-hunt lobby which has waged an ongoing and concerted campaign of disinformation to publicly discredit the legislation and promote their campaign for repeal.
The problem is not with the law. It’s with those arrogant bloodsports fanatics who think they’re above the law and openly flout it. This cannot be allowed to go on in a democracy where the rule of law is sacrosanct.
It is now time to build on the successes of first ten years and strengthen the Hunting Act to ensure the spirit of the Act is fulfilled.
The League is recommending three main improvements to strengthen the Hunting Act, these include:
1. Prohibiting the use of dogs below ground - this is arguably where the worst cruelty occurs in hunting, not only to wild mammals pursued underground with limited opportunity to escape (usually foxes and badgers), but also to the dogs sent below ground to find these animals and either flush them out or hold them at bay.
2. Inserting a ‘reckless’ provision to ensure the killing of wild mammals during a trail hunt cannot be passed off as an ‘unfortunate accident’.
3. Increasing the punishments available to the courts so that the Act is brought in line with other animal protection legislation.
The Hunting Act has proven to be an effective and popular piece of legislation, with a higher number of convictions than similar wildlife laws. Public support for the prohibition of hunting has always been high, but this has also increased substantially over the past ten years.
Yet, since its introduction, the Act has been the target of considerable attack from the pro-hunt lobby which has waged an ongoing and concerted campaign of disinformation to publicly discredit the legislation and promote their campaign for repeal.
The problem is not with the law. It’s with those arrogant bloodsports fanatics who think they’re above the law and openly flout it. This cannot be allowed to go on in a democracy where the rule of law is sacrosanct.
It is now time to build on the successes of first ten years and strengthen the Hunting Act to ensure the spirit of the Act is fulfilled.
The League is recommending three main improvements to strengthen the Hunting Act, these include:
1. Prohibiting the use of dogs below ground - this is arguably where the worst cruelty occurs in hunting, not only to wild mammals pursued underground with limited opportunity to escape (usually foxes and badgers), but also to the dogs sent below ground to find these animals and either flush them out or hold them at bay.
2. Inserting a ‘reckless’ provision to ensure the killing of wild mammals during a trail hunt cannot be passed off as an ‘unfortunate accident’.
3. Increasing the punishments available to the courts so that the Act is brought in line with other animal protection legislation.
Saturday 1 November 2014
LIB DEM COLLABORATORS SEEKING ALIBI FOR VENAL DECISION TO INSTALL TORY GOVT
AFTER four-and-a-half years of merciless attacks on the poor by this disgraceful Government, it takes something pretty galling for someone like me to find myself agreeing with the Tories on anything.
But if there is one thing that seemingly unites Labour and the Conservatives, poles apart though we are in so many ways, it is in the shoulder-shrugging despair at the utter hypocrisy of the Liberal Democrats.
The Lib Dems truly are the most shameless of all when it comes to outrageous acts of mercenary vote chasing, posturing for the popular vote while displaying an abject inability to deliver anything.
There atrocious behaviour in relation to the bedroom tax is probably their lowest, most scandalous act of hypocrisy yet.
It was their ministers and their MPs who backed the Tories all the way when they introduced the bedroom tax, despite anyone with even the merest hint of conscience feeling thoroughly perturbed at such a socially unacceptable policy.
The so-called “spare room subsidy” was designed to pick on people who couldn’t afford it, penalising single parents, disabled people and even parents of soldiers, hitting them in the pocket for having bedrooms not in permanent use.
Did the Lib Dems tell the Tories they weren’t comfortable with such a cut-throat policy?
Did they feel strongly enough to withdraw support or use their position as kingmaker to force a change of heart?
Did they side with Labour and vote it down to protect the vulnerable people who Mr Cameron and Co were so keen to punish.
Of course they didn’t. They didn’t just sit on their hands either – they knowingly voted it through used their controlling influence to transform crackpot right-wing Tory policy into UK law.
Utterly deplorable.
Labour has opposed the bedroom tax from the outset, and Ed Miliband made it perfectly clear some time ago that a Labour Government will reverse this atrocious act against the poor.
And now, suddenly, the Lib Dems agree.
Hark! Is there a General Election in the offing?
Perhaps the most stomach-churning thing of all was reading the comments on Twitter of professional Lib Dem charlatan Vince Cable boasting how he had cancelled his meetings in order back a bill by his party to “fix the Tories’ unfair bedroom tax”.
Mr Cable is unique among Lib Dems.
He has somehow built a reputation, or at least he had prior to his party’s appalling term of office in Government, as something of a one-off – a bright spark of quality among a despairing pit of mediocrity within his party.
Yet the truth is he’s no better than the rest of them. Whether it’s Lib Dems in Westminster or Lib Dems here in Derby, they’re all the same.
In opposition, they promise the earth. They fasten on to every popular policy and tell people what they want to hear (not unlike UKIP), safe in the belief that they will never have to deliver on it.
But then when they stumble into power, the buffoonery begins. They bumble from one place to the next, breaking promises here and digging holes for themselves there.
They are the artisans of hypocrisy and the definition of dishonesty, whether it means promising not to increase student tuition fees then voting for the opposite, or this latest debacle over the bedroom tax.
We saw it in Derby during two forgettable years between 2008 and 2010, and we’ve endured it nationally for the last five sorrowful years.
But their poll ratings suggest that they've finally rumbled once and for all.
But if there is one thing that seemingly unites Labour and the Conservatives, poles apart though we are in so many ways, it is in the shoulder-shrugging despair at the utter hypocrisy of the Liberal Democrats.
The Lib Dems truly are the most shameless of all when it comes to outrageous acts of mercenary vote chasing, posturing for the popular vote while displaying an abject inability to deliver anything.
There atrocious behaviour in relation to the bedroom tax is probably their lowest, most scandalous act of hypocrisy yet.
It was their ministers and their MPs who backed the Tories all the way when they introduced the bedroom tax, despite anyone with even the merest hint of conscience feeling thoroughly perturbed at such a socially unacceptable policy.
The so-called “spare room subsidy” was designed to pick on people who couldn’t afford it, penalising single parents, disabled people and even parents of soldiers, hitting them in the pocket for having bedrooms not in permanent use.
Did the Lib Dems tell the Tories they weren’t comfortable with such a cut-throat policy?
Did they feel strongly enough to withdraw support or use their position as kingmaker to force a change of heart?
Did they side with Labour and vote it down to protect the vulnerable people who Mr Cameron and Co were so keen to punish.
Of course they didn’t. They didn’t just sit on their hands either – they knowingly voted it through used their controlling influence to transform crackpot right-wing Tory policy into UK law.
Utterly deplorable.
Labour has opposed the bedroom tax from the outset, and Ed Miliband made it perfectly clear some time ago that a Labour Government will reverse this atrocious act against the poor.
And now, suddenly, the Lib Dems agree.
Hark! Is there a General Election in the offing?
Perhaps the most stomach-churning thing of all was reading the comments on Twitter of professional Lib Dem charlatan Vince Cable boasting how he had cancelled his meetings in order back a bill by his party to “fix the Tories’ unfair bedroom tax”.
Mr Cable is unique among Lib Dems.
He has somehow built a reputation, or at least he had prior to his party’s appalling term of office in Government, as something of a one-off – a bright spark of quality among a despairing pit of mediocrity within his party.
Yet the truth is he’s no better than the rest of them. Whether it’s Lib Dems in Westminster or Lib Dems here in Derby, they’re all the same.
In opposition, they promise the earth. They fasten on to every popular policy and tell people what they want to hear (not unlike UKIP), safe in the belief that they will never have to deliver on it.
But then when they stumble into power, the buffoonery begins. They bumble from one place to the next, breaking promises here and digging holes for themselves there.
They are the artisans of hypocrisy and the definition of dishonesty, whether it means promising not to increase student tuition fees then voting for the opposite, or this latest debacle over the bedroom tax.
We saw it in Derby during two forgettable years between 2008 and 2010, and we’ve endured it nationally for the last five sorrowful years.
But their poll ratings suggest that they've finally rumbled once and for all.
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