A (Hopefully Brief) Interlude

Due to moving house and campaigning hard for the May local elections I am likely to be offline for some time, possibly until May when I will hopefully be back to comment on the elections in England, Wales and Scotland.
Comments will be moderated during this time.
In the meantime, keep up to date with my fellow bloggers -
Derek Wall
Jim (Who is having a re-design)
Student Medic
and Sian Berry

Not to forget that May Day is coming up.
'Bye for now,
Solidarity Forever!
Greenman

New Links Added

I have added two new links to my "Left Groups and Blogs" section in the sidebar. It is always good to see left groups and individuals who take environmental issues and the climate crisis seriously. I have added the Climate and Capitalism blog edited by Canadian Marxist Ian Angus and the Australian blog Green Lefts:Left Greens linked to Green Left Weekly and the Australian Socialist Alliance.

Latest From Keep Our NHS Public

I am pleased to relay information from the latest bulletin of Keep Our NHS Public (KONP)-

Progress on national demonstration

Calls for a national demonstration look like being officially supported by UNISON. Timings and other union backers are still being discussed, but we will keep you updated with further information as soon as details are confirmed. We certainly expect more news before the UNISON conference on 20 April. We are also writing to the TUC to ask them about plans for a national demo. As many of the local KONP groups will attest, we really need to build on the events of 3 March (the national day of action), and a national demo seems like the obvious next step.


Government's case for hospital closures may be based on 'dodgy dossier'

A new report exposes how the government's favoured think-tank has produced a policy document which attempts to sell hospital closures to the public by publishing evidence in support of the policy in a selective and misleading way. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) publication was part-funded by a commercial organisation with a potential vested interest in hospital reconfiguration - raising serious questions about the incestuous relationship between the IPPR, New Labour and commercial interests.

The KONP response to the IPPR report "The Future Hospital: The Progressive Case for Change" is entitled "The Case for Hospital Reconfiguration - Not Proven" and is by Professor David Byrne of Durham University and Dr Sally Ruane of the Health Policy Research Unit, De Montfort University.

The executive summary and full report can be viewed at http://www.nhscampaign.org.uk/news/40/80.html.



Campaign materials

Don't forget that in addition to our usual merchandise (as seen at http://www.keepournhspublic.com/campaignresources.php) we also have the excellent "Patchwork privatisation" booklet which is now in its second edition. This has been very well received, by both the general public and special interest groups (such as the health unions). You can order copies of the booklet from the website, for £1 per copy for the first 10 copies, and 50p per subsequent copy.

We are in the process of redesigning our campaign leaflet, which we hope to make available very soon. Watch this space! We are also looking at suggestions for a proposed poster aimed at unifying KONP with local hospital campaigns - if you have any ideas about content, design or any other aspects, let us know.


Work in progress.......

Following the clear message from Charles Clarke (ex cabinet minister) that the possibility of patient charges is now on New Labour's political agenda KONP is collecting data around that issue, with a view to producing a report which can add to the debate.


Useful sources of information

The NHS Support Federation website www.nhscampaign.org is a useful source of news and information with details of KONP groups as well as other health campaigns, including local hospital campaigns. There is also a regularly updated events page, so let us know about your events and meetings for both the NHS Support Federation and Keep Our NHS Public websites. There are now numerous petitions on the 10 Downing Street petition site - you can find details of these on the Carry On Campaigning page of the Fed website at http://www.nhscampaign.org.uk/carry_on_campaigning.html.


Please do let us know of anything which you think might be of interest to other campaigners - we see the monthly email newsletter as another useful way of disseminating campaign news both between local groups and to individual supporters.

Keep up the good (and necessary) work.

Monday Links

Some links for you here -
Congratulations to fellow Midlands activists for doing the business at Faslane...

Elsewhere Dave Osler makes some predictions about the looming elections in Scotland.

Jim of Daily (Maybe) reflects on ths gulf between "Activists and Civilians"

Peter at Earthquake Cove has some views on the outcome of the Dan Brown plagiarism case.

Molly at Gaian Economics writes about the continued dominance of the 'Rentier' class.

Ed at International Rooksbyism comments on the current British military hostages in Iran situation.

Our Green Female Principal Speaker Sian Berry is holidaying in Wales, recharging her batteries after Conference in preparation for the coming electoral battle.

Last but not least, Louisefeminista reviews Lynne Segal's political autobiography over at the Socialist Unity Blog.