Category: Privatisation
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Campaign to save the NHS from Palantir

I had a wee rant the other day about Palantir, and my doctor’s surgery’s inability to communicate with humans. This evening, I listened to Jeremy Corbyn’s Peace and Justice Project meeting discussing how to fight back for our NHS. Corbyn spoke about how well the government petition against Digital ID worked, getting over a million…
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Why we all hate Southern Water

Over the last few years, as utility bills have pushed more and more of us onto the breadline, and increasing numbers are falling over the edge into destitution, Hastings has had numerous problems with both electricity and water supplies. Water is the big issue just now. In my part of town, the taps ran dry…
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The failed ideology of “keep the change”

Picture this: a hard-pressed mum, busy trying to manage the budget for the family, gives her kid a £50 note and says “go buy a carton of milk and keep the change.” The kid comes back with the milk, and two carrier bags stuffed with £47.50worth of sweets, biscuits and cakes and some friends, then…
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What we owe Harry

No, not that Harry … or that one, we owe this Harry… This is an article about how to save our NHS. For some years now, we’ve all seen the issuing of a crime number as a sign that the police don’t have the staff or the funds to actually pursue a crime. It seems…
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Disaster by privateers, public services to the rescue

My, but I am glad we live at the top of the hill! Here’s today in Hastings from my point of view… Meandering to Disaster I got just past breakfast time before the power went off. By then, I had noted that, the garden now being completely water-logged, the side path had become a river…
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This is an emergency

“You know something is broken when you see emergency response workers on a picket line,” says the FBU rep. In fact, this was a picket line like no other I’ve seen. Despite suffering both service funding cuts and pay degradation, despite being maligned by politicians from both the major political parties, Hastings’ emergency response crews…
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Even their Christmas parties are evil

***Long read, but URGENT and IMPORTANT*** This is an article about our NHS, and the point I hope to make is that ALL THE POLITICAL PARTIES must be recognised as the destroyers of our NHS. If we are to save this precious service, we need to think carefully: If you are not poor, or vulnerable,…
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A letter to a GP, two stories of bureaucratic nightmare, and a petition to come

Dear Doctor, Will you please stop sending me texts with links to take up appointments for random routine tests. Yes of course I’m *that* age, yes of course I worry that I might get this or that problem but a) I have told you I don’t have a Smartphone so can’t click your links and…
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How the Gender Identity Industry Broke Politics

Before the world went mad, when I was still Vice-Chair of a Labour CLP, and active with my union, and had a seat on the committee of my favourite lefty group, I started hearing really weird things about sex and gender, including being told by a couple of therapist friends I knew that they were…
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Find the human – then find some more humans

Avanti Lentemente (forward, slowly) This is the story of a train ticket. It is quite long but it contains a big welfare issue (actually, the biggest welfare issue) and a potential time-saver (actually, a life saver) for humans everywhere. One day back in June, I turned up at Penrith station with the intention of getting…