Create ripples, one day they’ll become tidal waves.

The biggest threat to our way of life is not the government or the terrorists they claim to be chasing across the globe. Its is our apathy.

The Royal Mail, educational system, NHS and emergency services have been built by the blood, sweat and tears of you and you grandparents going back 100 years. Today they are seen as cash cows for corrupt politicians and their privateer friends to siphon off billions in public money to line their private pockets and they are using the veil of austerity to do so. They have managed, somewhat convincingly, to persuade a large section of society that austerity is both real and necessary.

Alessio Rastani told us that a recession is not bad for everyone, it is an opportunity to make money; This is not a recession, it is a robbery.

Worryingly this agenda is something that is pursued by both Labour and Conservatives, one hard and fast and the other a kind of “I can’t believe it’s not austerity”, or “austerity-lite” approach. Either way the end result is the same. Working people are forced to bear the brunt of paying for a crisis created by corrupt politicians, rogue bankers and immoral (if not illegal) banking practices with their banking and economic terrorism.

The leaders of both these parties are no longer interested in popularity contests at election time because there are common themes, goals and aims amongst them. They are ultimately all gorging themselves at the same trough of public money and broadly speaking, their sole interest is themselves.

The NHS as I mentioned is already paid for by our parents and grandparents, the problem we have is that far too few of us dare old enough to remember a time when you would have to pay for a doctor call out and all the associated care that goes with it and even less have stopped to think about the danger we face because of privatisation. Some may think that they will see no real problem because they already have some form of private medical care, paid for either by their employer or privately but the key point here is that these private firms are backed up by the publicly funded NHS. Even the Royal spawn, despite all its top private care, was delivered in a private hospital, ably supported by the resources of the NHS should anything have gone wrong.

Where will the support network be once the entire lot has been sold of to the great bearded one, Richard Branson?

In the case of the NHS the politicians have gone to great lengths to show us how badly the NHS is failing and have been duly assisted by a complicit media, none more so than our publicly funded BBC who reel off story after story about “nurses on safari” looking for patients or failing trusts. As bad as some of these stories may be on the face of it, these are an infinitesimally small percentage of the millions of people treated by wonderful doctors and nurses every day of the year, any time we call on them.

Where are our survivor stories?

Along with the horrors show run by the mainstream media, the government also repeatedly tell us that the immigrants (who are not even here yet) are to blame for the failure and over capacity of our A&E departments etc. These are blatant lies, used to prey on people’s fears and prejudice that is manufactured by a corrupt elite intent on walking away with billions in profit at the cost of our health. The process to privatisation is a simple but effective one; first the government go through a period of defunding which creates an environment for failure, the failures are reported and the cost to make improvements is amplified and then the privateers swoop in with the answer to take an ever-increasing cost off of the tax payers hands. All the while feeding you distraction stories of immigrants, bad nurses and creating apathy to convince you that a nice guy like Branson will make a good job of it.

Really? He is a businessman about making money. Would you really want someone in charge of something that makes money solely off of the death and illness of people? The only way they will make profit is by charging us for treatments, reducing wages of the nurses providing the majority of the care (not the execs, they get paid off to push through change) and generally hanging us out to dry. See how cheap health insurance will be then when they know you cannot rely on the NHS. These firms will have cornered the market and will drive up prices. Just look at what the energy firms are preparing to do this winter, nearly 10% increase in price’s!

The apathy they are trying to foster enables them to impose these changes because we feel we cannot make a difference and that we cannot make a change. We have given up our power and we have to take it back. One person can make a difference and everyone should do so, if we do not start offering a resistance to these attacks now and come to realise we have more in common with each other than with these merciless privateers and criminals running the country, then we will quite literally be cut adrift and priced out of even a base level of living.

We can do this by winning the hearts and minds of the people around us, taking interest in each other’s causes and not waiting for people to come to us and ours, we can withdraw economically from certain corporations to redistribute the pain, we can write music, draw, sing and create art – the true way of protesting and engaging the hearts and minds of others. If we create ripples they can one day become tidal waves.

We inherited a world of opportunity from our parents, we have a duty to hand it on to the next generation in a better state and not sell it from under them for a dollar.

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Be the change

In July this year it was announced that there would a series of cuts to Bedford Hospital’s River Bank Ward that will affect anyone with a child under 19. The public will now have to use the hospitals at either Luton or Milton Keynes.

As of August 1st 2013 there was to be no:

– Planned overnight inpatient care (on Riverbank Ward) for children having planned (elective) surgery, or planned medical procedures or care. Children will be cared for by their Bedford consultant at Milton Keynes Hospital (or another neighbouring hospital) 

– Emergency overnight inpatient care (on Riverbank Ward) as there will be no emergency admissions from 31 July

 – Children’s Accident and Emergency (children brought to hospital by ambulance will go straight to the next nearest hospital. Children (those aged up to 19) should not be brought to A&E as walk-in patients from 1 August.

– Children’s Assessment Unit, for children requiring short-stay observation following attendance at A&E (as there will be no emergency admissions from 31 July)

The Trust explained that they would continue to provide the following services:

Children’s outpatients services (all children’s outpatients clinics will continue to run as normal)

-Nurse-led ambulatory care for children with chronic or long-term conditions whose care can be managed by specialist paediatric nurses

-Day Unit (on Riverbank Ward) with day case care following planned surgery, or for planned medical procedures or care

 -Maternity services and neonatal services are unaffected and continue to run as normal

-All other services, including adult A&E remain as normal.

These announcements lead to a very vocal demonstration being launched at short notice as, around 500 people took to the street in protestwith some 5000 people in two days signing a petition against the closure and their message is clear; that these proposals are outrageous and as always the case, they impact the poorest the hardest and with children, they target the most at risk and most vulnerable group. As a child who spent many a Sunday morning or evening at the local hospital recovering from a variety of sporting related injuries, I know first hand the impact some of these proposals will have on families. There are rumours or mumblings of concessions or plans to resolve the discontent of the Save Riverbank Ward Facebook group, but half measure should not and will not be tolerated.

riverbank sos

There are a succession of protests and art performances being planned to oppose these disgusting closures, one of a long line of attacks on our NHS service across the country to date. A march is being held on August 24th, starting at 12:30pm at Horne lane in Bedford and on the following week, August 31st starting at around 10:00am there will be a cavalcade procession, making their way from Bedford Hospital to the Luton and Dunstable Hospital, to highlight the issue of the journey, with a sick child (not a real one!) being wheeled on a bed and loaded on to a vehicle and taken slowly down the road to their final destination. This has been championed by the Luton’s People Assembly, buoyed by the reversal of the decision to close Lewisham A&E, who realise not only the risk this attack on the hospital in Bedford poses for the future of the L&D, but for the very real hardship some families will face with the logistics of having to transport children to Luton or Milton Keynes. All are cordially invited to attend and make both events something to be proud to be part of. This may not be something that directly affects you today but in time it can and perhaps will. Lewisham has shown us that if we take a collective stand, in enough numbers, we can be the change.

There is no justice, there is just us
There is no justice, there is just us

August 24th also marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s speech ‘I have a dream’ in Washington, but perhaps his finest speech was his last, now affectionately referred to as ‘At the mountain top’. In this speech he explained how the biggest question he faced was not what would happen to him if he stood up for the sanitation workers, but what would happen to them if he did not stand up for them. This is as relevant today with all the attacks being faced by the public from this government, whatever the issue, be it bedroom tax, pension attacks, NHS closures and privatisation and attacks on the disabled, these are all as a result of ideological austerity being driven by corruption in our parliament and bad banking practices. They are right when they say we are in this together, but we can only turn back the tide by taking a collective stand across all issues and not just laying back on our laurels once our own individual issues are resolved.

Newell News-round up, week 15 *sport distraction special*

It has been one of those great weeks of distraction. The NHS is under attack. Public services are under attack. Legal aid is gone but don’t worry, it is sunny, Wimbledon is on, the Lions are in Australia and history beckons.

Sport

What a weekend. The world is on fire, with countries such as Egpyt, Brazil, Turkey and little known Bulgaria rising up against corruption in government and here in the UK we are waiting to join in just as soon as the soaps have finished but before the X-factor starts, but then the football season kicks-off and it is world cup season too…. I am sure we will find some time to think about how badly the government are abusing democracy here. Sky News have been telling us the feel good index is up, the market s are booming and it is all to do with our confidence in the weather, Andy Murray and Warren Gatland.

The power of the social conditioning box to frame our opinions or what we think about should not be under estimated. At the same time as all this was kicking off Abu Qatada was being deported to Jordan and Theresa May and David Cameron were slapping each other on the back, again with Sky News asking the question whether or not this result after 12 years now means we need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. They may not be telling you what to think by the media is telling you what to think about.

Politics

MP’s are about to receive a pay rise with the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) stating it may be as much as 15%. This comes the week after Jeffery Osborne’s spending review speech when he slated the public sector calling for an end to automatic pay rises which have been non-existent for the majority of the people who provide our services in the first place.You could not make it up. Nick Clegg says he won’t take the money but the sideman will do as he is told.

democracy dictators

War criminal Tony Blair has been at it again, not content with calling for military intervention in Syria the week before he now throws in his blood thirsty views of Egypt into the arena, although he effectively called on the UK public to think about what had happened in Egypt if you don’t like what is happening. Unfortunately the soaps are on.

David Cameron took an opportunity to attack Labour and their trade union history at Prime Ministers Questions (PMQs) this week. It was a “Quick, look over there, do not look at what we are up to!” moment. The idea is that unions wield too much power over Labour and are their puppets. Is he joking? The Labour fall out with Unions being talked at length by propaganda machine is a distraction. The biggest back of Labour last time they were in power was not a union but the largest media empire going, News International, headed up by the jackal Rupert Murdoch, followed closely by Terry Leahy or Mr Tesco to you and I. The rise of Leahy and Tesco was intrinsic with the rise to power of Blair and Labour.

Between them they killed of the local shop and tens of thousands of brown women and children in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention several thousand of our service men and women, many more of which were given bullet proof vests, only to get arms and legs blown off. Terry Leahy got a knighthood and Tony ‘the war criminal’ Blair earns £2m a year from JPMorgan and is the middle east peace envoy. Not making it up. It’s all true.

In the mean time Ed Miliband has decided he has to “mend” the union link with Labour, effectively killing off any last flicker of hope for some that Labour would start to stand for the working people of this country again instead of cosying up to big business and the war machine.
Labour AND Conservatives suck on the nipple of corporations and business, they do not care about you. They do not care about us. We are a vessel for them to suck the life blood out of to keep them and their mates in the life style they have become accustom to and they get away with it because they know we will not do anything about it until the soaps and X-Factor have finished.

Health and Social care

The NHS is 65 and about to be retired, sold off to privateers to make profit from our misfortune. How will they make profit you might ask from providing a service to us? By making you pay through the nose for it. The potential for these vampires to make a few million pound out of us is why we face the unthinkable and despicable act of privatisation. In brief, before the NHS infant mortality, one in twenty children died before their first birthday and is one of the most efficient health services (in what we call the developed) world. If we do not offer a resistance to this then we are condemning our children and grandchildren to a world of pain.

The lows to which some will stoop to never fail to amaze me. In Liverpool this week it was reported that Atos, the SS department for the Department for Welfare and Pensions, called the police to stop experts in welfare giving advice to the sick and elderly being assessed. These people recently assessed a woman fresh from a double heart and lung bypass as being fit for work and she received a return to work letter , nine days later, the day she died in hospital. These people and this world is sick and backwards. There is no justice, there is just-us.

The papers this week have been telling you all about benefits scroungers again. This time it is a woman who has been given £500,000 house that you should be upset about, not the bankers bonuses (up 64% to £143 pound a week each on average) and certainly not the Royal Spawn, who’s bedroom had a £1m makeover. They tell you what to think about.

Finally the Ministry of Love has released a report confirming what you already knew from the constant bombardment of fear and hatred, that immigrants cause over crowding and fuel tensions. You just sit down and stay in fear of your neighbour and if you want to serve the Ministry of Love (#Miniluv) then you just be fearful and spy on them.

roal spawn

World

The people of Egypt took to the streets and gave their president 48 hours to leave office or they were taking it back. He stood his ground and the people mobilised with the largest protests and mass assemblies perhaps ever witnessed in the history of mankind. The Egyptian army, America backed, took back the office a new interim leader is in post for the time being but violence on the streets is escalating as supporters of the ejected president Morsi fight back.

The President of Bolivia’s aeroplane was forced to land earlier this week. The rumour mill was that Edward Snowden was on board. Can you imagine Air Force One being called to land because they were harbouring war criminals? Imagine that!

Water wars! I haven’t mentioned anything about that for a while but now even the mainstream media is stoking up the fear. The world is looking at a threat to the food supply as our water wells dry up. We are over pumping our ground supplies and face peak water. I like the sound of water wars better because when we face up to it, other than the air we breath, water is the most important thing to the human species. Perhaps people might want to think twice about the process of hydraulic fracturing, contaminating water to extract gas or oil, with potentially devastating environmental consequences, or go back to Coca-Cola and ask them to stop using our water for their madness inducing syrup juice.

The U.S are honouring the religious observation of Ramadan at Guantanamo Bay by only force feeding its detainees at night. That’s alright then. Thanks Barack.

Also in America an airline passenger plane crashed in San Francisco and Barack Obama has once again applauded the actions of the first responders. Be careful if you are a first responder in Yemen or Pakistan, they will blow you up with their reaper drones because you are probably a terrorist.

The football world cup is next year and this week a referee was beheaded after he fatally stabbed a player. Where’s that ticket…

 

Entertainment

Ghandi PennyRed

Laurie Penny asked on Twitter this week what the next generation would be called, after a debate about what the present generation are called? The two point zero? Who knows, but the next generation will be called ‘The Unfortunates’. The Unfortunates because we let the corrupt take away legal aid, our freedom and liberties, social security, loading them up with £73,000 debt before they’re born, gorged ourselves on fossil fuels, ruined the environment with shale gas and gave them cancer with the way we grow and develop food and through the use of depleted uranium in our ammunition. Yes, the ‎#unfortunates . We are sorry, we had to wait for the soaps to finish but now X-Factor is on