A short summary of the year ahead by the Observer.
It would be nice to follow Antony Newley’s ‘Stop the World I want to get off’
But that’s not in our gift.
We all have to do what we can to work towards a more democratic and tolerant world.
December 28, 2019
The Observer View
December 27, 2019
Will the English Language remain a Lingua Franca
I used to think that the world wide use of English was because it is the language of the US but here is an article that suggests that English will be used as a lingua franca for many years to come independent of the US adoption.
BTW the US’s second language is Spanish
And the author thinks that leaving the EU will not bring about an automatic change to say French.
December 25, 2019
The Trail of Charles 1
A three-part series on BBC 4 on the Trial of Charles 1.
The Trial comes to a climax on the decision as to whether Charles 1 raised an army and a bloody civil war against the people of the UK (well mainly England) and against his oath on his Coronation to protect the people.
He is found guilty, as we know, by what were in effect a chosen selection of the Proletarians. Charles 1 had ignored the will of Parliament and had ultimately gone to War to prove that he was King by Divine Right and was therefore omnipotent.
Charles was ultimately defeated by Cromwell and Fairfax, captured and had to be put on trial – the series makes no attempt to show that the trial was a show trial; rather it makes the case that the King is Not Above the Law and as such it set the precedent for the numerous examples across the World since. We shall see whether, as claimed by the lawyers interviewed, the Trail affected UK Parliamentary Democracy ever since. A bold claim and one that looks dubious in the light of the recent UK Election where the Executive has assumed the mantle of the Devine Right of Kings .
As at 25th December the Series is still available on BBC4
The Modern Day Santa Claus
Happy Christmas
But a cautionary story. Not just Santa Claus knows what you want
And the Guardian itself knows me that I have read 16 stories on line this week – I’m surprised it is not more!
Not quite 1984 but getting that way.
December 22, 2019
An Independent Scotland or 10 years under the Control of Boris Johnson
Two articles in today’s Scotsman on Sunday (22/12/2019) by Euan McColm and Dani Garavelli
McColm berates Nicola Sturgeon on yet again pressing for a 2nd Independence vote. McColm makes the point that the votes of SNP together with the Greens in last week’s general election didn’t make the 50% mark ie taken together they wouldn’t win the vote for Scottish Independence. In any case he stresses the point that even with the matters derogated to Scotland the SNP has made a mess of them eg Education and the NHS
Read Euan McColm here:
Dani Garavelli comes from another direction. We have Johnson for 5 years at at least and probably 10 years. During that time, he is likely to move the UK drastically to the Right. Already he has gone back on allowing child refugees entry into the UK to meet up with their parents. He is also considering making appointments to the judiciary on a political basis (as in the US). And Heaven knows what will happen to working conditions.
Read Dani Garavelli here:
Comment
In my view McColm is correct in that the SNP Government has not made a good job of the opportunities afforded to it over the last 10 years. But his article dwells on the SNP continually pressing for a 2nd referendum which is unlikely to succeed and, in the meantime, the SNP failing to tackle the outstanding Scottish problems; rather than the devastation that a Johnson Government could make to the UK Social Fabric as a whole. Surely it is better for Scotland to go its own way, free from the Social destruction under Johnson. As the expression goes, Scotland ‘to take back control’.
Johnson’s Vacuity
Ken Clarke on Johnson’s Vacuity
Clarke said Johnson’s policy vagueness was particularly acute on Brexit: “I could never get out of Boris – and nobody so far could get out of Boris – what he has in mind for the eventual deal. To say they’re generalities is an understatement
Remember: Roger McGough
I wanna be the Prime Minister
I wanna be the Prime Minister
Can I be the Prime Minister?
Can I? I can?
Promise? Promise?
Yippee I’m the Prime Minister
I’m the Prime Minister
OK what shall we do?
December 20, 2019
The Dictator’s first move
John Crace
‘Brexit was done. Even if it wasn’t. And anyone who dared whisper the word Brexit again after 31 January would be arrested for thought crimes. Boris had hoped he would feel more elated than this, but instead he could only feel disappointment closing in. He had gained the world, but had long since lost both his family and his soul. His narcissism would inevitably destroy him. In the beginning is my end. Now the light falls.’
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/20/to-johnson-the-brexit-spoils-and-the-amnesia
One might add:
‘Beware the Ides of March’
In 44 BCE, Julius Caesar’s rule in Rome was in trouble. Caesar was a demagogue, a ruler who set his own rules, frequently bypassing the Senate to do what he liked, and finding supporters in the Roman proletariat and his soldiers. The Senate made Caesar dictator for life in February of that year, but in truth, he had been the military dictator governing Rome from the field since 49. …..that the next 30 days were to be fraught with peril, but the danger would end on the Ides of March.
December 18, 2019
Enter Johnson the Dictator
Under plans made by Theresa May, the incorporation of all EU case law made by the European Court of Justice into UK law after departure would have left the supreme court as the only body able to overturn these decisions.
But asked about reports that Boris Johnson had ignored concerns from some ministers and decided to allow lower courts the same power, his spokesman confirmed that this would be part of the new withdrawal agreement bill.
December 9, 2019
December 3, 2019
NHS for sale? Our mental health services are
Ian Birrell
Sunday 1 December 2019
Fatcat US Operators already have their claws into our psychiatrics service
For much of the time it has seemed only two issues are at stake in this depressing election campaign.
The Tories relentlessly push the phoney idea that they will “get Brexit done”, dropping their duplicitous slogan into every interview and speech.
Both lines are lies. The dispiriting Brexit saga will drag on for many more years if the Tories win, while no party – even one led by Boris Johnson – is going to sell off the NHS when it is seen as sacred by most voters.
Yet these two false claims came together last week when Jeremy Corbyn, desperate to regain momentum after his mauling by the BBC’s Andrew Neil, brandished 451 pages of documents from trade talks with the United States.
He claimed the papers prove the Tories are planning “runaway privatisation” of the NHS after Brexit since “mega-corporations” view it as “a chance to make billions from the illness and sickness of people in this country”.
A member of NHS medical staff poses with unredacted documents related to post-Brexit UK-US Trade talks following a Labour election policy announcement on the NHS. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
Stirring stuff. Shame that Corbyn’s documents showed nothing had been agreed, although clearly longer drug patents are among Washington’s objectives.
Yet the Tories hit back hard. “We are absolutely resolved that there will be no sale of the NHS, no privatisation; the NHS is not on the table in any way,” declared Johnson. Ministers and loyal MPs chimed in to chorus that “the NHS is not for sale”.
Yet hang on a second. One key slice of the NHS is already lying in a distressed state on the operating table, where it has been chopped up for profit-hungry private firms.
And giant US health corporations, along with hedge funds and private equity firms, are already here and bleeding dry this profitable corner of the NHS – with often disastrous consequences for some of our most desperate patients. Sadly, no one seems to care much since it is “only” the mental health sector – for so long the neglected Cinderella service.
Yet in recent years a small cluster of fatcats have got their claws into Britain’s psychiatric services, exploiting the struggles of the health service to cope with surging demand.
These operators have grabbed nearly £2bn of business, providing almost one quarter of NHS mental health beds and soaking up close to half the total spend on child and adolescent mental health services.
This means they own many NHS-funded units holding people such as teenage girls who self-harm and adults with suicidal thoughts, along with hundreds of people with autism and learning disabilities scandalously locked up due to lack of support in their local communities.
These firms benefit as overloaded mental health services and risk-averse officials send more and more troubled citizens into secure units.
It is a lucrative business when it costs up to £730,000 per patient a year. Bosses can pocket millions – but many frontline workers earn little more than minimum wage and the use of agency staff is routine, despite the need to develop patient relationships.
Acadia, a Tennessee-based health giant, spent £1.3bn buying the Priory Group and now boasts of earning than £188m in just three months from British public services. “Demand for independent sector beds has grown significantly as a result of the NHS reducing its bed capacity and increasing hospitalisation rates,” said its last annual report.
Operating profits at Cygnet, owned by another huge US firm, have surged to £45.2m due to deals with 228 NHS purchasing bodies after it bought a rival group last year. Another outfit called Elysium, backed by private equity through a Luxembourg firm, only launched three years ago, but is already earning revenues of £61.2m from at least 55 units.
A member of NHS medical staff speaks to the media. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
But a study by the Rightful Lives campaign group has found these three firms alone own 13 of the 16 mental health settings judged “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission watchdog, since it found some teeth after the furore over abusive detention of people with autism and learning disabilities exploded a year ago.
Cygnet runs eight of these “inadequate” units, although its US boss is reportedly the richest chief executive in the hospital industry, who collected more than £39m in one year from pay, bonuses and stock. Priory and Cygnet also owned hospitals exposed by disturbing undercover television documentaries over the past year.
I have heard a stream of horror stories from despairing families and former patients involving solitary confinement, forcible injections, abuse and overuse of restraint, during investigations into this area. Some were detained in NHS psychiatric units. But most involve privately-run units.
People such as Megan, who was sectioned for self-harm, suicidal thoughts and later found to be suffering post-traumatic stress from childhood traumas. She was in four clinics – but in one run by the Priory, aged just 16, she was even held stark naked for one month to prevent self-harm until her parents delivered a “safe suit”.
“It was the most degrading time of my life,” she told me. The firm was fined £300,000 earlier this year for failings after the suicide of a 14-year-old girl at the same unit.
Unlike many voters, I have no problems with private providers in healthcare if the service remains free at point of use, especially after seeing their role in European systems with superior patient outcomes to our own health service. But seeing these mental health firms has shaken my faith.
Clearly all private operators need to be effectively regulated, especially when providing sensitive frontline services.
Sadly, it seems our politicians on all sides prefer to posture over whether the NHS is really for sale to “mega-corporations” while ignoring those that have already arrived and are pocketing vast sums while offering inadequate services to so many despairing citizens. Once again, we see how little Westminster really cares.
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