It was Mark Serwotka, easily the worst trade union general secretary in the history of trade union general secretaries, who in 2010, just before the general election, announced to a slightly surprised world that the last Labour government was “the worst government in the history of this country.” I wonder how he would describe the current Tory government.
I thought it would be difficult for this country to elect another hard right government when the memories of the destructive years of Thatcher are still fresh in the mind. “Where there is harmony, may we bring discord,” she didn’t say when arriving in Downing Street back in 1979, but that was her enduring legacy.
Now we have a government with men and women of no style. The heartless Iain Duncan Smith who seems to enjoy every single tragedy that occurs on his watch. George Osborne who sinks the knife into the poor at every opportunity. Michael Gove, whose Frankenstein experiment on our schools got so out of control that even his close friend David Cameron was forced to sack him. Andrew Lansley, whose expensive, top down and totally unnecessary reorganisation of the NHS has paved the way for privatisation and now the odious Jeremy Hunt who has come in to finish the job. This is government by the few for the few.
Hunt’s assault on the NHS, by provoking the junior doctors, is a new low point even for the Tories. We must start from then position of understanding that the Tories do not believe in the NHS. For the right, the NHS represents socialism, pure and simple. And do you know what? They are right, 100% right. If there is one single thing that I could say exemplified my own politics that one thing is the NHS. We are all equal in the eyes of the doctor. The rich man’s cancer is no different from the poor man’s cancer.
Hunt’s sleight of hand negotiations are classic political smoke and mirrors. The whole point about Hunt’s proposals is saving money and he wants to save money by paying less of it to doctors who are required to be rostered at weekends. The NHS always has to roster more doctors at weekends. Pay them less and you save money.
Oddly enough, Wales and Scotland, who do not have governments which oppose the very principle of the NHS, are not trying to worsen the pay and conditions of doctors. It’s only in England. Funny that. Perhaps Hunt is making plans for when England – not the rest of the UK – leaves the EU?
Junior doctors are right to take strike action to defend their pay and conditions and to protect the NHS. They could be our last line of defence against politicians whose ideology requires it be dismantled, if not today, then tomorrow, preferably by stealth.
If you support Jeremy Hunt, you will surely agree with his unspoken but crystal clear aim to get rid of the NHS once and for all. This is a dispute that neither the doctors, the NHS or the general public can afford to lose.
