Nationalise The Railways

The Dronfield Labour Party Discussion Group undertook some serious work on the issue of "Integrated Transport". The full published debate can be followed by linking into "labels" at the close of this item. It links to twelve threads which were posted on this blog.

Of relevance to our collective view is the finding of this current survey which shows that there is majority support amongst the public for the full nationalisation of the railways.

The Government should feel free to plagiarize our ideas.

Nationalisation In Venezuela

(Photo: Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela)



The third largest bank in Venezuela has just been nationalised. This further extends their programme of nationalisation, which in the past two years has seen telecommunications, electricity, steel and other companies being placed under public ownership. The latest development is covered here in today's Morning Star (4 July).




Colin Burgon (right), the Labour MP for Elmet will introduce a discussion into such developments at our next meeting on 12 July. For details and further links, see our right hand column.

You, Me and Tackling Climate Change

The impact of global warming on the UK is in today's headlines (i.e. 18 June) .

We had a timely discussion on what we can all do about this on Sunday. Dr Ralph Hebden (photo) is a former Lecturer in Geography at Sheffield Hallam University. He brought his overhead projector with him, so we had an illustrated talk and plenty of discussion on what we could do as individuals to reduce the impact of global warming. Inevitably the discussion spilt over into the ways that his proposals could also be acted upon by industry, trade, agriculture, transport and governments.

Below the photo of part of the problem is a list of the type of proposals he advocated. Of course, those who seriously follow his advice are also likely (a) to spread the word and (b) press governments and other major bodies to act within the same spirit. That is how what is individually practical can become what is politically feasible.



FROM RALPH HEBDEN : source

The following suggestions are to help people reduce their environmental footprint and so help to reduce their impact on global warming. In many cases they do not involve financial cost and will even save money.

1. My Home
Install:
Loft insulation
Jacket on hot water cylinder
Cavity wall insulation
Micro wind turbine after checking your location characteristics
Photovoltaic cells
Draught excluders - windows, doors, floors, but allow for some ventilation
Solar water heating panels / gas condensing boiler
Thermostats on central heating equipment
Double glazing
Lag exposed pipes
Fit low energy light bulbs
Vary times on central heating system
Reduce temperature by 1 C on central heating
Draw curtains to keep heat in
Do not leave lights on when you leave a room
Do not leave equipment on stand by - computer, TV, VCR etc.
Buy Green Energy electricity
Defrost fridge/freezer regularly
Put a box in empty fridge/freezer free spaces - reduce amount of air being frozen
Cook with lids on pans
Check energy efficiency when buying electrical and gas equipment
Use mains electricity or rechargeable batteries rather than ordinary batteries
Use non-VOC paint, solvents, preservation finishes
Stop junk mail through Mail Preference Service

2. My water use
Fix leaking taps
Turn taps fully off
Have a shower rather than a bath
Use plugs in basins and sinks
Put a water hippo in water cistern
Turn taps off when cleaning teeth
Use washing machines and dishwashers only on full loads
Fill kettle with only the water you need
Install water butts to collect water from roofs.
Think before using water; energy is needed to get water to your home.
Use lowest temperature when washing clothes
Install low flush/double flush in toilet system

5. My recycling
Check whether what you buy can be recycled
Keep and reuse envelopes
Use blank side of paper you receive for rough work
Recycle newspapers, magazines, bills, junk mail, wrapping paper.
Recycle plastic packaging from goods bought
Recycle glass
Charity shops allow you to recycle clothes.
Cans and silver paper can be recycled
Take books to charity shops or send to Feed the Minds
Opticians will recycle glasses
Dispose of waste oil, paint, solvents, and batteries safely.

4. My shopping
Use bags for life and avoid plastic bags
Use local shops or farmers’ markets to reduce travel emissions
Cut travel emissions by not buying imported goods where possible
Choose goods with minimal packaging
Reduce car use by getting shops to deliver
Shop on the internet to reduce your journeys to shops
Buy recycled paper and other recycled goods
Buy Fair Trade products
Only buy what you need and reduce waste.

5. My garden
Install water butts to collect rain water
Water plants in evening to reduce evaporation
Mulch water loving plants to reduce need to water
Have a compost bin for garden and kitchen waste
Develop eco-friendly plants for frogs, birds, hedgehogs
Have a pond to help wild life: also a base for a range of different plants
Grow vegetables and fruit in your garden
Try to keep to native plants
Use pesticides and chemical sprays as little as possible.
Avoid products with peat in them
Compost egg boxes
Compost garden clippings and twigs
Collect fallen leaves and store for a year to make compost

6. My Travel *
Reduce car use; use a bicycle, walk or use public transport
Ensure car tyre pressures are correct
Accelerate slowly
Avoid sharp breaking
Consider whether you need holidays involving long flights
Consider having holidays in Britain
Check destination weather condition before travelling
Travel with minimum luggage as a result.

7. Some Challenges
Shop locally - but not at supermarkets
Buy locally produce food and goods - not imported
Reduce car use - cope with public transport
Become vegetarian - meat production consumes many resources
Holiday in the UK - no flights to the sun, snow or 'far away places'
Live a simple lifestyle - reduce your environmental footprint

* During the debate, the discussion groups own submission on"Integrated Transport" was raised as having relevance to these proposals.

A Quick Response

Rob Quick chaired the last meeting of our discussion group - see here.


Today's Guardian carries the following letter from him, under the heading "HAZEL BLEARS HAS BETRAYED US".

Thank you Ms Blears for stabbing we Labour activists in the back (Blears strikes blow for rebels with resignation, 4 June). You might have thought in your selfish egotistical way you were simply stabbing the PM in the back, but you forgot about us. I am the Labour agent in Dronfield, Derbyshire and we have been working tirelessly for weeks, despite the daily exposés of MPs' misuse of expenses, in a key marginal with only slim hopes of keeping one seat and maybe control of the county. Blears has betrayed ordinary Labour supporters. We feel she should be expelled from the party.
Rob Quick
Vice-chair, Derbyshire North East CLP

The full range of letters under the above heading appears here.

Should We Get Into Step?

Kevin Barron (right) with Chair Rob Quick, addresses Sunday's meeting. Below 13 of the 21 present. (Photos by Dave Hill)


Kevin Barron addressed our Discussion Meeting on Sunday. He has been the MP for Rother Valley since 1983 and is Chair of the Select Committee on Health in the current parliament.

The topic he introduced for discussion was his Select Committee's recent wide ranging enquiry into the important "NHS Next Steps Review" which had been undertaken for the Government by Lord Darzi who is a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Health and is also a leading surgeon at Imperial College.

A major aim of Darzi's Report was to place quality services at the heart of the NHS, with patients being treated with compassion, dignity and respect. In pursuing these ends the Select Committee had welcomed the supervisory role designated for the Strategic Health Authorities, but it doubted whether Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were currently capable of performing the tasks they were being set. For PCTs are seen as having poor commissioning and planning skills and, also, exercising variable qualities of management.

The Daszi Report had also recommended the adoption of an NHS Constitution. For the first time setting up rights and responsibilities for patients and staff in a single document.

The Select Committee welcomed the rights that would be established to enable patients to obtain drugs prescribed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), but they expressed fears about proposals that might lead to the operation of a "Lawyers' Charter.

The new NHS Constitution would also provide rights for patients to gain information about the quality of alternative NHS provisions. In supporting these proposals, Kevin pointed out that a local elderly widow had opted to enter a hospital in the south of England because she had family in the area she selected.

21 people attended the Dronfield meeting and Kevin's presentation led to an intense and lively debate. There was a major discussion over whether the "choice" agenda merely led to isolated individualism and the expansion of market principles into the NHS, instead of looking to the development of democratisation which would enable people to press for shared interests.

A wide range of other topics were pursued such as worries about MRSA, the post-code lottery, healthy food (the Select Committee had interviewed Jamie Oliver), patient's subjective judgements about their treatment and the widespread absence of NHS dental services. On the latter Kevin pointed out that the Health Select Committee had pursued the matter some 18 months ago, but found the Government to be in denial about the issue.

Personal : I was Kevin's politics tutor in 1974-5 when he attended the third year of a Day Release Course run for Yorkshire Miners by the Sheffield University Extramural Department. At the time he was a pit electrician. He went on to full-time study at Ruskin College in Oxford and gained a Diploma in Labour History. Kevin and I next met up in the Commons where I was a fellow MP from 1987 to 2005. Amongst the common activities we shared was meeting with the Conservative Minister of Higher Education, Tim Eggar in a failed attempt to save the traditional Diploma courses at Ruskin College. I had myself studied on such a course 14 years before Kevin had.

Note : The Discussion Group has now been running for three years. The above is our third meeting on the NHS. In September 2006, Dave Hincliffe (Wakefield MP 1987-2005 and the previous Chair of the Commons' Select Committee on Health) addressed us. Whilst for the 60th Anniversary of the NHS, Dr Jack Czaudema of the Darnall Community Health Centre was the speaker.

Who Runs The NHS?

Aneurin Bevan, Labour's Minister of Health whose NHS Act of 1946 came into operation on 5 July, 1948.


This is an anonymous contribution for our discussion on 10 May with Kevin Barron MP on the NHS Next Stage Review (see details of the meeting in the right hand column opposite), posted via Harry Barnes.

Who actually runs our local NHS Trusts? We elect Councillors who run our local authority services, but who are the faceless people who run local NHS services…..?

Gordon Brown has previously dropped hints of making the NHS independent – run by some sort of ‘BBC’ type board! According to the HSJ (Health Service Journal), top NHS managers at the DH were, at one point, running around preparing (I think enthusiastically) for such a scenario. Unsurprisingly doctors leaders are supportive of this idea! Doctors like to be in control, and a political vacuum leaves local health services free for domination by the medical mafia. Today the NHS is in the clutches of right wing ideologists, accountants and those who swarm around the alter of ‘lean thinking’, labour has given up the vision of a socialist health care system, and sold its soul to the marketers and profiteers.

Talk by the Tories too of taking the politics out of the NHS would be hilarious if it wasn’t so serious! But this must be music to the ears of the many right wing zealots who current dictate NHS policies.

For a Government committed to ‘democracy’ and de-centralisation, since labour came to power in 1997, it does seem ironic that the NHS, Labour’s jewel in the crown’, is having the last vestiges of democracy stripped away.

As a closet socialist working in a very senior role in an NHS Foundation Trust, I have had plenty of time to get used to the snide comments, and cynical ‘stage-whispers’ of senior NHS managers, who laughingly pay lip-service to Government policy, yet they are inherently anti-labour! What makes it even more disheartening is that the view often expressed is that Labour Ministers simply do as they are told by the DH Civil Servants. The NHS is so full of ‘inner-circles’ of NHS Chief Executives and Civil Servants, who were all nurtured in the Tory period of mass privatisation, marketisation and mass job cuts. It is very clear to me (as an insider) that it is these ‘inner-circles’ who are driving the pace of marketisation (we have to call it by the sanitised name - “Contestability”)

When NHS Trusts were established by the Tories in the early 1990’s, they removed the split between the Health authority members (a rather odd mix of ‘do-gooders’ Local Councillors and a single TUC Representative), and the non-voting Executives. The creation of Boards of Executive and Non-Executive members with the Chief Executive and Finance Director having the same vote as the ‘appointed’ non-executives.


Looking at the lists of non-executive directors in NHS Trusts, there are not many who sound remotely like labour people, and, although many of them declare ‘no political affiliations’ their backgrounds and histories make some interesting reading. Take the most recent appointments of Chairpersons for the new and enlarged (Regional) Health Authorities. We have a former Second Sea-Lord, a former employee of BUPA, a former Executive of privatised rail companies, and someone who holds directorships in the pharmaceutical industry and the financial services sector.

Vast numbers of ‘Labour’ supporters or sympathisers are excluded by virtue of the prejudiced and biased person specifications set for the role of non-Executive Directors or Chair’s. Language such as “Business” level experience, “Finance or Accountancy” “Entrepreneurial skills”, “Commercial”, or must have “Board level” experience are often seen in adverts. For Foundation Trusts, and it appears, for most NHS bodies, even the requirement to live locally has disappeared! What would be wrong with “Experience as a patient or service user”? or “Aspires to represent the local community” or “Be prepared to challenge the Chief Executive or other Directors on key policy issues.

What we have, in reality, is NHS Trust Boards stuffed full of Tory leaning, right wing, business people, who are keen to earn their £6K (for a non-executive) or £20/60K for a Chairperson) and vote like puppets as per the recommendations of the ‘Executive team’. Many foundation trust boards now meet in secret with only a small number of meetings being open to the public. The abolition of Community Health Councils leaves yet a further gap in local accountability, with local authority scrutiny panels trying to pick up the pieces.

Foundation Trust ‘Governing Councils’ are another sad example of what is happening to the NHS. I am a senior manager in a foundation trust, so I can tell any aspiring Trust Governor – ‘ don’t waste your time’! The Chief Executive and the Chairman may pay lip service to the Council, but behind your backs they are sniggering away. No power…. And no real purpose, except to provide a ‘pretext’ of democracy and accountability.

The debates in the labour Movement in the 80’s and 90’s, led by health unions and the socialist health association around the principle of democratising the NHS, often resulted in overwhelming votes in favour of democratically elected health organisations at local level. Sadly it seems that Schools are to go the same way (Foundation Schools/ Foundation Trusts) put a few business people in, remove local elected representatives and screw democracy! Under a Labour Government! Call it ‘choice’ (patients or parents) but it is really about a ‘Hobson’s choice’ for the many, and an offer of choice only to those who have informed knowledge or money. For me, I choose my local community hospital, my local GP and my local school.

I campaigned hard in 1997 for the election of a Labour Government (so hard I was thanked personally by Tony Blair, in 10 Downing Street, for my efforts) part of that campaign was to remove the vilified ‘internal market’. But what we have now is no different. For ‘purchaser/ provider’ read ‘commissioner/ provider’! For Fund-Holding GP practises, read GP commissioning! My Trust spends tens of thousands of pounds on clinical coders – whose job it is to cost each element of treatment to ensure we get the right invoice to the PCT or GP! The local NHS services are so wound up with unnecessary bureaucracy that it is no wonder patients are left wondering where all the money is going!

It seems to me that the army of young graduate ‘advisors’, who I saw following the then ‘shadow’ cabinet members around on the election campaign, have spent the last 10 years nurturing the seeds of right wing ideology in the corridors of power. Why else are we still exposing ‘dirty hospitals’, when most hospitals are still suffering the consequences of privatised cleaning services. My own hospital is a prime example – poor standards, low pay and very dubious employment practises!! Simple answer is bring services back in house! Seemingly more difficult than it sounds – but I don’t understand why?

The NHS is political, and no government can pretend to ‘take politics’ out of its governance. The issue should be maintaining the balance between national standards, and fair funding, with local accountability and local democracy.

Sounds Venezuela

The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela has just completed a series of packed-out performances at the South Bank. The programme notes stated that -

Around 2003, stories began to circulate within the music world about an extraordinary youth orchestra in Venezuela. World famous musicians of the calibre of Sir Simon Rattle talked of El Sistema, a national music system in Venezuela that had produced hundreds of youth orchestras and more than a quarter of a million new musicians, many of them from deeply underprivileged backgrounds, who were playing with a dynamism and professionalism so compelling that they created a social and musical revolution of epic proportions.

To see what is happening click into this video.

Our meeting on July 12th is about Venezuela. How has it been able to produce this social and musical revolution? What else is happening in Venezuela?