Privatisation

NHS services worth £15billion have been privatised in the past five years, despite Tory denials that they are selling off the country’s health service. Research has revealed that contracts awarded to private firms almost doubled from £1.9billion two years ago to £3.6billion last year. The study, commissioned by health workers’ union the GMB, was carried out by independent data analysts Tussell. Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “This is blatant profiteering and flies in the face of Boris Johnson ’s claim that there would be no privatisation on his watch. "This galloping privatisation is breaking up integrated care, costing the taxpayers and leaving a poor-quality service for patients.” Read More General election 2019 The research shows that since 2015, most of the contracts have been awarded to Care UK. It got 17, while Virgin Care Services was offered 13. Virgin Care was criticised after it sued the NHS to secure an … [Read more...] about NHS privatisation already rampant with £15bn in services privatised in last 5 years

This election is a fight for the survival of our NHS as a free public service that puts patients before profits. Next Thursday, the NHS is on the ballot paper. Millions of people will have a choice about whether to see off the threat posed by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives to their local hospital and GP surgery, already stretched to breaking point by a decade of Tory austerity and privatisation. All of us have the chance to end the intolerable situation where hundreds of thousands of people have been left languishing on trolleys in hospital corridors, and cancer patients wait months in fear for treatment. And next Thursday, voters can stop in its tracks the very real risk of Donald Trump getting his hands on our NHS. Three weeks ago in this newspaper, I raised the alarm about the secret plot to sell out our NHS in a toxic deal with the US president. I warned that it would open up our NHS to takeover by US corporations and drive up the price of medicines, potentially costing the … [Read more...] about ‘This is our last chance to keep the NHS as it was entrusted to us’

Prime Minister Narendra Modi insists he is a nationalist after readying plans to sell BPCL which is valued at over ₹8 lakh crore for ₹60,000 crore, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said here on Saturday. “This is not privatisation but outright theft. Mr. Modi is helping his ‘masters’ and ‘owners’ by selling public sector units for a pittance to private entities. His ‘masters’ have hired him to do a job provided he does a job for them. Without them, he is only a balloon. This is an Ambani-Adani government, not a Modi [-led] government. They will throw him out the moment he fails to hand over to them profit-making PSUs like BPCL,” Mr. Gandhi said. He was addressing employees and members of the public in front of BPCL, Ambalamugal, where workers have been on the warpath for the past 45 days protesting against the move to sell the company which registered ₹8,000-crore profit in the last fiscal. Referring to the British … [Read more...] about BPCL sale an outright theft, says Rahul

THE final General Election TV debate was dominated by accusations of racism and anti-Semitism in the Conservative and Labour parties. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn accused each other of failing to lead their parties. Here are the issues which hung over the debate. Key Points from the BBC debate last night Anti-semitism, Racism and a failure of leadership An audience member asked the two leaders about Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. The Prime Minister said it was "extraordinary" the Chief Rabbi had felt the need to speak out during an election campaign about his fears for his community if Mr Corbyn became prime minister. Mr Corbyn said there was "no place" in his party for anti-Semitism, adding in an apparent reference to Mr Johnson's past comments: "I do not ever use racist language in any form to describe anybody in this world or in our society." Mr Corbyn did not specify which comments he was referring to but Mr Johnson has been widely criticised for articles he wrote referring to … [Read more...] about Boris Johnson vs Jeremy Corbyn – key points from BBC debate last night

New Delhi : The Indian economic juggernaut is on the roll and conditions are right for it to be a global super-power of the 21st century, noted Indian Ambassador to USA Harsh Vardhan Shringla as he spoke about strong fundamentals of Indian economy. “India is on the march! It became a 3.0 trillion economy this year (IMF World Economic Outlook, Oct 2019). It took us nearly 60 years after independence to reach the 1 trillion mark, only 12 years since then to take it to 3.0 trillion and only 5 years, from 2014-2019, to take it from 2.0 trillion to 3.0 trillion. Prime Minister of India has set a goal of achieving the 5.0 trillion mark by 2025 and we are all working diligently to achieve that goal,” Shringla said while delivering address ‘NEXT PHASE OF INDIA’S GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT at Harvard Kennedy School, Cambridge, Massachusetts’ on Friday. “India’s growth story is based on its fundamentals. While accelerating growth, we have also achieved … [Read more...] about Indian growth story based on strong eco fundamentals: Ambassador Shringla