Tag Archives: Trades Union Congress

TUC: From nurses to patient safety, why Brexit could destroy the NHS | LabourList

April 10, 2016 By in Business Administration, David Cameron, Healthcare, NHS, People, Politics Tags: , , , 1 Comment
Trades Union Congress

Trades Union Congress (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Despite being conservative in my political views, I find that I’m supporting the TUC here.

The NHS is a key battleground for the EU referendum. The TUC argues:

we’ve taken a long hard look at the facts – and here is why we think Brexit would harm the NHS, not help it … Creating a staffing crisis  Leaving the EU would create a short term staffing crisis in the NHS – and that would hit the quality of services. Just under 50,000 citizens from the European Economic Area (EEA) currently work in the NHS, including over 9,000 doctors; 18,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors; and 2,500 other professionals, such as physios and radiographers. These workers provide vital skills and expertise – and they plug gaps left by the underfunding of training places. Given the government’s plans to end training bursaries and another five year squeeze on NHS funding, getting the necessary turnabout in the numbers of home-grown health professionals does not look likely to happen any time soon. So we will end up with a staffing crisis that hurts our health service.

Source: TUC: From nurses to patient safety, why Brexit could destroy the NHS | LabourList

Thoughts?

 

Opinion – Britain’s Treasury Chief Drops Plan to Cut Welfare – The New York Times – John Gelmini

November 27, 2015 By in David Cameron, Defense Policy, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy, George Osborne, Growth, Healthcare, People, Politics Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
English: UK Police Chief Constable rank markings

English: UK Police Chief Constable rank markings (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dr Alf via this New York Times article makes telling points but the “tactical retreat” over tax credits and the police will need to be revisited and in the case of the fraud ridden Working Tax Credit System will be very soon.

Working Tax Credit should have been axed entirely because under it a person can get a friend to buy an off the shelf company with some trading history and then employ them for 16 hours a week with the person who is “employed” giving their friend a bit of money which is then run through it and used to pay the person a nominal salary.

The person can then claim Working Tax Credits on the basis that their income is too low.

A Housing Benefit recipient can do some part time work as a carer, move her boyfriend into the rental property, have up to 5 babies and get the boyfriend to care for the children whilst not working. The Housing Benefit recipient limits her hours and then claims up to £135 gbp a week in Working Tax Credits.

Then there was the retreat over the police budget, which was wholly unnecessary because nearly 20% of the total police budget is kept as “reserves” and because with a total of 55 police forces in the UK, all of which are inefficient and overmanned with too many top managers and Chief Constables their is colossal waste.

The extra Stamp Duty levy will damage the buy to let market, push up house prices and encourage people to engage in buy to let abroad.

Osborne failed to “get real” with the public and the vested interests this time round but sooner or later all of them have to be given the hard word and in the case of vested interests taken on.

John Gelmini