Cameron: "Cuts will change our way of life"

[Bobby Hundreds]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30566207

Lower standards in order to use the results to politcally fool people into believing you have made the service more efficient because it hits the targets a lot more now seems an incredible non solution to a problem. it's pretty sick. Do everything to make figures look good by hook or crook but don't actually improve anything.

[Bobby Hundreds]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/3-top-tories-call-for-nhs-413096

 

They put hunt in charge of the NHS! Uh

[Lee909]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/3-top-tories-call-for-nhs-413096

 

They put hunt in charge of dismantling the NHS! Uh

Fixed

 

[Moctezuma]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/3-top-tories-call-for-nhs-413096

 

They put hunt in charge of  dismantling the NHS! Uh

 

Fixed

 

Yup the link between Jeremy's rise and private health providers has been an interesting one:

 

https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/revealed-at-last-the-hunt-bottomley-link/

 

Throughout his career, Jeremy Hunt’s advancement somehow always seemed to involve his path crossing that of the former Virginia Bottomley, known since 2005 as Baroness Nettlestone. Now – with the help of some initial sleuthing by regular Slogger Jackie – I can offer readers a big clue: they are cousins. Laid out below (for anyone with any feeling for the importance of meritocracy) is how still, in 2012, career progress of the type admired by David Cameron – “the leg up” – is alive and well. One where the right tie, who you know, and above all a well-connected family, are all you need to prosper.

 

 Having studied the modus operandi of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt for some eighteen months now, the most striking thing about him is a penchant for toughing out any and all criticisms with a bare face. Almost nothing uttered in public by this man is ever anything other than an embellishment, or a distortion, or a boldly stated but clearly inaccurate statement: “I gave full disclosure”, “I have done nothing wrong”, “It was a purely fact-finding mission” and so forth.

 

Today at the Conservative Party conference, Hunt excelled himself by suggesting to his audience that his father “worked as a manager for the NHS”. It is an exaggeration served with lashings of deception: Sir Nicholas John Streynsham Hunt (Daddy) was Admiral of the Fleet in his main career and, once retired, became a quangoista par excellence. He was Chairman of the South West Surrey District Health Authority from 1990 to 1995 and then Chairman of Nuffield Hospitals from 1996 to 2001.

 

Ring any bells? The clues are ‘South West Surrey’, ‘Health’ and ‘Nuffield’. And it might not be too hard to imagine where he got the assist into those cosy sinecures: for not long previously, his niece Virginia Bottomley had been….Minister of Health.

 

Admiral Sir John had an elder brother (now carefully airbrushed out of the Wikipedias and other genealogies), one Roland Colin Charles Hunt. He married Hilda Pauline Garnett, whose brother was W. John Garnett. WJG had a daughter called Hilda Brunette Maxwell Garnett….aka, Virginia Bottomley.

 

Virginia Bottomley eventually became MP for South West Surrey.

 

Ring any bells? Ah yes, that’ll be the same South West Surrey for which her cousin Jeremy Hunt became MP when Virginia decided to quit open politics and become a quangoista…just like her uncle the Admiral of the Fleet.

 

And this wasn’t the first time La Bottomley had been helpful to cousin Jeremy. She’d joined infamous quango The British Council. And it might not be too hard to imagine where Jezzer got the assist into becoming a monopoly supplier to the British Council with his company Hotcourses.

 

Nor would it involve much of a lateral leap in thought to understand how – after Hotcourses completely cocked up the first job it did for the Council – an elaborate system of shelf companies and oddly-headed invoices enabled Jeremy to carry on secretly being a preferred monopoly supplier to The British Council for the next five years…on the back of which he amassed the fortune of which he is so proud today.

 

Then Virginia moved upwards into Another House, becoming Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone in 2005 – handing her seat to Jeremy Hunt as if it might be a family heirloom. Hunt was duly elected, and South West Surrey thus became a Rotten Borough.

 

This is what Baroness Nettlestone mainly gets up to in the Lords: she lobbies on behalf of the private health sector via her directorship of BUPA. She must’ve been a shoe-in for that little earner, she having been Health Secretary in charge of the public sector an’ all…but then, probably Uncle Admiral’s contacts at Nuffield helped. You know how these things work.

 

Right then….private health lobbying, and a creeping pauperisation of NHS hospitals by former Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. But Andrew was a bit accident-prone – rather like his Cabinet colleague Jeremy Hunt, who partnered Newscorp in his educational supplies business, went to New York to broker a change of Newscorp’s Party preference from Labour to Tory, and then was quite coincidentally put in charge of adjudicating on the Newscorp bid for BSkyB. As we all know, that ended in tears.

 

But Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt didn’t go down a snake like the luckless Lansley. He went two rungs up the ladder to become….Secretary of State for Health. To paraphrase the old Lord Robert Cecil gag about ‘Bob’s yer uncle’ it seems the only way is up if Ginny’s yer cousin. As I blogged yesterday, Cameron didn’t want to give Jezzer the job. But Mr Hunt appears to have three very strong holds on the Prime Minister.

 

First, he is very – like I mean extremely – well in at Newscorp. “Jeremy is our man now: don’t mess with him”. Second, he is bankrolled by murky mega-donor JHJ Lewis – Chairman of the Groucho Club (a media-luvvie venue proven to have illegally recorded the coke-snorting antics of its celebrity customers) and influential eminence grise in the Conservative Party. And third, he has the influence and contacts via Bottomley to oil wheels here and there in the gradual sale of an insolvent NHS to organisation like – and here I’m only offering suggestions of course – BUPA and Nuffield.

 

So there’s Jeremy newly installed as Health Secretary after just seven short years as an MP. This is a summary of his meteoric rise:

 

He made a fortune at the taxpayers’ expense as monopoly supplier to a notorious quango where, by happy coincidence, his cousin sat on the Board. He became MP for SW Surrey where, by happy coincidence, his cousin had been MP previously. He became Minister in charge of Media & Culture where, by happy coincidence, he wound up steering his pals at Newscorp in the right direction. And he became Health Secretary partly because, by happy coincidence, his cousin is a lobbyist for the private health sector.

 

The Conservative Party claims to be all about the Bonfire of the Quangos, the Party where everyone who wants to work hard can get an even break, and the Big Society. But its members, acolytes and backers remain what they’ve always been: a small Secret Society where who is far more important than what you know. Hilariously, Virginia Bottomley has described herself as “a one-nation” Conservative. Well I guess we now know which of Disraeli’s two nations she was talking about.

 

Sadly, ‘Red’ Ed’s flimsy attempt to take on the mantle of Benjamin Dizziband last week is no kind of alternative to the privatisation and commercial exploitation of Westminster by the Tory Party’s mates in big business and banking. The Ed Miller Band too has its UNITE mates who must be satisfied, its largely pro-Labour immigrants who must be loved up, its teachers who resist real educational reform, and its public sector employees who vote Labour by a margin of two to one.

 

The truth is that none of our triumvirate of Westminster Parties has the majority citizen in mind when formulating policy. The Libdems represent slavish support for Brussels and all its works. Labour thinks equality is about affirmative, favouritist action for noisy minorities. And the Tories think they work for anyone with money and power. Brick by brick, the Wall of Class knocked down during the 1950s has been replaced by the Barrier of Influence in the 21^st century. Merit? It doesn’t even get a look in. Decency? That’s for wimps.

 

All this disgusting graft, influence and interest-group manipulation can only be ended by banning all monied political lobbying and all political Party contributions, whatever their size. I repeat, the State must fund all political Parties and keep commerce out: it is the only way our once great and respected political culture can be revived.

 

[stringvest]

I depped as a singer at a mate's band's gig on Sunday night. 'Twas a 50th birthday party. Swanky hotel (Brooklands), lavish food, drink, entertainment. Gig went down a storm. Guy looked vaguely familiar - I knew he'd just flown in from Singapore on Sunday morning, but didn't know his full name. Turns out it was this gentleman...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265253/Andrew-Tinney-The-regime-fear-inside-Barclays--boss-lied-shredded-evidence.html

 

I feel dirty.

 

[VladimirIlyich]

I depped as a singer at a mate's band's gig on Sunday night. 'Twas a 50th birthday party. Swanky hotel (Brooklands), lavish food, drink, entertainment. Gig went down a storm. Guy looked vaguely familiar - I knew he'd just flown in from Singapore on Sunday morning, but didn't know his full name. Turns out it was this gentleman...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2265253/Andrew-Tinney-The-regime-fear-inside-Barclays--boss-lied-shredded-evidence.html

 

I feel dirty.

You should feel dirty if you read a Daily Fail article.

'My eyes,my beautiful eyes.'

[lifetime fan]

A slightly different experience of the NHS...

 

 

An 84-year-old woman with a broken hip was kept in a hospital room her son described as a "store cupboard" and given a bell to ring to get help.

 

Andy Goddard said the experience, which included his mother spending over an hour on a trolley in a chilly corridor at Southmead Hospital, was "laughable".

 

The hospital said that the room was not a cupboard and that it was used for medical procedures.

 

Its director of nursing has apologised to the family for their experience.

 

A number of teething problems have been encountered at the £430m hospital in Bristol since it opened in May.

 

Mr Goddard said his mother - Molly - had a fall last Thursday and was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

 

"Then we were left in a hallway right opposite the doors for an hour and a half in a draught. The doors were open and it was blowing a gale and freezing cold.

 

"Mum's very frail, she feels the cold awfully. I had to wrap her in a blanket to stop her being cold."

 

He said they were moved around the corner after complaining and after spending the night in A&E they were admitted on to a ward.

 

"We were taken into what was a procedure room, which is basically used as a store cupboard, and we were given a brass bell as a call system, which I found laughable."

 

But he praised nursing staff who were "all very good and working hard".

 

The hospital's director of Nursing and Quality, Sue Jones, responded, saying emergency departments nationally were facing "increased pressure" and Southmead Hospital staff was doing the best it could for its patients.

 

"Mr Goddard's story about his mother's care illustrates the impact of the pressure that some of our staff are working under," she added.

 

"We are working extremely hard to make sure we can move patients and they are not queuing in the corridor. It is a time working under extreme pressure."

 

The hospital said the room which Mrs Goddard stayed in was a procedure room, where some medical equipment is kept, and not a store cupboard.

 

Regular call bells will be fitted to these rooms in the new year, a spokesman said, with bells used as an interim measure.

 

The room was "entirely appropriate for safe and dignified patient care", the spokesman added.

 

Mrs Goddard spent a day and a night in the room before having surgery on Saturday and then being transferred to a ward room where she was "recovering well".

[Dr Nowt]

"But he praised nursing staff who were "all very good and working hard".

 

This is key.  Do more with less, people.

[Dr Nowt]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/lord-bell-christmas-with-margaret-thatcher-was-horrible-and-trying-presents-games-and-children-were-banned-9942468.html

 

Real-life Disney villain.

[Anubis]

Hunt will watch an episode of Mash and decide he can set up field tents in the car park to keep waiting paitients out of corridors.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I don't know if it's true but I read somewhere that one in five ambulance service are private with more and more supposed to be heading that way, it kind of makes extending the response time seem obvious now. They will make it look more and more like the private sector hits its targets consistently where as in the past the NHS always struggled. That to one side.... Scum our politcians. They would sell us all down the river.

[Section_31]

 

David Cameron has stressed his pride in the UK's "Christian values" in his annual Christmas message.

The prime minister said "giving, sharing and taking care of others" at home and around the world was something the UK could be depended upon for.

 

[Section_31]

Haha ace, thought this was a pisstake at first.

 

http://metro.co.uk/2014/12/26/conservative-party-to-legalise-fox-hunting-if-they-win-general-election-2015-5000292/?ito=facebook

[Dr Nowt]

Watching the best of not the nine o'clock news with my old dear on Gold, bit of nostalgia.

 

Sketch just been on in which the government remove all duty on certain items and put 100% on things like wheelchairs, white sticks and prosthetic limbs. Must be over 30 years old.

 

Same as it ever was. Depressing.

[Nightcat]

Is it true the rumour spread here n Mogadishu that D. Cameron was doing night visits to the Stone Cupboard where the poor Lady was kept. That's what they say that tories do

 

This is the kind of stories they tell children here in Africa to make them behave:

"Be quiet or I'll hand you to D. Cameron in england... have I told you what he is doing to children and old ladies. Well let me tell you the story. It was a cold rainy day in england when..?"

[Anubis]

Nothing finer than sitting back with a glass of red wine, a mince pie, and watching how smoothly the privatised rail network is working in London on News 24.

 

Just waiting for the first person to die of frostbite in that massive queue outside Finsbury Park station.

[Ponz]

The train companies are privatised. The rail network is fullly owned and operated by the government via Network Rail, which is largely responsible for the issues at Kings Cross/Finsbury Park (missing engineering work deadlines). 

[Anubis]

The train companies are privatised. The rail network is fullly owned and operated by the government via Network Rail, which is largely responsible for the issues at Kings Cross/Finsbury Park (missing engineering work deadlines). 

 

It's not that simple. It's a company limited by guarantee which is underwritten by the government, and was only recalssified as public in September of this year to appease the regulatory bodies. It operates much like a private company and, whilst it doesn't distribute profit to shareholders it can redistribute profit to members. It's not a PLC.

 

Next you'll  be telling me BUPA is the NHS.

[Rico1304]

It's not that simple. It's a company limited by guarantee which is underwritten by the government, and was only recalssified as public in September of this year to appease the regulatory bodies. It operates much like a private company and, whilst it doesn't distribute profit to shareholders it can redistribute profit to members. It's not a PLC.

 

Next you'll  be telling me BUPA is the NHS.

Stu Monty has been quiet, I'm laying the blame with him.

 

A friend of mine is outside FP, she's not a happy lady.

[Anubis]

Stu Monty has been quiet, I'm laying the blame with him.

 

A friend of mine is outside FP, she's not a happy lady.

 

I saw him perusing the GF. That's why I posted. I reckon it's his crew who are on it. When we get confirmation I'm calling the broadsheets...

[Anubis]

Ok, I'll admit I smiled, but should Finsbury Park really be taking the piss on Twitter?

 

 

 

 Follow

Finsbury Park‏@finsbury_pk

“@TlfTravelAlerts: Last Christmas, We closed Finsbury Park, The very next day, Minor delays.” Heh.

 

 

EDIT: checked it out - not official but just an information group. Now I can actually laugh at it.

[Rico1304]

I saw him perusing the GF. That's why I posted. I reckon it's his crew who are on it. When we get confirmation I'm calling the broadsheets...

That video of the Japanese lowering an entire platform in 8 hrs probably got him over ambitious.

[Stu Monty]

The train companies are privatised. The rail network is fullly owned and operated by the government via Network Rail, which is largely responsible for the issues at Kings Cross/Finsbury Park (missing engineering work deadlines). 

 

Unless you know of maintenance work that's going on in the area, and have a much deeper understanding of the relationship than you seem to be indicating, I'm pretty sure it'll be a private company that's fucked this up. In fact I've heard rumours about who it is and what the issue is. 

 

I'd not want to be in that job wash-up meeting. P45 material.

[Rico1304]

Unless you know of maintenance work that's going on in the area, and have a much deeper understanding of the relationship than you seem to be indicating, I'm pretty sure it'll be a private company that's fucked this up. In fact I've heard rumours about who it is and what the issue is. 

 

I'd not want to be in that job wash-up meeting. P45 material.

Leaves on the line?

[dennis tooth]

Leaves on the line?

 

 

"The way the system works is -- the taxpayer takes the risk, carries out the investment for decades, finally something comes out that might be profitable and then the profit goes to the private sector. If we had anything remotely like capitalist systems they would adhere to the capitalist principle that if the investor takes the risk, the profit goes back to the investor. That's not the way it works here."