In sickness and in health

Via bbc.co.uk

After a period of quiet introspection, I have come to the conclusion that I have been completely wrong in suggesting that Tory ideology is destroying the very fabric of society. The very fabric of society is not being destroyed. Instead, it is being systematically measured out, marked with chalk and then cut up into profitable bolts to be sold off to any passing sharks looking to make a fast buck from basic human necessity. I was also wrong about Tory ideology. The gangsters doing the selling off are not even Tories.

Ever since the English Civil War and the subsequent Age of Enlightenment, Tory ideology has been based on “God, King and Country” along with a dollop of High Church Anglicanism mixed with a little avuncular oppression. The social hierarchy needed to be preserved and protected and as long as the lower orders knew their place and stayed in it, entrepreneurial philanthropy allowed the poor the luxuries of food and shoes. The days of wealthy mill owners distributing a piece of coal to their bonded serfs at Christmas time are now as much a part of mythological history as liberalism, socialism and Tory munificence. God, King and Country have been abandoned and replaced with profit, profit and more profit for the already wealthy few and at the expense of the already poor many.

It is hardly coincidental that the greedier elements of the Tory right who bellow incoherent rubbish regarding the theft of UK sovereignty by evil European bureaucrats are vehement proponents of the deeply sinister Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. TTIP, in case you had not noticed, allows corporate profiteers to override any current, future or retrospective legislation in any of the sovereign states that sign up to it. Forget Bilderberg or Illuminati conspiracy theorists; these wakes of scavenging vultures are for real and the fabric of society is being cut up to make a lot of sharp suits for a very small number of people.

With a government without a mandate determined to sign off sovereignty to overseas corporations who are equally determined to banish the irritating red tape of stuff like human rights, taxes and legality, the free market economy fetish that brought us colonialism, plunder and slavery has returned. This time it`s not imperial gun boats sailing up the river; but a smiling CEO in a sharp suit and a considerable investment portfolio.

When the likes of Boris Johnson describes opponents of TTIP as “numbskulls”, it becomes blindingly obvious that TTIP is a very bad idea unless you are already very wealthy and have the entrepreneurial ability to drive ten high performance motor vehicles simultaneously, occupy a number of desirable residences across the planet and through hard work, dedication and selfless devotion to profit have the good fortune to wear 365 different sharp suits at the same time.

We need look no further than the National Health Service to assess the impact that TTIP will have on the fabric of society. Possibly the greatest achievement by any government, anywhere and at any time, the NHS is about to become the sharp lapels on the chequered coats of hustlers rocking the boat of health care at the point of need. Outraged at the thought of something for free, the very greedy conveniently ignore the fact that health care in this country is not actually free. Funding is derived from taxation; clearly a closed book to the free market fetishists and also from something called National Insurance. Hey guys; the clue is in the title and you are not allowed to sell something that you do not own.

When a midwife takes industrial action then it`s obvious that something is very, very wrong. The recent strike by health workers proved to be a total failure. It was a total failure not for the health unions but for the hysterical right wing press and the truly awful BBC. Describing the number of people on the picket lines as “pitiful” as the “vast majority” of health care professionals defied the union barons and remained at their posts, bin rummaging hacks decided to ignore the fact that the picket lines were entirely symbolic as the unions wished to ensure patient safety above all else. The BBC, desperate to fill its quota of anti-NHS propaganda, reported that a recovering child had to wait two whole hours for his transfer to another hospital for recuperation. This delay is clearly the evil work of gangs of Marxist terrorists intent on ripping up the very fabric of society. Less surgical procedures were cancelled than on a normal, non-striking day.

Realising that few members of the public are falling for this claptrap, an unnamed government source suddenly surfaced to blame the massive NHS sell-off scam on Andrew Lansley. There is some millage in this proposition because Andrew Lansley is, after all, a complete and utter idiot. His successor Jeremy Hunt, though, is an even bigger complete and utter idiot and brings to the operating table a congenital propensity to tell whopping great big lies. This might explain his implacable refusal to publish the secret NHS risk register and to declare his financial interests in private health companies.

By cutting health funding and selling off the profitable bits to his wealthy pals, the “crisis” in the NHS has been deliberately manufactured by Hunt with the full agreement of his henchmen in government. The right wing press and the BBC have attempted to ingrain into the public a perception that we should consider an admission to an NHS hospital in exactly the same way that a sheep considers a visit to an abattoir. Terrified that they will be abandoned by the Alf Garnet vote, the gangsters pretending to be Tory are stuffing their pockets with public money. Hey guys; the NHS is a service not a business. The clue is in the title.

It all basically boils down to an issue of trust. I trust a midwife to deliver a baby. I trust a teacher to educate that child and I trust doctors and nurses to make that child better should he or she fall ill. With the greatest respect to the squeezed middle, hard working and striving purveyors of dough-based cheese and tomato savouries, I wouldn`t trust Jeremy Hunt to deliver a pizza.