In part III of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY tells the extraordinary story of the attempts by ‘moderates’ to prevent leftwinger Mark Serwotka from taking the leadership of the then-newly formed PCS union
IF you felt aghast at the sight of politicians clapping for the NHS during the peak of the pandemic, you were not unjustified. The government has been discreetly and incrementally washing its hands of responsibility for providing public services since the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979.
Selling off Britain’s assets was a priority, yet of the NHS: “There’s no way that as an institution so respected and beloved by the population, they could go for a one-off privatisation as they did with other utilities,” says Dr. Bob Gill, producer of The Great NHS Heist film.
A 1977 document from the Conservative Research Group reveals a strategy of “denationalisation by stealth” which would soon come to the most sacrosanct service of all: health.
When privatisation is already so deeply embedded in the NHS, we can’t just blindly argue for ‘more funding’ to solve its problems, explain ESTHER GILES, NICO CSERGO, BRIAN GIBBONS and RATHI GUHADASAN



