As the ‘NRx movement’ plots to replace democracy with corporate-feudal dictatorship, Britain must pursue a radical alternative of local food security and genuine wealth redistribution to withstand the coming upheaval, writes ALAN SIMPSON
Could Covid-19 bring an end to the privatisation of our NHS?
Could Covid-19 bring an end to the privatisation of our NHS?
The hated Health and Social Care Act has effectively been suspended, and there’s huge recognition that support staff should be brought back in-house. So can the ‘competitive health market’ now be ditched once and for all? asks JOHN LISTER

BORIS JOHNSON’S five-minute broadcast on leaving hospital, in which he enthused about the NHS as the “beating heart of the nation” and named two overseas nurses who he believed had saved his life, might have been a pivotal moment.
It might yet prove to be the moment where the right-wing Cabinet of a Tory government was persuaded to pull back from the process of running down the NHS.
Indeed the entire coronavirus pandemic and resultant crisis facing every major country in the world has been a wake-up call for ministers, who have been forced to put their previous financial model and restructuring of the NHS on the back burner — or conceivably discard previous ambitions altogether.
More from this author

Behind Starmer’s headline-grabbing abolition of NHS England lies a ruthless drive to centralise control so that cuts of £6.6 billion can be made — even if it means reducing cancer services and clinical staff, writes JOHN LISTER

Relatively recently the health service was at its peak — to reverse the incredible damage done by the Tories since 2010 we need billions going straight into state provision, writes JOHN LISTER

Labour’s 24-page manifesto for the health service carefully avoids explaining how any of it will be paid for and provided. This is more than worrying, writes JOHN LISTER

Higher funds are critical to prevent the growth of privatisation by allowing the NHS to expand capacity and reduce the vast 6-million-plus waiting list, writes JOHN LISTER
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Behind Starmer’s headline-grabbing abolition of NHS England lies a ruthless drive to centralise control so that cuts of £6.6 billion can be made — even if it means reducing cancer services and clinical staff, writes JOHN LISTER

Diverting public funding to grow private-sector ‘spare capacity,’ actively undermines the funding and staff available to the NHS and results in a worse service, write JOHN PUNTIS and TONY O’SULLIVAN