IAN SINCLAIR draws attention to the powerful role that literature plays in foreseeing the way humanity will deal with climate crisis
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The fight to save the NHS
HELEN MERCER welcomes the personal account of an NHS worker and activist for its lucid exposition of the impact of privatisation by stealth
NHS
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Critical: Why the NHS is being betrayed and how we can fight for it
Dr Julia Grace Patterson
Mudlark, £16.99
RISHI SUNAK wants us to unite around ”shared values,” so here’s one – the NHS. An Ipsos Mori poll in August 2022 found that the NHS came out top when the public was asked “what makes us proud to be British?”
The poll is cited in Julia Patterson’s excellent book, which provides a heartfelt introduction both to the strengths of the NHS as originally constituted and the disastrous process of the last 40-50 years by which the NHS has been privatised, fragmented and (part of the process of privatisation) starved of funds and trained staff.
Julia Patterson is an NHS psychiatrist who now works full time with the campaign she co-founded – Every Doctor. I would urge everyone to go to the Every Doctor website, https://everydoctor.org.uk, for invaluable maps showing just how extensive outsourcing and PFIs are across Britain and the extent of MPs’ (Conservative and Labour) financial interests in private healthcare companies often through investment funds, such as Egerton Capital or Apax Partners LLP (linked with Keir Starmer and Teresa May respectively).
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