Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
‘They do it by stealth, slowly, so people don’t realise it is happening’
LUCY WOOD reports from the Colchester protest against NHS cuts and privatisation last weekend

THE NHS turned 73 this weekend and in celebration, staff and supporters took to the streets in 70 locations across the country to protest over privatisation, patient safety and pay justice. 

The protest in Colchester kicked off from the ruins of an ancient priory built in c1100 — a location that would have provided free medical care and alms to the poor during the medieval era until King Henry VIII appropriated the property of all monasteries, priories, friaries and convents in England to fund his military campaigns in the 1540s or give as gifts to his closest cronies. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
(L to R) How many Aunties?, Back Hares Mount, Leeds, 1978; M
Photography / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025

Peter Mitchell's photography reveals a poetic relationship with Leeds

The crowd at Manchester Punk Festival 2024
Culture / 11 April 2025
11 April 2025
Ben Cowles speaks with IAN ‘TREE’ ROBINSON and ANDY DAVIES, two of the string pullers behind the Manchester Punk Festival, ahead of its 10th year show later this month
Daniel Lind-Ramos, Ensamblajes, Nottingham Contemporary
Exhibition review / 20 February 2025
20 February 2025
ANDY HEDGECOCK relishes two exhibitions that blur the boundaries between art and community engagement
GUILTY PARTIES: Rembrandt Van Rijn (1606-1669), Syndics of t
Book Review / 4 February 2025
4 February 2025
CAROLINE FOWLER explains how the slave trade helped establish the ‘golden age’ of Dutch painting and where to find its hidden traces