WEMBLEY MATTERS News and views on local politics, the environment, climate change, culture and local history
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Our NHS is precious. Please do everything you can to protect it, including:
* Stopping privatisation
* Making sure it has the funding it needs to provide high quality healthcare to everyone
* Protecting it from US health corporations by keeping the NHS out of TTIPWhy is this important?
Our NHS is precious. We all rely on it to care for us and our loved ones. We want to protect it for the future, and we don't want to see it run down or sold off.
Over the past few years, NHS funding has been squeezed so much that services are suffering. This winter, hospitals up and down the country have declared "major incidents" because they're struggling to cope. And now most hospitals are warning that their budget for next year has " reached the point where patient care is at risk."
Meanwhile, the government is letting profit-hungry companies take over more and more NHS services. At at a time of squeezed budgets, this is the last thing the NHS needs. We want an NHS where patient safety is put first, and where the NHS is run for the public good.
TTIP, the planned trade deal between the EU and the USA, could threaten the NHS further. If TTIP opens our NHS to American private healthcare companies, we could see even more privatisation and a slide into more US-style healthcare. We want the NHS excluded from TTIP.
This House, recognising that there have already been four separate independent committees of inquiry into military action in Iraq and recognising the importance of learning all possible lessons from military action in Iraq and its aftermath, declines at this time, whilst the whole effort of the Government and the armed forces is directed towards improving the condition of Iraq, to make a proposal for a further inquiry which would divert attention from this vital taskEarlier in 2006 she had asked Tony Blair a question in the House of Commons which seemed to indicate some disquiet about policy in Iraq.
Amid growing unease about Nato's role, MPs are expected to press for a statement on Libya on Tuesday when Parliament returns from its 10-day recess.
Although he voted for the Iraq invasion in 2003, Mr Gardiner says the parallels between the two situations are "ironic".
"Every single argument that has been used over the last eight years to decry what happened in Iraq is being used to justify - with much less justification - what is going on in Libya," he argues.
Despite the frequent military interventions of the Blair years, he believes Labour should be looking further back into its history for its foreign policy principles.
"There is a historic role for Labour that is not being followed through here - as effectively an anti-war party that recognises war is the worst option and something that should be avoided becoming embroiled in at all costs."
And while in no doubt about the nature of the Gaddafi regime, he worries that the current intervention sets a worrying precedent for the future.
"The danger is we are being drawn into a position, in terms of what we should be doing internationally, of it 'does not matter because it is only Gaddafi'."
It could not be clearer that immediate action is needed to prevent further loss of life. We need an ongoing EU-funded programme for search and rescue of refugees because individual governments can no longer cry crocodile tears while at the same time refusing to support rescue missions. We must of course work to combat despicable smugglers, but acknowledge that desperate people take desperate measures. What worries me about this plan is the focus on smugglers and on return programmes. It looks as if we are just pandering to fears instead of really getting to the root of the problem.No-one should be fooled, FRONTEX is border control, not a rescue operation. Unless Libya and Syria can experience prolonged stability people will continue to do what they have always done throughout history: try and reach safety. While the EU is not above criticism, it is our own Government that decides the level of support for the Italian Government.
We need a common European approach based on solidarity and humanity. The overwhelming majority of refugees are not in the EU: if Germany had the same proportion of refugees as Lebanon, there would be more than 20 million to support. The real crisis here is for those seeking sanctuary, not for the EU.
A former Second World War prisoner of war who campaigned to stay in his own home and receive social care from a specialist live-in carer, has had his wishes granted.UPDATE Saturday April 25th
Robbie Clark, 96, who survived the Nazi death march across Europe in 1945, needs 24 hour a day social care, and has fought to receive a more expensive care package than the one normally offered.
Around 187,000 people signed a petition calling for Mr Clark to be allowed to stay in his house.
We worked with his family to offer a solution which means Mr Clark can stay in his home while receiving the care he wants and not pay a penny in his lifetime.
Phil Porter, Director of Adult Social Care, said: “Our offer means Mr Clark can stay in his own home and receive the care which he wants, through a live in carer. He won’t have to worry about the cost, but neither will tax-payers have to foot all the bill.”
The ‘deferred payment’ is a new option available to councils, which only came into effect at the start of April 2015, enabling them to help meet the cost of care for older people in this way.
Under the proposal, the cost of the additional care will eventually be reimbursed to the council from the proceeds of the sale of the property.
