Save Our NHS Rally

Below are the tweets (and retweets) I made at last nights "Save Our NHS" rally at Westminster. It was a really impressive display of the wide breath of opposition to the proposed reforms. The first tweets start on the bottom.

• "Just congratulated Mary Locke (see picture) for making great speech. She is making her way home by train to brum
• Good to see the LRC trots showing their true colours and heckling those who are trying to do something about the bill
• "If I become the next S of S for health I will repeal this Bill" Andy Burnham MP
• Last but not least Andy Burnham MP labour Shadow Sec of State for Health. "No longer one NHS"
• Dr Alex Scott-Samuel, public health physician: The NHS is in danger of becoming nothing but "a logo, a budget & a few quangos"
• "Non cooperation with evil is a duty as much as cooperating with good" MG
• Another public health professional against the bill. Dr Alex Scott-Samuel. "There will be more deaths under this new system".
• So, why are people yelling at an MP who has voted the right way every time?
• RT Lots of heckles for George. Bravo him for not giving up. A Lib Dem that gives a shit is more useful than some1 outside the party

  Dorothy Matebeni President SA nurses union DENOSA Viva NHS Viva!!!!
• "We are being ruled by a Dickensian mob who know the price of everything and the value of nothing." John Ashton

  Andrew George MP liberal democrat "better reception than I get in the Leadership office... NHS more private profit than care
• Prof. John Ashton director of public health and country medical officer, cumbria. Have big society pickle picnic in gate head
• Don't let r NHS slide into a USA model. Video of US health worker talking of their privatised health service. Steel worker union?
• Mary Locke houskeeper in a hospital has adopted over 350 peers to drop the bill. "We don't want spaghetti junction nhs"
• Michael Edwards Barts Unison contracted out patient transfer driver describes the future for many NHS staff if bill goes ahead
• Top unison hospital house keeper Mary Locke tells it as it is!
• Dr Clive Peedell who ran 190 miles to publise Save our NHS. He will be running 42 miles on Friday to Newcastle to lib cons
• epetition is at 170,000 sigs. Please sign the petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670 #

  Lyn Ward, occupational therapist from UNISON and @BAOTCOT: The NHS is about teamwork, not competition
• Rehana Azam GMB National officer and head of NHS "if we had the Royal College of Surgeons we would have a full house"
• Why r people heckling speakers who are doing their best to defeat the bill? Hmmm
• Blast from the past. Lord Dr David Owen. "I have never been a Liberal" response to heckle
• David Skidmore Paramedic. People comes before profit. 10 years and I have never been political I have never talked to an audience
• Cecilia Anim clinical nurse. Fight to save r beloved NHS. Kill the bill not the NHS
• Dr Peter Carter GS RCN NHS reform "we will have people competing with each other rather than cooperating with other"

  Jo Brand - "I do have a soft spot for Nick Clegg, it's face down in a bowl of custard"
• 169k signatures for NHS risk regsiter debate but Gov still refusing to hold one Dr Kailash Chand
• Jo Brand NHS could mean "Not here soon"

  Circle vultures. The same people who left patients to look after themselves with faulty breast implants

  Dr john Lister "keep r NHS public" attack Circle owned by investment bankers and the theives who rip people off at Wonga.com
• More selfish wreckers and splitters leave with via a helping hand. One dressed as a cat? Was it george galloway?
• BMA Dr Hamish Meldrum supports his fellow health workers. A unusually dapper trade union leader
• Patient Vikki Mills pregnant with twins does not want anyone to jump que if they have money. 
• Cathy warwick GS RCM "kill the bill"
• Bunch of Monty python idiots "demanding" national strike thrown out of hall. :)

  "Its about what health service we leave our children...our NHS is not for sale"
• Dave Prentis next speaker "tories say nhs liberated"... What liberated to go bust
• In a packed Westminster Hall for the #SaveOurNHS rally- Woman who gave Lansley a piece of her mind rightly gets a standing ovation

  At packed Save our NHS rally at Westminster Central Hall. Brendan Barber speaking.
• John's Labour blog: Rally to Save Our NHS Tonight at Central Hall,
• UPDATE: Check youtube of speeches here

Adopt a Peer (and save the NHS)

I've just signed up here to "Adopt a Peer" at the TUC website "going to work".  The site has asked me to write to Baroness Richardson of Calow OBE at the House of Lords about the the Health and Social Care Bill.

You can write a letter or send an email. I think that a letter will be more effective. They have suggested some arguments to make about how important it is for the Peers to safe guard the NHS but I think if will be more better if I personalise it. I will let you know how I get on.

(many thanks for top UNISON NEC member Mary Locke, who was busy "reminding" us to sign up at the NEC meeting on Wednesday)

TUC Congress 2011: Ed Miliband Speech to conference

The press pack and TV cameras were out in force and the hall was full first thing - so you knew that no matter how worthy the order of business was that morning that something else was happening.

The Leader of the Opposition and the Labour Party, Ed Miliband MP had come to give the annual address to conference.

It was at times a bit of roller coaster reception for him. Mind you far more applause than heckles. A very self confident and assured presentation that just about managed (I think) not to condemn future strike action over The “cuts” and Public pensions as a last resort but did criticise the recent one day strike on the grounds that negotiations were still ongoing. He is one of those very annoying people who can make long speeches with only occasional glances at his notes. He is more thick skinned than I thought. He thinks he is right, he expected to be given a hard time at Congress and while he hopes he can persuade us that he is right, if not, so be it.

He’ll now be able to show the Daily Hates that he can stand up to the unions while still come up with some potentially radical “Red Ed” policy statements. He will resist any attempt to break the Labour Link to the trade unions; The Tories have forgotten you cannot cut your way out of a recession; every large company should have a employee representative on their Board’s remuneration committee; those who caused the recession should pay their fair share; further Bankers tax and Yes to a (Robin Hood) Tobin Tax.

It’s the “shared values” and “there is more that unites us than divides us” that was his key message to this audience. Especially when compared with his examples of Tory shared values – cuts that are too far and too fast while they chomp on the bit on tax cuts for the rich and making it much easier to sack people.

I think he got the message back in the form of the question to him from UNISON delegate Mary Locke.  "Public sector workers feel that they are under attack from all sides - jobs cut, pay frozen and pensions worsened. A lot of the time it feels that we get a worse press that the bankers who caused the economic crisis. Many of us here have always stuck by the party. So, what can Labour do now in Parliament and in the media to stick up for us?"