To no-ones surprise Matt Hancock realised he had to resign as Health Secretary.
Johnson, by failing to sack him can never use him as the scapegoat for his failings.
And in his place he has appointed Sajid Javid.
Javid made his money in banking during the 2008 period. That says most that needs to be known.
Since arriving in government he has had numerous appointments, leaving almost no impact of any note in any of them until resigning as Chancellor in a row with Cummings that gave Sunak his route to power.
I have three thoughts. First, there is no evidence Javid has any clue about health.
Second, there is no reason to think Javid will be in any better in this role than any other he has held, which is worrying.
Third, there is something much more worrying to consider. That is that Javid is dedicated to austerity, and maybe privatisation. The threat to the NHS from his appointment is very high. The threat to people's health may be higher.
There is nothing good about this appointment in my opinion.
But, I take comfort from one thing, which is that Johnson's government feels to really be falling apart. I can hope.
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Yes I am very worried about the creeping privatisation of the NHS and I would not trust Sajid Javid to keep the NHS as a public service.
To no-ones surprise Matt Hancock realised he had to resign as Health Secretary.
I believe you wrote a letter to your MP earlier today asking for Hancock to be dismissed or elbowed into resigning. How do you square that with your claim later today that you are not surprised that he has resigned before your MP even opened your letter.
Easily
Events changed
Do you never change your mind when that happens?
I would not make the claim to be unsurprised.
And the answer to your question is no.
Zarah Sultana, the Labour MP is pointing out Javid’s role with J P Morgan a major player in the American health system.
Will he get to appoint his own special advisers, do you think?
Hancock resigning is clearly the right thing, and I pity his family being associated with a wretch like him. I dare say he will come up smelling of roses eventually. I wonder what his next job will be.
Just a shame it came down to a snog with a friend from university (bizarrely being captured on camera and then leaked) rather than the thousands of people who have died on his watch, the scandals about PPE and testing, and all the rest.
I can’t imagine even the most ardent Brexiters–who happily gave Johnson’s Tories the keys to the kingdom, back in December 2019–actually want to see the NHS dismantled.
Do they actually want to start paying through the nose for basic healthcare they’ve taken for granted all their lives? In addition to the taxes they are already paying? Do they?
WHEN are they going to wake up and realise the Tories’ agenda here? When…?
(Scream, scream….)
The Tories agenda? For decades people like you have been scaremongering, claiming that the Tories are planning to privatise the NHS, but it hasn’t happened and never will.
It is happening
Stop talking nonsense
How come then that when I have an audiology appointment for NHS hearing aids tests it is run by a private company that rakes of our money in profits and directors’ fees ?
It is happening?
1. Can you provide a breakdown on the change in private involvement in the NHS over the last 40 years?
2. Do you realise that private provision of some services for the NHS is entirely different to ‘privatising the NHS’ and requiring people to ‘pay through the nose for basic healthcare’?
3. Where is the evidence?
I note you claim to be a doctor
Your posting suggests you might work for the NHS
Might you give me your GMC number?
I will then consider the evidence
What have I encountered first hand?
One method of privatisation is delaying orthopedic surgery for the elderly to beyond six months or a year with no operation in sight. The patient goes private & pays out of desperation. That was happening pre-covid.
Obviously, there’s outsourcing to the private sector & private hospitals, as well as the regular supply of NHS staff to work in the private hospitals. NHS funding for these services will be withdrawn and patients will have to pay. E.g. for dental hygienists, mental health services, extending to outpatients in general.
Then there’s general underfunding (exacerbated by paying private sector costs), e.g. unnecessary deaths caused by insufficient beds in Intensive Care, also happening pre-covid.
@ Jan Foley
Unfortunately the richer in society view the savings in income tax compared with health insurance premiums as a windfall.
And, in a way, it would be a windfall; a huge, unwarranted tax break.
That is one of the key reasons why it must be opposed.
Exactly, Richard. One other thing that worries me is that The Sun probably had the footage for some time. However, it is only now that Murdoch decided Hancock was no longer useful. How many other ministers are waiting for the thumbs down?
Although the consequences are a lot less severe, sitting round the cabinet table must be a little bit similar to Stalin’s Russia. You are not there because of any ability, but because you are currently considered useful. What do you have to do or say to stay there? How long before you get the chop anyway?
Frankly I’m at a loss to describe ANY Tory as suitable for this post.
I recall Javid did that episode of The World Tomorrow with Sky’s Ed Conway and Andrew Bailey where they suggested, straight-faced, that austerity would be necessary in order to repay QE, firmly establishing themselves as either idiots or scammers. Any promotion for either does not bode well.
Interesting bits in this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sajid_Javid
It seems he killed Andy Haldanes career and fell out with Cummings.
Is an Ayn Rand enthusiast , attends american neo-conservative annual meetings
and works for one of the worlds biggest banks.
NHS safe in his hands ?
He is scary
As I s all, Javid claimed to re-read Rand every year. Says everything about his politics and the threat to the NHS. Also that he has a poor taste in literature – it’s turgid stuff.
The Ayn Rand fan demonstrated both his dismissal of climate change and his contempt for the planning inquiry process when, as Culture Secretary in 2015, he intervened in an ongoing planning inquiry to oppose the Navitus Bay offshore wind farm project. After visiting the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, he wrote to local MP Conor Burns, claiming that “it would be a tragedy if future generations were denied this experience’” (of looking out to sea and not seeing wind turbines 10 miles away). He wrote to the Planning Inspectorate suggesting (falsely) that if the wind farm went ahead it would jeopardise the Jurassic Coast’s World Heritage status. He urged them to give “full consideration” to concerns about the project’s impact. Months later, the Planning Inspectors took the hint and ruled against the wind farm.
Incredible.
Rising sea levels mean that that coastline (and I’ve been to it) is liable to be submerged at some point, if not eroded before that!!
Denial if ever there was……………..
“Javid made his money in banking during the 2008 period. That says most that needs to be known.”
What exactly do you mean Richard?
Javid spent almost 20 years in banking, working up to a very senior position. Plenty of people were involved in a variety of activities in banking during 2008 – none of whom deserve your unfounded slurs.
He was a dealer at Deutsche as I understand it
That’s not quite standard banking, is it?
https://www.db.com/newsroom_news/archive/medien/deutsche-bank-appoints-sajid-javid-head-of-global-credit-trading-asia-en-12173.htm
From Deutsche Bank itself, on 11 October 2006:
“Deutsche Bank today announced the appointment of Sajid Javid as Head of Global Credit Trading (GCT), Asia (ex-Japan), with immediate effect. Javid will relocate to Singapore from London and will be regionally responsible for all cash and derivative Credit Trading, CDOs, Securitisation, Structured Finance, Convertibles and for the Commodities business.”
Not really a slur is it, Neil?
Steve
Thanks
Now tweeted and going on the blog
Appreciated
Richard
I will reiterate my assessment that this is just as much a concoted scandal as last years Ferguson and his mistress. It is a now classic ploy to divert actual real graft. Perfected under Majors Back to Basics , Mellor and his squeeze – with Chelsea strip and matress on floor.
As an equally absurd narrative around bear poking in the Crimea under non existent innocent passage is revealed as planned by some documents left at a bus stop apparently. Lol.
Javid – yet another petty patel of empire – happy to play his role in poisonong race relations and dividing the country even more. As we are prepared to accept a saintly GKH as a curative to the nasty party! Again?
Bately – if not already stitched up with PV’s – is where Starmer could end up in the ejector seat himself as he prepares for his saintly crowning, a la virginal bambi Blair – the mass murdering, student fee and schools privatising , family silver selling, Murdoch shagging ghoul that he readily resembles now.
“a saintly GKH as a curative to the nasty party”???
Great Knight Hope.
In addition to fees for virtual speeches
Sajid Javid has been taking £150.000pa from JP Morgan plus £152,000pa from C3 an AI company plus share options. Now in Cabinet he will he have to give up these fees? So watch out NHS data
You don’t need my GMC number to answer my quite reasonable questions. Neither do you need my number to actually provide some basic evidence for your claims.
Just out of interest, isn’t your wife part of the ‘privatisation’ of the NHS?
I can do reasonable due dilgence
Your postings suggest deep trolling
I don’t try engage with trolls
Nor do I engage with those who think a retired GP is privatising the NHS
Doing little research suggests you had two identities here today……
Local authorities received 1.8 million new requests for adult social care support in 2017-18, an increase of 1.6 per cent on 2016-17 and equivalent to 5,100 new requests per day:
https://digital.nhs.uk/news-and-events/latest-news/local-authorities-receive-5100-new-requests-for-adult-social-care-assistance-a-day
Over 700 days ago, in his first speech Boris promised to fix social care.
https://streamable.com/lr5ww7
Will Javid kick the can further down the road?
Or somehow extract more from the working class to pay for it.
This is a crisis for our time
As much as the health security of the People is finally harvested under Javid. (Why not Hunt who brought it so far down that road?) I am concerned about food security as well. Equally being captured by uncontrollable monopolists.
“ As a starting point, it should develop laws that create a level playing field, and one that levels up to the standards currently imposed on listed firms.”
One that sneaks through in the Groan.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/jun/27/private-equity-control-of-morrisons-will-throw-veil-of-secrecy-over-supermarket
Food security becomes a thing of the past when the import controls we committed to in the TCA kick in. Countries which happily exported to us when we were cheap and easy to export to won’t be bothering when that becomes difficult and expensive. Many of those giving up will inevitably be food companies. Since we can’t grow enough by traditional methods to feed ourselves, well… it just isn’t going to work, is it? I mention traditional methods as we’ve yet, as a nation, to properly investigate the benefits of hemp as a source of nutrition for both humans and animals.
Not an original view on my part as it has been expressed on television at least once this weekend, but the fact that Sajid Javid has been through multiple departments may not be a sign of experience but a sign of ineptitude, in that he has had to be moved on before that became apparent.
Agreed
[…] Hat tip: thanks to commentator Steve for drawing my attention to this. […]
It’s a long-term Tory project. The capital structures created under the 1991 Act struck me then and strike me now as designed for the purposes of piecemeal privatisation the moment the political climate became propitious. Similarly the pointless wasteful internal market. Everything we’ve seen since has taken us further down this road. One of many disappointments about the Blair/Brown period was their failure to dismantle this ridiculous paperchase, and their gleeful adoption of the PFI which merely served to channel more money into private hands while maintaining a pretence that a transfer of risk was also involved. I expect we’ll be getting an announcement soon that Instamed is being brought in to advise on payment systems.