As The Guardian notes in an editorial this morning:
The purpose of the state is freedom,” the Dutch philosopher Baruch Spinoza wrote. Its aim is to liberate everyone from fear, he argued, “so that they may live in security so far as is possible, that is, so that they may retain, to the highest possible degree, their right to live and to act without harm to themselves and others”.
Boris Johnson might nod in approval at the first part of the statement. But the plans for axing Covid restrictions in England, which the prime minister set out this week, fall far short of Spinoza's fuller formulation.
The whole piece is worth reading. It concludes, referring to The Lancet letter I reproduced here yesterday:
If anything, the authors of the Lancet letter are too generous in describing this as “a dangerous and unethical experiment”: that terminology suggests a degree of scientific rigour and concern. Instead, this is a political wager, in which large parts of the population are not players but gambling chips.
I concur.
The government is acting with total contempt, for the state, the instruments of government and the people of this country. Sometime this will catch up with them.
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This week we had the new elections Bill whic is designed to favour the Conservative party. The Bill on public protest will make dissent more difficult. You have already exposed their Fascist asylum seeker policy. Their manifesto would restrict the powers of the Supreme Court. The Lords could well follow.
They have their place men in the BBC to mute opposition. I saw on one newsservice this morning 4000 doctors and scientists have signed the Lancet letter. This is a remarkable number and surely news worthy. But not so far to the BBC.
The popular press continue to ignore these measures or even promote them.
I think it is important we do not give way to despair but we can’t just sit back. We have to speak out. Eventually the tide will turn.
It will
Thanks for this and I concur too.
For those who have not had sight of this quote response by Dr Mike Ryan of WHO in answer to a question about the UK Gov’s Covid-19 strategy, that it is:
“Moral emptiness and epidemiological stupidity”
here’s the post from Progressive Pulse that will let you access the clip, showing the answer being given.
http://www.progressivepulse.org/society/moral-emptiness-and-epidemiological-stupidity
Regarding the infamous re-organisation of the NHS any ICS can have its decision-making seized from it by the secretary of state or the prime minister on any pretext, plus they will control appointments to those 42 boards.
Since Hancock’s resignation Dido Harding appears to be out of the running to lead the NHS but the new front-runner is now Mark Britnell who since 2009 he has been KPMG’s senior partner for global healthcare, from where he sat on the board advising Cameron on those disastrous 2012 reforms. In 2011 when caught out telling a conference of private US healthcare executives that: “In future, the NHS will be a state insurance provider not a state deliverer,” praising the competition element in the Lansley reforms that meant: “The NHS will be shown no mercy and the best time to take advantage of this will be in the next couple of years.”
The seemingly unstoppable erosion of our institutions continues at a pace.
From his Wikipedia profile:
“Britnell refuted this (the context placed on the remarks). KPMG issued a press statement on his behalf on 16 May 2011 stating “The article in The Observer [15 May] attributes quotes to me that do not properly reflect discussions held at a private conference last October. Nor was I given the opportunity to respond ahead of publication. I worked in the NHS for twenty years and now work alongside it. I have always been a passionate advocate of the NHS and believe that it has a great future. Like many other countries throughout the world, the pressure facing healthcare funding and provision are enormous. If the NHS is to change and modernize the public, private and voluntary sectors will all need to play their part.”
I’m not passing comment, merely adding to the record.
He’s a former chief executive of a couple of NHS authorities and a DG in the Dept of Health. Not a doctor.
Thanks
His words can speak for themselves. Was he misquoted? I think not. The context is clear.
* see page 12: https://powerbase.info/images/f/fe/Apax_Healthcare_conference_2010.pdf
* his article: https://www.hsj.co.uk/comment/mark-britnell-the-nhs-funding-model-is-no-longer-resilient/5029675.article
For what it is worth, he does at least have a long career in healthcare management (unlike Dido Harding, with her rather chequered management consultancy and retail career). And there is certainly something to be said for looking at how successful public healthcare systems are organised elsewhere, in France or Germany say.