Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/649/10710
From The Socialist newspaper, 1 December 2010
News in brief
Breeding ignoramus
DID THE newly appointed Tory peer, Howard Flight, confuse EU farm subsidies with child benefit when he said such payments will encourage "breeding"? If not, then the millionaire banker, recently elevated to the House of Lords by prime minister David Cameron, is yet another ermine-clad, state subsidised, Tory bigot.
Flight - who has long advocated slashing spending on public services - ignoring the plight of 3.9 million children living in poverty, attacked child benefits with the following reactionary nonsense: "We're going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it's jolly expensive, but for those on benefit there is every incentive."
Colemanballs
SPEAKING OF Tory bigots, London fire boss Brian Coleman continues to spew political bile on the capital's firefighters.
His latest outburst against the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), whose members were threatened with mass sackings unless they agreed to unacceptable changes in working practices, hypocritically accused the FBU of 'thuggish' behaviour.
Coleman, a Tory councillor and London Assembly member for Barnet who was appointed fire boss by Mayor Boris Johnson, said: "Most of the union officials... are thick, can't string a sentence together and frankly are incoherent. We have to break the FBU... They will fail in the end because neither I nor the fire authority, nor the Mayor of London nor this government is going to give way to this kind of intimidation."
Beyond the Palin
WHO DO Republicans in the USA back in the conflict on the Korean peninsula? That's right, North Korea! Well, at least if failed presidential candidate and Tea Party favourite Sarah Palin has anything to do with US foreign policy.
When asked about the escalating tensions by Glenn Beck, the right-wing Fox News presenter, the 'pit bull in lipstick' told listeners: "Obviously we gotta stand with our North Korean allies."
Can we expect Kim Jong-il to be her running mate in the 2012 US presidential elections?
NHS vultures circle
THE PRIVATE hospital company, Circle, has been given a ten-year contract to run the 389-bed Hitchingbrooke Hospital in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. This is the first time that an entire NHS hospital has been privatised. Under the deal the NHS will retain the hospital's assets but the workers will be transferred to the new owners.
The CBI bosses' organisation described the deal as "trailblazing", with private operators licking their lips at the prospect of tucking into the NHS's multi-billion pound annual budget.
Within the NHS's 'internal market' the hospital, which has a £90 million turnover, has accumulated a £38.8 million 'debt'. How a private company can make a profit given the hospital's size of debt, raises the nightmare prospect of large-scale cuts in jobs and services being made.
Why not click here to join the Socialist Party, or click here to donate to the Socialist Party.
In The Socialist 1 December 2010:
Youth Fight for Education
Young people lead fight against cuts
We can win: student struggle must escalate
Socialist Party editorial
Unity - but not unity of the graveyard
How can an anti-cuts movement be built? Coalition of Resistance conference report
Anti-cuts campaign
Riot police called to Lewisham town hall lobby
Irish working class in huge show of defiance
Fight against cuts continues to grow
Coventry council - stop job cuts
NHS walk-in centre saved, but campaign continues
Anti-racism
Nuneaton protest against racist EDL
The Socialist Interview
Len McCluskey speaks to The Socialist: Building workers' confidence
Socialist Party workplace news
PCS: Vote 'yes' for action against cuts
London Underground strike most solid so far
Wales TUC leadership tries to stifle action to stop the cuts
International socialist news and analysis
North Korean artillery attack raises tensions
Portugal: 'Biggest strike action ever'
Climate change
Climate change: Socialist planning needed to avert a global catastrophe
Readers' comments
Our health - A market for big business
Bankers: The new untouchables?
Home | The Socialist 1 December 2010 | Join the Socialist Party
Join us today!
Printable version
email to friend
