Don't Let Jamal Khashoggi Die In Vain - End the UK Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia

Labour have been saying this for ages. Maybe if we all sign this, then Jamal Khashoggi will not only have not died in vain, but we can save the lives of thousands more too

http://tinyurl.com/y7n2sgvg

Killed in cold-blood. The assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is barbaric and gruesome. He criticised those in power in Saudi Arabia and it has been reported that he was murdered on their orders. The Saudi state keeps changing its story, and is now claiming he died “in a fight”. 

Yesterday, Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt condemned the killing, saying the Saudi response was “not credible”. Yet our government continues to sell them weapons. 

Saudi Arabia’s rulers rely on British made weapons. If we stop selling them arms, it will show them that their actions have consequences. And that Britain won’t stand by while they brutally silence their critics. 

This story is splashed across the news, but the government haven’t yet heard from us, the British public. If thousands of us sign an open letter to Jeremy Hunt today, asking him to halt arms sales with Saudi Arabia, he’ll know we expect him to act.

Will you join me and add your name to the open letter?

Sign here

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The Truth Behind The NHS Ransomware Attack

If you get your news from the mainstream media, such as the BBC, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the cyber attack that has devastated the NHS is 'just one of those things'.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt - who has seemingly been hiding from the press and public since the attack came to light on Friday - finally popped up today to pretty much repeat the idea that this kind of hack is commonplace and that there are things you can do to prevent it from happening.

Yes there are Jeremy. For a start you can invest in the NHS. You can stop giving the IT systems over to private contractors who care more about profit than they do protection and security.

Did you know that the NHS still operate on an extremely outdated Windows XP system that no longer has effective security measures in place?

Did you know that the Conservative government were offered to purchase a one-year renewal on the XP system in 2014, but that they rejected it as part of their austerity measures?

Did you know that the average annual spend on the NHS's IT systems is just £22,000? 

Just £22,000 a year spent on the IT systems of the NHS. That's effectively the annual wage of just one junior doctor. Think about that.

Did you know that some NHS Trusts have admitted that in some years nothing is spent on IT security and that several years have gone by without any new desktops even being purchased?

Did you know that the day before the cyber attack occurred, the BMJ published an article by Dr Krishna Chinthapalli warning that lax security measures makes them ideal targets for hackers?

Did you know that Edward Snowden has confirmed that Ransomware is a US government security service technology that was originally produced by the NSA?

The malware was made by the US government - why is no one mentioning this on the news?

Jeremy Hunt can promise 'wifi in every hospital' all he likes - but what's really more important here; that a patient can watch the iPlayer whilst waiting for surgery or that NHS staff can do their job without the computer freezing or logging them out every five minutes?

What this story shows, if you delve beyond what the mainstream media is telling you, is that it is the chronic underfunding of the NHS by this Tory government that has led to this attack. Theresa May, in her role as Home Secretary, was responsible for cyber defences and she's clearly sat on her hands and done nothing for seven years.

Please don't give her the opportunity to run the country in the same careless manner.

If you believe the NHS deserves the very best, then please vote Labour on June 8th.

Fighting Back: Save The NHS

The Red Cross have announced that there is a humanitarian crisis in the UK because our NHS is so chronically underfunded and at breaking point.

This is ridiculous.

We are a rich, civilised Western country and we cannot care for our sick and vulnerable.

We cannot because the Tories do not wish too. There's nothing in it for them, so they want to run the NHS into the ground and then wheel out a new privatised health care system, making them money. Something current Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt (the right old cunt) wrote about some years ago as his ultimate aim.

This Tory government have made cuts of £20 billion, with a further £22 billion in their sights. Is it any wonder the single greatest achievement made by this country in the last sixty years is now at crisis point?

We need to act now. We need to demand more funding to save lives and save the NHS for future generations.

Sign this petition now.

What Has Become Of Us?

The news that UKIP's leader Diane James is to stand down from her role after just eighteen days ought to be the kind of news that sparks celebration - the thought of UKIP, those dangerous right wing racists, imploding is excellent news.

However, what mars this welcome prospect is the fact that the present Tory government have out UKIPPED the most deranged UKIPPERS.

In conference this week, the Tories have announced the kind of stark hard line on immigration and ethnic minorities usually seen in the most extreme of fascist juntas. Companies are to declare how many foreigners are in their employ, taxi drivers must provide their immigration status, fewer migrants will be allowed to study at our universities and, most damning of all, foreign doctors are to be 'phased out' of the NHS.

Oh, and along with the plans for grammar schools, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has launched a scheme that will see 150 new units of army cadets in British schools.

Um, I don't know about you - but isn't this screaming the policies of Hitler's Nazi Germany?? But if that's your first reaction, don't worry Fallon's got it covered - he's launched the scheme at a Birmingham school where the majority are Muslim pupils, so you see they believe it is for us to criticise them for the anti-immigration fascists they are when they're surrounding themselves with olive skinned faces. 

And, like Hitler, the reason for this anti-immigration stance is seemingly to protect and preserve our 'strong' economy during these difficult times. It always amazes me that the public opinion seems to be that you cannot trust a Labour government with the economy, when the truth is that the Tories have presided over the slowest economic growth since the 1920s. And crucially, the Tories continue to get it wrong over the economy - if mass immigration is a threat to it, then how come America and Germany prosper? The answer is of course that it is not a threat at all. Like UKIP before them, Theresa May's Tory government have decided to use immigration and ethnic diversity as a scapegoat to blame all the ills of society upon. Ills that they and their ridiculous policies are the real perpetrators of.

The only thing that has changed in the hardline right wing Tory party over the years is that they've got significantly better at masking their disgusting, racist views.

We need to be rid of this government at the first available opportunity. We don't want to live in a country that elects to turn its back on the prosperous reality of immigration. We don't want to live in a country that is short sighted enough to turn its back on the skillset and knowledge base inherent in our NHS simply because they're provided by people of a different skin tone or with a different accent to us.

Please, vote and support Labour. Vote and support anyone in fact. Just don't vote and support a party that wishes to do this to our country.

Wordless Wednesday: Not Fair, Not Safe

Protect the NHS

Today marks the start of the BMA's 48 hour industrial action which will see all junior doctors from all areas of the NHS walk out and protest against Jeremy Hunt's imposed new contract. I wish the doctors all the very best today and tomorrow and pledge them my undying support in standing up for what they believe in and fighting this government's harsh anti-NHS regime. It's not safe and it's not fair. 

Vanessa Redgrave: Still Fighting The Good Fight

She may be 79, but it's admirable to see that age has not mellowed or softened Vanessa Redgrave who still passionately believes in addressing social injustice as her appearance on the junior doctors picket lines proved yesterday

Wearing a Support Junior Doctors T Shirt (which you can, like me, buy here) she showed solidarity with the junior doctors, addressing them to denouncing the Tory government who had treated them 'like dirt' by imposing this contract upon them. It was like rolling back the years to the '70s when Redgrave and her late brother Corin were mainstays of The Workers Revolutionary Party

Redgrave addressing the crowds in 1974

Here she is with Corin meeting Pilkingtons Glass worker and union rep Gerry Caughey in 1971, a man who my dad worked alongside for many years.(above pictures from the World Socialist Website)

It's truly great to see the left figuring so prominently in politics once more, even though it's clear that this resurgence is sadly because people's liberties are being slowly and cruelly eroded by this corrupt Tory government. Redgrave had also visited the Doctors Without Borders base at the Piraeus refugee camp last week - proving that her politics still mean much to her.

If you believe in the NHS and hate what this government are doing with it, then please show your support with the junior doctors. Buy a T-shirt, honk your car horn if you pass a picket line, or even visit a picket yourself. I did the other month and, believe me, they want to know that we are on their side. It makes their day.

Fighting Back : Petitions to Sign

Two petitions against the cunt destroying the NHS

Sign to say you have No Confidence in Jeremy Hunt

Sign to demand Hunt resumes meaningful negotiations with the BMA

Fighting Back : Petitions to Sign

The NHS : Lots to sign to protect and aid this great socialist institution, staring with this demand to cancel the proposed inquiry into whether it should be funded by user charges and insurance rather than tax. Healthcare is a human right and no one should have to lose out on medical help because they cannot afford it. Another petition along similar lines can be found here

This petition calls for the resignation or dismissal of Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt for his ill informed lies regarding the NHS and its workforce and the breaching of patient confidentiality. As does this one and this

Join the campaign to get the NHS to reverse its decision to remove funding for clinically proven treatment to prevent blindness

Stepping Hill Hospital in Manchester is being considered for 'super hospital' status, which would mean the downgrading of Wythenshawe Hospital and the people of South Manchester disadvantaged.

The 10% Pay Rise : This disgusting upturn in the fortunes of each member of the Tory government continues to rile and offend at a time when benefits and public services are cut and everyone else's wage is frozen. Sign the following to get Cameron and his cronies to refuse the pay rise, to give it back to the taxpayer and to donate to the 10 poorest families in each constituency, or to increase and backdate public sector workers pay because firemen, nurse, police officers etc really deserve this 10% rise.

Trade Unions : This government's proposed bill to neuter the power of the unions will remove the ordinary worker the right to democracy. It is imperative that we fight for these rights now. A worker without representation is sending us back to the dark ages, where picketing would be illegal. Remember Tolpuddle! And sign this petition

Stop Animal Testing, test a Tory instead!

Demand the Resignation of Cameron!

Homelessness : Just like the Thatcher era, the present govt are happy to see people on the streets. Condemned to a life on the streets for being Gay is all too common a problem that needs rectifying. Meanwhile, Chester has become the latest borough to impose ridiculous fines on people sleeping rough. Sign here and here. This may not be local to you, but it will soon happen in your town, unless we take a stand now. Maybe it already has?

Demand the removal of the US nuclear weapons from British territory Diego Garcia in 2016 in line with the requirements of the ANWFZ treaty. The lease expires next year and we need to comply with the treaty, to aid the advancement of a more peaceful nuke free world and to right the wrongs of the past. 

The CND will be screening the seminal once banned BBC film The War Game in London on 6th Aug, Hiroshima Day.

Save the BBC : The Govt have launched their public consultation on the BBC. Please make your opinion heard to protect this institution. Here

Hunt, Hands Off Our Hospitals!

If you aren't amongst the 130,000 who have signed this already, please do so now hands-off-our-hospitals

The vote is in 10 days time. Pressure needs to be built now to force Govt to step in and scrap the hospital closure clause.

Jeremy Hunt : If At First You Don't Succeed...

...Change the law to suit your needs!

This is absolutely sickening. Lewisham A+E have fought and won the Tory cabal time after time and still they refuse to comply and respect the public's desire to see this much needed resource continue to serve the community. Yes, Hunt the Cunt is at it again.  Please read the following letter and sign Louise Irvine (the Save Lewisham Hospital Campaign's chair) petition, thank you.

The Save Lewisham Hospital campaign and thousands of 38 Degrees members stopped health minister Jeremy Hunt from closing services at Lewisham Hospital. Thousands chipped in to take him to court, and we won.

Hunt appealed the decision - but he lost again. So now, having been told twice that he acted illegally, he's trying to change the law! 

He wants to bring in a 'hospital closure clause' to give him new legal powers to shut A&E's like Lewisham. If he gets this through, none of our hospitals will be save from his meddling or closure.

The hospital closure cause will soon be voted on by MPs. We need to persuade enough of them to vote against it. A huge petition will show MPs that the public don't want them to give Hunt new powers to shut down hospitals.

PETITION

Petitions

The big petition this week that deserves your attention is this one;

expel-iain-duncan-smith-from-the-house-of-commons

This is imperative after the Supreme Court dismissed the government's appeal against the back to work scheme (ie slave labour) decision that was found in Cait Reilly's favour and after it was proven that IDS is guilty of statistical deception. 

Petitions do work. It's been a horrendous week for the Tories; Health Minister Jeremy Hunt's appeal to overturn the decision that he acted incorrectly in implementing cuts at Lewisham Hospital was also kicked into touch. And in lighter news, the BBC have confirmed that following the Change.org petition The Sky At Night will not be cancelled/taken off air!

Use your voice, stand up and say what you want.

Save Trafford A+E

Less than a week on from the 65 anniversary of the birth of the NHS at Trafford General Hospital, Manchester (see my recent blog post here) Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has confirmed plans to deprive the community of the A+E unit there.

Please sign a petition from 38 Degrees and let the government know we won't stand for this.

Save A+E Petition

In the Commons today Hunt faced some disgust from his opposite number, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham for not only devising this closure - and that of the hospital's intensive care unit, children's services and acute surgery too, but in neglecting to give notice to Kate Green, the Labour MP who serves the constituency Trafford General is located in, of these decisions.

"It says a lot about you. Your advisors find time to get texts sent to the Murdochs with market sensitive information before an earlier statement you made.
But you couldn't find the time to give a local MO advance notice about the closure of her A+E department. Disgraceful.
And not just any A+E - 65 years and 6 days after Nye Bevan opened the NHS at Trafford Hospital, we have the spectavle of you scurrying to this house to rush out an announcement without the scrutiny of MPs about a major downgrade of the hospital.
What clearer symbol could you have of a Government that disrespects and disregards the views of NHS staff, patient and local people?"

Here here!