Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Labour plans £4bn worth of NHS cuts

The small print of the budget shows a £4bn reduction in the NHS budget.

Why is it that if this were a Conservative budget, the media, Unions and the Labour Party would call them "CUTS". There would be protests, direct action, campaigning & scare stories of vulnerable people dying.

But it's OK, because this is a Labour budget, so they are only "efficiency savings".

Phew.

1 comment:

Red Star said...

I do agree that we should all call any cuts to public spending "cuts". However you have to be honest with yourself Antony that the Tories want to cut public spending on a whole immediately (in order to reduce the deficit).

As a public service user I wonder how this will impact on me and millions overs in the same position.

Are you arguing in this article there is media bias against the Tories?

I think the campaigning and direct action to a certain degree is both legitimate and warranted against the savage cuts we have witnessed in the past when the Conservatives have been in power during the 1980s & 1990s, and also now with the ruling Tory County Council with a Tory cutting machine fast at work.

So is it legitimate to campaign and protest against Day Centre closures or the Tory campaign against the proposed cull in Community Hospitals? (To take two contrasting examples.) Of course not!

And for the record this has got nothing to do with the fact that I might or might not vote Conservative. I will exercise my right to secrecy in a secret ballot.