Sir - During his conference speech, Ed Milliband declared that saving the NHS would be central to his fight to win the next General Election.
In 1997, Tony Blair stated on the eve of poll that “we have 24 hours to save the NHS”. What followed was an invitation by New Labour to the private sector to become “willing providers” and to bid for taking over vital services.
New Labour introduced market principles to the NHS and began the process of privatisation. This was eagerly built on by the current Tory-LibDem coalition, the Tories having promised “no top-down reforms” during the 2010 general election campaign.
Under New Labour, the private sector received a spectacular boost to making profits from the NHS from the use of the Private Finance Initiative which has enriched investors lavishly and left many hospitals, schools and other state institutions too indebted to balance their budgets.
The Labour Party that founded the NHS is not the same as Milliband’s Labour Party. The former took on the establishment in a time of post-war austerity. Today’s so-called Labour Party has become the establishment, has adopted market economics and abandoned the idea of a public sector ethos, and would never create an NHS if one didn't exist.
From the parties on offer at the next general election, on an objective examination of their past records, the only one that could be trusted with the NHS is the Green Party.
Louis Stephen
Green Party
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