Two excellent and informative speakers spoke last night at the Liverpool Green Party’s March Public Meeting
Clive Lord – A basic income for all citizens
Clive Lord joined the embryonic Green Party in March 1973, 5 months after its formation. Now 80, he is the longest serving member still active, and has recently published his book ‘Citizens’ Income and Green Economics’, ISBN 978-1-907543-07-4. He was major contributor to the Green Party’s first ‘ Manifesto for a Sustainable Society’, drafting the section outlining the crucial link between social justice and preserving the planet’s life support systems, He has consistently advocated the Citizens’ Basic Income as having a key role, until someone thinks of a better idea (40 years and still waiting).
Clive’s talk addressed our need to live within the limits of the earth’s resources which was first clearly highlighted by the 1972 MIT study ‘The Limits to Growth’ , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_to_Growth, that looked at the problems of infinite economic growth on a finite planet.
He talked about how his vision of Basic Income differed from the Green Party’s current consultation document – Basic Income : a detailed proposal, consultation paper: April 2015 https://policy.greenparty.org.uk/assets/files/Policy%20files/Basic%20Income%20Consultation%20Paper.pdf.
Caroline Lucas’ Early Day Motion 974 – http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2015-16/974 – has attempted to introduce the discussion to a wider public and seems to have triggered a number of media features on it
Clive’s Blog: https://clivelord.wordpress.com/
Dr Alex Scott-Samuel: – Healthy Liverpool & Devolution: A right way to develop the NHS
Honorary Senior Lecturer in Public Health at the University of Liverpool. As a member of Keep Our NHS Public, he is well placed to provide a critical examination of the way that the health service is developing in the city and the potential impact of Devolution.
Alex took us through the basics on how the NHS got to where it is today – starting with Oliver Letwin’s book – Privatising the World & the Adam Smith Institute’s 1988 booklet – The health alternative – http://www.adamsmith.org/wp-content/uploads/The_Health_Alternatives.pdf; through the 1990 Health & Community Care Act to the recent Health & Social Care Act 2012 which is effectively a complete enabling Act to privatise the NHS to a insurance funded system with a poor quality second class safety net service.
He contributed to Caroline Lucas’s recent NHS Bill 2015-16 that was talked out of time recently, http://www.nhsbill2015.org/ , and hopes that Labour may take it up and re-table it in the next parliament to garner more support and time.
He introduced us to the recent changes introducing 44 Strategic & Transformative Plan Footprints, https://www.england.nhs.uk/2016/03/footprint-areas/, that will carve up England. With a vague set of ideas but to be established by June this year. With the notion of Community Care sounding nice but a consultant is always going to provide a better standard of care than a GP with an interest in the same clinical area and Secondary Care being moved out of hospitals to hopefully save money. It looks to provide a 5 year forward view strategy for the NHS under the guise of New Care Models turning the Health Service into packages ready for privatisation.
Healthy Liverpool is a project seemingly not based on any clinical evidence to support it but hoping to make Liverpool follow the 5 Year Forward View Plan. With Health Services moved into community settings without adequate funding and an apparent absence of specialist care and support that a hospital would provide. Recent 2nd phase devolution for the Liverpool City Region was introduced under the cover of last week’s budget with the LCR looking to have a role in Health & Social Care in the region.
Alex felt that the NHS was one thing that needed a level of centralised responsibility rather than further planned fragmentation and piecemeal privatisation and would like to see a return to an adequately funded, comprehensive and centrally responsible NHS.
Alex will be at NHS Devolution Dangers on Wednesday 20th April, 2016 from 7pm at Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool
