Protect our NHS – online articles we like:
The Health Hurricane-A Year of Destruction in the NHS
All from the excellent Red Pepper
Protect our NHS – Red Pepper online articles tell it like it is
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Yearly Archives: 2013
Protect Our NHS – Straws in the wind
This is a quick round up of some issues that are likely to shape the NHS after the Health and Social Care Act comes into effect from 1 April 2013:
- Freedom of Information
- GPs freedom (or not) to disagree with their Clinical Commissioning Group
- Privatisation of Commissioning Support Units ( the organisations that are supposed to support Clinical Commissioning Groups)
Waste Incinerator Private Finance Initiative Report Is Baffling
The Waste Treatment Private Finance Initiative Report states that the cost to Calderdale Council of borrowing £9.2m to invest in the construction of the Private Finance Initiative Bradford waste incinerator/combined heat and power generator would be around £564,000 a year. But the Report says that despite the cost, Calderdale Council would “look to” save £200K/year as a result of the investment. I can’t figure this out. Someone please explain!
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Calderdale Council Cabinet votes Monday Feb 11th on £9m investment in new waste incinerator
A week after the Department for Communities and Local Government refused to hold a public inquiry into controversial plans for a waste incinerator in North Yorkshire, Calderdale Council has announced that tomorrow, on Monday 11 February, Calderdale’s Cabinet will consider a report which recommends the Council invests £9m in a new waste incinerator to be constructed at Bowling Back Lane in Bradford.
If you want to tell the Cabinet what you think of this, here is the list of Cabinet members, with links to their email addresses.
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A Polite Revolution
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An inspiring occupation of a library in Barnet that caused the Tory “privatise everything” Council to backtrack and reopen the library instead of selling it off. Excellent video by Oonagh Cousins, Revolting Productions.
However, the people’s victory, though real, is partial – the Council has handed over the building to a local group who will run the library on a voluntary basis. So no librarians and no wages, and presumably, no money to buy books.
A Polite Revolution from Oonagh Cousins on Vimeo.
Voluntary food guidelines let antibiotic-tainted meat onto the US market
US magazine Mother Jones reports that,
“while the Food & Drug Administration dithers with voluntary approaches to regulation, the meat industry is feasting on antibiotics and sending out product tainted with antibiotic-resistant bugs.”
The FDA last year proposed a set of voluntary ‘guidelines’ that aimed to reduce the meat industry’s antibiotic habit. It seems they might just as well have saved their breath to cool their porridge, as this infographic from Pew Charitable Trusts shows.
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Natural England Report shows conservation laws fail to protect blanket bog areas from burning damage
The 2012 Report Burning on Deep Peat and Bog habitat in England: Reconciliation and re-examination of results from English Nature Research Reports 667, 698 and unpublished data, which we are making public here as the result of an Environmental Information Regulations request, presents the shocking conclusion that
“the voluntary [Heather and Grass Burning] code, Natural England management agreements, and site designation are having little demonstrable effect in protecting either bog or blanket peat areas from fire use.”
Continue readingHow many European-protected sites have Natural England’s Consent to burn blanket bog?
I have sent Natural England an Environmental Information Regulations (EIR) request, (RFI 1870) to find out about Natural England’s Appropriate Assessments, Consents and Environmental Stewardship Agreements that cover blanket bog burning on Natura 2000 sites across England.
(To see what these terms mean, please skip to the end of this post.)
This follows Ban the Burn’s complaint to the European Commission about Natural England’s “probably unlawful” Consent to Walshaw Moor Estate’s blanket bog burning on the European-protected South Pennine Moors site.
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Review Horton House sell off, says Calderdale SOS
Today, Wednesday 6 February at 6pm, Calderdale Council Use of Resources Scrutiny Panel is to consider Calderdale Save Our Services’ request for a public consultation on the future of adult education in Halifax.
Adult learners who study at Horton House, Halifax’s Adult Education Centre, have been left in the dark about Calderdale Council’s decision to sell the Centre. And so far, the Council has no clear idea where it will relocate adult learning.
Horton House_photo:Calderdale SOS
Calderdale Save Our Services (SOS), a group of trades unionists and members of the public who are working to defend jobs and services against privatisation and Government-enforced cuts, says the decision to “dispose of” and close Horton House was buried in the Halifax Town Centre Office Strategy Report last Summer.
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New “follow” plugin- you may need to sign up again for email updates
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Sorry, but the old plugin to sign up for email updates has died and people haven’t been receiving email updates of new posts.
I’ve installed a new plugin. I think people who had signed up for email updates with the old plugin will need to sign up again to receive email updates.