Nicola Ravenscroft: Daily Express article

The sculptor Nicola Ravenscroft, who currently has an exhibition at St Martin-in-the-Fields of her ‘With the Heart of a Child’ sculptures, has been commissioned to create a sculpture as a Memorial to NHS and Care workers who have died during the pandemic. The project is featured today on the front page and in a double-page spread in the Daily Express - https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1477390/memorial-for-NHS-Heroes-bronze-sculpture-honour-donate.

Read my interview with Nicola for Artlyst here.

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Raphael Ravenscroft - And A Little Child Shall Lead Them.

Sale of the Century: Privatisation sucks

Review in the Saturday Guardian had an excellent article by James Meek on privatisation entitled 'Sale of the Century'. Among the highlights of its arguments were these:

'Privatisation failed to turn Britain into a nation of small shareholders. Before Thatcher came to power, almost 40% of the shares in British companies were held by individuals. By 1981, it was less than 30%. By the time she died in 2013, it had slumped to under 12%. What is significant about this is not only that Thatcher and her chancellor Nigel Lawson's vision of a shareholding democracy failed to come to pass through privatisation, but that it undermines the justification for the way the companies were taken out of public ownership.'

'There are many forms of private ownership. The department store chain John Lewis, an unsubsidised commercial firm in a fiercely competitive market, is owned by its employees. The Nationwide Building Society, an unsubsidised commercial firm in a fiercely competitive market, is owned by its members. The Guardian Media Group, an unsubsidised commercial firm in a fiercely competitive market, is owned by a trust set up to support its journalistic values and protect it from hostile takeover. And so on. None of the many alternatives to stock market flotation were put up for discussion by either side: it was either shareholder capitalism or the nationalised status quo.'

'Privatisation failed to demonstrate the case made by the privatisers that private companies are always more competent than state-owned ones – that private bosses, chasing the carrot of bonuses and dodging the stick of bankruptcy, will always do better than their state-employed counterparts. Through euphemisms such as "wealth creation" and "enjoying the rewards of success" Thatcher and her allies have promoted the notion that greed on the part of a private executive elite is the chief and sufficient engine of prosperity for all. The result has been 35 years of denigration of the concept of duty and public service, as well as a squalid ideal of all work as something that shouldn't be cared about for its own sake, but only for the money it brings.'

'What the story of the latter years of the NHS shows is that the most powerful market force eating away at the core of the welfare state is not so much capitalism as consumer capitalism – the convergence of desires between the users of a public service and the private companies providing it when the companies use the skills of marketing to give users a sense of dissatisfaction and peer disadvantage.'

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The Clash - Lost In The Supermarket.

The myth of greater private-sector efficiency (2)

Seamus Milne is the latest Guardian columnist to take on busting the myth of privatisation - vital action now that the Government has effectively privatised the NHS: 

"Central to the corporate-driven ideology that dominates this government and public debate is a myth: that the risk-taking, entrepreneurial private sector drives technological innovation and industrial advance, while attempts by state bureaucracies to "pick winners" are a recipe for disaster.

That myth is exploded by Sussex University economist Mariana Mazzucato in her book The Entrepreneurial State. Even in the US, heartland of "free enterprise", the public sector has taken the risk to invest in one cutting edge sector after another: from aviation, nuclear energy and computers to the internet, biotechnology and nanotechnology.

The private sector has come in later – and usually reaped the reward. So the algorithms that underpinned Google's success were funded by the public sector. The technology in the Apple iPhone was invented in the public sector. In both the US and Britain it was the state, not big pharma, that funded most groundbreaking "new molecular entity" drugs, with the private sector then developing slight variations. And in Finland, it was the public sector that funded the early development of Nokia – and made a return on its investment.

The lessons should be clear. States such as Germany, South Korea and China are now spending far higher proportions of national income on research and development into green technologies. Even some Tory ministers understand that only state intervention can drive the new motors of growth – but dare not say so publicly.

That's hardly surprising. But the government's economic strategy isn't working. If Britain is going to rebuild a broken economy, its political class is going to have to learn to turn its back on three decades of clapped-out myths and bankrupt ideology."

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Get the Blessing - So It Goes / Yes I Said Yes I Will Yes. 

Andrew Lansley, are you listening?

I've sent the following comment to Andrew Lansley's listening exercise on his NHS reforms:

"I have fundamental concerns about these proposed changes to the NHS and I think Andrew Lansley needs to go back to the drawing board.

For example, I am concerned that proposals to make competition the priority within the NHS would undermine our health service. The NHS should focus on cooperating to provide quality patient care, not on competition. The role of the regulator, "Monitor", should reflect this.

It can be demonstrated that the introduction of competition in the provision of public services, such as the tendering out of Local Authority services, has not led to cost savings, greater efficiencies or improvements in services but instead has resulted in reduced levels of service, waste of resources and increased bureaucracy. The ethos of the 'market' contradicts the ethos of 'public service' and, if introduced, will inevitably erode the government’s “duty to provide” a comprehensive health service.

Dropping this duty would erode the foundations of the NHS and would lead to the 'cherry picking' by private companies of NHS services. Such “cherry picking” must be fully ruled out, and the mechanism for preventing it must be clearly established."

You can send your own comment by clicking here.

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Athlete - Wires.

Hospital loses records following death

The Davie family from St John's Seven Kings have had their fight to find out the truth behind death of wife, mother and local GP, Sugi Davie, featured in the local press this week.

Sugi died on 22nd December 2007 in the early morning, having been discharged the night before from a transfusion. When the family asked for the records, within four weeks, first the hospital said they lost the records of 21st Dec. from the Day Unit and later that they have lost the entire file!!

The family write:

"As you know, my mother passed away just over 2 years ago very unexpectedly, and my family and I have been trying to understand the true circumstances of her death. The hospital had lost ALL her medical records, within 4 weeks after her death – which has hindered greatly our ability to find out the truth and we want to ensure the distress we’ve been through does not happen to anyone else.

We have attempted to contact numerous organisations to get support (NHS Trust, Department of Health, Healthcare commission, Local MP, Data Protection etc) – but none of them can offer help, as they don't know what to do or recommend when the individual concerned has died. We decided to go to press for the main reason to highlight a huge flaw in the NHS system and to ensure the NHS does not continue to purposely ‘lose’ medical records to cover the truth, especially when the individual dies following treatment."

The links to the articles are here, both include the opportunity to comment on the story and the family's situation:

http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/8169643.REDBRIDGE__Son_continues_fight_for_truth_over_mother_s_death/
and
http://www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk/content/redbridge/recorder/news/story.aspx?brand=RECOnline&category=newsIlford&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsilford&itemid=WeED20%20May%202010%2015%3A40%3A02%3A930

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Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea.