The NHS was never a socialist concept, and the veneration of Bevan was not earned. I stick to the middle way . Weekly Marxist podcast analysing the big issues of the moment for politics and society. Socialism is a good idea, which has just been badly implemented. Related briefing document: a comparison between international health services By the late 1920s, however, with the German economy in free fall, Hitler had enlisted support from wealthy industrialists who sought to pursue avowedly anti-socialist policies. A socialist society […] doesn’t exist yet, but one day it must. Does the idea of individual State owned health providers being financially autonomous and liable to fail conflict with your idea of Socialism? 0. reglip Posts: 5,268. These elitist right-wing ideologues don't want to identify the NHS with socialism for fear of giving the "lower orders" the idea that socialism is actually a good idea. MC November 13, 2019 at 12:34 pm . This motion, signed by Jeremy Corbyn and Ken Livingstone, offered a somewhat eccentric interpretation of recent developments in Europe. Best of all, this realistic vision of socialism doesn’t represent a flying leap into the unknown. The report was headed by the socialist Beatrice Webb who argued that a new system was needed to replace the antiquated ideas of the Poor Law which was still in existence from the times of the workhouses in the Victorian era. Successful worker co-ops exist. Thus if we ask the question “How do you get an NHS?” and simply answer “Make a socialist your Minister of Health,” we’d be disastrously wrong. I dont think you explain what you think a socialist NHS would look like. Reforms included (amongst other actions) the laying down of detailed service standards, strict financial budgeting, revised job specifications, reintroduction of a modified form of fundholding – "practice-based commissioning", closure of surplus facilities and emphasis on rigorous clinical and corporate governance . "we're all middle class now". Right-wing politicians hate the NHS with a burning ideological passion, because they hate socialism, and the NHS is one of the world's finest examples of socialism in action. For the first time ever nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists and opticians were brought together as part of a single organisation with free diagnosis and treatment for all. Passing laws has become a national pastime. On July 5th, 1948 the NHS was finally launched and the Labour government took responsibility for all medical services. Socialism is an age-old failure, yet the socialist idea constitutes the chief threat to liberty today. attempts to harness votes and ideas from all social classes "big tent politics". Forum Member 29/07/12 - 10:29 #7. All of these elements have been successfully beta tested under capitalism. The NHS is facing a worse situation than in March, as the numbers of patients are higher than at any other point and look set to climb further, while staff are burning out at an increasing rate. The Birth of the NHS. 31 minutes ago. The NHS – it’s Britain’s best kept (socialist) secret 29 May, 2018 MILLIONS of viewers watching the popular ITV show about the Unsung Heroes of the National Health Service on Monday were actually seeing in practice something which is rarely recognised publicly – a socialist enterprise in action. Pass a law to give it public subsidies or restrict its freedom of action. Today, health and welfare spending takes up nearly half of the national budget, with the vast majority going toward the NHS. These ideas can be traced back to the early 1900s with the Minority Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law in 1909. Owen Jones (2016) The primary lesson here is not about […] ‘socialism’ or even ‘communism’ since Castro, Mao, Stalin, and Lenin did not The idea of treating hospitals like fire departments is actually even more socialistic than current “Medicare For All” plans, which provide a government insurance scheme but do not envision government-provided medical services. The NHS will certainly not be exempted from this, so any attempt at reversal of the NHS counter-reforms would be struck out by an unelected tribunal (“Investor-state dispute settlement”) who could overrule an elected government if it felt that the law would limit the profits of big business. To compare the NHS to Nazism in 1946 shows the extremity of vies at the time. The planned economy has certainly failed throughout the 20th century but the immoderate ethnic Nationalism was equally a catastrophe and most of Tim`s readers seem perfectly happy to try that experiment again. But there are of course numerous forms of Socialism. Forum Member 29/07/12 - 10:26 #6. u/JadenWasp. If it does then perhaps we should abandon the whole idea of an internal market. From the shock victory of Labour at the 1945 general election, to the founding of the promised welfare state, Derek Brown trawls the archives and presents a … Why? (See NHS Wales and NHS Scotland for descriptions of their developments). People want to keep it, yet we are told socialist ideas are bad and nationalisation is a poor route to go. By this means, the Health and Social Care Bill will remove both practical and psychological barriers to our seeing NHS bodies as providers of private health care. Churchill sincerely believed that the NHS was a"first step to turn Britain into a National Socialist economy." The NHS exists. Here, abelard lays to rest the urban myth connecting Socialists (a.k.a. The battle to save the NHS involves raising the idea now of a new kind of society organised and planned on socialist lines. Somehow, a deeply socialist idea has become a cherished institution at the heart of a wider society which has, in the years since its birth, only ever travelled further in the other direction. Are the police, fire service and bin collections left wing too? the Labour Party) with the National Health Service. For the NHS cost far more than the government had expected: two-thirds more than predicted in its first nine months alone. As I see it, socialism can be broken down into five ideas: 1. Any right-wing politician in the UK with even a few brain cells to rub together knows that the NHS principle of health care that is free at the point of need is still overwhelmingly popular with the British public. A shortage of suitable beds was the reason for sick patients in NHS hospitals being discharged to care homes, full of extremely vulnerable, elderly people. So they just quietly work to wreck it through massive funding cuts, service closures, deliberately manufactured staff shortages, and an ever accelerating privatisation agenda . This idea has not yet gripped the minds of the majority of workers, largely because the pro-capitalist leaders of New Labour and the trade union leaders have not raised the sights of working people to what is possible on the basis of a clear socialist programme. Martin Rathfelder, Director of the Socialist Health Association, will be delivering the interactive talk. The idea of free treatment lasted just three years, as in 1951 charges were introduced for dentures and spectacles. The Labour Party did not start the NHS is one of a number of documents analysing dysfunctional social, or group, behaviour in modern society. The view that, as better care made people healthier, the cost of the NHS would fall turned out to be an illusion. Come along and have your say. Despite the apparent consensus, opposition to the establishment of the National Health Service (NHS) existed. Roger was always a man to speak his mind and a man of principle, with a firm belief in the ideas of socialism and the need for a socialist economy. The NHS is universally supported and liked by the UK public. The idea that the NHS is where you get cared for free, irrespective of your income and according to your need, will begin to be eroded. When founded, the resources were practically all private hospitals which were nationalised by the state by force of law. Otto Strasser soon recognized that the Nazis were neither a party of socialists nor a party of workers, and in 1930 he broke away to form the anti-capitalist Schwarze Front (Black Front). Blair brought 3,000 people from different backgrounds in to advise his government. Great Britain is not Socialist. From Corbynism, to the NHS, to liberation struggles - we look at the ideas and debates on how to take the movement forward from a socialist perspective. One month after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in December 1989, an Early Day Motion entitled ‘Workers’ Democracy in Eastern Europe’ was filed in the House of Commons. This is a historical discussion of ideas about the NHS since 1912. In my view, that is not socialism.” Mr Hutton argues the NHS’ success derives more from its connection to “fellow human feeling: the idea ‘that an accident or illness that’s happened to you could have happened to me, I’m lucky it hasn’t and I’m glad that this institution is going to bail you out’. When Tony Blair took the UK to war in Iraq, he resigned from the Labour Party but remained active in local politics and the fight to fully fund the NHS. He had always been involved in the peace movement and was a strong advocate against war. Social change will come when socialist parties reach out to the whole community and to … Business in trouble? 0. reglip Posts: 5,268. Viewsnight is BBC Newsnight's new place for ideas and opinion. "Right to a fair trial, socialism!" Socialist Alternative, along with other health campaigners locally, are campaigning against these incredibly short-sighted cuts. Since 1948, we've had a universal healthcare system, the NHS. Close • Posted by. Pass a law to abolish it. Socialism is not a failed idea , it isn`t one idea , a world without it is unimaginable. Labour Member. Kim on January 12, 2019 at 9:16 am It can be seen that the beginnings of the NHS was a cross party concept. From a 2002 survey in east Germany; 82 per cent of respondents agreed. The election after WW 2 the conservatives had in their manifesto the NHS and they had stolen the idea from the Liberal party. State-owned banks in various countries exist. Poverty? Podcast by The podcast of the Socialist Party. Webb dismissed the idea of worker co-operatives where the people who did the work and benefited from it had some control over how it was organised, arguing that – at the time she was writing – such ventures had proved largely unsuccessful, at least in ushering in her form of socialism led by volunteer committees of people like herself. Here, Karol Sikora argues the NHS is the "last bastion of communism" and needs a total rethink. Seeing the start of the mass vaccination programme today made me think about the creation of the NHS, an egalitarian health system, and the way people were encouraged to sign up to local services for their own benefit. The Pass-a-Law Syndrome. 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