The Struggle for Publicly Owned Land

LABOUR AND HOUSING – Part 9.   The struggle for publicly-owned land (cont.) By Eamon Dyas [In the Seventies Labour endeavoured to stop  profits from property speculation and development exceeding profits from industry.] The previous part of this exploration into the history of the relationship between private landowning and public need ended with an explanation of the … Continue reading The Struggle for Publicly Owned Land

Mick Lynch—In His Own Words (2)

Mick Lynch in his own words 4th August 2022, on the channel “Double Down News”.  https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2022/august/4/mick-lynch-dismantles-the-media-keir-starmer-war-on-freedom-extreme-right-wing-tory-government [Extracts] “Division is fatal for working class people, we cannot allow that to happen, all workers are one and that’s the attitude we have to take forward, mobilising our people together, all workers of every identity in one mass movement. … Continue reading Mick Lynch—In His Own Words (2)

Buses

Is Labour on the Buses? Dave Gardner Good public transport is key to economic success and social well-being. Compared with northern Europe, the United Kingdom, with the exception of London, is poorly served. Throughout the UK, bus services are the key to the ability to travel to work, to study, to see family and to … Continue reading Buses

The Destruction of Local Authorities as Housing Providers

LABOUR AND HOUSING – Part 7.   The destruction of local authorities as housing providers. By Eamon Dyas Determining the economic discourse. The previous article in this series showed how  building societies and banks were incapable of supplying mortgages on the scale required by the Tory Government’s 1979 Right to Buy scheme. It explained how local councils … Continue reading The Destruction of Local Authorities as Housing Providers

NHS Providers

Who are ‘NHS Providers’? Feargus ORaghallaigh I found the story at the link below remarkable ... https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/dec/13/hotels-being-used-as-care-facilities-to-relieve-pressure-on-nhs Here is a related story: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/dec/12/number-of-healthy-patients-stranded-in-english-hospital-wards-rises-by-80 I have long held the view that the current NHS is actually a system of hospital-led private provision of health care (much of it provided on a for-profit basis) funded by the … Continue reading NHS Providers

Heseltine on Privatisation

From Socialism to Popular Capitalism: ‘the revolution where everyone is a winner’.  The destruction of both British industry and council housing was a deliberate policy to get away from what Thatcher and Heseltine saw as socialism, the excessive influence of the state on the economy.  They saw this as their crowning achievement. Extracts from:    Where there’s a Will, … Continue reading Heseltine on Privatisation

Where’s Sid?

Privatisations: The aftermath. by Feargus ORaghallaigh At a time when even rightwing newspapers like ‘The Times’ and ‘The Daily Telegraph’ are lamenting the failures of the privatisation of public services and the Labour leadership is afraid to talk of returning them to public ownership, it is a good idea to remind ourselves of how this … Continue reading Where’s Sid?