British National Party Public Services News Bulletin w/c March 19, 2007
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1. THE PRICE OF REDISTRIBUTION

It has been clear for a long time that EU regulation is the main reason behind the fall in quality of public services, even if this fact is often denied. However a more sinister plan has being hatched not just to privatize public services but to cede them to foreign companies. This unprecedented sell-off of essential services is taking place behind close doors and without any kind of public debate but what is more concerning it's that companies taking advantage of this regulation are actively lobbying the EU without being challenged by our elected politicians. We will continue to expose this act of treason in every occasion in the future.

http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56055

British trade unions announce new protests against the privatization of the National Health Service and several German buyers. Hospital strikes took place last autumn, over the Deutsche Post subsidiary, DHL, being granted a billion Euro contract for lucrative logistics services for the National Health Service (NHS). The conflict will be continued beyond last Saturdays demonstrations. The privatization measures are being sharply criticized in Great Britain, because they will lead to the shutting down of numerous health service facilities and to the deterioration of treatment.

The risk of infection in British hospitals, for example, has notably increased since private businesses provide services, according to trade unionists in a discussion with german-foreign-policy.com. The EU Constitution Treaty that the German government would like to see implemented, in spite of the failed referenda in two states, would favor privatizations of health services in other EU member states. Ger man companies are in the "starting blocks" ready to take over hospitals all over Europe. The protests against the privatization of the British health service (National Health Service - NHS) are to be continued, according to trade union circles in London. In a nationwide action day with rallies and demonstrations in several cities last Saturday, thousands protested the NHS sellout. Already In the 1990s the British government began to transfer the national health service to profit-oriented companies and is still continuing at this privatization. Also German enterprises such as the Deutsche Post are benefiting.

Outsourcing Trend

. The DHL had been granted a billion Euro contract for logistics services for the NHS already last fall. The Deutsche Post, a formerly state owned company, with headquarters in the former German capital Bonn, recently announced a new record sales volume and its plans to become the world's leading logistics group.[1] DHL relies heavily on the British logistics giant, Exel, that it had taken over in 2005.[2] Exel is providing not only sales volumes, but also business contacts for the German enterprise. According to circles in the logistics sector, the Deutsche Post's British competitor, that it recently bought out, furnished contacts in London, that enabled access to the National Health System.[3] In the meantime, the German company is even responsible for printing legal texts and parliamentary protocols. According to its own admission, Deutsche Post disposes of a "outstanding platform", in London "enabling it to draw above average profit from the growing outsourcing trend in the public sector."[4]

Billion-Contract

The DHL contract for NHS logistic services, which had become possible through the "growing outsourcing trend in the public sector", is conferring to the German company the comprehensive tasks of furnishing approximately 600 hospitals and other health service facilities. During the ten year duration of the contract a sales volume is expected to reach up to 2.3 billion Euros, according to the company, but the trade unions are estimating more than the double (5.5 billion Euros). There will be a turnover of goods and services valued 32 billion Euros. DHL has announced extensive austerity measures of up to 1.4 billion Euros.[5] Soon after the conclusion of the contract was announced, strikes were called - the first nationwide protests in the National Health Service in two decades.[6] The DHL's billion Euro contract played also a role in last weeks demonstrations.

German Portion

Alongside DHL activities in the NHS privatization, British trade union circles are also very attentive to the involvement of one of the most important German financial institutions. About a year ago, Netcare, the largest South African hospital operator, obtained a narrow majority (50.1 per cent) of General Healthcare, the largest private health service in Great Britain, at a price of 2.2 billion British Pounds.[7] This takeover was financed to a considerable degree by the Dresdner Bank, thereby increasing the German portion in the transfer of the British health system to private control.

Brussels

Regulations of the European Union are accelerating the NHS privatization, from which German enterprises are increasingly profiting. Brussels' Stability Pact is contributing by placing limits on the amount of public financing and, therefore, also the expenditures for tax financing of the British health system. The German government is pushing this policy by demanding that the draft of the EU Constitution Treaty be adopted as completely as possible. This would enact regulations favoring the privatization of the health service in all European Union member states. Critics fear a dramatic degradation of the services and point to the example of British development, where hospital wards and even entire hospitals are closed down without substitution and large scale layoffs will follow. Approximately 40,000 people per year are forced to sell their homes, to pay for expensive health services, reports Ron Dorman, National Organizer of the Campaign against Euro - Federalism (CAEF), an EU critical trade union organization, in a discussion with german-foreign-policy.com.[8] John Boyd, editor-in-chief, of the CAEF magazine "The Democrat", points to the dramatic rise in - at times - fatal hospital infections: "the hospitals' cleaning and catering services have been privatized."[9]

Europe

EU laws are simultaneously causing a drainage of British NHS tax funds. Due to long waiting lists at home, patients are going abroad (also to Germany) for treatment. Their treatment fees are being paid by the British health system.[10] NHS is also paying millions of Euros to German physicians, who work weekends in British hospitals.[11]

The British hospital personnel is paying the price for this redistribution. According to recent estimates, up to 25,000 NHS full time jobs are endangered, because the costs of treatment are not covered.

[1] see also Größenvorteile ausschöpfen [2] see also Top Ten [3] Britische Klinik-Mitarbeiter bestreiken Belieferung; Der Tagesspiegel 22.09.2006 [4] see also Plattform [5] DHL schließt 10-Jahres-Vertrag mit britischer Gesundheitsbehörde; Pressemitteilung der Deutsche Post World Net 05.09.2006 [6] see also Konfliktkurs and Ausstand [7] South Africa medical firm grows in U.K.; International Herald Tribune 25.04.2006 [8], [9] see also our Interview with John Boyd und Ron Dorman [10] Privatising the NHS. EU law will force competition; The Democrat January/February 2006 [11] Zum Wochenenddienst nach Großbritannien. 16 bis 20 Stunden arbeiten für 83 Euro die Stunde; Ärzte Zeitung 16.02.2007 [12] 25.000 Jobs in England gefährdet; Ärzte Zeitung 26.02.2007

2. DOCTORS PROTESTING AGAINST THE NEW RECRUITMENT SYSTEM

Incompetence is one of the legacy of this Labour government but this blunder may conceal something more sinister. This is the same government committed to destroy our identity by flooding this country with immigrants so this chaotic situation may have been created deliberately to discourage students from enrolling in medical schools so that the following shortage in the medium-term will be used to justify more mass immigration. After all the claim that our healthcare system would collapse without immigrants is very often used and abused to convince native Britons of the benefit of mass immigration.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/19/ndocs219.xml&DCMP=EMC-new_19032007

Thousands of junior doctors took to the streets at the weekend to voice their anger over the chaotic new system for allocating NHS training posts. 12,000 junior doctors took to the streets in London. Wearing white coats and blue surgical gowns they staged a march through central London culminating in a rally addressed by Conservative leader David Cameron. They fear the Government's Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) scheme, designed to speed up the training process to become a consultant, will split families, drive some doctors abroad and force others to leave the profession. Some 30,000 are competing for 22,000 posts allocated under a computer-based system, plagued by technical problems, that critics say takes scant account of the suitability and experience of candidates. Concerns about the new system, which was introduced in January, came to a head after The Daily Telegraph gave a voice to angry and dismayed junior and senior doctors. Organisers said 12,000 took part in the march on Saturday, which made its way from the Royal College of Physicians in Regents Park to the Royal College of Surgeons in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Mr Cameron was cheered as he described Patricia Hewitt as "the worst Health Secretary in the history of the NHS". He said that the Government's promised review of the issue must be "a proper review not a paper exercise". "They made a promise that every junior doctor in England would have a training post," he said. "We are going to hold them to that promise." Conservative health spokesman Andrew Lansley, who also attended the rally, said doctors were justifiably angry, adding: "The Daily Telegraph has quite rightly led this campaign in the media." One married couple on the march, parents Alex and James Keegan, fear the new application process could cause turmoil for their family. Alex, 27, and her husband James, 24, have an eight-month old son, Henry, and currently both live and work in London. She is applying for posts in paediatrics across south and south west England. "She might end up working in Bath or something like that and we'll have our house and our baby in London. It will be difficult both of us working and looking after the baby at the same time if she is so far away," James said. Richard Sidebottom, 30, a senior house officer at London's Central Middlesex Hospital, has been unable to secure an interview for an ophthalmology post. He was joined on the march by his brother Paul, 38, a consultant, and father Eric, 68, a retired Oxford University medical tutor, and said: "My father taught at Oxford, my brother's a consultant anaesthetist, and I'm going to be a plumber." His father said: "I have spent my life in medical education and there has not been anything like this. It just makes us so angry, there is such a waste." Rob Thomas, 29, who works at Whipps Cross in east London, said despite an excellent academic record and passing his postgraduate exams first time, he had been offered no interviews in his chosen speciality of clinical radiology and may emigrate. "It's disgusting," he said. "I have secured a job in Australia.

I don't want to go, I love the NHS, I want to stay here and I want to work here but if I have to go I have to go. I've got to pay my mortgage." Rebecca Walker, 27, who works at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, said she was "one of the lucky ones" because she has been short-listed for interview in her chosen field of ophthalmology but came along to protest over the "disastrous" new system and support fellow doctors who had not been so fortunate. She said: "There are plenty of my colleagues of equal if not better calibre who are left with nothing and a huge degree of uncertainty as to whether they will have employment as of August this year. It is a time of huge uncertainty for all of us."

3. NOW EVEN OFF-PEAK RAIL PASSENGERS CAN’T ESCAPE

The greed of these companies is beyond belief but government share much of the responsibility for this shambolic situation. First it increases taxation on car drivers to steer people to use public transport and then increases rail fares. It's evident the government only wants to impose extra stealth taxes and the only losers are British workers.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1539821.ece

Rail passengers will pay record fare increases of 20 per cent under restrictions on off-peak tickets being imposed by Britain’s biggest train company. The national rail passenger watchdog has accused South West Trains (SWT) of abusing its monopoly and voiced concern that other companies would now introduce similar increases. SWT is to force passengers with flexible working hours to buy more expensive tickets, even though they are travelling after the rush hour. It is abolishing the existing split between peak and off-peak fares and introducing a new, intermediate price band on May 20 that will cover trains arriving in London after 10am and as late as 12.49pm. It will be the second increase well above inflation in only five months for the company’s passengers, who already endure the worst overcrowding on the network. The announcement came less than a week after it was revealed that Brian Souter, chief executive of Stagecoach, which owns SWT, will receive a windfall from the company of about £100 million. Rail fares will rise to pay for 1,000 extra carriages Ticket price rises make rail travel 'preserve of the rich' The Department for Transport admitted that it had secretly approved SWT’s plans for big fare increases last year when it awarded the company a new ten-year franchise in return for a £1.2 billion payment.It also secretly agreed to allow First Great Western to remove 20 carriages to save money, a decision which resulted in a fares boycott in January by passengers forced to endure much greater overcrowding.

Anthony Smith, chief executive of the watchdog, Passenger Focus, said: “This unjustified, unexplained and unfair price hike is exploiting a monopoly market because passengers have little choice but to use South West Trains’ services. The lack of consultation and explanation as to why it is necessary to raise prices by as much as 20 per cent will leave passengers frustrated and angry.” Mr Smith said the increases would effectively extend the peak throughout the whole of the morning and hit thousands of passengers who had arranged flexible working hours in order to take advantage of off-peak prices. These large increases have as much to do with making money as they do in seeking to ease crowding pressures on true peak-hour trains. The danger is that this could set a precedent for other companies to follow.” Under the changes, passengers travelling from Weymouth to London, who can currently buy a cheap day return to arrive at Waterloo just after 10am, will have to wait almost three hours or buy a much more expensive ticket. Even then they will still pay more because SWT said it was raising the price of the cheapest tickets by 3 per cent from May 20, on top of the 5.3 per cent average increase in January.

First-class passengers will pay between 15 per cent and 20 per cent more on trains throughout the day. An SWT spokeswoman said the increases were partly being introduced because too many passengers were catching the first off-peak train. “People working more flexible hours or coming up to London for a meeting were waiting for the first cheap train, creating another mini-peak. This will flatten demand but we don’t want to price people completely off the train.” SWT has already angered passengers by removing seats and lavatories on several of its busiest routes in order to create more standing room. On the Portsmouth line, passengers now have to sit five abreast, instead of four abreast, for journeys of an hour and 20 minutes. Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the transport union TSSA, said: “This amounts to daylight robbery in view of Stagecoach’s profit levels. Modern-day passengers are now being held up by the owners, who consistently increase fares beyond the rate of inflation.” It is the second time in less than a year that the Department for Transport has struck a secret deal with a train company to raise fares. Last June it emerged that it had approved plans by First Capital Connect to force passengers to buy more expensive tickets to travel out of London between 4.30pm and 7pm. A department spokesman said: “Stagecoach brought forward proposals for phased increases in some cheap day return fares in their bid. As these are unregulated fares, it is entirely within the commercial freedom of the company.” Examples of fare increases

Return tickets for journeys arriving in London between 10am and noon: new fares from May 20
– Portsmouth: was £25.20, rises to £30.20
– Southampton: was £27.20, rises to £32.60
– Winchester: was £23.20, rises to £27.80

Who is affected

– 16 million passengers a year will pay 20 per cent more
– SWT is removing a fifth of the seats from almost 500 carriages to create more standing room
– The company predicts passenger numbers will grow by up to 50% over the next decade
– 444,000 people a day use SWT’s services
– Brian Souter and his sister and co-Stagecoach founder, Ann Gloag, are worth £395 million (Sunday Times Rich List 2006)

4. REVIEW PROPOSES NEW COUNCIL TAX BANDS,REPORT CLAIMS

The trouble with the revision of council tax is that it usually results in higher bills. However the biggest concern is that the bigger share of council tax revenues are wasted in fat salaries and generous pensions of civil servants, many of them employed in unproductive jobs like race relation officers or diversity advisers and often those costs that need to be covered are related to services aimed to asylum seekers and immigrants. Let's not forget the fact government permit mass immigration but local authorities are left to pick up the bill.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/localgovernment/story/0,,2038372,00.html

New council tax bands could be introduced for the most expensive and cheapest homes, it is reported today. Sir Michael Lyons will call for the introduction of two extra council tax bands at either end of the price spectrum, according to the BBC. A report into local government funding by Sir Michael, professor of public policy at Birmingham University, is also reported to say that people entitled to council tax benefit should gain it automatically instead of having to claim it. But the report is expected to call for council tax revaluation before any changes. The Guardian reported last week that Sir Michael's report would increase council tax banding to ensure that expensive homes attract a fairer share of the tax burden. Tony Travers, of the London School of Economics, said: "I don't think this report is going to suggest the upending of our whole system of local government finance - but what it may do is make some small changes which themselves could be very controversial." A spokeswoman for the Lyons inquiry said today that such reports were "speculation". Sir Michael's report is due to be published tomorrow.

5. HOME OFFICE EYEING PRISONER RELEASE PLAN

We are strongly in favour of tough sentences but we also believe the sentence must fit the seriousness of the crime. Too many people are jailed for petty crimes. Our thought go to Kevin Hughes, jailed for political reasons and others because they failed to pay their TV licence and speeding fines. However our biggest concern is about the huge number of foreign inmates that should spend their sentences in their native countries thus saving us a lot of money and, at the same time, eliminate overcrowding.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2036738,00.html

Home Office officials are considering a plan for the early release of 2,500 prisoners in an attempt to ease overcrowding in Britain's jails. Whitehall sources last night confirmed the existence of the scheme, but said there were no present plans to activate it. They said it would be used only as a last resort and was only one of many options being considered. The Home Secretary, John Reid, has consistently opposed any such moves and has ruled them out on his watch, but The Observer understands that senior figures in the Home Office now believe they may have no choice but to put the plan into effect later in the year, if the prison population continues to rise. Last Thursday it reached more than 80,000, around 800 below its usable operational capacity. Internal Home Office estimates suggest that, if present trends continue, it will touch 83,000 by June, triggering the need for drastic action unless more places are found. Under the new proposals, about 2,500 prisoners would be freed a fortnight early under what is known as a release on temporary licence. They could be recalled for breaching the terms of their release.

This proposal differs from the standard early release scheme that carries no sanctions and which Reid rejected last year for fear that he would be seen as 'too soft'. Home Office sources stressed that only non-violent prisoners would be released under the plan and that those considered for it would be subject to strict eligibility criteria and supervision. Critics of the Home Office are likely to accuse ministers of political meddling to solve a crisis of their own making, if they choose to activate the plan. 'The release of these prisoners early would be a direct consequence of Labour's failure to address the chronic lack of capacity in our prisons, despite warnings from ourselves and their own advisers going back to 2001,' said David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary. 'Any claim that these offenders will be under any kind of supervision will not fool the public. They know all too clearly that Labour's idea of "close supervision" bears no resemblance whatsoever to what anyone else would expect.' The Home Office has pledged to find more than 2,500 prison places by the end of this year, but the prospect of the majority of these coming into operation soon appears remote. Problems relating to planning permission, health and safety issues and a cash shortage suggest the department's room for manoeuvre is severely constrained. In a separate attempt to ease the crisis, the Home Office minister, Baroness Scotland, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Lord Phillips, and the head of the National Offender Management Service, Helen Edwards, will tomorrow summon magistrates to a private conference to discuss alternatives to jail.

But any suggestion that magistrates should imprison fewer offenders is likely to be greeted by claims of government interference and prompt an ugly row between the politicians and the judiciary. The mounting crisis comes as independent research to be published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies warns that the government's sentencing regime could be leading to more custodial sentences. 'Home Office officials hoped a reconfigured community sentence and the new suspended sentence order would address the ratcheting up in sentencing tariffs which has resulted in community penalties displacing financial penalties and immediate custody displacing community penalties,' said Enver Solomon, the centre's deputy director. 'Our analysis shows this is not happening and the government is having to resort to desperate measures.' And prisoners are now spending longer in jail than before Labour came to power. The probation service union, Napo, claims that, although the numbers being received into prisons are not increasing, sentence lengths have risen over the last five years by between 5 per cent and 10 per cent. In addition, fewer prisoners are being granted parole because the Parole Board is more cautious following a number of disturbing incidents involving violent offenders out on licence. There has also been more than a threefold increase in offenders recalled for failing to keep to their licence conditions, while the number of prisoners on home detention curfews has fallen because fewer fulfil the eligibility rules.