Campaign Against The Cuts - Progress

The campaign against public sector cuts is making progress. The Liberal Democrat element of the Coalition Government have wobbled over the Thatcherite plans to 'reform' (aka brutalise) the NHS and the weakness of the Tories has been exposed by their inability to force these cuts through. Andrew Lansley has called a temporary halt to the legislation for further consultation on the proposals. A fig leaf if ever there was one for an admission that right-wing Tories knew they couldn’t get their plans approved by Parliament.

We have to keep the pressure up both nationally and locally. Norfolk MPs need to hear from their voters that pursuing such cuts will lose them votes. Norwich South Liberal MP Simon Wright wobbled over whether to keep his promise on student tuition fees. It appears only when he did the maths and worked out his parliamentary majority hung on the large student vote in his constituency did he agree to his pre election promise. This was probably with Nick Clegg’s agreement as the behaviour of the Liberal Democrats MPs shows they are more interested in maintaining political power than sticking by their political principles. Their behaviour in Government does nothing to wipe away the memories of the MPs expenses scandal which cast a shadow over all three of the main political parties.

Locally we are keeping up the pressure as part of the TUC 'There is an alternative' campaign. On 2 May Bank Holiday the May Day celebration in Norwich will be relaunched. Between 12.00 and 3.00 pm there will be an event in Chapelfield Gardens, Norwich. There will be live music and speakers with the theme being the campaign against NHS 'reform'. I hope to see as many UNISON members there as possible. The NHS is built on the principles that should underpin all public services. If Andrew Lansley’s plans come to fruition it will inevitably have a considerable impact on the rest of the public sector. It will also be bad news for us as individuals who benefit from our NHS service. We need to keep up the pressure as a union and as union members.

Jonathan Dunning is the Branch Secretary of the Norfolk County Branch of UNISON.