PRESCRIPTION charges in England are to rise from £7.10 to £7.20. That may only be a small increase, but is it right that we should have to pay any charges at all? It’s not what Aneurin Bevan intended when he set up the NHS – and he subsequently resigned from the Government when prescription charges where introduced.
Archive for March, 2009
Mike Ion: One remedy for Labour: abolish all prescription charges
By Tribune Web Editor /Saturday, March 14th, 2009The strike with no winners
By Tribune Web Editor /Saturday, March 14th, 2009Dave Anderson – one of the miners involved in the battle to save jobs and communities 25 years ago – gives a personal assessment of events
Paul Routledge: God’s own county begins countdown to closedown
By Tribune Web Editor /Saturday, March 14th, 2009THE nation of Yorkshire is gripped by a paroxysm of grief. Think that’s hyperbole? Then try Christa Ackroyd, presenter of BBC’s Look North news programme. She cried: “We lose our county on a global scale.” Labour MP Austin Mitchell wailed: “I could have cried.” Emmerdale actor Chris Chittell bemoans “a terrible, terrible shame.”
Yet another sleaze scandal shakes the Philippines
By Tribune Web Editor /Saturday, March 14th, 2009GLORIA ARROYO, the long-time occupant of the Philippines’ presidential palace, may well have become accustomed to the annual impeachment attempts against her. But now several former senior officials have filed a complaint against the ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, accusing her of “inaction and downright dismissal of clear cases of graft and corruption”. Gutierrez has threatened to sue the complainants for perjury and the falsification of public documents.
TV ROUNDUP: Scrath Thatch – ‘Infamy, infamy, they all had it for me’
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, March 13th, 2009Margaret
BBC 2
Portillo on Thatcher: The Lady’s Not for Spurning
BBC 2
Billy Connolly: Journey to the Edge of the World
ITV 1
LINDSAY DUCNCAN: one of my favourite actors. Margaret Thatcher: my least favourite British politician (with the exception of Tony Blair). Could they be morphed into a convincing portrayal of the same person? In spite of the pivotal role of the script, no dramatised biography can hope to succeed without suiting the actor to the role. And for me, despite Duncan’s impressive acting, I could never quite believe her as the Iron Lady in Margaret, the BBC 2 dramatisation of her last days in power. Leave aside the fact that Duncan is on record as being staunchly anti-Thatcherite. She is just too subtle and nuanced a performer to capture the weird brand of artificiality which Thatcher cultivated as her public image.
Stop the fascists from celebrating
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, March 13th, 2009We need to fight hard to keep Britain’s far right out of the European Parliament, says Glyn Ford
THEATRE: Poacher turned gamekeeper misses target with Gielgud
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, March 13th, 2009Plague Over England
Duchess Theatre, London
CRITICS know best, don’t they? From those reviews I read of Plague Over England at the Finborough Theatre last year, it seemed writer Nicholas de Jongh had managed a success. I don’t normally read so many reviews, but as de Jongh is a critic not known for pulling his punches, I was curious to read how he fared as gamekeeper.
‘Do not touch!’ The debilitating effect of Kerr’s illegal blacklist
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, March 12th, 2009THE original file was a collection of cards – some photocopied, some typed and many with handwritten notes scrawled on them. The only names in it were of the subject and fellow targets. A few small companies are mentioned but most sources of information were hidden behind code numbers. On the first page the phrase “Do Not Touch!” jumps out. It refers to Steve Acheson, a 55-year-old Manchester electrician who was on a blacklist held by consultant Ian Kerr.
Council pensions could be at risk from PFI, says Unison
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, March 12th, 2009THE multi-billion-pound pension scheme for council staff could be at risk as councillors come under pressure to invest it in the Government’s privately financed school building programme, public sector union Unison has warned.