The NHS reform is part of a general dismantling of the social fabric of Britain. There is one perennial target Mr Cameron and his Lib Dem collaborators do not need to take head on – the unions. In the 25th year of the Wapping dispute, the retrenchment of union rights and industrial clout is clear. In the Scandinavian states and countries such as France and Germany, unions are regarded as “social partners”, among the pillars which make up the state apparatus. In Britain, they remain the enemy within to be cowed, with no respect or recognition for the social cohesion they provide and the dignity they bring to working people and their families.
As a national survey by the union Unite shows, this dignity is again being stripped away, not through industrial confrontation, but through the horrific attrition of jobs in the public sector. As unemployment grows, workers are also subject to lay-offs, pay cuts and the influx of agency workers with no rights. Poorer people are suffering disproportionately from VAT and inflation hikes, denied the means to continue with education, subject to cuts in lifeline benefits and, now, about to have their deteriorating health dependent on the cheapest deal in the NHS supermarket. Don’t Break Britain, urges Unite. Putting it back together will be tougher.
The decision to deny the Chilcot inquiry sight of documents containing exchanges between Tony Blair and George Bush W makes a mockery of the purpose of the inquiry into Anglo-American policy formation in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. These exchanges are critical to what took place between two men deciding to take their countries to war. It is not good enough for Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell to hide behind the convention that it is better for us all if some matters stay secret. There can be nothing in these conversations that could open or worsen the security threat to Britain or the United States. What may lie in these documents is further proof that Britain was dragged into an illegal war by promises made outside any democratically accountable process. Denying access stems from the arrogance of those for whom secrecy is a default mode, who would govern without accountability. And it is insultingly undemocratic.
