Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
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Private hospitals get mega-bailout from the NHS
The privateers facing a huge loss of business because of Covid-19 were happy to snaffle up a ‘cash positive’ deal thanks to block booking of beds, whether they were used or not, writes SOLOMON HUGHES
Nurse Ashleigh Smith wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) washes her hands at work at the Littlefield practice at Freshney Green Primary Care Centre in Grimsby, Lincolnshire
ANGUS REID explains the significance of Cuba’s egalitarian in letter and spirit Family Code and the pertinent lessons it holds for democracies anywhere in the world
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NICK WRIGHT considers how the isolation of Israel and a new film on the controversial Italian communist leader are creating new reference points for Italy’s left
CARLOS MARTINEZ says Cuba’s achievements in the face of a criminal blockade are startling, but the island’s future if the United States succeeds in crushing it looks bleak
AMNON BROWNFIELD STEIN reports that far-right MPs who mobbed the event organised by Hadash may have helped raise awareness of the brutality of the Israeli right
WHEN talking about the danger of NHS privatisation, we should remember how much NHS privatisation has already taken place.
Both “New” Labour and Tory ministers had a simple but crude way of hiding NHS privatisation: they treated the NHS as a “brand” and stuck the big blue-and-white NHS logo on the front of private health companies.
So many operations people think are run by the publicly owned National Health Service are actually handed over to private firms.
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In the second part of her critique of Wes Streeting’s TenYear Plan for Health, HELEN MERCER looks at the central planks of this privatisation blueprint
With more people dying each year and many spending their final days in institutions, researchers argue that wider access to palliative care could offer a more humane and cost-effective alternative, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Channel 4’s Dirty Business shows why private companies cannot be trusted with vital services like water, says PAUL DONOVAN
Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS