Some of you may be wondering how the Blog is voting on
Thursday?
Here’s an extract from an article in today’s ‘Independent’
newspaper, I’ve edited it.
In fact, I’ve been publishing information about Lynton
Crosby, the Tories Australian Election guru, since he was appointed 18 months
ago.
You can read them on my other blog;
Which has charted the pressure on the NHS and the threat from
privatisation for profit.
He’s been a lobbyist for private healthcare, which really isn’t
much of a surprise;
A firm run
by the Tories’ election chief, Lynton Crosby, devised a plan to lobby David
Cameron to expand the role of private healthcare in the UK.
A strategy
paper, drawn up by Mr Crosby’s firm CTF Partners and seen by The Independent,
proposed targeting key government figures, including the Prime Minister, to
enhance the “size, acceptability and profitability of the private healthcare
market”. It also stated that “insufficient public funds” were a strategic
“opportunity” for private healthcare firms. It added the campaign’s long-term
strategy should be “achieving decision-maker recognition that health investment
in the UK can only grow by expanding the role and contribution made by the
private sector”.
Lynton
Crosby, the Tories’ election strategist, the party has been attempting to
narrow its focus to core issues Under Lynton Crosby, the Tories’ election
strategist, the party has been attempting to narrow its focus to core issues
(PA)
The
emergence of the document, just four days before polling day, has been seized
on by Labour as evidence of the links between the Conservatives, private
healthcare firms and the man entrusted to secure an election victory for the
Tories on Thursday.
CTF
Partners’ website says Mr Crosby’s “intuitive sense of delivering the results
that are needed” has been “finely honed through his many years of providing
high-level advice to prime ministers, premiers, and leaders of business”.
“David
Cameron has serious questions to answer,” Labour’s shadow Health Secretary,
Andy Burnham, said. “It looks increasingly like Lynton Crosby’s lobbying firm
led a drive to ensure private health companies were the big beneficiaries of
David Cameron’s health policies.
“Cameron
must now come clean on the impact of Lynton Crosby’s business interests on Tory
policy.”
Extracts
from Lynton Crosby’s CTF Partners' document to help private health care
providers Extracts from Lynton Crosby’s CTF Partners' document to help private
health care providers
The
presentation is believed to have been made in the autumn of 2010 by CTF
Partners to a group of large UK private healthcare providers called H5 Private
Healthcare Alliance accounting for 80 per cent of the UK’s private hospitals
and 85 per cent of all private beds.
Slides from
the presentation show that CTF believed H5’s mission should be to ensure “better
healthcare” through private hospitals “playing their part complementing the
NHS”. It suggests H5 should act as a “campaign body” to “secure and grow
private healthcare’s place in a growing UK health sector”. The document states
H5 must “persuade politicians that this is achievable and sustainable”.
The
presentation also included research by CTF into public attitudes towards
private healthcare. This, it said, showed the public could be persuaded of the
merits of private healthcare as long as it was not seen to be “anti NHS”.
“Our
analysis of the research tells us the best arguments to use in positively
positioning private healthcare against the NHS,” it states. It then lists short
waiting lists, choice, access to the best professionals and high-quality care
as among the attributes that the public associate with private healthcare.
Mr Crosby
has faced accusations in the past that he could use his position as the Tories’
chief strategist to advance the interests of his firm’s other commercial
clients. This has always been denied by Mr Crosby and CTF Partners. But with
the future of the NHS a central part of the election campaign the Conservatives
will be uncomfortable with the evidence that CTF had drawn up plans for H5 to
lobby government on behalf of private healthcare companies.
It is not
known what lobbying work, if any, CTF did for H5 after its presentation. The
contract ended in June 2011.
The NHS is facing financial and organisational collapse after
5 years of ConDem coalition government.
The Tories promise of increasing spending on the NHS by up to £8 Billion in five years time is completely unfunded. The only place the money is coming from will be privatisation and the Private Finance Initiative.
The vote on Thursday is make or break.
Labour isn’t perfect, it’s certainly not the party I would
want it to be but it’s the best alternative to the Tories we have.
I’m voting Labour.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
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