Streeting announces he will "go further" than Tony Blair with NHS privatisation
Streeting announces he will "go further" than Tony Blair with NHS privatisation
Keir Starmer originally pledged to "end outsourcing" in the NHS. Shadow health secretary Streeting has now doubled down on the opposite
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I'm no fan of Wes Streeting, but the Canary is trash and is doing its usual of selectively quoting.
We will go further than New Labour ever did. I want the NHS to form partnerships with the private sector that goes beyond just hospitals. Here’s one example. High street opticians have the staff and equipment to provide basic tests. Meanwhile 220,000 patients have been waiting more than 18 weeks for eye care. Specsavers have welcomed Labour’s plan to use high street opticians to cut waiting lists, saying they stand ready to help.
Personally I'm not enormously bothered about high street opticians taking NHS appointments (within their competency). This is essentially the same model that GPs and dentists already follow (and always have done).
There's plenty to be guarded about, but let's not catastrophise based on half-quoted electioneering material.
"form[ing] partnerships with the private sector" is literal privatisation.
and the Canary is one of the (the only?) worker owned news outlets in the UK, sometimes it's a bit sloppy but calling it "trash" is doing free PR work for plutocrats
Alongside squawkbox, it's one of the popular media outlets designed to appeal to left wing folks that regularly work to oppose the Labour Party (who they call "red tories") winning.
I had a leftist explain to me earlier that it would be better for Boris to win because Labour was too right wing and it would put people off voting for a properly leftist party if the centrists got into power again.