BBC Question Time audiences are regarded by many as regularly dominated by right-wingers. So Tory minister Margot James could be forgiven if she expected an easy ride on Thursday night’s programme, broadcast from Tory heartland Hereford.
If so, she will have received a shock.
Ms James received a torrid time from the ‘BBCQT’ audience, including one woman who told her angrily of her nurse friend, who earns less than her apprentice son who has no qualifications and of the effect that is having on the number of nurses leaving the profession.
But perhaps Ms James most challenging moment came as an audience member accused her party of ‘ideologically’ underfunding the NHS to pave the way for privatisation.
The accusation met with huge applause – and Ms James’ denial triggered calls of ‘Liar!’ and cries of outrage:
Comment:
Such vocal, unrestrained outrage, in a Tory heartland, at the collapse of our cash-starved NHS will have shaken not only Margot James – but the whole Tory Establishment, to its core.
Has it come too late for the NHS? It’s up to each of us to make sure that it has not.
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What is the actual extent of Margot James’s voluntary work within the NHS, does it extend beyond sitting on committees with the odd photo op of her getting “her hands dirty” thrown in?
cynical but Id imagine you are probably correct Steve
Who and why does anybody watch the bbc and especially QT ? – it does politics no favours at all – it is garbage of the highest order – incredible!!!!!!!!
Secondly – do people have any idea who they are voting for – ever???? It seems to me people are totally ignorant of individuals credential, have no history of what they have done and merely and stupidly just tick a box of their favourite colour – they are stupid
you can find voting history of an MP online which will give you an idea of the kind of person youre voting for https://www.theyworkforyou.com/search/?q=margot+james
i dont trust them. neoliberalism is about hallowing public services to the point where they claim they need to privatise. this reduces transparency and further erodes an already flawed democracy. what this young lady said was true. they do it usually for special vested interest groups. i.e. the elite, multinationals etc. its big govt via multinationals, but what it worse, these corrupt politicians think they are following a free market model WHICH THEY ARE NOT and they have been shitting on us for years… they divide and conquer their own, i.e. class and economic warfare. its also crony capitalism and what is worse, its manslaughter by government. they have allowed for services to deteriorate, whilst passing unjust laws that serve the ruling elite ( these comprise of big business, elitist financiers, elitist economists, corrupt politicians and individuals with self interest only as the main driver). its private actors. this world is turning to shit. its vice (extreme hoarding of wealth) no protection of workers rights. this world right now is a joke, but at least people are starting to wake up.
Tory desperation is at such a pitch one could be forgiven for wondering if some of them might already have made financial commitments in expectation of future income from US medical insurance companies.
David, I have posted this link many times, it is Thatcher’s secret 1982 cabinet papers, released under the thirty year rule, spelling out how they intend to dismantle the state.
It is called “the longer term options” but you need only read the first four pages to understand how they were intent to continue, this was no five minute whim but an ongoing agenda, what people fail to also realise is that the Neo-Liberal agenda extended across all parties which is why the Libdems joined the Tory coalition and why New Labour was part of the liberalisation and deregulation process. Those MPs that oppose Jeremy Corbyn are not doing it because they think he is incompetent but because they know he will reverse this ongoing process.
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C13318082#imageViewerLink
To read the document please click on where it says show images, you can also download it free of charge by clicking on that link, the bill shows no charge when downloaded.
In support of those that say foreign ownership of state assets is a deliberate policy, I would add that for a Party that wraps itself in the Union Jack claiming that anyone that who opposes them is acting against the national interest, isn’t strange how all these assets are controlled and profit from foreign nations.
I would endorse that also by pointing out the extremely bizarre position of a conservative government who readily try and tar left wing opponents of being either Trotskyists or Communists, when they put a communist government in charge of building one of the most strategic industries in the country, with unproven technology, when we were the first to introduce nuclear power in the world.
The reason appears obvious to me, that it was done to oppose any home grown resistance, and complicates any government following a different agenda. It is not essential for any reason to have nuclear power at all.
The whole Neo-Liberal agenda is premised on a tissue of lies, which is why the Tories and other Neo-Liberal supporters can’t tell the truth.
Neo-Liberalism is the transfer of wealth and power upwards.
They are all at it
http://tapnewswire.com/2017/01/compilation-of-parliamentary-financial-links-to-private-healthcare/
28. Margot James: – Stourbridge: Co-founded public relations company, Shire Health Group. The company was sold to business partner Ogilvy & Mather for £4 million in 2004, with the Conservative MP Margot James appointed Head of European Healthcare for marketing parent WPP Group. She stood down from WPP in 2008. WPP are a marketing giant with a massive list of healthcare clients. One of their companies, ‘Grey Healthcare Group, boasts having 14 of the top 15 pharmaceutical companies as their clients.
Quote:’GPs, nurses and patients need now to combine forces and ensure that the resistance to change they will encounter does not limit the improvements in care that are made possible by the Bill.’ This quote is taken from an article written by Margot James for Huffington Post titled: Tackling Vested Interests in the NHS. She failed to mention her former role as head of European Healthcare for marketing for WPP.
‘I keep saying ‘we’, but I’m not really part of the industry anymore, but I still feel it.’ – when speaking at a conference hosted by Healthcare Communications Association.’ – See article on Margot James here.
She has spoken at Big Pharma conferences since the 2010 election, saying that “the pharmaceutical industry remained very important to her and has a very special place in her heart”
And why specifically US insurers?
I imagine the Tories’ answer would be that they have greater experience in the field than UK insurers.
UK companies might contest the validity of that argument though.
My assumption is that they want to make re-nationalisation by a future Labour government impossible without it being a foreign relations disaster.
I know I’m probably the last to see it but I just haven’t seen it stated by anyone else yet. I was sharper when I was younger – honest.
Well, David – one possible answer is that our insurance industry is corrupt beyond redemption – and one step ahead of collapse …
I wondered why publicly owned utilities and services always seemed to be sold to foreign bodies…. this being very much more prevalent in the UK than the rest of the EU. At least a partial (if not full answer) is that there is a ratchet effect which prevents re-nationalisation of foreign owned companies and contracts, under WTO and EU rules.
I can only conclude that there has been the deliberate intent to ensure that privatised industries/services could not be returned to public/democratic ownership. One of the advantages of Brexit is that a future Labour gov’t will not be bound by NAFTA type rules of the EU constraining its manifesto…. and that outside of the EU, a future Labour govt can withdraw from any bilateral trade deal agreed by a former Tory govt.
Since the signing of the 1994 GATS (later WTO) US private health providers have argued that there was not a level playing field because of the various forms of publicly owned health systems in the EU and particularly in the NHS. The major change brought about by the Health and Social Care bill was to bring the NHS under EU competition rules and created the ‘level playing field’ that the US demanded.
Unfortunately, New Labour did not close the door on Thatcher’s ‘boiling frogs in water’ programme of privatising the NHS and we are reaping the ‘reward’.
I know nothing of international law but companies investing abroad and losing money due to change of governments has certainly happened before.
My suspicion is that a company trying to recover, say, its projected profit rather than its actual investment/proven loss might have difficulty given a competent and determined adversary.
But like I said, I know nothing.
https://www.facebook.com/TheDailyPolitik/photos/a.982535205202005.1073741830.959780427477483/1429364913852363/?type=3
I just watched QT…did NOT notice this segment in it though….
Probably since been edited
Just watched it on iplayer at 55:52. Dimbleby looks stunned. Best bit of QT I’ve seen.
Probably because you’d already fallen asleep, lol. It was at the end of the programme and quickly moved on from. The BBC really don’t like being seen to provide a stage for such public criticism of the Tory party.
How the Tories continue to lie and treat working people with utter contempt! How much more evidence do we need to realise that this is a corrupt Government willing to use laws for its own ends! Therefore, waiting patiently for the X ticking exercise called ‘democracy’ to end our pain and their incompetent, only for us and not the rich – they’re doing very well thank you, insane Government to leave may not be the true illustration of how democracy should work! Maybe we’re moving (or are we already there?) towards a more direct action approach whereby we make this bunch of Tory crooks really experience the anger of the masses?
We need to seize the levers of power and quickly. I’m getting angry that Corbyn is doing nothing to force the issue now it’s starting to look like the Tories will hold on until 2020.
What will be left by then?
Let’s get the red tories out, get the party in order and go to work! A national strike would be one way, after a month the bastards won’t know what has hit them.
This Tory minister obviously doesn’t know her history. In 1978 Margaret Thatchers Economic Reconstruction Group, headed by Nicholas Ridley, produced a document known as the Ridley Plan. I suggest she reads it. Particularly Page 15:
http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/110795
Whilst I agree with much of what you say in the first part of the your post I profoundly disagree with your views on bypassing democracy. Our democracy may be imperfect but resorting to the mob would lead us into anarchy and fascism. We all need to work harder at convincing the electorate that the vision contained within the LP manifesto is a future we can all aspire to.
Intended as a reply to Tony Hagger
Hey Steve, Namaste 🙂
By all means spearhead a polite discussion speaking to an electorate that is both apathetic, and partly deaf, but please also accept that transformative social change doesn’t come about without there being collateral damage during a passionate uprising. Unless direct positive and effective action is taken now there will be no UK left for the majority in which to thrive. By 2020, unless you are a millionaire, your days will be darker and you will be left more deeply disquieted than you are now.
I don’t want bloodshed and I condone all violence, but I do want Red Revolution! I think of bloodshed being what happens when fascist dictatorships and tyrannical governments hell-bent of serving themselves at the expense of the masses refuse to the listen to the common man and refuse to relinquish power peacefully.
What do evil Tory snakes think will happen when they continue to abuse The People: that the people will just bend over and ask to be violated again and again? Realistically my friend that is not going to happen is it?
Love and Peace. Namaste 🙂
DN
“I condone all violence”
REALLY ?????
Yes absolutely and without a shadow of a doubt. I am not a liar, and there’s no need to shout.
If attacked I will bite back like any animal cornered in a tight squeeze. I feel cornered with my passion rising as a consequence of the policies of this murderous government.
And you Steve? How passionate are you, and what exactly would you be willing to fight for? Why not include a more equitable, fair, just, and selfless world for your fellow man and the generations to follow you on that short list you might have compiled? Certainly it is an entry worthy of fruition? There is a time for talking and a time for action…we can all talk the talk forever, but where has that actually got the UK electorate other than here and now being pissed on by politicians. If there is no will for change there will be no change. If there is no real passion to fight and only ever lip-service given what change is ever likely to actually take place?
If you consider Gravity, the Air you breathe, and your imagination to be the acceptable limit of a person’s freedoms then do nothing but talk. Everything else in life costs you, and someone makes a prfit from
Well thanks for the diatribe, now stop being silly and grow up.
Your welcome. If it helped correct your blinkered world view, so much the better.
Grow up! Lol 😀
Namaste 🙂
DN
Since Margot James denied lying about and seemingly having no previous knowledge of this plan, there’s only only one conclusion:
She isn’t in possession of all the facts and therefore not in a position to even comment, let alone dispute or deny any accusations surrounding this issue.
And it’s clear from the audience response that she’s not fooling anyone, not even her party’s supporters from the Tory heartlands.
I suggest she reads up on her history before trying to defend this Governments deliberate, planned policy of the Privatisation “by stealth” of OUR public services.
The government and ministers are advised and lobbied fiercely by powerful banking and corporate interests including big accountancy firms such as PWC who also audit companies involved such as Carillion, a nice system set up to ensure wealthy investors and big banks get high level of interest from the lender of last resort… the public purse, which is also a great and safe investment in this low interest era… These interests also have a huge input into laws and policy. Lobbying, revolving door culture and neoliberal ideological consensus appears to have made government completely intertwined with and guided by these powerful interests.
Ministers are being highly disingenuous and in denial of facts on the ground when they claim privatising all public services (for wealthy private profiteering and public asset transfer into private hands) does not include the NHS!
The public are being used (fleeced) as a high interest investment and publicly owned services and property are being passed into private hands which are then in effect rented back to the public. This government is also implementing the Naylor report, a huge fire sale of NHS land into the hands of private profiteers.
Again I repost the link to 1 hour documentary ‘Sell off- the abolition of your NHS”, which outlines the covert moves towards privatisation and a probable US insurance based model.
http://selloff.org.uk/nhs/
.
Yes we are dealing with TORY BARBARIANS but brothers and sisters don’t reduce yourselves to their level; future generations will acknowledge the humanity of left wing democratic socialists and as a lovely community worker in my city once said MOST PEOPLE WANT TO BE KIND! The NHS is a wonderful achievement fought for by our forefathers and mothers but it is also a fantastic subsidy for the rich and powerful – all these healthy workers for free! But perhaps as working people if we are no longer able to sell our labour to the Tory Neo-Liberal capitalist legal thieves perhaps we are surplus to requirements? I once wrote my shortest poem which was dedicated to the STARS who are health workers: “Medicine is Love.” Solidarity!
Highlights on PFI from Peter Bach documentary ‘Sell Off – the abolition of your NHS.