Trades Unionists reject Covid cuts & pay freeze!

TRADE Unionists in Greater Manchester are calling on Metro Mayor Andy Burnham and the leaders of all ten Greater Manchester local authorities to unite together with them and the city region's MPs in demanding a Government U-turn on the relaxation of the covid lockdown, planned £500 million cuts to Greater Manchester local Government coffers for 2021-22, and the mooted pay freeze for public sector workers, ahead of Wednesday's spending review by Chancellor Rishi Sunak.

They are additionally calling on trades unionists and other Greater Manchester residents to e-mail Andy Burnham, their local councillors, MPs, the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, to put as much pressure as they possibly can on the Government to make an about turn on these proposed policies, which the Greater Manchester Assoc. of Trade Union Council President Stephen Hall says: '.... will result in a much higher death toll from covid 19 than it might otherwise do; lead to increased mental stress and anguish as a result of needless additional job losses, and much reduced incomes for most people, not to mention potential financial ruin, homelessness and countless other social problems which will cost us all considerably more in the long run, than the supposed financial savings from the Government's currently proposed course of action and staggering costs already borne by the public purse.

'The safety of the people is always the first consideration of any Government, so the economic cost of that principle should always be a secondary issue no matter how much it might amount to financially. However, had the Government been prepared, and acted more decisively at the beginning of the covid outbreak then much of the so far huge cost of the measures implemented by the Government would not have been incurred and we would not now be discussing the additional costs still to be borne by the Government as a result of a clearly failed on-off-on national lockdown with various tiers of restrictions in between, and a 'leaves-a-lot-to be desired' national test, track and trace system, all of which despite the advent of a vaccine, could still go on for many more months. No instead what we would have more likely been talking about is Christmas and New Year celebrations without restrictions and all of us being financially better off than we currently are.

'We believe the Government should abandon its present course, which will only prolong the covid crisis and instead immediately adopt a Zero Covid strategy as done by such countries as Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and China. Their success speaks for itself. A key element of it has been the protection of the livelihoods of EVERYONE adversely affected by lockdown. As a result, the overall economic impact of Covid in those countries has been considerably less than in Britain. Their Governments have also spent substantially less than the British Government has, and still has to spend as a result of not acting decisively earlier and not financially looking after everyone throughout, and by not bringing the virus under control as in those countries. Further, in this country however generous it has been claimed the Government's package of financial support has been, we have additionally seen many thousands of jobs lost, many thousands of household incomes slashed by 20% or more, many thousands of families now in huge rent arrears and facing potential eviction and almost four million people provided with little or no support at all. This latter national figure equates with around 200,000 people in Greater Manchester.

'Concerning the Government's proposed cuts to Greater Manchester local council coffers of around £500 million for 2021-22, Mr. Hall said: 'Our Metro Mayor and Council leaders, should make it clear to the Government that any proposed cuts at this time are simply unacceptable and will only pour more misery into Greater Manchester households at time when we should be investing in long term 'more-than-pay-for-themselves' projects such as building thousands of new hi-spec zero carbon council house and other social housing, insulating people's homes, and expanding local renewable energy generation, etc., all of which will help to create thousands of new jobs as others are being lost due to covid, and which will additionally allow us to intensify our fight against the even bigger threat to us all than covid, which is the threat of irreversible catastrophic climate change. This additional spending would not be wasteful expenditure burdening future generations, but on the contrary, in helping to tackle the huge housing shortage, climate change and alleviating the widespread financial pressures presently on millions of households nationally caused by the covid pandemic, possibly represent the best investment we could presently make in the interests of our children and future generations. We could also re-train people to equip them to do the increasing number of new jobs that need creating, in addition to training and employing more social care workers, mental health professionals, teachers, and nurses, etc., etc., to better look after everyone's social, health and mental wellbeing.

'What the Government are proposing won't help us to achieve anything positive at all, and will ultimately just suck money and spending power out of the Greater Manchester economy at the same time as impoverishing many thousands of households. What they are proposing is also a completely false economy, which will lead to greater financial and social costs be borne by the public purse at a later date. Local trades union councils across the city region stand ready to fight alongside residents, workers, and service users, to oppose any such cuts in Greater Manchester and to work with all those who support the fight for a turnaround in Government policy.'

'In relation to the mooted pay freeze for public sector workers other than NHS staff, who may get a paltry pay rise to help them pay to park at work, as a reward for their efforts over the last 9 months" Mr. Hall said: "It is simply outrageous to suggest that many 'key workers' such as care home staff, teachers, bin men, and school cleaners, many of whom are in receipt of in-work benefits because they are so poorly paid should see their pay frozen at any time let alone under the present circumstances. If anything we should be rewarding them all with a hefty pay rise. What the Government needs to remember, and private businesses and self-employed people need to bear in mind is that without ordinary people having money to spend they can't afford to buy the products and services they sell and the more disposable income workers' have the more money they can spend in the local economy all of which has a local economic 'multiplier' effect. Opposing pay rises for public sector workers also does not help to achieve anything for private sector workers who if they think they are currently hard done by should join a union and fight to improve their own situation. Across Greater Manchester the trades council movement stands ready to support them.'

PRESS STATEMENT ENDS

23-11-2020

Issued by Stephen Hall, President, GMATUC

Stefan Cholewka, Secretary, GMATUC

Austerity Kills! Deaths of elderly was 'Gerineglicide' says former NHS consultant..

A number of studies that have been carried out in recent years have revealed how mortality figures (the death rate), which had been dropping steadily in England since the 1970s, have been reversed since 2011.  The studies have also claimed that the reversal in the downward trend in the death rate, is linked to government austerity policies and cuts in public expenditure.

In February 2016, the Daily Telegraph disclosed that preliminary data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), had shown that in just one year (2015), there was a 5.4% increase in deaths in England - equating to almost 30,000 extra deaths.  This represented the largest increase in deaths in the post-war period. Public Health England maintained that the 30,000 excess deaths were "not exceptional" and they claimed that the increase in deaths, was due to the influenza strain in 2015 that mainly affected older people.

This excuse of cold weather and a flu epidemic for the spike in the mortality rate in January 2015, was rejected by the authors of a report that was published in the journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in February 2017.  The researchers - Professor Martin McKee, Professor Danny Dorling, Dr Lucinda Hiam and Dominic Harrison, tested four possible explanations for the 30,000 excess deaths in 2015.  Data errors, cold weather and the flue epidemic, were all excluded. What they discovered was clear evidence of health system failures.  Almost all targets were missed - ambulance call out times and A&E waiting times. Staff absence rates rose and medical posts remained unfilled.  Significantly, many of the excess deaths were among the elderly population, those aged over 65-years-old. Professor McKee said:

"The impact of cuts resulting from the imposition of austerity on the NHS has been profound. Expenditure has failed to keep pace with demand and the situation has been exacerbated by dramatic reductions in the welfare budget of £16.7 billion and in social care spending." 

Another author of the report, Professor Danny Dorling of Oxford University and an advisor to Public Health England, said:

"I suspect that largest factor here is cuts to social services - to meals on wheels, to visits to the elderly.  We have seen these changes during a period when the health service is in crisis, while social care services have been cut back."

There is growing opinion and evidence that it's the elderly who are bearing the brunt of the cuts to NHS funding and social care.  Thousands of complaints have been made about care for the elderly in England. In 2013-14, some 14,888 complaints about care home residents aged 65 and over, were reported to 74 councils.  In February 2015, Claire Savage on BBC5 Live, reported that in West Sussex, 19 people died after suffering "sub-optimal care" at the Orchid View care home in Copthorne.  The Department of Health, called the abuse and neglect of vulnerable people "deplorable."  The neglect of elderly people often results in care home residents being rushed to hospital as emergency admissions.  In 2014-15, some 22,682 care home residents were rushed to hospital as emergency cases.  This was up from 13,906 in 2010-11, an increase of 63%.

Milton Pena, worked in the N.H.S. for forty years before retiring in October 2014.  He was a consultant orthopaedic surgeon for 24 years and spent 17 years working at Tameside Hospital.  He believes that the most common terminal event that caused the increase in deaths among the elderly population in 2015-2016, was institutional "Neglect!" Indeed, he argues that what was a blip in 2015 - the spike in the mortality rate - has now become a disturbing trend.  He said:  "The question is not why any particular individual died, but why, after many years of declining mortality, the death rate should increase so much." 

In an interview with Northern Voices (NV) he cited Professor Marion McMurdo, who in a letter to the British Medical Journal (B.M.J), stated that the N.H.S must adapt to ensure that it meets the needs of the population. In the letter, she stated: 

"There is a mindset among hospital Directors, Business Managers and some health professionals that frail elderly patients are 'not our core business'.  Few national providers would make such a blatantly ageist inference that its 'core business' was too tricky to manage, and propose to solve the problem be ceasing to attempt to deal with it."

According to Milton Pena, what is taking place is neither Euthanasia or Genocide, but what he calls "Gerineglicide", the killing of thousands of elderly and vulnerable human beings due to lack of resources from government, systemic failures, and institutional neglect.  He told NV:

"Gerineglicide is many things: poverty, misguided policies and directives e.g. the avoidance of hospital admissions, abysmal lack of bed capacity for the admission of patients with acute severe life-threatening conditions such as pneumonia etc.  Similarly, insufficient staff - nurses, midwives, radiographers, doctors or lack of resources to care for people in their homes.  Keeping elderly individuals with multiple ailments alive, does not make business sense to the mandarins that run health care 'planning and execution' in England. Prolonging the lives of the elderly is not profitable."

Back in 2017, when the Royal Society of Medicine published the paper "Why has mortality in England and Wales been increasing?", only one member of Parliament raised a question in the House of Commons:

"The Minister will be aware that mortality rates in England and Wales have increased by 5.4% in 2015, the biggest increase in the death rate for decades. She will also be aware that mortality rates have been rising since 2011. Has she done any analysis of what has been behind those trends?"

Milton Pena also says  that there has been a deafening silence from most of the professional bodies regarding the excess mortality that spiked in 2015.

After the financial crisis  of 2008, annual funding increases for the NHS fell from 4% a year to below inflation, even as a growing and ageing population increased demand for healthcare.  In November 2017, the New Scientist magazine referred to a 'landmark study' by Jonathan Watkins and colleagues of King's College London that found that after controlling for other economic changes, death rates rose after the cuts, especially among the over 65s.  The team also found that 120,000 more people died in England between 2010-2017, following funding cuts to the N.H.S. than would have been expected if trends in death rates before the cuts had been maintained.  The researchers also said that if this effect continues, a further 75,000 excess deaths could occur by 2020.

Hyde councillor calls for a volunteer army of unpaid workers!

Rising Star - "SEO Andy" Kinsey

By Steve (Starlord) Fisher

The Town Council roadshow in Tameside is currently being rolled out across the Borough with gusto. I recently wrote on the NV blog about the first Town Council meeting which I attended at the Stalybridge Civic Hall on Wednesday 15 February. Last Monday, I ventured into Hyde to attend the first of their Town Council meetings at the Grafton Centre.

This was a much smaller meeting than Stalybridge, with around forty people attending including councillors. It was also far more tightly controlled by Labour councillor, "SEO Andy" Kinsey, (a search engine optimizer), with a special interest in community groups, who chaired and set the tone of the meeting. Unlike the Stalybridge Town Council meeting, there was little that was spontaneous about it, being far more directed and controlled, with a largely passive audience. Much of the meeting was focused on a power-point presentation by Andy Kinsey, called "Community Groups Together." Before beginning his presentation, Andy insisted on laying down some basic grounds rules. We were told that this was not a District Assembly or a councillors surgery.

Andy told me later, when we went into group session with an unidentified councillor on each table, that each Town council was different, and this was the way, they were going to things in Hyde. This was Andy's response when I drew a comparison with the Stalybridge meeting, which was far more involved and democratic in my view. However, councillor Helen Bowden (Hyde Newton), told me that she felt the Stalybridge meeting had been taken over by a few disgruntled individuals.

Although the lead Third Sector (voluntary, community and faith) organisation, 'Action Together', had been billed as attending the meeting, they sent their apologies. Andy's presentation was focused on how community groups, social enterprises and non-profit organisations, could all come together to work unpaid for the betterment of the community, undertaking jobs previously done by council employees. On our tables, we were told to make a list of all our skills and talents which we use in our community groups. This we were told, was necessary to build up a "Skills Database", that would be put on Facebook and called "Doing More Together - Skillshare Hyde."

To me, it seems that the whole object of Town Councils is to pretend that the public are actually invloved in decision making when there is no real autonomy or communities being in control. I very much suspect that this is really a mask to disguise the real intention of co-opting volunteers and community groups to do council work for free. As the Labour leader of Manchester City Council, Sir Richard Leese, said last November, it was the job of the voluntary sector to now "fill-in-the-holes" left by public sector cuts. How about voluntary councillors?