[Cuts in the NHS are to be increased…]

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Cuts in the NHS are to be increased dramatically this year. Social Services secretary, Patrick Jenkin, launched the first barrage in support of major cuts in the health service with a major speech in Parliament on those 'abusing' the NHS.

He said that the NHS could not afford "a pill for every ill" and that the full charge of drugs should be charged to those who were deemed to have made unnecessary demands.

: Folksy, This folksy approach was a cover for the fact that the health cuts already seen are mild compared to the next round.

During the current year the NHS has been hit, not just by the overt limits on spending, but by the totally fictitious inflation allowance built into the budgets.

By, edict, inflation in the NHS was just eight per cent last year. In fact, according to the government's own NHS inflation index, prices of drugs and equipment rose by 22% over an eleven month period. growth in spending off a half of one percent (which is a big cut Polaris submarine in Portsmouth Jenkin compared to the numbers of people needing the NHS) the government is likely to set the intlation rate arbitrarily at around 13%.

Since all cosmetic cuts have now been made, 1980/81 is ukely to be the biggest year for hospital closures and the turning away of patients since the NHS was introduced.

Doctors cannot be looked to for any form of defence. The BMA followed Jenkin's speech with an immediate call for the introduction of charges for drugs and a variety of other services.

Dentists

They want to see the GP system become more like the dentists' system, where in many places it is virtually impossible to get any treatment on the NHS and where it can be found it is restricted to the most basic treatment only.

In fact while the NHS is in 'crisis' the ability of the drug companies to make massive profits from the NHS has. remained undiminished.

In almost all health budgets the biggest overspendings are to be found in hospital drug bills and a large proportion of that is due to the notorious expense of brand name drugs, which in many cases are indistinguishable from the basic chemicals available.

• Yet in almost every case the response of the AHAs and RHAs is to seek to balance their books through cutting back on staff and closing hospitals and other services.

In the face of these attacks the claim by Stan Orme, shadow minister, that the next Labour government would abolish all charges in the NHS is hypocrisy.

Even Jenkin was able to point out that it was Labour which actually introduced the charge of prescriptions.

On the front of the Daily Mail the bourgeoisie's nightmare of Workers Socialist League policies are presented in an unintelligible stream of trivia.

"Self confessed Trotskyist, union agitator and anarchist" says the introductory paragraph. "Heslin and his colleagues stand for anarchy and revolution of the far left' the article repeats mysteriously.

Trotskyism and. anarchy? Revolution of the 'far left? Clearly what Disraeli said about flattery ("Lay it on with a trowel"') the Daily Mail believes about calumny.

Incoherent

It is not enough to do a witch-hunt. It is also essential to present the politics of Trotskyism as incoherently as possible. The WSL's 'policies' are chucked down presumably in the order that they strike dread into Daily Mail readers.

"They want nationalisation Orme replied that this was 'unfortunate and that Labour would return to "first principles" —whatever they are.

The immediate agitational demands that must be raised in the NHS are for all budgets to be restored to pre-cut positions and then protected fully against real inflation; the abolition of the appointed management bodies and their replacement by elected committee of NHS workers and consumers; and for of the banks and industry w ithout compensation. They w lant nationalisation of land, the seizure of private homes i and personal assets, the abolition i of Parliament, the monarchy i and the House of Lords.

"The WSL wants the Chu irch disestablished, atheism enco sUraged, the Armed For rces abolished and the arrest of all those in prominent positions.

"Capital punishment wo uld be brought back for politi ical crimes, newspapers opposed ! to Marxism would be closed do and TV would be censored."

Well it certainly looks 1 like curtains for the Daily Mail at any rate!

All this is a good deal pith sier than the lengthy artic iles published by Socialist Pr explaining WSL policies; and I it certainly packs a great deal ir nto a short "manifesto"

It is to page 20 and readers have to turn to find ti hat, the Daily Mail actually star ids opposed to witch-hunts.

In a double page spread | by Lynda Lee Potter on Yolan ide •PHOTO: Andrew Wiard, Report Orme full staffing with increased wages fully protected against inflation.

All hospital closures must be met with occupations linked with supporting strike action from the local labour movement in the event of Tory attacks. MeShane Iwho was jailed for two years in 1977 for aiding and abetting her mother in a suicide attempt) the Mail makes the point that police film, taken secretly, was handed over to TV for a documentary on the case.

The interview was timed to coincide with MeShane's book on the case and she convinced Lee Potter of her innocence.

But the point that really comes across is that the Mail is opposed to "trial by television" Much better stick to trial by newspaper.

FIND OUT WHAT THE WSL REALLY STANDS FOR!

WSL Manifesto

Price 15p including postage, from WSL 31 Dartmouth Park Hill London NWS 1HR

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The Labour Party National Executive dashed the hopes of the witchhunters inside and outside the Labour Party last week by refusing to act against