Fownhope’s Heart of Oak Society traces its roots to the age of friendly societies, when communities provided their own safety net. Its anniversary celebrations reveal a tradition still very much alive, says MARK SEDDON
THERE ARE growing demands for bipartisan approaches to the NHS — a cross-party review perhaps or maybe a Royal Commission.
Sounds sensible.
But the NHS has been hacked by the “sensible centre” for years, that centre being where Tony Blair, David Cameron and Nick Clegg agree. For the NHS that means privatisation, fees and even dismantling the whole thing.
In the second part of her critique of Wes Streeting’s TenYear Plan for Health, HELEN MERCER looks at the central planks of this privatisation blueprint
Politicians who continue to welcome contracts with US companies without considering the risks and consequences of total dependency in the years to come are undermining the raison d’etre of the NHS, argues Dr JOHN PUNTIS
Government urged ‘to tackle the root causes’ of the NHS crisis and improve ‘social care services’
From Gaza complicity to welfare cuts chaos, Starmer’s baggage accumulates, and voters will indeed find ‘somewhere else’ to go — to the Greens, nationalists, Lib Dems, Reform UK or a new, working-class left party, writes NICK WRIGHT


