25 April 2019
Diary of a Corbynista
Public Services Crumbling
by Don Urquhart
18 April
My wife walked down the middle of Whitehall. No chance of being run over. It was like Glastonbury without the mud with tents everywhere and impromptu singing and dancing. People waved to her and wished her good day. Everyone including the police was in good humour.
Tomorrow Extinction Rebellion will, it is rumoured, attempt to close Heathrow. If so, it could be the gilets jaunes moment. I can’t see the boys in blue having a laugh and a joke with people playing fast and loose with airport security.
19 April
Just round the corner from us is the highest achieving comprehensive school in the country. Of course this does wonders for house prices but there are downsides. The pupils come from far and wide and we have to contend with fleets of coaches around 8 am and 4pm every school day. When parents apply to the school they are interviewed along with the children and there are queues half a mile long of parents and children. To maintain its league table position it rigorously prunes out boys unlikely to make the grade. I have often asked myself if education is supposed to be like this. And now the Education Policy Institute reports that this practice is commonplace – each year over 50,000 pupils mysteriously disappear from school rolls.
Unexplained moves are, by definition, not consistently recorded or regulated and there is therefore a pressing need to improve our understanding of the scale of the issue, the reasons behind these types of moves and the extent to which they affect vulnerable learners. Ofsted defines off-rolling as ‘the practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without a formal, permanent exclusion or by encouraging a parent to remove a child from the school roll, when the removal is primarily in the interests of the school rather than in the best interest of the pupil.’
20 April
Andrew Smith reports in The Guardian that the European Union has just committed to allocate €13 billion to the European Defence Fund. Apparently the UK will pay part of this regardless of whether we are members of the EU, so Brexiteers would be wrong to point to this as a reason to leave. British arms companies are likely to be recipients of much of this funding. Whether we in Europe should be spending so much on weaponry is a different issue.
21 April
When criticised about deficiencies in our education system, the stock response of the Government is that they are spending more than ever in this area. An article in this week’s Times Educational Supplement headed:
Skint schools “losing out to academy chiefs’ salaries and smart cars”
gives a clue to those seeking to reconcile the dire state of our schools with the Government’s Panglossian funding claims. The money is going down the throats of shysters with the full compliance of our elected representatives.
22 April
Stephen Smith died yesterday at the age of 64. He had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis, an enlarged prostate that left him in chronic pain, and was forced to use a colostomy bag.
He had been refused benefits by the DWP who regarded him as fit to work.
The DWP’s response:
We are committed to ensuring that people with health conditions get the support they’re entitled to.
Report from The Guardian.
23 April
Tracey McAuley is denied support by the DWP. This report from the Belfast Telegraph:
Tracey said she has repeatedly been asked to attend for medical assessment as part of her application for Universal Credit, but can’t make any of the appointments because of her condition.
“I can’t drive; I don’t have the money for public transport. I have offered anyone who needs to assess me the chance of a home visit but they have told me that’s not possible,” she added.
“They keep sending me forms to fill in, but I have told them my condition means I can’t even hold a pen.”
“There are days when I have no skin on my hands or legs, I can’t walk and it’s excruciating to even move.”
“At one stage they said I should ask my daughter to come home from university to help me fill the forms in.”
“I have nothing to hide, but it’s now at the stage where I’m embarrassed to try to leave the house.”
Tracey said she still wants to work.
She added: “Even if I was able to send on details through my GP, there’s a £70 charge for that and I simply can’t afford it if I want to eat or keep a roof over my head.”
“I would still work if I could. I loved my job and it was heartbreaking to have to give that up.”
“Now I’m caught in a cycle where the stress of the situation is making my condition worse. I don’t want to live on benefits but this was my only option.”
“Now it seems I don’t even have that option and I’ve been left with nowhere else to turn. I have no idea what I’m supposed to live on and for over a year now I have been told I cannot claim Universal Credit.”
“All they need to do is ask my doctor for confirmation,” she said. “They already have all the medical details they need.”
And the DWP’s response:
“Universal Credit has existing processes in place to facilitate those claimants who have declared a health condition and who are unable to travel to their Work Capability Assessments.”
24 April
Matt Hancock, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, is a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
In November last year writing in the Evening Standard he endorsed a mobile phone health app marketed by the private health service company Babylon.
In February he told the Health and Social Care Committee that only public bodies will be able to hold Integrated Care Provider (ICP) contracts.
I am going to be much more concrete. There is no privatisation of the NHS on my watch, and the integrated care contracts will go to public sector bodies to deliver the NHS in public hands.
Earlier this month it was revealed that 21 NHS contracts worth £127m are currently out to tender – 19 of which have been put out since Hancock appeared before the Committee.
Hopefully he is not the best candidate the Tories can field.
