Top: Ernest Brown was the Lıberal Natıonal (National Liberal) Mınıster for Health from 1941 – 1943. He commıssıoned the Beverıdge report that ultimately led to the introduction of the NHS. Centre: Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan (1897 - 1960) was the Labour Minister of Health who formally introduced the NHS in 1948. Bottom: Elisa O’Donovan (Independent Councillor for Limerick City West, in Éire) recently revealed that the waiting time for a routine diabetes appointment is five years!

NATIONAL LIBERALS are right to be proud of the National Health Service (NHS). Introduced 72 years ago, it replaced a patchwork of private, municipal and charity health insurance schemes. The NHS provides ‘care based on need and free at the point of delivery’ and is said to be the envy of the world.

The NHS was formally introduced – via the National Health Service Act 1946 – by Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, the Labour Minister of Health on 5th July, 1948. This meant that all UK residents were given the right to access health services offered by doctors, nurses, midwives, and dentists without having to pay directly. In Bevan’s words ‘no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.’

However, it could be argued that the NHS wouldn’t have come into being without the vision and work of Ernest Brown – the Lıberal Natıonal (National Liberal) Minister for Health from 1941 – 1943. He commissioned the Beverıdge report that ultimately led to the introduction of the NHS. (Brown was a socially progressive Liberal and was also responsible for the Unemployment Insurance (Agriculture) Act, 1936 which extended social security to nearly all workers in agriculture, forestry and horticulture.)

Despite the NHS being our National Pride, it has been underfunded for years. Many people would view this underfunding as a deliberate policy as it’s obviously caused problems in terms of staffing and efficiency. This has led to people joining private healthcare schemes and calls for parts of the NHS to be privatised. Here, capitalist concerns will simply cherry pick the most profitable sevices.

Despite these many failings, spare a thought for those who suffer from diabetes across the Irish Sea in Éire. For in the general Limerick area the waiting time for a routine diabetes appointment is five years! (For those who don’t know, if diabetes – specifically type 2 diabetes – isn’t managed correctly it can lead to all sorts of complications. These range blindness, to amputations, to heart disease.)

The shocking information relating to waiting times was confirmed by the University Hospitals Group in a response to a query raised by Independent Councillor Elisa O’Donovan –https://www.facebook.com/elisaodonovanlimerick/ Councillor O’Donnovan, who represents Limerick City West, described these delays as ‘unacceptable’ and called for more ‘staff and resources living with this chronic condition.’

The problem is alleviated slightly as local GPs can perform blood sugar tests over the long term. They can also presciribe medication. However, it’s absolutely essential that new patients get specialist advice that a GP can’t provide. New patients also need to meet dieticians & may need specialised tests.

We agree with Councillor O’Donnovan’s comments about the unacceptability of the five-year waiting list. We also support her call for more staff & resources. However, the National Liberal Party feels that there’s a deeper problem here, which touches every corner of the British Isles. We feel that more urban, sedate lifestyles and inorganic diets – where many folks appear to live on junk food and sugary drinks – have played an important part.

Indeed, as the introduction to our recent Liberty & Nation debate – http://nationalliberal.org/liberty-nation-debate-3 – noted ‘we feel that there’s a lot of merit in the old saying ‘you are what you eat.’

We’d prefer a more rooted, organic and decentralised way of life. We also believe that ‘Small is Beautiful’ – thus we support ‘small government’, regionalism, localism, food sovereignty, sustainability and selfsufficiency.’

Our introduction also asked ‘how ordinary working folks could afford organic food & how the power and influence of the big agricultural companies would be delt with.’

These are huge questions when it comes to the health of any nation – and we acknowledge that it’ll be impossible to tackle them overnight. However, we hope to both examine these questions & provide answers in the future
articles.

• WE WOULD also recommend reading the following in conjunction with the above article: News From Nowhere – Poverty & Homelessness in Britain & Éire http://nationalliberal.org/news-from-nowherepoverty-
homelessness-in-britain-eire

• ALSO CHECK OUT Facebook/National Liberals https://www.facebook.com/groups/52739504313/

REGULAR READERS will know that the Greater London Authority (GLA) elections would have been done and dusted by now. Originally scheduled this May, Covid-19 has seen them been postponed to May 2021.  Whilst this is unfortunate, it has allowed our friends & comrades of the National Liberal Party – who were intending to stand under the banner of Self-Determination For All! – to continue organising for the election.

As we’ve previously noted in issue 2 of Nation – the Newsletter of Nations without States – fighting elections is just part of our strategy to ensure that everyone has the right to nationhood & to decide how they’re governed.

Briefly, this strategy also includes:

• Building the infrastructure of an alternative mass media of news and entertainment. Here we’ve made a couple of small steps in the right direction with the publication of Nation and our street paper Freedom, and the establishment of our Facebook site
https://www.facebook.com/groups/184919468292372

• Building both a cultural and counter-cultural movement. This is designed to provide positive alternatives – especially for our youth – to globalism and modern consumer culture, which is designed to reduce everybody to the lowest common level by abolishing all inherited cultures and identities.

• Building a social support network. It is hoped that such a network could provide help, solidarity and humanitarian aid for our peoples both here and abroad.

In respect of elections, Nations without States would encourage self-determinists to vote for the National Liberal Party – NLP – at all elections (but especially at the forthcoming GLA elections).  We believe that their idea of engaging with various self-determinists will create a whole new voting demographic.

With the above in mind, we’d appeal to all Andalusians who’re living in or near London to contact the NLP at natliberal@aol.com as soon as possible.  If you’re living and/or working in Greater London you’re eligible to stand for election.  Those living outside of Greater London can help out via fund raising, leafletting & social media.

But who – or what – are the Andalusians?  For those who don’t know, Andalusia is one of the 17 autonomous communities that make up Spain.  (Spain is a decentralised unitary state which has devolved some powers to these communities.)

Andalucia is located south of the Iberian Peninsula.  It’s bounded by the autonomous communities of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha to the north & Murcia to the east, the Mediterranean Sea to the southeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest & Portugal to the West.

There has long been a political current towards Andalusian nationalism – sometimes called Andalusian regionalism – or Andalucismo in Spanish.  Blas Infante Pérez de Vargas (1885 – 1936) is regarded as the founder of Andalusian nationalism.  He initiated an assembly in 1913 which adopted a charter based on the autonomist Constitución Federal de Antequera, which was written in 1883 during the First Spanish Republic.  Blas Infante also designed the current flag and emblem of Andalusia.

Local self-determinists regard Andalucia as a nation, with its own cultural identity.  Some want complete independence from Spain.

Nations without States is – along with our friends & comrades in the National Liberal Party – interested in all forms of Self-Determination.  We’d therefore like to hear from any Andalucians living in the UK (generally) and London (specifically).

Unfortunately – especially in respect of the forthcoming GLA elections – there doesn’t seem to be any figures relating to Andalucians living in London.  Our guess is that they’ll simply be recorded as ‘Spanish’.  With this in mind, the 2001 UK Census found that Kensington, Regents Park & Chelsea areas of West London had the highest number of Spanish-born residents.  Also, according to a 2014 report by the Local Area Research & Intelligence Association  –  https://laria.org.uk/2014/08/map-reveals-most-common-second-languages-in-london-boroughs/ – Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the London Borough of Southwark in South London.

The question is how many of these ‘Spanish’ residents actually view themselves as Andalusian & desire Self-Determination for Andulusia?  Therefore, if there are any Andalucians out there who’d like to promote their cause at the highest level in London, please e-mail the National liberal Party at natliberal@aol.com as soon as possible.

• ALSO Check out:

From The Liberty Wall – Nations without States – Calling All Aborigines, Aché, Ainu & Ahwazi People …  http://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-nations-without-sates-calling-all-aborigines-ache-ainu-ahwazi-people

From The Liberty Wall – Nations without States – Calling All Åland Islanders Living In London …  https://nationalliberal.org/from-the-liberty-wall-–-nations-without-states-–-calling-all-aland-islanders-living-in-london

EVERYONE KNOWS that the economy is a vital – almost central – element to life. Indeed, for some people, the need to make ‘money’ represents the very core of their outlook on life. Everyone talks about the economy and economics, but we’d hazard a guess that not many people really know much about economics – or indeed, how the economy works. Even less will know what economic system National Liberals favour.

To provide answers to a very complex subject matter, issue 1 of New Horizon – the online ideological magazine of the National Liberal Party – decided to produce a series of ‘short and sweet’ articles. The first of these articles, which describes the varied ideological influences, is reproduced below.

ECONOMICS Part 1 – The Economic Roots and influences of National Liberalism
.

William Morris (left) was an English architect, furniture & textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and Guild Socialist. Lord Rosebery (right) called for Britain to become (and Britons to be part of) a ‘great property-owning democracy’. Both men have influenced the economic ideas of National Liberalism.

SOME PEOPLE reading this issue of
New Horizon will have already heard of the National Liberal Party. Those that have may have a fair idea from our name what our (political) ideological roots are. Indeed, some folks may even know about a few of our policies. However, it’s probably a safe bet that not many would be aware of what economic ideas influence and guide the NLP!

Most people instinctively know that there is something drastically wrong with our economy. After all, why do we always seem to have endless cycles of boom and bust? However, trying to explain how the entire economic system works in plain and simple terms is another matter!

Therefore, we’ve deliberately kept this article short and sweet. Our intention is to produce a series of articles on the economy that will eventually form a ‘blueprint’ on how to get Britain back to work. Firstly, however, we need to trace the economic roots of National Liberalism.

IDEOLOGICAL ROOTS?

THE National Liberal Party is rightly proud if its ideological roots. As many readers may know, they largely stem from the ideas of those who formed the Liberal Nationals (LN) headed by Sir John Simon in the early 1930s.

According to David Dutton’s book Liberals in schism – A history of the National Liberal Party, an early form of economic nationalism was the driving force behind the formation of the Liberal Nationals. He noted:

‘In 1930s Britain the Parliamentary Liberal Party was divided over the measures they believed were required to govern a Britain rocked by a world depression. A minority (ultimately coalescing under the LN banner – Ed) had come to believe that protectionist measures, contrary to Liberal dogma in favour of Free Trade, were now necessary to save British workers jobs.’

The NLP’s political roots are also unique in that they represent a combination of two classical ideological trends: Nationalism and Liberalism. This fusion of nationalism and liberalism means that we give gave equal weight to ‘national questions’ (concerning all of the nations and peoples of the British Isles and in principal, beyond) as we do to ‘liberal questions’ concerning the individual.

BEYOND CAPITALISM & COMMUNISM?

This fusion of nationalism and liberalism provides us with a general position that can be best summed up as being ‘Neither Left nor Right – Neither Capitalist nor Communist.’

It’s probably easy to envisage how one can take a political position that’s ‘Neither Left nor Right.’ For instance, some subjects – like Britain’s membership of the EU and our involvement in foreign military adventures – clearly transcend the traditional ‘left/right’ political divide.

It is not so easy to see how one can advocate an economic idea that’s ‘Neither Capitalist nor Communist’? Many readers might assume that capitalism and communism are the only two economic options that have ever been advocated? Surely they’re the only two systems that have ever been tried? Indeed, can there be some sort of ‘Third (or any) Way’ that goes beyond capitalism and communism?

To answer these questions it may be best to look first at the economic ideas that influence and guide those involved with the NLP.

VARIED INFLUENCES

Some of these influences – and the people who have promoted them – include, the liberal national interpretation of classical liberal free trade, the progressive yet pragmatic Liberal National party approach to labour relations and economic affairs e.g. Earnest Brown’s tenure as Minister for Labour or even earlier, Lord Rosebery’s call for Britain to become (and Britons to be part of) a ‘great property-owning democracy’. Then there are ‘visionary’ ideas such as the Distributism of GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, monetary reform ideas (including elements of Social Credit), even some early socialists such as Kier Hardie and Bob Blatchford and Guild Socialism (as advocated by the likes of William Morris, GDH Cole and Arthur Penty). The ideas of the Co-operative movement, the Chartists and Levellers and support for small businesses and shopkeepers, and some libertarian economists, are also of interest.

Therefore, it could be said that our economic ideological roots represent a synthesis of various radical, free-thinking ideas that seek to offer a genuine alternative to orthodox capitalist and socialist (or communist) solutions.

In future issues of New Horizon we’ll take an-depth look at all of these ideas – and the people associated with them. More importantly, we’ll also look at how they relate to modern day conditions, look at some of our distinctive economic policies, how we can get the economy back on the straight and narrow including how we can get Britons, especially our young, back to work via apprenticeships and limited forms of protectionism.

• ALSO Check out:

Build New Horizon! http://nationalliberal.org/build-new-horizon

New Horizon – Head & Heart http://nationalliberal.org/new-horizon-head-heart

New Horizon – National Liberalism In Action – Civil Liberties http://nationalliberal.org/new-horizon-–-national-liberalism-in-action-–-civil-liberties

New Horizon – National Liberalism In Action – The Nature of Democracy
http://nationalliberal.org/new-horizon-–-national-liberalism-in-action-the-nature-of-democracy

New Horizon – Ecology: The Silent Fourth Pillar of National Liberalism https://nationalliberal.org/ecology-the-silent-fourth-pillar-of-national-liberalism

NHS workers have gone from Hero to Zero for simply asking for a pay rise. National Liberal Trade Unionists - NLTU – believe that the NHS is our ‘National Pride’. As such, it needs massive & sustained government investment. This needs to target both infrastructure, recruitment & pay and working conditions for existing staff. This could be achieved by introducing a system of Sovereign Money as opposed to borrowing from private banks. Under the current financial system we’d be drowning in debtbased interest payments forever and a day. Here the only winners will be the banksters. Sovereign Money is where the money supply is controlled by the nation & is issued free of charge.

HOW DO YOU go from hero to zero in a single step? That’s easy – just ask for a pay rise! For that’s the extraordinary position thousands of NHS workers find themselves in after they held a massive demonstration in London on Saturday to protest against their exclusion from a recent public sector pay rise announcement.

The big London demonstration – as well as smaller ones held throughout the rest of England, Scotland, Ulster & Wales – were organised by Nurses United (1).

Nurses United describes itself as a ‘grassroots network of Frontline Nurses for Frontline Nurses.’ And like ourselves, Nurses United regard the NHS as our ‘National Pride.’ Indeed, it has pledged to ‘protect it and fight for a national service that is publicly owned, provided and that prioritises the care and safety of us all.’

In London, the ‘flagship march’ began at St. James’s Park, passing along Whithall before ending up at Parliament Square. It was the second demonstration in support of NHS workers to be held within the last few days in the capital. Over 1,5000 marched on Downing Street from St Thomas’ Hospital last Wednesday.

The union Unite – which has around 100.000 members in the health service – said that NHS staff were angry, discontent and frustrated at being overlooked for a pay rise.

The union noted that NHS staff have ‘seen their pay cut by 20 per cent in real terms – and no amount of Thursday evening clapping and warm ministerial words can compensate for this dramatic loss in income.

Poor rates of pay have contributed to the estimated 100,000 vacancies in the NHS and ensuing ‘recruitment and retention’ crisis.

We remain in the middle of a gruelling battle against Covid-19, and are facing a second wave, yet still we have to struggle to afford the basics.’

The reference to ‘Thursday evening clapping’ is a nod to the UK-wide Clap for Our Carers (2) campaign, which took place every Thursday at 8pm between March 26th and May 28th this year. Although it was a well-meaning campaign, it was – sadly – ultimately meaningless. Indeed, many ‘NHS Heroes’ claimed that it was an empty gesture, especially as the NHS faced budget cuts & severe shortages of equipment (3 & 4). This was particulary so as all manner of politicians – desperate for a photo opportunity – clapped their hearts out.

So what happens next? We National Liberal Trade Unionists – NLTU – believe that Boris Johnson & Co. will continue to praise the NHS to the heavens, especially in respect of Covid-19. In the meantime, NHS workers will have to content themselves by whistling Dixie when it comes to anything like a worthwhile pay rise.

Constantly praising the NHS will not change anything. Nor will another outbreak of Thusday evening clapping. And referring to NHS workers as ‘Heroes’ does not pay the bills.

So how do we turn the situation around?

First of all, we need to recognise that things are not going to change overnight. Years of underfunding have left the NHS in a terrible state. However, we National Liberal Trade Unionists – NLTU – believe that there needs to be massive & sustained government investment in the NHS. It needs to target both infrastucture as well as staff pay & working conditions.

Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer (5) may well go on some form of spending spree – for a Tory he’s opened the purse strings more often than many would would have expected. But under the current financial system we’d be drowning in debt-based interest payments forever and a day. Here the only winners will be the banksters.

The solution, however, is very simple – and that’s to introduce a system of Sovereign Money (6-7) as opposed to borrowing from private banks. Unfortunately, this is something that none of the establishment pro-capitalist parties would ever contemplate.

Despite this, the NLTU proposes that nation should control its own money supply which should be issued free of charge. Thus Sovereign Money should be issued as and when needed to help with NHS recruitment, pay & the upgrading/expanding of NHS infrastructure.

The NHS has recruited and trained people for years. They can be retained if they’re paid good wages. We know how to build hospitals, health centres and other infrstucture needed by the NHS. Money is man-made. As such, it’s impossible to ‘run out’ of money. Money isn’t some form of natural resource that we could run out of at any time. Therefore it should be used to benefit our nation and our people – such as a properly funded and resourced health care system.

(1) https://www.nursesunited.org.uk/

(2) https://clapforourcarers.co.uk/

(3) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/19/nhs-workers-dont-want-applause-they-want-ppe

(4) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/23/uk-key-workers-ppe-ministers-clapping-protect-nhs

(5) http://nationalliberal.org/britain%e2%80%99s-reactionary-racists-react

(6) https://sovereignmoney.site/what-is-sovereign-money

(7) https://positivemoney.org/our-proposals/sovereign-money-introduction/

• THE NATIONAL LIBERAL TRADE UNIONISTS – NLTU – would like to hear from any NHS workers who could provide us with up-to-date information concerning pay & working conditions in their local area. Contact us at natliberal@aol.com or via Facebook/National Liberal Trade Unionists

We’re passionate supporters of the National Health Service and believe that a huge debt is owed to Ernest Brown (1881-1962). Devon-born Brown was the Liberal National/National Liberal Minister for Health from 1941-1943 in the National Government of Ramsay McDonald. (Brown was also leader of the Liberal National Party from 1940 to 1945.) As Health Minister he commissioned the Beveridge Report which ultimately led to the foundation of the welfare state in the UK, with the NHS being one of its most important elements.