The National Liberal Recruitment campaign is showcasing five Key political issues and samples a footnote policy in each. The areas covered are the National Health Service, Civil Liberties, Democracy, Environment and the Economy. A leaflet explaining our position can be obtained here http://nationalliberal.org/?page_id=902. We will share with you our policies on key issues over the coming days.

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National Health Service:

The NHS is a great British institution. It aims to provide the best medical care available at the point of need rather than any ability to purchase (or insure for) it privately) as in the USA. Some services are so public and so vital that they need to remain within the public rather than private sector e.g. Armed Forces, Police services AND the NHS. We all know it has its faults, its bureaucracy, top heavy management, waste etc (see one of our poets take on it below). We still believe however that it must remain one of our top National Priorities and reformed, rather than downgraded. Funding should not be a problem, the past and present Government find plenty of money to pay for countless military adventures e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. We would withdraw from those conflicts, and no doubt some new ones on the horizon, and take a Swiss (neutral) rather than US (gung ho) approach.

Of course, many Government’s have promised NHS reform and many have failed. The latest attempt (for England) will come before a vote in Parliament this coming Tuesday 6th.

Codified in law

We believe that it should be reaffirmed, in law, that the NHS is the preferred option for the provision of health services, but the bill proposes to scrap the Secretary of State’s legal duty to provide a health service! Various other proposals will make it more likely that private health care will ‘eat away’ at the NHS.

The campaigning group 38 Degrees raised a petition against it, commissioned an independent legal report see https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/nhs-legal-advice and have now organised an e-mail campaign to MP’s urging them to vote against these proposals and they want help. We urge you to support it by logging onto https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/threat-to-English-NHS. We can’t allow the NHS to broken down and privatised!

Campaign against dropping the Government’s duty to provide health services (NHS) by logging onto https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/threat-to-English-NHS

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NHS IS NOT DOING WELL

NHS is not doing well, why? because it is not putting its’ patients first.

NHS has a constitution like any others, but it’s not worth the paper it’s written on

The inhumane treatment of older people is sickening

Inflicting pain and suffering often ignored,

Patients don’t know their rights; they are coerced into giving consent

Mental health service is surely falling, making more of us ‘mental’

Praising progress in cancer and heart disease

Why more babies are stillborn?

Forced to reconcile limitless demand with limited funds-has NHS become unsustainable?

Are we to say the massive NHS machine is quite clearly out of control?

Once a world-beating organisation, now a bloated political punch bag?

The self-interested and suffocating hierarchy dictates against changes?

Political correctness gone mad – regardless of cost or effect

There are no painless answers – but a need for fundamental changes

Reduction in patient stigma, Increase in patient safety,

These should be their goals and there should be a real change in NHS ethos,

An improved system, not an Americanised NHS.

By Trisha

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As part of the recruitment campaign we have produced some new posters – here are two of them (please click on poster for a downloadable PDF). More can be copied from the resources page under ‘The Party Organisation’ tab.