Dear Editor
Over seventy years ago the people of the UK decided the NHS was a necessary public service to be owned by the public and to be publicly funded.
Many struggles tok place to maintain this principle. Today, people take great pride in this social way of organisation. We owe a great debt to all those past and present who foresee the future.
From January to May 2020 the population has taken a hammering from the coronavirus.
In order for people to ‘stay at home’ and not go to work unless they were key workers, a Government scheme was launched to pay companies money for up to 60 – 80% of their employees wages. At best this was approximately a 25% reduction in income for most people.
As we know the kindness and generosity to others has been amazing, as with the recent recalling of the end of World War II, when the prevailing mood at that time in 1945 was that we, the people, will make changes in how our things are run and organised for the benefit of all.
Today, the people are are realising that the kind of society that has been created over this past century is a massive apology for living.
The daily chase to work on packed buses,trams and railways or packed in traffic jams of thousands – whatever transport is used, it eats up eveyone’s time, pollutes the air and dmages the climate. This is not living. There must be changes.
More and more people whilst having to deal with the coronavirus have also been aware that things have to change, making our lives more in harmony with the world and not in the interests of money makers and investors.
People have seen that investors control which industries operate, whom they employ and under what conditions – be that full time working, flexi work or zero hour contracts – all of these are decided by the companies.
Wealthy investors’ ownership of major parts of the economy as ‘theirs’ cannot be justified in any way.
As happened with the formation of the NHS, rail buses and trams must be brought into public ownership. Now people are recognising how indispensible the NHS is, so too are rail, buses and trams – they are an essential part of normal society, not an investment for greedy individuals.
During this lockdown major lessons have been understood, people appreciating a calmer environment with less traffic, cleaner air and being able to hear the birds sing.
Major changes have been taking place in our daily lives. At this moment in time working people are in great danger, even worse than the last six years of austerity.
Even the subsidy to wages that the government borrowed for the employers to hand out will be clawed back from the working people: in taxes, longer hours, cuts in services and raised prices.
These same working people will ‘pay back’ the investors and gamblers, banks and city corporations who will fight with all their guile and strength to recoup every penny of their wealth – and continue to amass fortunes and control the lives of the population.
Tony Delahoy
Silverknowes Gardens
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