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Protesters Against NHS Privatization Occupy Westminster Bridge
Up to 2,000 UK Uncut activists and health workers join in Block the Bridge, Block the Bill demonstration
Anti-cuts campaigners and health workers have joined forces in central London in protest against the planned shakeup of the NHS.
A protester against the government's NHS changes on Westminster Bridge. Photograph: Kerim Okten/EPA More than 2,000 people staged a sit-down protest on Westminster Bridge from 1pm on Sunday to highlight the health and social care bill, which is due to go before the House of Lords this week.
The bridge, normally one of London's busiest, links St Thomas's hospital on the southern bank with the Houses of Parliament.
As Big Ben struck 1pm protesters unfurled banners and sat down, blocking the bridge in both directions as hundreds of police looked on.
UK Uncut, the anti-cuts group which organized the Block the Bridge, Block the Bill demonstration, said: "Today has brought together doctors, nurses, parents, students, unions, pensioners and children together in an unprecedented act of mass civil disobedience.
"We are occupying the bridge because the bill would be bad for the NHS, bad for patients and bad for society."
The protest drew support from people across the UK. Janet Bennett, a pensioner who had traveled down from Liverpool said: "The NHS is so important to people in this country and we need to stand up and protect it from this creeping privatization, and this is why I am here today."
Susan Secher, 53, a human resources manager from London said: "Our greatest fear is that the NHS will end up as an insurance-based two- or three-tier system … the bill is being pushed through and this is our last chance to stop it and people are becoming desperate."
Just after 2pm, protesters dressed up as medics unfurled a banner over the side of the bridge reading "Save our NHS".
Sam, a therapy radiographer from London, said: "The NHS is the greatest invention in this country's history, providing universal healthcare for all. If it is sold to private companies this will no longer be the case."
The second reading of the bill on Tuesday and Wednesday has more than 80 peers tabled to speak.
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4 Comments so far
Show AllIs Cameron really trying to move to a private insurance system? Does he think that the British people don't know what kind of system we have? Is he dumb enough to think that they are dumb enough to accept what he have?
Thank you, this is a very important post for your followers here in London.
The NHS provides vital services, and the cuts, especially in Mental Health are a real threat. We need to ensure that complementary therapies (like, in my case, transpersonal counselling) and NHS treatment work in conjunction for the benefit of the patients, who should not be forced to "go private".
http://www.maidavalecounselling.co.uk/transpersonalpsychotherapy.shtml
They are under attack because of the U.S. health insurance system. Every advanced westernized nation has a direct interest in seeing either single payer or a nationalized system go through here in the States. Europeans and Canadians have been keenly aware of this throughout our farcical health care "debate." Canadians have stated that the insurance companies are over there in their country, as well, trying to tear everything apart they worked so hard to obtain. I observed how Sarah Palin was off to Canada with her usual stuff after some of this was reported by Canadian posters. And the health insurance internet goons have been vicious in attacking U.K. as their first target - as the U.K. system was weakened, apparently, by allowed any private industry in health. If they had gone all the way, to begin with, I suppose they wouldn't be faced with the sell-outs among their own politicians. May the Goddess speed and strengthen our brothers and sisters in the U.K.! Health care is a human right! Down with health insurance companies! Health care is not a commodity!
Everytime you hear "austerity cuts" think "creeping privatization" that's all it is. If austerity was really needed the financial systems of the world would have faced them first and dramatic ones, in porportion to their responsibility for the crisis. They faced none. They celebrated and passed out bonuses. They will be the beneficiaries of these so called "austerity cuts". Their profits and control will further expand while the rest of us have been sold into bondage.