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OPEN LETTER TO JEREMY CORBYN FROM CO-CHAIRS OF KONP.
SEPTEMBER 2015
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Houses of Parliament
Open Letter to Jeremy Corbyn from Keep Our NHS Public (KONP)
Dear Mr Corbyn,
All of us in Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) offer our congratulations on your decisive victory in the Labour Party leadership election.
Although KONP is strictly non-party-political, your new role in the Labour Party is one we welcome as we are aware of your personal support for retaining our NHS as a publicly funded and provided service freely available to all who need it. We are also aware of your sponsorship of the KONP-supported NHS Reinstatement Bill which is awaiting its Second Reading in Parliament.
Your election victory is therefore a welcome injection of optimism for those of us struggling to make the case for our beloved NHS in the face of Conservative determination to dismantle and privatise it.
KONP also recognises that the Labour Party, despite its pride in having founded the NHS- and indeed improved it to a great extent when in government - introduced measures into the NHS which have undermined its financial viability, most notably through the Private Finance Initiative.
Despite all the problems created by recent governments, the fundamentally robust NHS continues to enjoy almost universal public support: a fact even the Conservatives recognise by heavily disguising their measures to undermine it.
KONP has a great deal to offer in the struggle to coordinate and strengthen the opposition to the destructive changes introduced by the Health and Social Care Act, now augmented by Simon Steven's 5 Year Plan. KONP is a coalition of many local groups across the whole country; its membership comprises health experts (medical practitioners and academics), expert health service users (representatives of various patient bodies), representatives of local health activist groups. Many KONP members have wide experience of the media in all its forms. These factors make KONP a potentially powerful lobbying group which has contributed to keeping the NHS at the top of the list of issues of public concern in these times of general anxiety about the imposition of many harsh austerity measures.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you and/or the shadow Secretary of State for Health, Heidi Alexander, the role of the NHS as a generator of public wealth and prosperity (rather than a drain on public resources). We could discuss the unacceptable (undemocratic) use of public taxation to provide private profit to private providers of health care, the complexity of the difficulties we now face as a result of political incompetence as well as hostile ideology and how we can best harness the undoubted support enjoyed by the NHS among the general public. The project of saving the NHS is an aspect of saving democracy itself.
We look forward to a positive response.
Best wishes to you and your colleagues in government opposition,
John Lipetz and Sue Richards Co-chairs of KONP
return to events & news page
OPEN LETTER TO JEREMY CORBYN FROM CO-CHAIRS OF KONP.
SEPTEMBER 2015
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Houses of Parliament
Open Letter to Jeremy Corbyn from Keep Our NHS Public (KONP)
Dear Mr Corbyn,
All of us in Keep Our NHS Public (KONP) offer our congratulations on your decisive victory in the Labour Party leadership election.
Although KONP is strictly non-party-political, your new role in the Labour Party is one we welcome as we are aware of your personal support for retaining our NHS as a publicly funded and provided service freely available to all who need it. We are also aware of your sponsorship of the KONP-supported NHS Reinstatement Bill which is awaiting its Second Reading in Parliament.
Your election victory is therefore a welcome injection of optimism for those of us struggling to make the case for our beloved NHS in the face of Conservative determination to dismantle and privatise it.
KONP also recognises that the Labour Party, despite its pride in having founded the NHS- and indeed improved it to a great extent when in government - introduced measures into the NHS which have undermined its financial viability, most notably through the Private Finance Initiative.
Despite all the problems created by recent governments, the fundamentally robust NHS continues to enjoy almost universal public support: a fact even the Conservatives recognise by heavily disguising their measures to undermine it.
KONP has a great deal to offer in the struggle to coordinate and strengthen the opposition to the destructive changes introduced by the Health and Social Care Act, now augmented by Simon Steven's 5 Year Plan. KONP is a coalition of many local groups across the whole country; its membership comprises health experts (medical practitioners and academics), expert health service users (representatives of various patient bodies), representatives of local health activist groups. Many KONP members have wide experience of the media in all its forms. These factors make KONP a potentially powerful lobbying group which has contributed to keeping the NHS at the top of the list of issues of public concern in these times of general anxiety about the imposition of many harsh austerity measures.
We would welcome the opportunity to discuss with you and/or the shadow Secretary of State for Health, Heidi Alexander, the role of the NHS as a generator of public wealth and prosperity (rather than a drain on public resources). We could discuss the unacceptable (undemocratic) use of public taxation to provide private profit to private providers of health care, the complexity of the difficulties we now face as a result of political incompetence as well as hostile ideology and how we can best harness the undoubted support enjoyed by the NHS among the general public. The project of saving the NHS is an aspect of saving democracy itself.
We look forward to a positive response.
Best wishes to you and your colleagues in government opposition,
John Lipetz and Sue Richards Co-chairs of KONP