Fair, free and effective: Green Party proposals for dental care

Walking around Lambeth and Vauxhall I spot signs everywhere for dentists advertising that they accept NHS patients but the fact is that getting hold of a dentist and one who will carry out the necessary work on the NHS is very difficult as the Labour government, in common with many other services, has created what is effectively a two tier dental service. This has led to a real deterioration in dental health and especially among poorer people. The Greens launched the policy below last week and it is a genuinely radical one. It is not commonly known but attending a dentist on a regular basis is important for detecting oral cancer and other conditions which if left untreated can be very serious indeed.

Fair, free and effective: Green Party proposals for the dental health service

Last week the Green Party launched a dental health policy which the Greens believe will enjoy widespread public support and boost the party'shopes of a general election breakthrough.

The Greens are committed to the founding principles of the NHS - including free dental healthcare, which they say could be provided for an extra £1.8 billion a year.

A party spokesperson said, "£1.8 billion a year is a trifling sum for a huge improvement in Britain's dental health service. Everyone who wants one should have access to an NHS dentist, and we must end the scandal of British children in the twenty-first century suffering the pain and misery that come with poor teeth."

The Greens dismiss water fluoridation as a "cheap, tacky, sticking plaster solution with side-effects." They say that "mass medication of doubtful efficacy and potential side-effects is no substitute for a proper dental healthcare strategy. We need to be teaching new parents how to look after their toddlers' teeth, and teaching young children from nursery onwards all about how to look after their own teeth properly.

"And in addition, we need everyone to have access to the right professional support, which means guaranteeing free access to an NHS dentist for everyone who wants it."

Full copies of the briefing are now available at www.greenparty.org.uk/reports



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Summary of Fair, free and effective: Green Party proposals for the dental health service



1. Currently, only half the UK population is provided with free dental healthcare. NHS dentistry charges are a regressive tax: they hit the poor hardest and prevent many from accessing dental care.

2. Access to dentists should not depend on where you live. But getting access to an NHS dentist is difficult and there is wide variation across the country:

Between 55% and 60% of NHS practices are not taking new NHS patients. Some Primary Care Trusts have no NHS dentists taking on new patients. Most areas have around 55 dentists per 100,000 people. But some have as few as 25, while others have over 100.

3. Less than half of the UK adult population and only around two thirds of children are visiting NHS dentists. The percentage of children who have visited NHS dentists within the previous 24 months has fallen in recent years - a worrying sign.

4. Some areas have opted for the addition of fluoridation chemicals to tap water in a bid improve dental health. The Green Party says:

· The use of fluoridated water to improve dental health is not a viable solution - it's more like "sticking plaster with side effects".

· Any (slight) benefit from fluoride in drinking water has to be weighed against the increased risk of osteosarcoma and dental fluorosis.

· Mass medication may breach the European Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine - it's unethical to medicate people without their consent.

· The use of fluoridation demonstrates a failure to tackle the underlying problems of dental health provision.

5. The Green Party wants:

· Free basic dental care available to all.

· Everyone to have access to an NHS dentist if they want one.

· An end to fluoridation of our tap water.

· A comprehensive dental health strategy including proper education for children and their parents.

6. Assuming that some people will wish to remain private, to provide free dental care to 75% of the population would only cost the NHS an extra £1.8 billion a year.

Nick Clegg comes out as a reactionary

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7415708/Nick-Clegg-how-Margaret-Thatcher-inspires-me.html

Yes, it has finally happened, Nick Clegg has decided to come out of the closet as a Tory ally and fan of Margaret Thatcher. In this piece in the Torygraph - clearly designed to win Tory votes in Middle England, Clegg admits to his admiration of Margaret Thatcher. No more two faces Clegg, this is a clarion call to voters to vote Yellow and get Blue. Well he has always been one of the big supporters of the Orange Book, those Lib Dems who have been driving the party in a neo-liberal as opposed to Liberal direction.

Recently I heard that the Tory-Lib Dem alliance which runs Birmingham Council and which recently announced the cutting of 2,000 jobs there, call themselves "The Progressive Alliance". Well if that is progressive, then I am an alien. The devaluation of political language and terminology began, of course, with Thatcher who called herself and her government's policies "radical". They were anything but and "19th century reactionary" would have been more apt.For they were a retun to the laissez faire economic and political ideology of 19th century Toryism.

I wonder what Clegg and the Lib Dems think of the generations of unemployed produced by Thatcher's government? Of her destruction of manufacturing industry in this country which produced the current situation of being totally reliant on the services industries and finance? She also created the notion of there being no such thing as society and the resultant social breakdown and poverty, which we see in the most unequal country in Europe. These are all the fruits of Thatcher and the half baked ideology which she spawned and which has produced our current mess also. To idealise such a destructive and pernicious politician is nothing short of criminal and shows the bankruptcy of Liberal Democrat thinking.

Clegg also refers to the destruction of the unions. It is because of having the weakest union movement in Europe, held back by Thatcher's anti trade union laws that UK workers have the longest hours in the EU, the least number of holidays and have virtually no power to call a strike or defend their working conditions from ruthless employers. It is clear now that Clegg is prepared to jump into bed with the Tories after the election and will not even be asking for a hot water bottle to protect the country against the deep economic freeze which they will preside over. As Thatcher presidede over years of unemployement and a lost generation of young people and workers, so Clegg will collaborate with Cameron's death by a thousand cuts. A vote for Lib Dems is a vote for reaction - blue in tooth and claw.

Greens will campaign for more jobs and more public spending and against another generation of young people sacrificed on the high altar of the market.

Don't mention the war!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/11/voters-elite-afghanistan-election-war

Seamus Milne sums it up well. The Greens are one of the few parties which have a realistic policy on this war - that it is a disaster. At every hustings I attend, I will be reminding them that the wars abroad and the UK's imperial adventures are costing them local hospitals, cuts in social care, education and everything else. Not to mention the thousands of lives both here and in Afghanistan blighted forever by it. The madness has to stop but the three main neo-liberal parties have joined the party at Bedlam. As I said to someone recently, you will know when British withdrawal is imminent - when the Lib Dems come out against the war.

Support the world's largest Marine Protected Area around the Chagos Islands

I have signed this petition and hope that others will also. I really hope that the UK government will do the right thing on this as it would be a real breakthrough for the marine environment.

Dear friends,


This Friday, the UK government could make history by creating the world’s largest Marine Protected Area around the Chagos Islands.

Our ocean ecosystems are literally dying under pressure from mass, uncontrolled commercial fishing and pollution. This d ecision could start to turn the tide. But commercial fishing companies are opposing the move, putting short term profits ahead of all sense. We can’t let that happen -- already, over 90% of big fish like tuna and marlin are gone.

Together, let’s send the UK government a tidal wave of global public support urging them to be bold and protect oceans from exploitation. Sign the petition below, then forward it to everyone you know. It will be delivered to Foreign Secretary David Miliband by the deadline this Friday!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_our_oceans/97.php?cl_tta_sign=e8b4f945d220206669a7c72a07662705

The reports are dire: in 38 years, our oceans could be completely fished-out, in 100 years, all coral reefs might be dead. This action alone won’t be enough to turn the tide. But it will establish a 210,000 square-mile Marine Protected Area -- bigger than the Great Barrier Reef.

To truly save the world’s oceans from collapse will require bol d political leadership and dedicated citizens taking action. In 2010, the International Year of Biodiversity, a UK decision to create the world's largest Marine Protected Area would secure a conservation legacy almost unrivalled in scale and significance. This would set a clear example to other governments around the world.

Let's drown out the voices of the commercial fishing companies, and lay the foundation for protecting our oceans for generations to come. Sign the petition below, and forward it to friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_our_oceans/97.php?cl_tta_sign=e8b4f945d220206669a7c72a07662705


With hope,

Alice, Iain, Paul, and the rest of the Avaaz team



More info:

Protect Chagos:

http://protectchagos.org/



Why is Overfishing a problem?:

http://overfishing.org/pages/why_is_overfishing_a_problem.php



World's coral reefs could disintegrate by 2100:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/feb/23/worlds-coral-reefs-disintegrate-2100

Patient Transport issues at City Hall

This morning I was at a meeting of the Transport Committee of the London Assembly and was attending as the Vice Chair of the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum. I was not on the panel giving evidence to the Transport Committee, although Nic Daw, the manager of Patient Transport Services at the London Ambulance NHS Trust was. The discussion was around the possibility of joining up all of London's various forms of transport for older and disabled people (Door to Door transport) under one telephone number and one central management, so to speak, so that instead of contacting a range of operators for various services, people could call one centre. The problems of Patient Transport are well known to me, both as a former Director of Transport for All and also as a health activist.

Nic Daw stated that London Ambulance Service now only runs 15% of patient transport contracts across London. The other contracts are run by a variety of operators, including some minicab companies. I was there to raise the issue of standards for Patient Transport in London, which is a joint demand of the Patients Forum and a variety of other organisations across the capital. Also I wanted to raise the issue of who will pay for the transport of patients to and from Polyclinics. This is a big issue, as currently the NHS (in the shape of hospital trusts) pays for transport to and from hospital appointments for those considered in clinical need. But London Councils and Transport for London pays for Dial a Ride and Taxicard to bring people, who are considered eligible, to and from appointments with GPs, dentists etc. With Polyclinics gradually replacing the role of A&E departments for many patients, the hospitals are hoping not to have to pay the transport costs. This would then be shifted on to Taxicard and Dial a Ride but there are already problems with users of Taxicard not having a sufficient number of trips on their cards and Dial a Ride being an unreliable service - as we heard in some detail today with a number of shocking peronal stories.

The representative of London Councils suggested that they are looking at the possibility of one system of eligibility for all these services - meaning that those entitled to Dial a Ride or Taxicard would also automatically be entitled to Patient Transport. But a Board member of Transport for London stated that it would be years before a new integrated system of transport could be agreed. This could well be the case but it is about time that transport providers looked at the case for joined up transport and above all, joined up thinking on this issue.

In the interim, it is vital that the set of common standards for Patient Transport across London are adopted and  I will continue my campaign for that, along with the London Ambulance Service Patients Forum. The current shoddy and unsafe way in which many patients are transported to non-emergency  hospital appointments is simply not fit for purpose.

Those demands are here

http://greenmpforvauxhall.blogspot.com/2010/02/patient-transport-service-standards.html

Defend the right to protest

Public Meeting: Tuesday 2 March 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Support the Gaza protestors. Defend the right to protest.

Speakers include Jeremy Corbyn MP, George Galloway MP, Andrew Murray (Stop the War), Betty Hunter (Palestine Solidarity Campaign), speaker from British Muslim Initiative

Committee Room 19, House of Commons, London SW1, (St Stephens entrance, allow plenty of time to get through security). Organised by Stop the War, PSC, BMI and supported by CND. All welcome.

________________________________________
 I will be atttending this meeting tomorrow night where the recent heavy prison sentences handed down to many (mainly Muslim) demonstrators who protested outside the Israeli embassy last year over the attack on Gaza will be discussed.

Many in the anti-war and civil liberties movement believe that this is an attempt to stifle protests against the war and particularly to criminalise and terrify the Muslim community. As an Irish person who faced a lot of this in the 80s and early 90s, I am familiar with the pattern. At a recent conference in London on Irish reunification a member of an Irish organisation in Luton commented that the Irish experience was the template for what was happening now to Muslims. I suggested that Irish organisations be involved in the planned Islamophobia conference being planned for the summer by Stop the War Coalition and other organisations.

The costs of war

Well it was another busy weekend. On Friday evening I travelled down to Brighton to speak at the launch of the national party's LGBT Manifeso with Peter Tatchell, Caroline Lucas and LGBTIQ Group Chair, Phelim Mac Cafferty. Lots of people from Brighton present and will report more on that once I get the pictures and speeches etc. Afterwards I went to the new library in Brighton to celebrate LGBT History Month with a musical evening called the 'Lavender Lounge' which was packed and featured a well known lesbian performer from Brighton - whom I had never heard of - called Starr. I have to say her singing was wonderful and included songs based on the history of Brighton and various local artists etc. I crawled back to London on the last train.

On Saturday I attended the Steering Committee meeting of Stop the War Coalition which lasted for most of the day. There were reports and discussions on the war in Afghanistan and how this will impact on the general election, Islamophobia and Iraq, and finishing off with a report on the organisation's finances. During one of the breaks I was approached by someone from Lambeth Stop the War and asked to take part in a hustings on the wars which will be held in April, in the middle of the general election campaign.

I spoke about the costs of the wars and how important it was to get this point across to the public. This was agreed by many speakers. There was a very emotional moment when a grandmother from Liverpool, who is an anti-war activist broke down while addressing the meeting. She held up a photo of her grandson, who has just left for Afghanistan, and told us that several months ago she invited six of his friends to her house for tea. Of those six, three have had their legs blown off and another has had to have his hips removed. These are the real and human costs of the war, which continues to bleed the country dry, both literally and metaphorically.

We heard from local groups around the country that people are signing up to the petitions for withdrawal of troops and one example was Yeovilton, where there is a naval base and much of the local economy is dependant of defence. Even there, soldiers and military families have been signing petitions. Stop the War is going to have a list of candidates standing in this election and will be asking them for their views on the war.

We also heard that David Milliband's roadshow has been dogged by protestors - the latest one was in Hammersmith - and that even those attending the meetings were very supportive of the demonstrators outside. I made the point that although the issue of the war is in fifth place or so on the lists of issues in the opinion polls for this election - once the link is drawn with the economic impact of the war, people's perceptions soon change. I am attaching some info here from Stop the War on the Steering Committee meeting and on the costs of this futile and unwinnable war.


http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1764/27/


The Independent article on the cost of war, mentioned at the meeting by Paul from Coventry, has been on the Stop the War website since it was published last July:

Cost to Britain of war in Afghanistan: £12 billion and rising fasthttp://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1383/27/

Two articles also on the website, making similar comparisons for the US between the astronomical sums spent on war compared to public service budgets etc are:

What you can do with 30 billion dollars

http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1663/268/

VIDEO: How to spend 3 trillion dollars on war in under 3 minutes http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1627/195/