After years hidden away, Oldham’s memorial to six local volunteers who died fighting fascism in the Spanish civil war has been restored to public view, marking both a victory for campaigners and a renewed tribute to the town’s proud International Brigade heritage, says ROB HARGREAVES
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‘It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt’
Ruth Hunt talks to GP Dr ANDY KOVAC about how NHS fragmentation and the government’s obsession with gimmicks are having a devastating impact on patient care
While pretending to seek peace, Europe is heading toward a collision course with Russia – using security guarantees, troop deployments, expropriation and censorship as tools, writes SEVIM DAGDELEN
Alba party leader KENNY MacASKILL makes some suggestions on how to save our pubs and reduce irresponsible drinking
The catastrophe unfolding in Gaza – where Palestinians are freezing to death in tents – is not a natural disaster but a calculated outcome of Israel’s ongoing blockade, aid restrictions and continued violence, argues CLAUDIA WEBBE
Opinion polls point to electoral collapse, parliamentary rebellion and a looming leadership challenge as Starmer’s Labour haemorrhages working-class support and the far right exploits the vacuum left by a hollowed-out party, says NICK WRIGHT
The long-term effects of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange mean that the impact of war lasts well beyond a ceasefire
TORY meddling in the NHS has turned the much-loved national treasure into an acronym-spouting, constantly fracturing, overly bureaucratic, confusing mess, which is prone to systemic failures.
For Dr Andy Kovach* who is a practising GP, the top-down reorganisation of the NHS in 2012 by the then coalition government is a big part of the problem: “Since the controversial Health and Social Care Act 2012, the NHS in England has now become a bewildering and disjointed network of public, semi-public, semi-private, private and third-sector providers,” he says.
The main thrust of the Act was to abolish primary care trusts and strategic health authorities and instead transfer responsibility and funds away from the government on to clinical commissioning groups which have to judge which provider would receive the contract for a service.
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