Healthcare may cure us, but Atos make us sick!

Probably one of the worst measures being pushed forward by the Con Dems, is attacking people on disability benefits and forcing them to look for work. In typical privateering style, one nasty piece of work (ie the Con Dems) have got the DWP to contract out this nasty piece of work to a private company called Atos. So far, Atos' claim to fame has been to force people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer and heart failure to look for work :/ (Perhaps it's just as well Atos weren't around in 1666, or the entire population of Eyam would have been deemed 'fit for work'! And none of this staying within the town to stop the plague from spreading, they would have to travel to look for work!)

In and of itself, this is a cold-blooded act by an evil Tory government hell bent on trampling on basic human rights, let alone workers' rights. But the repercussions of this move go further still. Such measures paint a false picture of disabled people as being lazy, unproductive 'drains on society' - a lie backed up by endless media brainwash designed to prop up this capitalist atrocity, with newspaper reports stating that only 6% of Incapacity Benefit claimants are 'genuine'. What they really mean is that very few people who need the benefits they deserve, are actually entitled to them under this regime :(

No wonder, then, people with disabilities, including those who are looking for work (not easy at the moment!), are suffering increasing amounts of prejudice and discrimination. This means that people who have been forced off (the already meagre) Incapacity Benefit are far less likely to actually find work, and far more likely to end up staying on the (even more stingy) Jobseekers Allowance.

A heavy dose of hypocrisy also applies. There have been cases of people laid off from work due to ill health, only to be told by Atos that they are "perfectly fit for work". This has additional repercussions when it comes to claiming for necessary adaptations, mobility payments, and non-state related benefits like payment protection insurance. (Unemployment payment protection insurance is so ridden with loopholes that you can lose it for taking temporary work, for sucks fake :/ ). No wonder there is a campaign to have Atos sacked - such as the Sack Atos online petition, which I urge readers to sign!

Atos Healthcare (sic) is a division of Atos Origin, an IT company. So it's hardly surprising their staff are mostly number-crunchers, making assessments on a 'points system' based on questions. Following a policy which seems to be created by mad social-scientists, who seem hell-bent on pushing sick people into work and seeing who survives. Well, since they love medical tests so much, maybe the Con Dems and the bosses of Atos should volunteer as guinea pigs for Huntingdon Life Science, and take the place of a few poor animals, in having medical experiments carried out on them :P

Certainly, you can't call these people doctors. The real role of doctors is to rid us of the parasites, such as viruses and (unfriendly) bacteria which make us ill.

Meanwhile, the role of socialists is to rid us of parasites (such as the Con Dems and the Atos bosses) who make us sick !!!

Doctorin' the job description

Like most workers, doctors are certainly being hammered by this government. Plans to force them to work longer hours and open at weekends and evenings, while at the same wanting local doctors' surgeries to merge into 'super clinics', will have a negative impact on the welfare of both doctors and, in many cases, the quality of care they can give their patients.

Then there's plans to force doctors to ride roughshod over the doctor-patient confidentiality rule, by making them report any suspected knife crime. I don't like knife crime (nor do I know anybody who does!), but I feel the abandoning of doctor-patient confidentiality is the start of a dangerous slippery slope. For starters, it would make it easier for right-wingers to reverse the "Gillick ruling" which allows people under 18 to get contraception without parental consent; removing this would put many young people off getting contraception, leading to a rise in teenage pregnancies and STD infections among young people. And where would it stop; would doctors have to inform employers and insurance companies when a person is diagnosed with a condition (eg asthma or diabetes), potentially leading to unfair discrimination? Or report injuries sustained during consensual BDSM activity? Or cannabis use? Or injuries sustained while walking on the grass?

But now it's really getting stupid. Not content with press-ganging doctors to help them in their crusade to reduce the number of people on incapacity benefit, health secretary Alan Johnson now want doctors to clamp down in people in work who get ill and need a doctors' sick note while they recover at home (BBC News: Bid to tackle 'sick-note culture'). According to the report, 'He has urged GPs to issue "well notes" setting out what tasks a worker can perform instead of certificates automatically signing them off.' Oh, so as well as acting as policemen, doctors are now expected to act as career advisers as well ?!?

If the government really wants workers to perform what tasks we can, they can take some serious action against employers who still refuse to employ people with disabilities which do not affect their core job, and remove all exemptions from the Disability Discrimination Act (a number of employers are still exempt, eg the military). And they can sort out the problem of insurers refusing to insure people with some disabilities to work in certain industries, such as construction. But this would mean taking on the capitalist Establishment. Instead, they seem hell-bent on hammering working class people, whether in work or on benefits.

Well, if you ask me, the government are onviously unfit to do their job. But I dunno what jobs the doctors would find Brown, Johnson, etc fit to do. Personally, I don't even think they'd be fit to shovel $#!t !!!!

Establishment parties' race to the gutter

As the tories attack first Incapacity Benefit claimants and then job seekers (BBC News: Tories plan 'work for benefits'), I am reminded of the Tory government of the 1980s into the mid 1990s. Such right-wing attacks on working class people who have been failed by the capitalist system, were and are the true face of the Conservatives - despite Cameron's attempts to give the Tory party an image make-over.

Of course, New Labour have continued such attacks - including attacks on incapacity benefit - with gusto. Little wonder, then, New Labour's only option is to attack the Tories for 'plagiarising' their policies. (A 'plagiarism' on both their houses, if you ask me :-P )

So far, the Lib Dems have taken a line to the left of both the Tories and Labour (piss easy!), describing the Tory proposals as "hollow rhetoric designed to sound tough rather than helping people back to work". So far so good, although it will be very interesting to see how the Lib Dems' policies develop, now Nick Clegg (a moderniser) is in charge. I see Clegg has hired the man who ran Thatcher's advertising campaign in the 1987 election (Clegg hires Thatcher campaign man); OK, so it's not quite on a par with inviting Thatcher to Downing Street and discussing policy with her over dinner, but it still ain't a good omen!

To overcome the right-wing attacks on us by all the Establishment parties, we need a real alternative. Thankfully, we've still got one. Respect hasn't gone away, and is once again coming up fighting. We are standing a candidate in a Preston council by-election in February (Socialist Worker: Join the Respect campaign in key Preston council by-election). I urge all readers who can, to get involved in this campaign - a victory, or at least a good showing for Respect, in this by-election, will help us immensely when it comes to the main council elections in May, and the general election in a couple of years time.