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 Enfield Green Party News
Enfield Green Party deplores the announcement by Health Secretary Andrew
Lansley that the Accident & Emergency and Maternity units at Chase Farm
are to be downgraded. This decision flies in the face of public opinion and
of much medical opinion. It also negates promises made by Mr Lansley himself
and the Prime Minister before the last General Election, further damaging
public trust in politicians. It makes a mockery of the 'four tests' to be
met before any changes could go ahead - one of those tests is 'support from
the public', and the public have been virtually unanimous in their condemnation
of the proposals. The failure of the other three tests is only a little less
clear. It appears that the downgrade is driven solely by financial
considerations, arising largely from the disastrous policy of funding hospitals
through the Private Finance Initiative. The mortgaging of hospitals' futures
through PFI should end forthwith.
Enfield Green Party wholeheartedly condemns the violence, destruction and
looting carried out in the last few days in Enfield and in many other parts
of the UK. We recognize, however, that these crimes emerge from specific
social circumstances. These explain – though they do not excuse –
the crimes. To focus exclusively on the need to restore public order and
to prosecute the criminals would be to lose sight of the causes – causes
which must be addressed if we are to avoid repetitions of these appalling
events.
In the last 30 years we have seen a transformation from a society in which
people largely looked out for each other and aimed – in general –
for fairness, into one in which the pursuit of wealth and of personal
gratification are the only things that count.
We have also seen the rapid widening of the gap between rich and poor and
the creation of an underclass which can never hope to enjoy the things which
society sees as most desirable. While violence and robbery can never be condoned,
the alienation of the 'have-nots' is understandable. Less understandable
is that many of the looters have not, in fact, been members of that underclass.
That points to an even more worrying conclusion: that the disintegration
of society has reached the point where even the 'haves' see gratifying their
own selfish desires as justifiable, even at the expense of others. The only
restraint they recognise is "Can I get away with it?".
We see this moral failure in both this week’s riots – leading to
chaos on the streets – and in the banking crisis of 2008 which produced
the current recession and therefore also contributed to that chaos. It is
past time for all of us to recognize that a society based purely on self-interest
is unworthy of the name. It is destructive of morality, social cohesion,
family life and individual well-being.
We do recognize the few pieces of good news – the courage of all our
emergency services in responding to unprecedented chaos and the self-organised
groups that have appeared either to clean-up our streets or to defend them.
For the future we need to find more local initiatives – we should not
rely on Whitehall or even New Scotland Yard to defend us. This evolving failure
has been apparent to many people – politicians, leader-writers, religious
leaders and ordinary citizens – for many years but most have offered
only warmed-up political or religious orthodoxies – the intellectual
equivalent of fast-food.
In the absence of solid analysis and the presence of vested interests and
a tabloid press that sees no further than the end of its nose there has been
no effective action. Enfield Green Party believes that we need a thorough
review of the factors that gave rise to the riots. But that is not enough.
We also need a broad social process that will engage the people of the UK
in both understanding the problems and in formulating the changes that are
needed. This is democratically appropriate and also essential if we are to
reach a genuine consensus on the far-reaching changes that are likely to
be necessary. The riots are a wake-up call. We have heard. Will our leaders
also hear and respond? |
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