WEALTHY PATIENTS are jumping the NHS waiting list because they can afford to pay. That is the reality of New Labour's market forces in the NHS, revealed in the Observer last Sunday. The rich were treated by NHS doctors, in the same wards and with the same equipment as NHS patients.
THE GOVERNMENT quietly pushed through changes to immigration rules last week. Now when an appeal against deportation has been dismissed only the home secretary will be told of the decision. Before last week the asylum seeker and his or her representatives or solicitors were also informed.
BOSSES AT top London store Selfridges were forced to run around taking goods off the shelf just before Christmas after a successful boycott campaign. The goods are marked "Made in Israel". But they are manufactured in Palestinian land illegally occupied by Israel. The sale of these products directly contravenes European Union customs regulations.
DEPUTY BRITISH High Commissioner to Jamaica Phil Sinkinson has made outrageous claims that one in ten people on flights from Jamaica are smuggling cocaine. He used this to justify his demand for a crackdown and harsher sentencing. British customs and excise officials rubbished Sinkinson's comments. They revealed that there were no figures on the number of "drugs mules" to support Sinkinson's claims.
THE government faced humiliation after anti-privatisation campaigners won two important victories. In the last few weeks tenants in Dudley and on Southwark's Aylesbury estate have decisively voted against plans to privatise their homes. These votes and recent government retreats show that New Labour's privatisation plans can be stopped.
INTERFERENCE BY the Tory press in the election for general secretary of the RMT rail union began even before the ballot papers went out this week. There was a torrent of stories at the end of last week directed against left wing candidate Bob Crow, who is currently an assistant general secretary.
RIVER PILOTS on one of Britain's busiest waterways are continuing their all-out strike. The strike by the 130 pilots, all members of the TGWU union, centres around a dispute with the giant ABP firm which runs ports along the Humber.
TOP TRADE union officials have dealt a shattering blow to striking Scottish Power workers. They have conspired to wrap up strikes and allow management the chance to claw back important gains.
LEADERS OF the new AMICUS union have shown their intention just days into the union's launch with their disastrous sell-out of Scottish Power strikers. The joint general secretaries, Ken Jackson from the AEEU and Roger Lyons from the MSF, have long fought to create a right wing bloc of support for New Labour inside the trade union movement.
BANK WORKERS at the Royal Bank of Scotland went on strike for the day on 2 January after bosses refused to pay them more for working on a traditional Scottish holiday. A lively picket took place of the bank's Glasgow headquarters.
