I probably shouldn't be starting my day like this. It is a beautiful blue-sky summer day and I only have a week and a half left here before moving out of the city. I should be getting up and going for a walk along the beach and around the nature reserve, or enjoying an online Latin dance workout, or continuing to sort my stuff so I can take some things to the charity shops and eventually start packing. Instead I'm angry and stressed and keeping myself in that state by writing this.
I woke up today to read that the Tory government has voted down amendments to the upcoming post-Brexit Trade Bill which would safeguard both the NHS and imported food standards, and ensure that trade agreements are subject to parliamentary approval. Read that again: they have voted them down.
So, they have voted AGAINST:
- protecting the NHS from foreign control
- ensuring the ability to provide "a comprehensive and publicly-funded health service free at the point of delivery" is not compromised by any future trade deal
- protecting NHS staff wages and rights from being slashed in any future trade deal
- protecting the quality and safety of health and care services
- regulating the control and prices of medicines
- protecting patient data from being sold off
- protecting the NHS from investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) - basically foreign investors/companies can sue national governments for measures which may harm their profits. This is a real thing. Veolia sued Egypt for raising their national minimum wage. A Swedish energy firm sued Germany for introducing policies to curb water pollution. An American pharmaceutical giant sued Canada for trying to keep medicines affordable. And obviously these things cost loads of taxpayer money.
(List from https://evolvepolitics.com/breaking-tories-vote-down-amendment-to-protect-nhs-from-foreign-control-in-brexit-trade-deals/)
So the government themselves have basically confirmed that the NHS (and other publicly-funded health and care services) will be on the table, open for foreign private corporations to buy and control.
They have also voted against ensuring food production standards are maintained for imports. That means that imported food will not need to be of the same or higher standards as we have for food produced in the UK. There are practices in America that are illegal here, but it is now possible that under a trade agreement with the USA, we could one day be buying things like chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-pumped beef in our supermarkets without that information being on the labels. Foods (and other things) produced in a bad way are cheap - like factory farming - so this will also mean that the market would be flooded with yet more cheap and nasty food and British farmers will struggle even more than they are now.
They also voted against parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals, i.e. they voted against giving themselves the power to "take back control".
You cannot possibly say that those are good things.
THIS IS TERRIFYING.
The amendments were so obviously in the public interest that several hard-right DUP members voted in favour of them, and even a former UKIP leader has slammed the government for voting them down.
(They've also voted, again, even after the last few months, to not give nurses or care workers a pay rise. Doctors and some other public sector workers are getting one, which is good, but not nurses. And I'm sure you already know about their starting to charge NHS staff to use hospital car parks again.)
We were warned about this. The Tories voted against the very creation of the NHS 72 years ago, and over the last 10 years they have started to defund, dismantle, and sell off parts of it. So many people told us this would happen if the Tories stayed in power.
NHS workers during the first couple of months of the pandemic said "We don't want your claps. We want to be properly funded."
Essential workers said "We don't want your praise. We want a proper wage and rights and respect at work."
Activists for all sorts of causes say "We don't want your thanks. We want you to listen, and to help."
I know it's difficult. We have lives to live, everyday struggles to deal with. But that's part of the issue. Powerful people have, over the millenia, designed the world to suit their interests. We have no choice but to spend most of our waking lives working, usually for somebody else, simply in order to put a roof over our heads and food on the table, so we are left with very little time or energy to participate in politics and democracy and creating a better world. We just have to do what we can do. But the sad thing is that it's not enough.
Words are not enough anymore. Petitions and letters to MPs and peaceful protests are not enough. They do not work. Democracy is a sham right now. We apparently live in a democracy, and compared to some other countries we do, but really we only get a say on things once every four years, and even then it's pretty poor. I fully understand why so many people are disillusioned with politics, why people don't vote.
Poverty does not have to exist. Homelessness does not have to exist. Malnutrition does not have to exist. Climate breakdown does not have to continue. So many things that make life a struggle do not have to exist.
People are saying that the Tories won't win the next General Election if they sell off the NHS. Well that may be true but it doesn't matter whatsoever since it will be too darn late by then. The deals would have been made, services sold off. And the thing about the ISDS will mean that future governments who want to reverse any purchases and bring services back into public ownership will find it nearly impossible.
And I know this isn't the worst. They have done and are doing other bad things. And other people and governments have done and are doing worse things.
We live in a paradise, this planet is literally a paradise for life, and humanity has made it into a hellhole. We haven't quite made it to Wall-E level trash planet yet, but that's the trajectory we're on.
I am angry every single day. I despair every single day. I am filled with fear for my future, those of my nephews and young cousins, and the future of the world, every single day.
I know I could take a break from social media, with all the political and activist and indie journalism pages I follow, and maybe I probably should. I already don't watch the mainstream news anyway. But that's just another form of burying your head in the sand, isn't it? The issues don't go away just because I'm privileged enough to be able to choose to ignore them, to not have to live with them in ways that other people are forced to.
My default mode is pessimism, unfortunately. My life would be better if my default was optimism. I know there is a lot of good in the world, I hear about it and see it. But it doesn't matter how much of that good I am shown, while the people in power put their personal interests and profit above those of the general population then we are done for. There is beauty, but for me it is always overshadowed. I find it very, very difficult to have hope.
I could write so much more. About anything and everything. I feel so much. I often start to write something on an issue that's bothering me but can't articulate things I'm feeling, it's very difficult to write and I can't finish it. That means I've, so far, ended up just being an "armchair warrior" or a "keyboard warrior", sharing posts on social media but not actually getting out and doing any activism or volunteer work and trying to make a practical difference. I'd like to change that but don't know how yet. This is a ranty, bitter, angry post, not well-written or comprehensive, and maybe I'll look back on it in a calmer mood and cringe, and I'm sorry if it makes for slightly uncomfortable reading, but this is part of who I am. And these issues matter.
We have to fight for a better world. We really do. We must.
As usual, this has taken me like five hours to write. I feel like that's a waste of a nice day. Ugh. Right, time for lunch and a walk. Need to get these cortisol levels down.