text:
Can Roberto Moreno Fill Diego Martinez's Shoes at Granada CF?
Only a few years ago, Spanish minnows Granada would have struggled to attract a coach of the calibre of Roberto Moreno. The 43-year has enjoyed a successful career as assistant to Luis Enrique at Roma, Celta de Vigo, and Barcelona; and as a head coach in his own right with Monaco and the Spain national team. He led the latter to Euro 2020 qualification with a 77.8% win ratio and zero defeats during his nine games in charge before handing the reins back to Enrique who had taken a break for personal reasons. So how did such a highly-rated young coach end up at a team that has only been back in the Spanish top flight for two years?
Comunicado | Robert Moreno, nuevo entrenador del #Granada.#BienvenidoRobert #EternaLucha
— Granada CF ❤⚪ (@GranadaCdeF) June 18, 2021
In the 2016/17 season, Granada CF was relegated to the second tier after finishing bottom of La Liga. They worked under three coaches during the campaign including former Arsenal player Tony Adams, who took charge for the last seven games and lost all of them. They went through another three coaches the following year as they fumbled to a mid-table finish in the Segunda Division. This was a dark period for Granada fans who feared they would have another long exile from the topflight.
Shrewd Appointment
Their fortunes finally changed when they hired former Sevilla assistant, Diego Martinez, who worked at the Estadio Sanchez Pizjuan under current Villarreal boss Unai Emery, and also got the Sevilla reserve team promoted to the Spanish second division. In 2018/19, Martinez guided Granada back to La Liga at his first attempt thanks to a second-place finish and some eye-catching performances.
Despite being the youngest manager of the 2019/20 La Liga campaign, Martinez hit the ground running and led the Andalusians to 20 points from their first 10 games, bringing them to the top of the table for two weeks. Granada eventually finished seventh, reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, and qualified for European competition for the first time in their history. To put their achievements in perspective, they had the third-smallest budget in the league and a starting XI that cost around €6m. Somehow, the team that should have been fighting relegation would now be competing in Europe. It was no surprise when Martinez was rewarded with a contract extension for his efforts.
European Pride
Few expected Granada to maintain their form during the subsequent campaign, especially with the gruelling Europa League schedule to contend with. Such exertions would surely put a strain on a club the size of Granada whose tiny budget didn't account for an annual jaunt around Europe. But remarkably, they defied all the odds to reach the quarter-finals of Europe's second-tier competition, eventually falling at the hands of Premier League giants Manchester United.
Edinson Cavani eases Manchester United past Granada and into semis https://t.co/XrafYpGCIO
— The Guardian (@guardian) April 15, 2021
They also finished ninth in the league and reached the quarter-finals of the Spanish domestic cup. It was an epic campaign that took its toll on Martinez who took the surprise decision to quit at the end of his third season in charge. The Vigo-born boss was immediately linked with several vacancies including a handful in the Premier League, recently declared the best domestic competition in the world by allpeers.com.
Maintaining Standards
With Granada's stock now taken to new heights, the club was linked with some strong candidates with Roberto Moreno the principal target. But rather than question why he would want to go to such a small club, the question now was whether he was capable of maintaining the high standards set by Martinez. For Granada fans who witnessed the darker days in the club's recent history, this was a scenario they were used to. They were about to hire a top coach but one with big shoes to fill.
The only question mark hanging over Moreno was his record at club level. Aside from working as an assistant to Luis Enrique, his only other club role was as head coach of Monaco. He took over midway through the 2019/20 campaign and led the club to a 9th-place in the table, improving on their 17th-place finish the previous year. However, he was relieved of his duties at the end of the campaign. In total, he has only managed 13 league games as the No. 1 in the dugout of a club side.
Mid-table Candidates
Granada is currently 11th in the La Liga pecking order according to the early odds available at the recommended bookmakers on asiabet.org. Most Granada fans would probably take an 11th-place finish if it were offered but they could be forgiven for dreaming of another European adventure. With Moreno at the helm, some punters might be tempted to back them to grab a Europa League spot, so all eyes will be on the transfer market to see who Moreno can attract. One area where they could use some reinforcements is in attack, where they managed just 47 goals last term. Veteran striker Roberto Soldado was their top scorer with just nine goals.
With no European football this time around, Roberto Moreno will be able to put all his focus on consolidating their place as a top-half La Liga team and anything else will be a bonus. One thing is sure, he is following in the footsteps of a man who has already written his name into Granada folklore and that will be one tough act to follow.
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Expressions Academy was started by Daniella Hobbs and Jenny Howells in the Summer of 2011 after years of planning and preparation. Coming from the 1Vision Summer Schools which started in 2009, the team are enthusiastic in developing creative and professional classes and workshops.
Danie and Jenny remain at the core of the team with a number of others supporting and working with them (you can find out more on the team page).
– Officially opened our studios at Haven House in Hemel Hempstead.
– Expressions Academy became a Limited Company.
-Moved offices to Cedar House in Apsley.
– Our Diddy dance course started at Cedar House in Apsley.
– Anybody Dance Class- class for those with disabilities.
– Running drama workshops in partnership with the National Autistic Society.
– Started our Double digits dance class for 10+ years.
– Ran a DAY OF DANCE in the Summer holidays.
– Ran a fundraiser for the Hospice of St Francis at South Hill Centre.
– Daniella trained to become a Fitsteps instructor and started running classes at South Hill Centre.
– After school clubs started at South Hill Primary School.
– After school Art club started at Chaulden Junior School.
– After school dance class started at Chaulden Junior School.
– Expressions Academy is an official registered trademark!
– The Art Social for adults started and runs once a month!
– Team trip to Bolivia, South America to build ties with Expreciones and spread creativity.
– After 5 years of running, Expressions Academy ran a show to celebrate at Boxmoor playhouse.
– Our 1,2 Step beginners dance class moved to Two waters primary school.
– Fitsteps dance exercise class started at Two waters primary school.
– We started running Fitsteps classes for Cedar Tree Children's Centre.
– Started running an advanced contemporary dance class at the Salvation Army.
– Ran our first Messy May Day in May half term.
– Comic relief Crafternoon held at Chaulden Junior School.
– Dance classes in collaboration with make a move dance academy & Chaulden Adventure Playground.


text:
homephotos Newseconomy News
What Arundhati Bhattacharya, Ramesh Damani, Sajjid Chinoy and other big names make of Budget 2019
By CNBC-TV18 Jul 6, 2019 7:38:27 AM IST (Updated)
Switch to Slide Show
India's first full-time woman finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her maiden Budget today. Among her key announcements are the infusion of Rs 70,000 crore into state-run banks, increase in I-T surcharge by 3-7% on super-rich, increase in minimum public shareholding in listed companies to 35% and others. Has the Modi 2.0's first Budget got a thumbs-up from key industrialists and experts? Find out here:
"Rs 70,000 crore is a little more than what the market was expecting... So, they have considered some amount of growth capital and not only regulatory capital," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, former SBI chairman.
"The thing that surprised me was the public shareholding, which will be very negative for MNCs which like to have a higher level of shareholding and promoter-led companies, so the market will be a bit dubious about that proposal," said Ramesh Damani, member of BSE.
"If we keep on trying to raise resources from the 0.7 percent people who are allegedly super rich in the country… it is a bit bizarre. We all have to bear it," said Manish Chokhani, director, Enam Holdings on the income tax levels.
"One can rationalise that and say that the government has to generate revenue from somewhere in a period where corporate earnings are relatively benign and therefore where does the government raise it from rather than from the rich," said Ashok Wadhwa, group CEO of Ambit on the income tax levels.
"What we don't want is this lending to be indiscriminate and there to be non-performing assets (NPAs) 4-5 years down the line," said Sajjid Chinoy, chief India economist, JPMorgan on PSU bank recapitalisation.
"Doing external sovereign borrowing in external currency is in my view a dangerous move given the fiscal pressures in India with about 6-7 percent of GDP actual fiscal deficit, it is among the higher deficit levels in the world," said Rakesh Mohan, former deputy governor, RBI.
"Minimum public shareholding threshold of 65% will give enormous capital gains tax," said Dinesh Kanabar, tax expert.

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text:
Q: Positional Rankings and Dealing with Ties in Python (I apologize that previous versions of this question displayed the wrong function that I need to fix, this has been remedied and I hope the question makes a little more sense now.)
I have a list of objects with scores, and I'm attempting to assign rank to them based on those scores. Below is basically how I output my data.
sorted_scores = [
    ('Apolo Ohno', 0),
    ('Shanie Davis', -1),
    ('Bodie Miller', -2),
    ('Lindsay Vohn', -3),
    ('Shawn White', -3),
    ('Bryan Veloso', -4)
]

I have a tie. Now, the function that assigns positions to the objects above right now is a simple for loop that just assigns the value of i as the object's final position.
positions = {}

i = 1
for key, value in sorted_list:
    # Since in my codebase the strings are IDs, I use the key to fetch the object.
    if value is not None:
        positions[key] = i
        i += 1

So that'll obviously return:
positions = {
    'Apolo Ohno': 1,
    'Shanie Davis': 2,
    'Bodie Miller': 3,
    'Lindsay Vohn': 4,
    'Shawn White': 5,
    'Bryan Veloso': 6
}

Hopefully that makes some sense. The meat of the question is that loop. What makes more sense is if it returns them like so:
positions = {
    'Apolo Ohno': 1,
    'Shanie Davis': 2,
    'Bodie Miller': 3,
    'Lindsay Vohn': 4, # Same value.
    'Shawn White': 4, # Same value.
    'Bryan Veloso': 6
}

How would I edit the function above to do that, keeping in mind that I could have any number of ties at any given time depending on how many of my members ranked said object? The highest rank should be 1, so it can be displayed as such: <rank>/<total # of people>
Thanks in advance. :)

A: >>> sorted_scores = [
...     ('Apolo Ohno', 0),
...     ('Shanie Davis', -1),
...     ('Bodie Miller', -2),
...     ('Lindsay Vohn', -3),
...     ('Shawn White', -3),
...     ('Bryan Veloso',-4)
... ]
>>>
>>> res = {}
>>> prev = None
>>> for i,(k,v) in enumerate(sorted_scores):
...     if v!=prev:
...         place,prev = i+1,v
...     res[k] = place
...
>>> print res
{'Apolo Ohno': 1, 'Bryan Veloso': 6, 'Shanie Davis': 2, 'Lindsay Vohn': 4, 'Bodie Miller': 3, 'Shawn White': 4}

Remember that dicts are unordered, so to iterate in order of place, you need to do this
>>> from operator import itemgetter
>>> print sorted(res.items(),key=itemgetter(1))
[('Apolo Ohno', 1), ('Shanie Davis', 2), ('Bodie Miller', 3), ('Lindsay Vohn', 4), ('Shawn White', 4), ('Bryan Veloso', 6)]

A: === Update after change/clarification of specs ===
# coding: ascii

def ranks_from_scores(sorted_scores):
    """sorted_scores: a list of tuples (object_id, score), sorted by score DESCENDING
       return a mapping of object IDs to ranks
    """
    ranks = {}
    previous_score = object()
    for index, (obj_id, score) in enumerate(sorted_scores):
        if score != previous_score:
            previous_score = score
            rank = index + 1
        ranks[obj_id] = rank
    return ranks

from operator import itemgetter
import pprint

scores0 = dict([
    ('Apolo Ohno', 0),
    ('Shanie Davis', -1),
    ('Bodie Miller', -2),
    ('Lindsay Vohn', -3),
    ('Shawn White', -3)
    ])

scores1 = {
    'lorem': 100,
    'ipsum': 200,
    'dolor': 300,
    'sit': 300,
    'amet': 300,
    'quia': 400,
    'consectetur': 500,
    'adipiscing': 500,
    'elit': 600,
    }

scores2 = {
    'lorem': 100,
    'ipsum': 200,
    'dolor': 300,
    'sit': 300,
    'amet': 300,
    'quia': 400,
    'consectetur': 500,
    'adipiscing': 500,
    'elit': 6000,
    }

import pprint
funcs = (ranks_from_scores, ) # Watch this space!
tests = (scores0, scores1, scores2)

for test in tests:
    print
    test_list = sorted(test.items(), key=itemgetter(1), reverse=True)
    print "Input:", test_list
    for func in funcs:
        result = func(test_list)
        print "%s ->" % func.__name__
        pprint.pprint(result)

Results:
Input: [('Apolo Ohno', 0), ('Shanie Davis', -1), ('Bodie Miller', -2), ('Lindsay
 Vohn', -3), ('Shawn White', -3)]
ranks_from_scores ->
{'Apolo Ohno': 1,
 'Bodie Miller': 3,
 'Lindsay Vohn': 4,
 'Shanie Davis': 2,
 'Shawn White': 4}

Input: [('elit', 600), ('consectetur', 500), ('adipiscing', 500), ('quia', 400),
 ('dolor', 300), ('sit', 300), ('amet', 300), ('ipsum', 200), ('lorem', 100)]
ranks_from_scores ->
{'adipiscing': 2,
 'amet': 5,
 'consectetur': 2,
 'dolor': 5,
 'elit': 1,
 'ipsum': 8,
 'lorem': 9,
 'quia': 4,
 'sit': 5}

Input: [('elit', 6000), ('consectetur', 500), ('adipiscing', 500), ('quia', 400)
, ('dolor', 300), ('sit', 300), ('amet', 300), ('ipsum', 200), ('lorem', 100)]
ranks_from_scores ->
{'adipiscing': 2,
 'amet': 5,
 'consectetur': 2,
 'dolor': 5,
 'elit': 1,
 'ipsum': 8,
 'lorem': 9,
 'quia': 4,
 'sit': 5}

=== original submission ===
This code assumes that you really want the highest score to get rank 1, not the lowest score getting rank 1 (or 0!).
# coding: ascii

def ranks_from_scores(scores, debug=False):
    """scores (a mapping of object IDs to scores)
       return a mapping of object IDs to ranks
    """
    alist = [(v, k) for k, v in scores.items()]
    alist.sort(reverse=True)
    if debug: print 'alist:', alist
    bdict = {}
    previous_score = object()
    for posn, (score, obj_id) in enumerate(alist):
        if score != previous_score:
            previous_score = score
            rank = posn + 1
        bdict[obj_id] = rank
    if debug:
        print 'bdict:', bdict
        blist = [(v, k) for k, v in bdict.items()]
        print 'blist:', sorted(blist)
    return bdict

ranks_from_scores(
    {'q': 10, 'w': 20, 'e': 20, 'r': 20, 't': 30},
    debug=True,
    )

Output:
alist: [(30, 't'), (20, 'w'), (20, 'r'), (20, 'e'), (10, 'q')]
bdict: {'q': 5, 'r': 2, 'e': 2, 't': 1, 'w': 2}
blist: [(1, 't'), (2, 'e'), (2, 'r'), (2, 'w'), (5, 'q')]

A: The way to do this is not to calculate the element's position is some arbitrary sequence, but rather to calculate how many other elements have a better score.
EDIT:
By popular demand, O(n)'ed and everything:
positions = {}
cur_score = None # Score we're examining
cur_count = 0 # Number of others that we've seen with this score

for ix, (name, score) in enumerate(sorted_scores):
  if score == cur_score: # Same score for this player as previous
    cur_count += 1
  else: # Different score from before
    cur_score = score
    cur_count = 0
  positions[name] = ix - cur_count + 1 # Add 1 because ix is 0-based

print positions

A: Looks like you can use the sorted and enumerate builtins, the groupby method from itertools and the itemgetter method from operator. Assumes higher scores are better... (if lower scores are better, change reverse=True to reverse=False)
>>> from itertools import groupby
>>> from operator import itemgetter
>>> scores = {
...     'lorem': 100,
...     'ipsum': 200,
...     'dolor': 300,
...     'sit': 300,
...     'amet': 300,
...     'quia': 400,
...     'consectetur': 500,
...     'adipiscing': 500,
...     'elit': 600,
...     }
>>> sorted_items = sorted(scores.items(), key=itemgetter(1), reverse=True)
>>> groups = groupby(sorted_items, itemgetter(1))
>>> for rank, (score, items) in enumerate(groups):
...     print rank+1, map(itemgetter(0), items)
...
1 ['elit']
2 ['consectetur', 'adipiscing']
3 ['quia']
4 ['dolor', 'sit', 'amet']
5 ['ipsum']
6 ['lorem']

A: Solution
Here's one simple way to do it by modifying your code a little rather than importing modules:
prev = None
rank = 0
incr = 1
positions = {}
for key, value in sorted_list:
    if value is not None:
        if value != prev:
            rank += incr
            incr = 1
        else:
            incr += 1
        positions[key] = rank
        prev = value

A Test
For
sorted_list = [
    ('Apolo Ohno', 0),
    ('Shanie Davis', -1),
    ('Bodie Miller', -2),
    ('Lindsay Vohn', -3),
    ('Shawn White', -3),
    ('Bryan Veloso',-4)
]

I get positions as:
{'Apolo Ohno': 1,
'Shanie Davis': 2,
 'Bodie Miller': 3,
 'Lindsay Vohn': 4,
 'Shawn White': 4,
 'Bryan Veloso': 6}

which I think is what you are going for even though you aren't quite clear about whether there should be a 6 after the two 4's.

A: Here's an approach that combines aspects of a few of the other solutions into a flexible generator function.
def rank_sorted(sequence, start=1, key=None, reverse=True):
    """A combination of `enumerate` and `sorted` iterators that deals
    with tied ranks.

    """
    previous_value = object()  # won't compare equal to anything
    sorted_iterator = sorted(sequence, key=key, reverse=reverse)
    for index, item in enumerate(sorted_iterator, start=start):

        # use key function to choose value if given
        if key is None:
            value = item
        else:
            value = key(item)

        # only update rank when sort value changes
        if value != previous_value:
            previous_value = value
            rank = index

        yield rank, item

You can call with different values for start, key, and reverse to allow for ranks to start at 0 or 1, to pass a custom key function (like itemgetter(1) for sorting dictionaries by value), and to easily switch to having lower scores considered higher ranking. Using the example in the original question:
from operator import itemgetter

sorted_scores = [
    ('Apolo Ohno', 0),
    ('Shanie Davis', -1),
    ('Bodie Miller', -2),
    ('Lindsay Vohn', -3),
    ('Shawn White', -3),
    ('Bryan Veloso', -4)
]

higher_is_better = dict(
    (name, rank)
    for rank, (name, score)
    in rank_sorted(sorted_scores, key=itemgetter(1))
)
# {'Apolo Ohno': 1, 'Bryan Veloso': 6, 'Shanie Davis': 2, 'Lindsay Vohn': 4, 'Bodie Miller': 3, 'Shawn White': 4}

lower_is_better = dict(
    (name, rank)
    for rank, (name, score)
    in rank_sorted(sorted_scores, key=itemgetter(1), reverse=False)
)
# {'Apolo Ohno': 6, 'Bryan Veloso': 1, 'Shanie Davis': 5, 'Lindsay Vohn': 2, 'Bodie Miller': 4, 'Shawn White': 2}

A: Same as the best answer, just keeping the ordinals instead of skiping to the next position at the ranking:
i.e.: ranking = [1,2,3,4,4,5] instead of ranking = [1,2,3,4,4,6]
    sorted_scores = [
     ('Apolo Ohno', 0),
     ('Shanie Davis', -1),
     ('Bodie Miller', -2),
     ('Lindsay Vohn', -3),
     ('Shawn White', -3),
     ('Bryan Veloso',-4)
]

res = {}
prev = None
n = 0
for k,v in sorted_scores:
    if v!=prev:
        n +=1
        place,prev = n,v
    res[k] = place

print (res)
{'Apolo Ohno': 1, 'Shanie Davis': 2, 'Bodie Miller': 3, 'Lindsay Vohn': 4, 'Shawn White': 4, 'Bryan Veloso': 5}

A: I'm having to make a bunch of assumptions about what it is you want to do, but here's an attempt:
scores = {
    'lorem': 100,
    'ipsum': 200,
    'dolor': 300,
    'sit': 300,
    'amet': 300,
    'quia': 400,
    'consectetur': 500,
    'adipiscing': 500,
    'elit': 600,
}

groups = {}
for (member, score) in scores.items():
    if score not in groups:
        groups[score] = [member]
    else:
        groups[score].append(member)

positions = {}
for (rank, (score, members)) in enumerate(groups.items()):
    for member in members:
        positions[member] = rank

Expanded for detail, to show the working:
>>> import pprint
>>> scores = {
...     'lorem': 100,
...     'ipsum': 200,
...     'dolor': 300,
...     'sit': 300,
...     'amet': 300,
...     'quia': 400,
...     'consectetur': 500,
...     'adipiscing': 500,
...     'elit': 600,
... }
>>> groups = {}
>>> for (member, score) in scores.items():
...     if score not in groups:
...         groups[score] = [member]
...     else:
...         groups[score].append(member)
...
>>> pprint.pprint(groups)
{100: ['lorem'],
 200: ['ipsum'],
 300: ['sit', 'dolor', 'amet'],
 400: ['quia'],
 500: ['consectetur', 'adipiscing'],
 600: ['elit']}
>>> positions = {}
>>> for (rank, (score, members)) in enumerate(groups.items()):
...     for member in members:
...         positions[member] = rank
...
>>> pprint.pprint(positions)
{'adipiscing': 4,
 'amet': 2,
 'consectetur': 4,
 'dolor': 2,
 'elit': 5,
 'ipsum': 1,
 'lorem': 0,
 'quia': 3,
 'sit': 2}
>>> pprint.pprint(sorted(positions.items(), key=lambda i: i[1]))
[('lorem', 0),
 ('ipsum', 1),
 ('sit', 2),
 ('dolor', 2),
 ('amet', 2),
 ('quia', 3),
 ('consectetur', 4),
 ('adipiscing', 4),
 ('elit', 5)]

A: Here is a simple way to do it
last = None
position = 0
delta = 1
for key, value in sorted_list:
    if value is not None:
        if value != last:
            position += delta
            delta = 1
        else:
            delta += 1
        # i believe this is supposed to be [key] not [value] in OP's code
        positions[key] = position
        last = value

A: >>> sorted_scores = [
...     ('Apolo Ohno', 0),
...     ('Shanie Davis', -1),
...     ('Bodie Miller', -2),
...     ('Lindsay Vohn', -3),
...     ('Shawn White', -3),
...     ('Bryan Veloso',-4)
... ]
>>>
>>> from itertools import groupby
>>> from operator import itemgetter
>>>
>>> place=1
>>> res={}
>>> for _,items in groupby(sorted_scores,key=itemgetter(1)):
...     for i,item in enumerate(items):
...         res[item[0]]= place
...     place+=i+1
...
>>> print res
{'Apolo Ohno': 1, 'Bryan Veloso': 6, 'Shanie Davis': 2, 'Lindsay Vohn': 4, 'Bodie Miller': 3, 'Shawn White': 4}

Remember that dicts are unordered, so to iterate in order of place, you need to do this
>>> print sorted(res.items(),key=itemgetter(1))
[('Apolo Ohno', 1), ('Shanie Davis', 2), ('Bodie Miller', 3), ('Lindsay Vohn', 4), ('Shawn White', 4), ('Bryan Veloso', 6)]

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1. Construct your plan. This plan of action should contain everything of the business, in the design and appear from the establishment, towards the accounts as well as every item around the menu. Prices, costing, and overheads must be calculated. The greatest mistake start up business proprietors make takes on the new café before they've labored out the number of covers they will have to sell per day to create a profit. Following your rules at baking and getting a watch for interior planning isn't enough to create a effective business from an espresso shop. A powerful business mind as well as an knowledge of how you can sell prepared food in a profit is important.
2. Commercial food companies require right equipment which involves investment. A café or cafe will need other areas of to function correctly. That isn't only the chairs and tables for purchasers. Lighting, kitchen equipment like fridges, a multi-deck display fridge for desserts and cakes, freezers, cookers, chill cabinets, display counters, coffee makers and all sorts of crockery, utensils and glasses needed to handle a complete café is going to be needed. Many new cafes begin without getting considered each one of these important details and planning each one of these vital purchases for that business. By planning the entire menu, you'll have a obvious understanding of all of the appliances and equipment you'll need, to organize it and also to service it then sell it.
3. What's going to help make your café or cafe dissimilar to others in the shops? You can create a café look welcoming and different. However that alone won't be enough to help keep the shoppers coming back over and over. Additionally to serving the greatest quality of food and beverages, you must also create a 'hook' or theme for the café. This may be organic produce, or it may be themed, as an British Tearoom. Whoever you hire upon, this identity, or 'brand' for the café, is going to be important stick out inside a crowd. With the proper theme along with a status for serving the very best food, tea and coffee, you'll rapidly create a regular subscriber base and news will spread. If you're not consistent in most these aspects, it can be hard to construct your loyal following and attract new clients regularly. Remember, once the food and atmosphere is nice, people discuss it and try to return for additional.


Kindle Fire HD has a pre-installed Photos app for all you photography lovers. Though its features are pretty basic, Photos allows you to view and do minor edits to photos.
The Kindle Fire HD's camera can't capture photos, so you have to get photos onto the device by saving an image from the Internet using your Silk browser or copying them from your computer by using your Micro USB cable. Using this procedure, you can copy photos into the Pictures folder on your Kindle Fire HD by using Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder.
After you load photos into your Pictures library and disconnect the Micro USB cable, you can tap the Photos app on the Home screen. This displays an album that represents the folder you copied to your Kindle Fire HD and other albums for other sources, such as for downloads and screenshots.
If you copy another folder of photos, it will come over as a separate album. Photos in albums are organized chronologically by the date you placed them on your Kindle Fire HD.
Tap to open an album and view the pictures within it.
Tap a picture to make it appear full screen.
Swipe left or right to move through pictures in an album.
You can also tap the E-Mail button in the Options bar while in Photos to e-mail the displayed photo. Another method to share via e-mail is to tap the Options bar, tap Share, and then tap Send with Email. In the e-mail message that appears with the photo already attached, enter an address, subject, and message, and then tap the Send button.
Move photos: To move a photo, you need to go to the Amazon Cloud Drive using a browser (go to Amazon.com, tap or click Your Account, and then tap or click Your Cloud Drive on the list that appears; you will have to sign into your account at this point).
Use the More Actions drop-down list and choose Move X Items To . . . (where X is the number of items you've selected) and then choose the folder on your Cloud Drive to move the item(s) to.
Rename: You can rename a picture or albums from within Cloud Drive by tapping or clicking the More Actions button and then choosing Rename. You can also rename an album from your Kindle Fire HD in the Photos app by long-pressing (pressing and holding for a few seconds) the album and choosing Rename from the menu that appears.
You can click the New Folder button to add albums to help you organize your photos.
Note that when viewing photos on your Kindle Fire HD you can also enlarge or reduce a photo by pinching and unpinching with your fingers on the touchscreen.
When you display a photo full screen in the Photos app, you see tools at bottom of the screen, including Zoom In, Zoom Out, and a tool that causes the image to fit within the screen again if you've enlarged it.
With a photo displayed, if you want to delete it, simply tap the Trash button on the Options bar.


text:
package elasta.module.ex;

/**
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 */
final public class ModuleSystemException extends RuntimeException {
    public ModuleSystemException(String message) {
        super(message);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Shipping News
By BBC Radio
Thursday, 17 March
P&O Ferries has caused outrage after sacking 800 workers via a recorded video message. The company plans to replace them with cheaper agency workers. Chris gets the latest from the BBC's Danny Savage in Hull, where a P&O crew had been refusing to leave their ship. Covid infection rates have been increasing rapidly across the UK – one of the people to catch the virus is Adam. GP Ellie Cannon worries about the long-term mental health fallout of the pandemic. And Chris asks Britain's chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost, if Boris Johnson is governing as a Conservative. His answer: "Up to a point." This edition of Newscast was made by Danny Wittenberg and John Murphy. The assistant editor was Alison Gee.


By Ellen Coleman—As an American of non-specific cultural identity, I look with envy at families with strong cultural tradition. I wonder who "my people" are. What family traditions will my children (now grown) want to pass on to their own children?  Their exposure has been such a mixed bag of "ritual"—making tamales for Thanksgiving, potstickers for family reunions, fried eggplant for Fourth of July.  What will be their choice of comfort music?  What kinds of homes will they make, what spiritual paths will they take?


A site is dedicated to the sports of gymnastics and ice-skating..But it's mostly gymnastics.
Provides forum, tutorials, pictures and video clips for performing acrobatic, martial art and gymnastic style tricks.
Suppliers of professional acrobats, gymnasts, circus and sports artists to the entertainment industry.
A professional theatrical Cirque style aerial and ground acrobatic troupe that specializes in custom performances for special events, theme parks, conventions, and corporate events.
Gymnastics and dance performance company.
LAVA is an award-winning troupe of 8 women who perform acrobatic and feminist feats in NYC and elsewhere in the US.
An acrobatic trampoline team that entertains and performs at major sporting events. Features profile, appearances, photo gallery, references and contacts.
Circus hand-balancing act. Unique and rare tricks. Photos, videos and information about this act.
New York based contortionist, acrobat, aerialist, and film stunt man. Photo galleries, biography, resume, and booking information.
Fitness competitor, trainer and model who makes use of acrobatic dance in her fitness routines. Has biography, information and photos of Linda performing.
Silk aerialist, acrobat, stuntwoman and model. Site offers updated resume, history, pictures and videos.


text:
Ray-Ray McCloud plans to be the coffee bean Carolina's return game needs
CHARLOTTE – The Panthers claimed explosive wide receiver Ray-Ray McCloud from the Buffalo Bills for one reason above all else.
"Essentially, he's going to get a chance right off the bat to be our returner," general manager Marty Hurney said.
Hurney has been keeping an eye on McCloud since he attended the NC State-Clemson game in Raleigh back in 2017.
That's when McCloud did this to the Wolfpack.
"I go back to watching him at Clemson. He's got some pretty explosive return ability," Hurney said. "He brings us a different skillset at returner as far as the ability to have some big returns."
Buffalo drafted the 5-foot-10, 190-pound McCloud in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL Draft. If they hadn't, the Panthers very well might have.
The Panthers also got a closer look at McCloud when the Bills came to Spartanburg for a pair of joint practices a few weeks back.
"He's a guy that we knew a little bit about," head coach Ron Rivera said. "We liked him coming into the draft, just didn't get an opportunity to get him here. We saw some things that he did through training camp and the games he played, and we just feel that he's someone that can come in and contribute."
McCloud played in 10 games as a rookie, recording five catches for 36 yards. He also returned four punts for 20 yards. He returned 25 punts for 303 yards and that one memorable touchdown during his final college season at Clemson.
Hurney said McCloud can also contribute as a slot receiver, but special teams will clearly be his opportunity to make a big impact.
"Whatever they ask me to do I'm willing to do it," McCloud said after his first Panthers practice Monday.
McCloud is happy to be back in Carolina. He's not far from his old college stomping grounds, and speaking of which, he passed along part of the message he received from Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney after the Panthers added him to the roster.
"Be a coffee bean."
So here's the story …
Swinney had motivational speaker Damon West talk with the Tigers a few years ago (West played quarterback at North Texas and was sentenced to 65 years in prison in 2009 for meth-influenced burglary, but was paroled after seven years). West shared something he learned behind bars with the players, to imagine prison as a boiling pot of water and three things that go in: carrot, egg and coffee bean.
"Egg will harden, carrot will soften, coffee beans spread," McCloud explained. "Spread your energy and go be the playmaker you are."
Or go be the coffee bean you are?
"That's the plan," McCloud said.
Week 1 Monday Practice
View photos from Monday's practice of Week 1 as the Panthers prepare to face the Rams.
Former Panthers great Dan Morgan vouches for mentor and friend Scott Fitterer
The pair became co-workers and good friends during their time with the Seahawks.
Jordan and Jake Recap: A new GM
In this week's episode, the duo break down the news of Scott Fitterer agreeing to terms as Carolina's new general manager.
Scott Fitterer offers varied experience, with a track record of success
Carolina's next general manager brings many things David Tepper was looking for.
Panthers agree to terms with Scott Fitterer to become Carolina's new general manager
The Seahawks' vice president of football operations made a big impression.


text:
Japanese whaling fleet to hunt up to 1,035 whales, including 50 humpbacks
Japan's oft-criticized "scientific" whaling fleet will be extra busy this season as it aims to land up to 1,035 whales in what could be the country's largest whale hunt in modern times. Included in the toll: up to 50 humpback whales, the first time they've been targeted in some 40 years. Humpback whales numbered only about 1,200 in the 1960s, but the population has since increased to about 30,000 or 40,000 due largely to the international hunting ban. Environmentalists said of the whalers, "They're violent … terrorists. Their violence is unforgivable … We must fight against their hypocrisy and lies." No, wait. That was actually whale-hunt mission leader Hajime Ishikawa, talking about environmentalists. Greenpeace has vowed to try to disrupt the whale hunt, as has the more militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The whale hunt and the hunt for the whale hunters will both be conducted in the waters around Antarctica.
More in Politics	All Politics
2 Trump officials publish fake science, get their old jobs back
How Merrick Garland could figure into Biden's climate plans as attorney general


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This beautiful Colortool Sprays Foam shade is called Dark Chocolate, and comes from a company called Design Master. Please note that the Art Supply Retailers affiliated here DO NOT carry all of the paints listed! Disclaimer: The Information on this Website is provided for general reference purposes only.
Whether it be for Foam Painting or Painting on Foam, their product number, along with the HTML color code, RGB, and CMYK codes are listed below. This Beautiful Styrofoam Shade of Dark Chocolate and others can be found in the Design Master Colortool Sprays Paint Gallery! No Content or Images from this Site may be downloaded, or copied, republished, reproduced, or stored, posted, transmitted, sold or distributed in any type of medium whatsoever, without the prior written permission of me, the copyright owner.
This Site does not warrant, or accept any responsibility or liability for, the accuracy, completeness, omissions, errors or misleading statements of the content or for any loss which may arise from reliance on this Site.
Aftaritetka — 08.12.2015 at 13:59:41 Personal religious retreats in Sedona program (MAPS.
027 — 08.12.2015 at 14:35:47 The program alone and can ground every part teachers of Kadampa Buddhism.
MAHSUM — 08.12.2015 at 22:50:44 What Is "Mindfulness," strolling meditation and religious music journal and plain paper for.
Klan_A_Plan — 08.12.2015 at 18:26:33 Well as specific meditations on emptiness, compassion and each remain within the current moment.
MAMEDOV — 08.12.2015 at 21:27:27 Are provided and can be highly effective to maneuver your non all seems.


the Austrian commander, Batthyny, felt able to move to support Bergen op Zoom. Socialhjlp til unge. Distrikter redigr redigr wikikode Kort over distrikterne i Bergen. Nordens strste by frem til 1600-tallet og Norges strste by til 1830'erne, og har siden vrt Norges nststrste.
Rsmiddeltemperaturen p 7,7 C er en af de hjeste i Norge. The ferry takes a little longer than a normal car ferry to line up at the destination, but once it has, the doors open, the track is locked in place, and the train engines start, and we are off, pretty fast. . Step 3, go to and book your trains from Hamburg to London to using these special links: Departing Hamburg at 06:46 Departing Hamburg at 10:46, on Saturdays some other dates Departing Hamburg at 10:46 on Mondays-Fridays Sundays, not certain dates If you don't see any. The Hamburg to Copenhagen trains go onto a train ferry for the 50-minute crossing between Puttgarden and Rdby, one of the few places in the world where trains go onto ships, a fascinating experience. . Unlike most other European sleeper trains where you can book individual berths in shared compartments, in Norway you pay a fixed supplement and get a whole 2-berth compartment to yourself, whether there are two of you or only one. .
General European train travel information, luggage, taking a bike. If you prefer, spend a morning in Copenhagen and take the 13:27 from Copenhagen arriving Oslo Sentral at 21:49. . Lowendal was made a Marshal of France for his exploit. Til sammenligning var befolkningstilvksten i Norge som helhed p 8,0 i perioden, og 9,6 i Hordaland som helhed. Step 2, book Brussels to Copenhagen at German Railways on day. Unless you plan to stop off, all of this is done on day. . If all else fails, call their telesales by phone on (47) and buy tickets that way. . Day 2, the next day travel from Copenhagen to Hamburg by any suitable train. . The 08:58 (08:55 on some days) from London St Pancras arrives bilverksted lesund Kiel Hbf at 21:49. . Geiranger, Norway, geiranger is the gateway to some of coastal Norways most magnificent natural treasures. After two months of intense fighting French were finally able to bombard the main wall. The 10:58 arrives Kiel Hbf 22:51.


text:
Lloyd Brown
Pete Maravich Assembly Center – LSU Tigers
Photos by Lloyd Brown, Stadium Journey
Pete Maravich Assembly Center N Stadium Rd Baton Rouge, LA 70893
LSU Tigers website
Pete Maravich Assembly Center website
Geaux Big Or Geaux Home
The 2021-2022 season marks the 50th season that LSU men's basketball has been played in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the LSU campus. Originally called the LSU Assembly Center, it changed names following the death of LSU basketball icon Pete Maravich in 1988.
Maravich never played in the building during college but did play in it during his pro career, as the Atlanta Hawks played a preseason game there. The capacity of the arena is 13,215, with 4,300 lower-level seats, 7,000 upper-level seats, and just under 2,000 seats on risers. The Maravich Assembly Center is known by many nicknames, including Pete's Palace or the "PMC" for brevity's sake.
The LSU basketball program has been a prominent program in both the SEC and at the national level for its entire existence. The 1935 team won the National Championship, and teams since then have made 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, gone to 4 Final Fours, and participated in 8 NIT Tournaments. They have also won 11 SEC Conference Championships. Standout players for the Bayou Bengals include Bob Pettitt, Pete Maravich, Chris Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Ben Simmons. Both Pettit and O'Neal have statues in front of the Tigers practice facility.
The food and beverage offerings are very average at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. This is a big disappointment, as most Louisiana sports venues offer some traditional Cajun dishes at their concession stands. The only item we felt met this definition was a sausage po'boy sandwich for $8.
Most of the concessions at the Assembly Center come from major food distributors like Pizza Hut, Burger Smith, and Chick-fil-A. The generic stands offer hot dogs ($4), nachos ($5), popcorn ($5), and pretzels ($5.50). Coca-Cola brand sodas are $4.50 for a 12 oz cup and Dasani water is $5.50.
Liquor is available at LSU basketball games. The Maravich Center offers both Miller and Budweiser products for $9. Craft brews from local brewery Tin Roof's Voodoo are $10.
The Pete Maravich Assembly Center can be an intimidating place to play for visiting teams and their fans. Before you even enter the building, you must pass Mike the Tiger's habitat and statues of Bob Pettitt and Shaquille O'Neal that are either blocking you or dunking on you.
Once inside, you are faced with one of the largest gyms in the SEC, all fitted out in the purple and gold team colors of LSU. On average, the Tigers will have more than 10,000 fans doing everything they can to confuse you and make communications from the bench hard to hear. Hanging above you is a monster scoreboard measuring 43' X 20′ along the sidelines and 24' X 20' facing the baselines. The rafters are full of championship banners and banners saluting Tiger basketball greats. This is all before the games even begin.
The Pete Maravich Assembly Center and the LSU campus are located just south of downtown Baton Rouge. Its on-campus neighbors include Tiger Stadium, Alex Box Ballpark, and the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
The LSU campus borders an area known as the North Gate community. This area offers many of the services a college student would utilize. This includes coffee shops, restaurants, and school supplies.
The Maravich Assembly Center can be an intimidating place to play or watch the game. The LSU fans (especially the student body) can raise a racket in what TV analyst Dick Vitale calls the "Deaf Dome." The outfits they wear are as loud as their cheers and jeers. They wear purple and gold colors as a sign of athletic royalty and are clad in all manner of tiger stripes.
Helping the student body to channel its collective energy at opponents is the Bengal Brass Basketball Band, which plays endless rounds of "Tiger Rag." Accompanying the band during the breaks in the action are the LSU Tiger Girls dance team and the Tiger mascot. Your ears will be ringing after an afternoon or evening in Tiger Town.
The Pete Maravich Assembly Center is easy to get to from multiple directions. It shares most of the street signage with its neighbor, Tiger Stadium.
From I-110: Take the Government Street exit to St. Phillips Street. Go south on St. Phillips (becomes Nicolson Drive) Take Nicolson to Stadium Road and the parking lot for the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
From I-10: Take the South Acadian Thruway South exit (becomes Stanford Drive) Get in the right lane of Stanford Drive and merge onto West Lakeshore Drive West Lakeshore becomes Stadium Road. Park in the lot designated for the Maravich Assembly Center.
Once inside you will find the concourses to be wide and easy to navigate. The concourses are broken into four segments. They are the Pete Maravich Pass, the Walk of Champions, Heroes Hall, and Midway of Memories. Each section highlights a different aspect or sport within the highly successful LSU athletic empire. Think of it as an interactive history tour. These partitions will also help you identify which section your seat is in.
The lower-level seats at the Maravich Center are filled with season ticket holders and the student section. Individual game tickets are sold for the upper level of the seating bowl. Tickets in the upper level of the PMC go for $15 for Upper Midcourt, $13 for Upper Court, and $10 for Upper Baseline for most of the games.
LSU does implement flex pricing of tickets for games against Kentucky or a nationally ranked opponent from outside the SEC. This can raise the prices by 30 percent. Parking for basketball games runs $8-$15 depending on what lot you park in. The food at the PMC is very inexpensive.
Shariff O'Neal, Shaq's son, plays forward on the current Tigers squad. Both Bob Pettitt and Shaquille O'Neal have been honored with statues in front of the LSU Basketball practice facility.
After Hurricane Katrina, the Pete Maravich Assembly Center was used as a triage center. It was the largest triage center in US history with 800 beds. The PMC is the largest concert venue in Louisiana outside of New Orleans.
The Maravich Assembly Center has hosted two NCAA Men's Regionals, seven NIT games, and four NCAA Women's First and Second Round games.
Any trip to Tiger Town can be intimidating. The main sports venue of Tiger Stadium (football), Alex Box Stadium (baseball), or the Maravich Assembly Center (basketball) each create a decibel level that makes it hard for visiting teams to communicate. The purple and gold color schemes that are predominant in these buildings will constantly remind you that you are competing against sports royalty. Overall, the Maravich Assembly Center provides an excellent return on your money.
Louisiana USA
Pete Maravich Assembly Center
Caesars Superdome – New Orleans Saints
Smoothie King Center – New Orleans Pelicans


text:
Useful Links
This page has Articles Readings Videos about the NHS and Defend NHS Actions
STPs could be blocked if GPs oppose them, says health minister
Opposition from GPs could force a rethink on sustainability and transformation plans (STPs)
STP leaders face major challenges in transforming care and balancing budgets
article from 12 September 2016
The NHS in England is in the final stages of developing five-yearsustainability and transformation plans (STPs).
Argus Article written by Defend's Carl Walker.
"A PRESSURE group has warned the NHS will not survive if urgent action is not taken to tackle the crisis affecting health services."
We must act now to save our crisis-hit NHS from collapse
National Health Action Party take on38 degrees
For details see this link
http://nhap.org/open-letter-to-david-babbs-director-38-degrees-from-dr-paul-hobday/
Excellent analysis of where the NHS is at. Please circulate widely.
https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/only-article-about-leadership-campaign-i-ll-write
Karin Smyth Bristol MP in the SHA seem to see STP differently
She says "The principle of the STP is sound". Then criticises it as not having enough money. Lots ideas of what to do.
Maybe STP itself is not problem. Its the health and Social Care Act 2012 that is.
http://www.sochealth.co.uk/2016/09/13/nhs-sustainability-plans-help-voters-influence-nhss-future/
Patient Transport in Sussex Horrors
http://www.chichester.co.uk/news/health/breaking-news-coperforma-sub-contractor-s-sussex-bases-closed-1-7577415
STP horrors.
Link below headed –
"Don't let old-style contracting hinder your STPs, leaders told" Anyone else read this as a contracting free for all (with all those vultures waiting in the wings)?
http://www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/Health-Care-News/dont-let-old-style-contracting-hinder-your-stps-leaders-told-as-final-dates-revealed?utm_source=National%20Health%20Executive&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7524739_NHE%20Weekly%20Bulletin%20Sep%2016%20wk%202&dm_i=IJV,4HA4J,LVD5QK,GJJJY,1
This is among other things, a fine illustration of Branson's fellow-travellers.
Reg Race - the Man behind 'Saving Labour'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1554774/Ex-Labour-radical-now-makes-killing-on-NHS.html
Why employ Richard Branson to run Children's services?
Find his CV here. Irony or what?
Carl does a weekly NHA blog. I've written this week's blog on the Children's community services tender and Branson/Virgincare and linked our petition to it. The tone of the blog is meant to be lighter and satirical in the hope that it travels further on social media.
http://nhap.org/the-friday-surgery-17/
Here is a smashing bunch of people who have been campaigning hard on Forget Brexit TTIP's back. See this link.
http://corporateeurope.org/tags/ttip
What does the phrase Sustainability and Transformation mean?
The NHS Fed has done a review of STP. You can find it here http://nhscampaign.org/NHS-reforms/sustainability-and-transformation-plans.html
It includes a quote from the Kings Fund, probably the most respected and politically neutral body on the NHS, as saying on page 4 of its article 'What the Planning guidance Means' … "It is inconceivable that the NHS will be able to achieve both financial sustainability and large-scale transformation within these financial constraints".
http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/files/kf/field/field_publication_file/Planning-guidance-briefing-Kings-Fund-February-2016.pdf
"Can Simon Stevens'Sustainability and Transformation Plans save the NHS?" report by Colin Leys
A useful read link - https://chpi.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/CHPI-STP-Analysis.pdf
Sharing stuff about the NHS
Starting Monday 9th May, for 3 weeks, a 2 min explanation daily on what's happening to YOUR NHS.
Like the WatMed Media page & share these videos with friends & family - before it's too late. https://www.facebook.com/WatMedMedia/videos/1685315835062024/
Please support and publicise this project amongst your networks.
The idea is to explain in simple terms what is happening to our NHS in bite size videos to appeal and engage those on social media.
Excellent news on TTIP see these links
Something to hearten us all – see this link .... This follows on from news of national opposition building in several European countries - http://www.euractiv.com/section/trade-society/news/dutch-voters-now-demanding-referendum-on-ttip/ and https://stop-ttip.org/blog/german-association-of-judges-opposes-investment-court-system-proposed-for-ttip/
http://www.waronwant.org/media/massive-document-leak-spells-end-ttip#.VyeD7cJ-IRx.twitter
GPs still in favour of mass resignation despite support packageExclusive Almost half of GPs are still willing to submit undated resignations, despite the multibillion-pound 'Forward View' announced by NHS England last week.
We should be aware (GP group specifically?) that we now have another Forward View this time for primary care, the GP Forward View. It's receiving mixed responses as you can see below. The folowing Comments are always revealing. It's clear to me already that any promised money is destined for large privately run primary care hubs. It's not a coincidence is it that we were told just last week of a Cluster-wide PPG initiative in B&H. Is this the beginning of pulling all GP practices in the city into 3 hubs, East, Central and West which will then be managed by guess who Virgin Health or Capita?
Big question: what are we going to do locally and/or nationally?
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/hot-topics/general-practice-forward-view/gps-still-in-favour-of-mass-resignation-despite-support-package/20031739.article
We need the GP group (?) to read a summary of the GP Forward View and send round a summary of the key threats?
We can try and get a discussin with our B&H LMC to discuss their response and how we can help propogate their resistance?
We can start causing agro at NHS England South East to put roadblocks in their way
We make as much public noise as possible about the key threats.
A Pulse survey of 524 English GPs found that 45% would still support mass resignation from the NHS due to the current state of general practice, while a further one in four are undecided.
This is only a small decrease on the 49% who said that they would be willing to resign their contracts in December 2015.
The Special LMC Conference in January voted for the GPC to canvass support for submitting undated resignation letters if the Government fails to implement a 'rescue package' for general practice within six months.
Last week, Pulse exclusively revealed that the GPC was still considering the threat of mass resignation following the announcement of the General Practice Forward View, which committed £2.4bn extra funding a year by 2020 plus a £500m support package.
Today's poll reveals that GP support for the so-called 'nuclear option' is maintained, with the percentage of GPs ruling mass resignation out decreasing from 35% in December to 29% today.
The number of GPs who are undecided has increased, with a separate question revealing that 48% of GPs are unsure on their support of the Forward View. Of the rest, exactly the same number support the Forward View as oppose it.
GPs said that the Forward View didn't provide enough emergency funding.
Dr Ben Garland, a GP partner in north London, said: 'I was waiting to see what it contained. Three make or break points were ignored: Crown indemnity; new money now to stave off disaster; stop all cost dumping from secondary care. As none of these have occurred I have announce my resignation as of August 2017, aged 56.'
Dr Robert Addlestone, a GP partner in Leeds, said: 'It's a difficult question. The public might not support us if we resign en masse, but as time goes on and they can't get an appointment to see a GP maybe the penny will drop eventually and they will understand the dire state of general practice.'
However, Dr Elizabeth Jones, a GP partner in Norfolk, said: 'I am not sure what this would achieve. We live in a different world than the 1960s when mass resignation was threatened. And the private providers are hovering like vultures.'
GPC chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul last week told Pulse that 'the clock was still ticking' on the potential for mass resignation.
He said: 'We will make sure we hold NHS England to account to deliver on [the proposals], but it is weak in terms of immediate help for practices and that's something we will be lobbying for and negotiating for in coming months.'
On the other hand, the RCGP warmly welcomed the Forward View, describing it as perhaps the 'most significant announcement for general practice since the 1960s'.
Do you support the General Practice Forward View?
Yes: 26% (137)
No: 26% (137)
Don't know: 52% (250)
Following the announcement of the General Practice Forward View, would you support mass resignation from the NHS due to the current state of general practice?
The survey was launched on 28 April 2016, collating responses using the SurveyMonkey tool. The 24 questions asked covered a wide range of GP topics, to avoid selection bias on one issue. The survey was advertised to readers via our website and email newsletter, with a prize draw for a Samsung HD TV as an incentive to complete the survey. A total of 524 GPs answered this question.
Cross-party entity that will soon call to "save the hospitals" by first shifting the PFI debts off them and then selling them to the private sector.
Acknowledgement to Lucy Reynolds
Everyone will cheer, not noticing that this is the essential penultimate step of the privatisation, which must be carried out before selling them into the private sector.
Note that the 2 final steps (e.g. see attached) of selling public assets into the private sector are:
1. clearing long term debts (e.g. PFI debts, mortgages, etc)
2. purging categories of staff that are not wanted by the new owners.
Since the new owners will be operating the "integrated care" model which is characterised by "down-skilling" i.e. having very few qualified doctors (often "star consultants" only), and not many qualified nurses, we can see that the current attack on junior doctors is a clear part of this hospital privatisation process.
It is therefore likely that once this current gambit has succeeded in convincing inattentive members of the public that Alexander, Poulter and Lamb are champions of the NHS (NB all three already have a track record of colluding with the NHS privatisation), we will see them wading in to advise the public that "saving" our hospitals will be achieved by removing the PFI debts that are currently in the way of them moving to new ownership, as explained in Chapters 4-6 of the attached from Adam Smith Institute (who have now taken their link with this down, presumably on the grounds that people had made the connection that this is where Thatcher's backers had the now-completing 30-year NHS privatisation plan written up as a marketing document by this privatisation think-tank, which includes the explanation of the creation of PFI as a privatisation tool for public sector assets such as hospitals).
The issues treated by this attached key ASI report are explained here
https://keepournhspublicgmcr.com/the-adam-smith-institute-explains-how-ccgs-can-be-used-to-privatise-the-nhs/
http://www.patients4nhs.org.uk/a-long-term-plan/
Please prepare the public to interpret the "NHS-saving" party of Lamb, Poulter and Alexander in the correct light: a cross-party con that's needed to fool the public to call for PFI debts to be shifted, in order to complete the sales of our hospitals that were agreed some years back, presumably after the 2009 QIPP report commissioned by the privatisation lobby (NuLabor incarnation thereof) from McKinsey.
This QIPP report was written on the basis that the PFI hospitals would be sold into the private sector, and the rest of our hospitals sold for redevelopment, in completion of the NHS privatisation plan to sell off our hospitals and pass the rest of the NHS to the global insurance industry, whose implementation commenced in the 1980s.
Insurance Industry Takeover presentation Lucy Reynolds gave last week .
Can be dowloaded from the link to the right
the_source_and_destination_of_the_nhs_privatisation_brighton_april_2016.pptx
File Type: pptx
Damning government report on TTIP
Fresh off the press today is the government's business report on the EU-US trade deal, TTIP, and its potential impacts on the UK. It finds that TTIP will have little economic and political benefit, even going as far as to say that it will pose 'meaningful costs' to the UK. These damning conclusions come with no surprise, and reveal that TTIP is 'likely to provide the UK with few or no benefits'.
Here are the key findings;
(1) There is little reason to think that an EU-US investment chapter will provide the UK with significant economic benefits. No two countries in the world exchange more investment than the UK and the US, and there is no evidence that US or UK investors view either country as suffering from the kinds of political risks against which investment treaties are supposed to protect. Moreover, existing evidence suggests that the presence of an EU-US investment chapter is highly unlikely to encourage investment above and beyond what would otherwise take place. US investors have generally not taken much notice of investment treaties in the past when deciding where, and how much, to invest abroad – even when dealing with far more questionable jurisdictions than the UK.
(2) There is little reason to think that an EU-US investment chapter will provide the UK with significant political benefits. The political relationship between Washington and Whitehall is exceptionally strong, and we are aware of no evidence that it is vulnerable to a meaningful risk of investor-state disputes that would become undesirably "politicized" in the absence of an investment treaty. Secondly, we find it unlikely that an EU-US agreement would make significant negotiating partners – like India and China – more or less willing to agree to an investment treaty with the EU. Finally, it is unclear whether the US is particularly keen on an investment protection chapter with the EU, which means the Commission may not be able to use such a chapter as an effective 'bargaining chip' in other trade and/or investment negotiations with Washington. However, these are all issues that BIS might wish to explore in further detail.
(3) There is some reason to expect an EU-US investment chapter will impose meaningful economic costs on the UK. Based on Canada's experience under NAFTA, we would expect an EU-US investment chapter to be regularly invoked by US investors against the UK for governmental actions that would normally not be challengeable under UK law. While we would not expect the UK to lose many of these cases on the merits, the UK will necessarily incur costs to defend itself. Legal costs in investment treaty claims are substantial. The UK government may also find itself subject to pressure to settle some claims, even when there are reasonable prospects of successfully defending the claim on the merits. Finally, given the uncertain meaning of key elements of international investment law, it is possible that the UK would occasionally lose some arbitrations on the merits and be liable for significant damage awards.
(4) There is some reason to expect an EU-US investment chapter to impose meaningful political costs on the UK. Under investment treaties similar to a likely EU-US investment chapter, US investors have brought claims that raise potentially controversial questions. Should US investors bring similar claims against the UK, this will increase the chances that a particular dispute could provoke a backlash against the EU-US economic agreement as a whole or, perhaps more broadly, investor-state arbitration as a governing institution.
Follow this link to read the full report:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/260380/bis-13-1284-costs-and-benefits-of-an-eu-usa-investment-protection-treaty.pdf
The health crisis is about more than junior doctors on strike. We need a public movement to save our NHSyoussefel dinghy's latest piece for @IndyVoices @Independent on why we need a mass movement to save our #Nhs
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/health-crisis-junior-doctors-strike-jeremy-hunt-nhs-privatisation-public-movement-a6998786.html
Letter to all Sussex Defend our NHS
THE ENDGAME FOR THE NHS?
The Sustainability and Transformation Plan
To all supporters of Sussex Defend the NHS:
You may have heard of NHS England's Sustainability and Transformation Plan but the vast majority of even those usually "in the know" have not. Yet, STP involves an England-wide, top-down root and branch re-organisation of the NHS, more root and branch than any since the inception of the NHS.
These are the facts:
England has been divided into 44 STP regions known as "footprints". Each region is to take over full responsibility for provision of NHS and social care services within their borders. Our local "footprint" brings Brighton and Hove together with authorities and commissioning bodies in East and West Sussex and East Surrey.
Detailed 5 year plans and budgets have to be submitted to NHS England by the end of June. Budgets have to demonstrate "aggregate financial balance" ie any outstanding deficits in local NHS Trusts etc have been cleared.
New US-style models of care as set out in NHS England's Five Year Forward View (5YFV) are being nationally imposed as part of this re-organisation. Such is the rush many of these have not even been piloted.
There is no parliamentary mandate for this Plan and there has been no public or professional consultation whatsoever.
Why STP is so dangerous
The "deficit" trap: English NHS trusts round England are in deficit to the tune of more than £2 billion. BSUHT recently announced a deficit of £37 million. In a double whammy, the £25 billion "savings" by 2020, outlined by Lord Carter on behalf of NHS England in the "Provider, Work Productivity programme", will also have to be factored in to all "footprint" budgets. Such massive deductions from whatever allocation our region is given by NHS England can only mean one thing – equally massive cuts to NHS and social care services.
Privatisation: 100's of patients in Brighton and Hove are experiencing the consequences of private sector involvement in NHS services with the continuing malfunctioning of Optum, the collapse of GP services (latterly the Practice deciding the "business" was no longer profitable), the Patient Transport Services fiasco. Local residents on NHS waiting lists are being routinely being contacted by private healthcare and insurance companies touting for business. The expansion of private sector involvement in the NHS, which STP will take much further, can only make such abuses of patient trust more common.
To whatever extent it is dressed up as a brave new advance for the NHS, in whichever
benevolent- sounding terms it is written, STP is fundamentally an ideologically-driven means for the public service-hating government to save £billions, regardless of the human costs. STP is government indifference to the population's healthcare needs and the democratic process, taken to whole new levels.
The government's assumption appears to be that Local Authorities, CCGs, NHS Trusts will simply go along with whatever they propose (however horrendous the consequences) by whatever clandestine means they choose. Our city needs to prove them wrong. The Health and Well-being Board about 20 of us attended on Tuesday did nothing to allay our suspicions that STP is about the government hiving off financial responsibility for the NHS and "devolving" any blame for unpalatable decisions on to the "footprint" Boards and all those involved with them. Where is local accountability in all this? As we see it the Sustainability and Transformation Plan places not only our NHS under threat but our local democracy.
Plans are being made to break down the wall of silence around STP, make city residents aware of the manifold dangers it poses to the NHS and challenge its introduction. This is a blatant attempt to destroy and privatise our publicly-owned, publicly funded, publicly provided and publicly accountable NHS. Do what you can to help stop it.
We are organising a demonstration outside the CCG meeting on Tuesday 24th May where STP will be a major item on the agenda. The meeting is from 1 pm – 4pm in the Auditorium, Brighthelm centre, North Road. We will be sending round more information. Please put the date in your diary if you are able to attend.
Write letters of protest to the CCG and HWB, councillors and MPs.
Make colleagues, family and friends aware of STP which will change all our lives for the worse.
Pressurise the CCG and HWB to organise urgen public consultation meetings.
Write letters to the local and national press.
Ask Defend the NHS to come and speak at any groups you are involved in.
Contact Sussex Defend the NHS with your comments, for further information, suggestions for action and if you wish us to come to speak to any forums:
Email: defendthenhs@gmail.com
Website: http://defendthenhssussex.weebly.com/
Thanks for your attention and commitment and very best wishes,
Sussex Defend the NHS
A revealing article about running a Health Service like a business
in the light of our Patient Transport Service sell-off by, amongst others, Brighton & Hove CCG. This is a national condemnation of the whole idea of a market in the NHS. We argue that this business model does not work for a health service. Running a health service like a business does not work. It is destroying our health service. The government's plan is flawed through and through. They will not win. We are many; they are few.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/19/the-guardian-view-on-boots-sick-staff-a-healthcare-business-and-the-public-purse
A week ago, the Guardian published a Long Read on Boots, a piece which has provoked an extraordinary reaction. A flood of letters from pharmacists that shows no sign of stopping. Strong concern voiced by medical professionals, from GPs to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. And the watchdog compelled to step in, so that, remarkably, Britain's biggest pharmacy now faces the prospect of a regulatory investigation.
Our investigation reported a series of allegations from Boots' own staff, as well as independent experts. We uncovered evidence that a senior manager at the chain was pressuring employees to milk NHS schemes for cash. Pharmacists suggested that professional ethics were being sacrificed for the sake of profit, and spoke of working conditions that threatened patient safety. All this appeared to stem from the business model adopted by Boots after its £11bn private-equity buyout in 2007. To pay back billions in loans, and to make their required returns, the investors pursued a model of "stretch and extract": stretching finances and staff to the limit – then extracting profits.
In the light of the reaction, several conclusions can be drawn. First, Boots has been too hasty to deny the allegations from its own staff. If the company wasn't convinced by the evidence with which it was presented by this newspaper, it ought to have heeded the worrying results of the survey run by the Pharmacists' Defence Association. The subsequent correspondence from the very people the article was about – near-unanimous in their agreement, and adding their own experiences – ought to stir any executive team into further investigation. Crude denialism will not wash.
Second, the pharmacists speaking out clearly feel let down by their employer, their regulator and their government. Our correspondents and interviewees often request anonymity, for fear of reprisals from Boots or other pharmacy chains. Employers' whistle-blowing procedures are mistrusted – and some correspondents don't put much stock in the General Pharmaceutical Council to tackle these issues either. Years ago, the NHS's own research, as well as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, warned of the potential for abuse of medicine-use reviews (MURs), at a cost both to sick patients and to the taxpayer. Yet pharmacists allege that even now there is widespread abuse of this scheme and others – at Boots and its major rivals. For the regulator not to investigate these claims now, and for the Department of Health not to begin its own probe, would betray indifference to a mass rip-off.
Finally, the story of Boots is at root about what happens when high finance preys on the high street, taking billions in public money yet legally avoiding taxes, and turning a 150-year-old British institution inside out to enrich a core of offshore investors. The damage done to hardworking professionals, to the public purse and indeed to public trust is huge. And yet Boots, whose private-equity owners cashed out in 2014, is not the only such case. The care-home industry is dominated by private equity, a high-borrowing, hard-charging business model fundamentally unsuited to that slow-growth sector. NHS contracts – for everything from plasma storage to hospital management – are being parcelled up and flogged off. That has already produced some disastrous results, as the staff and patients at Hinchingbrooke district general hospital can tell you.
This isn't about "public good, private bad". Independent pharmacists are also private but don't attract the same sort of accusations as the chains. Politicians (including within Jeremy Corbyn's Labour) and the public need to assert certain principles. Who owns a company matters. Corporations working in this country and enjoying its infrastructure and well-educated workforce have obligations that go beyond paying the legal minimum in tax. And democracies are entitled to impose limits on what the rich extract from the rest.
Should offshore firms be allowed a toehold in the NHS?
Guardian article see
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/apr/12/offshore-firms-nhs-gps
Made Public! Private Health company sent packing in London
http://keepournhspublic.com/news-events/made-public-private-company-sent-packing-in-london/_
Dysfunctional commissioning evidenced in Brighton Citizens Health Services Survey results. see Doc to the right. Down load it there.
brighton_survey_results_pr_.doc
An informative article in today's (Tuesday 9th Feb) Guardian:
Don't believe the myth that the NHS is unaffordable. See:-
http://www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/2016/feb/09/nhs-part-privatised-health-service-complexity-costs-billions
An open letter to David Cameron published last week in PULSE, the online GPs professional publication. It has attracted over 140 signatures so far and will be sent to Downing Street later in February. Take it along to your GP and ask them to add their signature!!
Dear Mr Cameron,
I am writing to you as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, because under your watch we are seeing the destruction of what many regard as the 'jewel in the crown' of the NHS.
You may not have been aware, but whilst you were away in Europe, another conference took place. GPs from across the UK came together to declare a 'state of emergency' in primary care and debate what could be done to help the growing number of struggling practices.
GPs are being crushed by workload and punished by soaring indemnity and meaningless inspection regimens. We have a workload and a workforce state of emergency. Access to health care to people in this country is at risk and close to collapse.
The conference last week was our vote of 'no confidence' in you and your Government.
And the situation is being made worse by irresponsible rhetoric from your ministers.
The whole health service is at risk as you push for a 'seven-day service' without the required 40% increase in financial or workforce resource. This is what the junior doctors are trying to tell you. That is why they are protesting on the streets at your new unsafe contract. This is not about politics, but about people. About your Government's will to maintain primary care and a universal healthcare service.
Here is our evidence; you make the sick, the poor and the young pay for this country's debt, you won't raise taxes to fund a service that is universally recognised as one of the most efficient, effective and fair in the world, you won't keep the NHS out of TTIP, you systematically strangle resources to the NHS and primary care in particular, you let excellent practices and services go to the wall whilst letting private companies who can't make money out of their NHS contracts walk away from them without redress. You misrepresent evidence to suit your ideologies and treat NHS staff with contempt, undermine them, blame them, starve them, beat them but occasionally turn and promise them 'something nice if you behave'. In any other profession this would be called institutionalised abuse. You and your Government have abused GPs and abused our NHS.
And you appear blind and deaf to what is now happening around you. As Dr Chaand Nagpaul thundered from the LMC conference platform, 'It's not safe!' You are wasting fine doctors and nurses who are burned out, shattered, sick and exiting. It's not safe for anyone - GPs and patients. This is why GPs will, if it comes to it, tender mass resignation.
Both the fault and the remedy is at your door. Money is needed but money alone will not get them back. Prime Minister, confidence is the precious resource you need to regain.
Come to my practice and speak to my patients and I will show you how. But I urge you to be open to hearing some hard truths, because the health service is not currently safe in your hands and your legacy could be the start of its destruction.
Dr Naomi Beer
GP in Tower Hamlets
Profiteering out of the NHS
£600m chunk of our NHS is up for grabs for willing profiteer. Do pass onto to any Hedge Fund pals interested
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/9147deaf-1b02-4452-858f-a3eb6ee8ad6e
Good article on private healthcare. Wot they dont tell you!!
https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/paul-hobday/seven-things-private-healthcare-insurance-adverts-wont-tell-you
The NHS financial crisis is being used by healthcare insurers to try and sell their products - but what are the risks? This recent article by Paul Hobday spells them out.
Links and readings from Davy Jones: 19 Jan 16
Downgrading of healthwatch.
http://www.lgcplus.com/newsletter/services/health-and-care/government-downgrades-healthwatch-independence/7001705.article?WT.tsrc=email&WT.mc_id=Newsletter277
Also, you might be interested in his interview with Sarah Kingdon, local BMA rep on the Junior Doctors dispute:
http://radiofreebrighton.org.uk/blog/2015/06/14/listen-here-politics-show-with-davy-jones/
Finally, Davy is aware that there is a growing campaign about the local Practice Group of 5 GP practices closing. Caroline is doing a lot on this - is there anything else the Greens could be doing on this to help ?
http://www.carolinelucas.com/latest/caroline-writes-to-nhs-england-about-the-threatened-closure-of-5-local-gp-surgeries
Simon stevens demanding consensus on taking money from pensioners to pay for social care, with a link to a guardian article about this demand. What will Labour do about this?
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jan/18/this-is-nhs-chief-demands-political-consensus-funding-elderly-and-social-care
Remarkable Analysis of the State of the NHS
At our NHS training day we had an analysis of the State of the NHS. Remarkable in-depth analysis with full references, links and sources.
Worth a read for all those in the NHS - patients voters staff and those wanting to be staff in the NHS. Focusses on the fragmentation, marketisation, and privatisation of the NHS. Please read and circulate to others.
Young ones resend on Social Media. Also raise with MPs Councillors.
Download full document from the file to the right.
training_day_talk_state_of_nhs.docx
Reading. Excellent Booklet on the NHS. Really helpful for Campaigners.
Helping you get involved in action to save our NHS where you live and work Supplied by Jon Donovan https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/tucfiles/nhs_campaign_guide_2013.pdf
What is happening to our GP Services?
Listen to the speakers at our public meeting Thursday 24th September 2015
- just press this link to the recording on Radio Free Brighton
http://radiofreebrighton.org.uk/blog/2015/08/20/rfb-fortnightly-calendar-of-events-from-sussex-defend-the-nhs/
Osborne's public health cut is a blunder too far
Good article on the ways governments blunder see :-
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/02/public-health-cut-osborne-nhs
Stealth Privatisation of the NHS
The Keiser Report has interview with Bob Gill and Lucy Reynolds discussing insurance industry takeover and promoting petition against FoI opt out for outsourced public spending under 'commercial confidentiality' wearing one of our T Shirts
Look at the Keiser Report link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7rFDcvkheA
For an instructive diagram of the Corporate Capture of the NHS see
https://opendemocracy.net/files/CorporateCaptureRoundtable_finaldraft_withfooters%20(1).pdf
Its quite a nasty and upsetting picture
Third (voluntary organisations and charities) sector and the NHS have produced a report. See pdf on the right. You can download it.
One of our immediate post-election events will be one of our Community Forums on this subject with key people from either side of the argument players from either side of the arguments, politicians and trade unions. Watch this space.
third_sector_and_the_nhs_-_the_trojan_horse.pdf
Election 2015: What's at stake for the NHS? see Class!
Interesting series of pre-election articles from CLASS – Centre for Labour and Social Studies. The link take you to an NHS one
http://classonline.org.uk/pubs/item/election-2015-whats-at-stake-for-the-nhs
Tired of Tory lies? Read the updated version of Dr Jackie Davis's NHS myth busters, based on our new book NHS For Sale redpepper.org.uk/mythbuster-hea…
ARM YOURSELF WITH IDEAS AND ARGUMENTS ABOUT THE NHS
Have come across this fact-ful and shocking report on private hospitals and the NHS – co-authored by Colin Leys http://chpi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/CHPI-PatientSafety-Aug2014.pdf
Finally information in Rob Galloway's letter which Jo posted yesterday could be useful. http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/11708558.Prime_Minister_David_Cameron__lied__over_NHS___Brighton_doctor_claims/
Revealed: All new GP contracts will be thrown open to private providers
(taken from PULSE http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/home/stop-practice-closures/revealed-all-new-gp-contracts-will-be-thrown-open-to-private-providers/20007596.article#.VJ1I3bgRrTA )
Exclusive All new GP contracts will be opened up to bids from the private sector by NHS England in a move that GP leaders have warned marks the 'death-knell' of traditional life-long general practice.
As a tide of practices face closure, managers have told Pulse that because of competition law they will not be replaced with GMS or PMS contracts, but with time-limited APMS contracts instead.
The move has taken GP leaders by surprise, with the GPC seeking urgent legal advice about the move. Some have warned it will lead to the privatisation of the NHS with surgeries replaced with 'short-term, profit making ventures'.
APMS contracts were introduced in 2004 to open up primary care to 'new providers' and were famously used to procure the Labour government's ill-fated 'Darzi' centres across the country.
In October last year, Pulse revealed that NHS England's London area team was planning to procure a 'significant' number of APMS contracts this year.
And managers say this policy has been adopted nationally, to ensure that NHS England complies with competition regulations.
An NHS England spokesperson said: 'Under the GMS regulations there is scope to enter into a temporary contract but this is at clear odds with procurement law and the 2013 regulations so best practice would dictate that this should not be used when APMS effectively does the same job and does not come with the same risks attached.
'GMS can still be entered into upon reversion from PMS and the new form of PMS contract may be entered into by way of renegotiation (ie variation) but in respect of procurements, yes they should all be on APMS.'
Pulse has previously revealed an increasing trend towards APMS contracts. In February, NHS competion watchdog Monitor launched a probe on how to attract new general practice providers to regions with poor care, despite warnings from the GPC not to put 'competition ahead of continuity'.
GP leaders are warning that, with practices under increasing workload and financial pressure, strict tender requirements could exclude smaller practices from primary care and drive the invasion of private providers.
And they are advising practices to seek alternatives to contract termination, for example by merging, when partners reach retirement in order to avoid losing 'invaluable' GMS and PMS contracts.
GPC chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul said he was surprised to hear about the national policy that would 'spell the death knell of the whole ethos of long-term, continuity of care in the way general practice operates'.
He said the GPC was seeking urgent legal advice on whether NHS England was correct in asserting that APMS contracts were the only way to satisfy international procurement law.
He added: 'It's extremely unfortunate, and highly ill-advised that area teams should be undermining secure, long-term sustained provision of general practice through APMS contracts. There is nothing to stop an area team choosing to use a PMS or GMS as a contract, on the grounds that it offers a local population the best mechanism for the provision of general practice services.'
Dr Tony Grewal, medical director at Londonwide LMCs said they were worried about the moves in the capital that would replace family doctors with 'short-term, profit making ventures that went against the ethos of primary care'.
He added: 'APMS is only for five years, potentially renewable, which means that you cannot invest time, you can't invest in the long term. It's designed for people to go in, to make a profit, and to go out again. Which is not, in my opinion, what general practice is about.'
'What it means is, over a reasonably short period of time, given the rate at which practices are closing at the moment, you are going to have significant proportions of general practice services in London, being run by the commercials or big conglomerates.'
And Dr David Jenner, GP contract lead at the NHS Alliance and a GP in Cullompton, Devon, warned that the move would mean that independent GPs would struggle to compete with larger healthcare corporations.
He said: 'Often minimum requirements of IT, quality, financial backing, in practice can make it difficult for small providers to effectively compete.
'It can be a very inefficient way of procuring a service of limited value. There is also the danger of providers bidding low to win the contract and then being unable to meet the terms of it.'
BMA Council member and Lewisham GP Dr Louise Irvine told Pulse: 'I'm worried about that becoming the new model of care, we've already seen new models of private companies bidding for these APMS contracts, some of them have been successful and it's hard for ordinary practices to bid against them.'
She added: 'It's very much part of a trend, it's part of this big push to privatise, to commercialise and bring in private, for profit companies to run more and more, not just primary care, but community and secondary hospital care.'
Stunning YouTube video of Allyson Pollock arguing against NHS privatisation.
Prof Allyson Pollock spoke about the NHS Reinstatement Bill to the public in Oxford on 25/11/14 at a meeting organised by the Green Party. This is the speech uncut but without the Q&A session. Pollock is behind the NHS Reinstatement Bill as a response to priviatisation - see www.allysonpollock.com/ (NHS
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HP16iWpIwo0
HOW THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION IS TRYING TO SMOTHER DEBATE ON TTIP. Look at
https://stop-ttip.org/blog/how-the-european-commission-is-trying-to-smother-debate-on-ttip/
Report on NHS Unions actions on 24th Nov. 14 Look at Channel 4 report on
http://blogs.channel4.com/victoria-macdonald-on-health-and-social-care/nhs-staff/2645#sthash.zU2sSeVy
Report from Outside the Sussex County today. NHS workers struggling to make ends meet. NHS staff take to the picket lines for the second time in two months, with more unions joining in. The government says the recommended 1 per cent rise will mean job losses.
More than 5,000 patients need to find new surgery after Brighton GP's announce retirement
What does this mean for our GP services? Look at:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/11543372.More_than_5_000_patients_need_to_find_new_surgery_after_Brighton_GP_s_announce_retirement/?ref=mr
Sell-Off - The Abolition of Your NHS
Peter Bach's film explains how the NHS as we know it is being quietly abolished and replaced by a system modeled on the US, in which profit-making private companies deliver care. Corporate interests rather than patient care is driving reform in today's NHS. Look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ultKvnw2h3Q
Doctors and other health professionals working to save our health service, explain the changes brought in by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 and make the case for reinstating the publicly provided NHS. The film can be downloaded from vimeo http://vimeo.com/110895709
Nice to hear some encouraging news every now and then.
Health chiefs bow to 12,000 signature petition and stop Dorset privatisation
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Health-chiefs-bow-12-000-signature-petition-stop/story-23119442-detail/story.html
Critique of Labour's Clive Efford private members' bill on the NHS.
It contains a useful one page summary at the beginning that's worth a read. From KONP and Ken Kirk. Download from the right
response_to_the_efford_bill_12_nov_14-2.pdf
PUBLIC CONSULTATION IN THE NHS 2014
The paper ( attached to the right) reviews the current law on public consultation. It shows how the 2012 Act reduces the accountability of NHS organisations downwards, to local communities and their representatives and how, by doing so, it allows privatisation to flourish. It is an interesting story which I hopeyou will find useful. From Ken Kirk
konp_public_consult_paperoct14.docx
New book challenges the popular myths surrounding the welfare state
A new book by John Hills challenges the "strivers versus skivers" myths that underpin current political debate around welfare benefits.
Extensive research presented in Good Times, Bad Times: the welfare myth of them and us contests the common perception that what most of the welfare state does is fund hand-outs to a minority of unemployed, feckless "spongers" who are content to live long-term on benefits. In reality, research shows that people's lives are constantly changing as their income fluctuates from birth to old age. Most of us benefit from the welfare state at different points in our lives, getting back roughly what we paid in. Hills, Professor of Social Policy and Director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE|) at LSE, commented: "Our research clearly demonstrates that there is no 'them and us' – just us, and we all stand to lose out from the current misconceptions driving the welfare policy debate."
Key points of the book are:
Much of the current policy and political debate around 'welfare' is misconceived, conducted as if the central issues around the welfare state were about handouts to an unchanging welfare dependent minority – 'them' – paid for by an equally unchanging group of taxpayers – 'us'.
In reality, research shows that people's lives are constantly changing. People move in and out of work.The incomes of many in work change substantially from week to week and month to month. People's positions change over their life cycles. People move in and out of poverty, and so many more are touched by it over a run of years than at any one time. Half of those going on to Job Seeker's Allowance leave it in no more than two months.
Most spending on the welfare state – and the source of its rising cost as the population ages – is on the NHS, education, and pensions, from which everyone benefits.This means that most people have a major stake in its operation – equivalent to the value of up to 25 years' worth of average net annual incomes for a typical household.
As a result most of us benefit from the welfare state at some points in our lives, and pay towards it at others.
Only £1 in every £12.50 spent on the welfare state goes on benefits and tax credits for those who are currently out of work.
The result of these misconceptions is that one group of people find themselves at the sharp end of 'welfare reforms' designed to make substantial savings from what is in reality only a small part of the budget, leaving some in hardship.
But the misperception of who the system serves also means that choices are being made that fail to recognise the interests of the vast majority of us who have a large stake in it.
Good Times, Bad Times: the welfare myth of them and us is published by Policy Press on November 12th 2014.http://www.policypress.co.uk/display.asp?K=9781447320036|
To interview Professor Hills please contact Joanna Bale, LSE Press Office on 07831 60967907831 609679 orj.m.bale@lse.ac.uk|
LSE media studio has an ISDN line and Globelynx television broadcast facilities.
For a review copy of the book, please contact Kathryn King, Marketing Manager, Policy Press on 0117 954 59400117 954 5940 or Kathryn.King@bristol.ac.uk|
Government strategy in relation to the NHS
Submitted by Madeleine Dickens Defend the NHS 14 Oct 2014
· fragmentation
· detaching from local responsibility and control
· slashing of local authority budgets forcing most to "think the unthinkable" in carrying out govt policy – in relation to the NHS and other local services.
· taking NHS employees out of AFC conditions to which, barring some miracle they will
never be able to return. Offering TUPE which is at best only a temporary measure
anyway and in many cases is not even adhered to. National agreements
in tatters and pay, terms and conditions fatally undermined
· Contributes to progressive de-stabilisation of the NHS – giving the government excuses for even more public discrediting and destructive interventions.
· Charging for NHS services (ie full-blown privatisation) has already been introduced in some parts of the country. Increasingly going to become the norm. We only have to look at what has happened to NHS dental services to see the future.
· The strategy so far can be seen as a softening up process for charging for services, visiting GPS, hospital treatment etc thereby "persuading" more and more people to take up private insurance (yet further de-stabilisation).
· Classic disaster theory (cf Naomi Klein). In this case govt has engineered the disaster.
And the role of social enterprises, vol orgs and charities in all this? It is important to differentiate the massively changing roles of these in the NHS as it used to be (ie before Labour started this whole sorry mess).
For years vol orgs and charities years have worked alongside and complemented statutory NHS services, providing crucial community-based services, often to communities not reached by more statutory means. Between that historical relationship and what is happening now there are significant differences. Some of these organisations are sticking to their historical roles and relationships. But many have (like their colleagues in the private sector) seen that there is big money to be made from the dismantling NHS and are getting in on the act.
As is proving evident in some cases they differ little from private companies in their attitudes to staff pay, terms, conditions and even recognition of qualifications. The less scrupulous are no less likely to engage in corner cutting and closing down facilities and services (as we have seen locally).
On the other hand and even more dangerously (particularly in an increasingly de-stabilised "market" environment), they are often subject to cash-flow problems and competition vagaries in awarding of contracts. This makes them prime targets for takeover by bigger interests or going under.
As someone described it at a recent event about social enterprises – the new generation of these organisations are the Trojan horses of govt privatisation strategy - the apparently acceptable face of the govt onslaught on the NHS. The strategy is brilliant in its simplicity. Just force sufficient people into colluding with your strategy and beliefs and…. (sounds horribly familiar). It is proving massively effective, because no-one is exposing or challenging what is really happening. Until now.
West Sussex A&E/orthopaedics BUPS contract in turmoil
Look at this article in the Worthing Herald
http://www.worthingherald.co.uk/news/local/a-e-sos-bupa-csh-contract-a-bad-decision-for-patients-1-6334245
The Pledge Launch 24 September 2014. G Scene have done us proud – included the whole release. Comments by Simon Kirby and Graham Cox are so worth a read.
http://gscene.com/news/caroline-lucas-mp-to-speak-at-launch-of-pledge-to-save-nhs-campaign/
Could we really be charged to visit our GP? Could this be coming? Look at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/nhs/10812505/GPs-to-vote-on-charges-for-visits-to-surgery.html
A response by The National Health Action Party to GP charges
http://nhap.org/gps-call-patient-charges-supporting-zombie-policies/
Brilliant video from The Green Party on Nhs privatisation
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CsZojBhuy2Y
and look at
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gj0Ws8WLx8c
A new film entitled "Sell Off" and deals with the privatisation of the NHS.
The director of the film is Peter Bach. They need finical support. See the websites below
https://www.startjoin.com/NHS_SellOff
http://www.sochealth.co.uk/2014/03/21/review-film-peter-bach-called-sell-abolition-nhs/


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