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David Cameron holds secret 'privatisation' talks with NHS hate campaigners
By Jason Beattie 28/12/2009
David Cameron's vow to back the NHS was exposed as a sham yesterday after a secret meeting with a group bent on privatising the health service.
The Tory leader invited Nurses For Reform to his Commons office for an hour's talk even though they have branded the NHS a "Soviet-style calamity" and want to see it sold off.
Among issues discussed were ending nurses' national pay rates and letting hospitals close if they run out of cash. Mr Cameron - drenched during a charity run yesterday - did not publicise the meeting, prompting claims he would "abandon" the NHS at the first opportunity.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: "No matter what cast-iron guarantees David Cameron gives in public, it is now clear, in private, he is discussing abandoning the NHS as we know it."
Referring to Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, who called for privatisation, Mr Burnham said: "This isn't the first time Cameron has harboured those who think the NHS is a 60-year mistake."
Dr Helen Evans, of NFR, revealed the meeting on a blog and ideas that they discussed.
She wrote: "These included the end of national collective pay bargaining, that the state should not own or have agents manage hospitals." She even boasted she would make a "profit" from a swine flu pandemic.
A spokesman for the Tory leader, who took part in the Chadlington Great Brook Run near Chipping Norton, Oxon, to earn a medal and a kiss from wife Samantha, said: "David Cameron meets with lots of people of different views but he is committed to an NHS free at point of delivery."
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By Jason Beattie 28/12/2009
David Cameron's vow to back the NHS was exposed as a sham yesterday after a secret meeting with a group bent on privatising the health service.
The Tory leader invited Nurses For Reform to his Commons office for an hour's talk even though they have branded the NHS a "Soviet-style calamity" and want to see it sold off.
Among issues discussed were ending nurses' national pay rates and letting hospitals close if they run out of cash. Mr Cameron - drenched during a charity run yesterday - did not publicise the meeting, prompting claims he would "abandon" the NHS at the first opportunity.
Health Secretary Andy Burnham said: "No matter what cast-iron guarantees David Cameron gives in public, it is now clear, in private, he is discussing abandoning the NHS as we know it."
Referring to Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, who called for privatisation, Mr Burnham said: "This isn't the first time Cameron has harboured those who think the NHS is a 60-year mistake."
Dr Helen Evans, of NFR, revealed the meeting on a blog and ideas that they discussed.
She wrote: "These included the end of national collective pay bargaining, that the state should not own or have agents manage hospitals." She even boasted she would make a "profit" from a swine flu pandemic.
A spokesman for the Tory leader, who took part in the Chadlington Great Brook Run near Chipping Norton, Oxon, to earn a medal and a kiss from wife Samantha, said: "David Cameron meets with lots of people of different views but he is committed to an NHS free at point of delivery."
...
http://www.mirror.co...15875-21926813/
PS: don't you just love how someone who doesn't agree with a statist is a "hate campaigner"?
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