Be very afraid

[piggys]

Agree with all of the above.
(and Oprah is fab)

[PettswoodFiona]

The title of this thread definitely remains relevant today.
I despair for the future of the NHS and the elderly/disabled/those needing care in general.

Yup, me too.

When Blair was elected in 1997 he had to refund an NHS which had been starved by the Tories for 18 years. He and Brown spent a lot of time and money doing just that. That's all been destroyed now because of an entrenched Tory ideology which is fundamentally opposed to the idea of nationalised industry and state ownership. Why? because you can't make a profit and sell shares. I wish JH would just be open about this. The Tories believe in inequality. Toby Young believes in inequality.

Be afraid.

I agree with most of the comments on this thread but I would point out that it was the Labour government of Blair that has saddled my Health Trust and my particular local hospital with such an enormous debt due to PPI that it has far less than most others to spend on the patients, a huge portion of its budget goes on inflated contracts for the building and it isn't a very well built or thought through building at that. I understand this was repeated a number of times with other hospitals. It is the short-termism, cronyism and obfuscation of all the parties that often means they don't plan ahead, have short-term views and they try and make their policies appear glossy when they are anything but glossy.

[Surferfish]

Agree with all of the above.
(and Oprah is fab)

Did you read the Guardian Oprah article which Amber posted a link to? It seems to be saying that politically at least, Oprah may not be quite so fab as we might first think.

"Oprah’s enterprise [is] an ensemble of ideological practices that help legitimize a world of growing inequality and shrinking possibilities by promoting and embodying a configuration of self compatible with that world.”

[Amber]

Did you read the Guardian Oprah article which Amber posted a link to? It seems to be saying that politically at least, Oprah may not be quite so fab as we might first think.

We? Not me. I reserve judgment.


As I have recently read in another context entirely, 'one major causal story - that the capitalist economic and political system is the cause of innumerable social ills - is consistently shut out' (Stone, writing on Causal Stories) . Oprah's own narrative, of triumph (of the underdog) against big bad forces which forced her into a victim role, actually does nothing to address the deep issues of inequality and injustice which afflict modern day America. By suggesting that 'we can all be Oprahs', she is essentially supporting Conservative ideology - that given the chance, everyone can succeed. Sadly this does nothing to address the inherent inequalities which led to her being the underdog in the first place, and certainly wouldn't have helped her if she had also been disabled, for example, or elderly.

[Surferfish]

We? Not me. I reserve judgment.

Well yes, I didn't intend to include you in the 'We' as you were the one who posted the article and therefore presumably agree with much of what it said.

I was talking more about the general 'We' (myself included) who perhaps admire the likes of Oprah for beating the system. But that article was an interesting one and made me rethink that rags to riches stories like Oprah's perhaps do more to support a system of inequality than inspire people to break it down, like you say.