Latest UK protests target health service changes

Peers in the House of Lords Monday were starting a critical debate on the government's controversial Health and Social Care Bill following protests warning it will destroy the country's National Health Service (NHS). Activists from UK Uncut tax avoidance campaign led thousands of health workers, trade unionists, pensioners and students in occupied London's Westminster Bridge on Sunday in a last-ditch battle to stop the government's health changes. Block the Bridge, Block the Bill protest warned that government is “just weeks away from destroying the NHS forever” and would lead to hospitals being sold to private corporations, if the legislation was passed. Civil Service union PCS leader Mark Serwotka said that the legislation represents the 'gravest threat to the NHS' since its foundation. 'Peaceful protest and civil disobedience have a long and proud history in this country, and are a perfectly legitimate response to plans that no-one voted for and no-one wants,' Serwotka said in reference to the reforms that were not even in the coalition's election manifestos. The government has already been forced to delay the bill, hold a consultation and then reintroduce it due to the extent of opposition within the NHS, but reports suggest a compromise was being planned to pass the bill. UK Uncut, which has been in the front-line of campaigns exposing the extent of corporate tax avoidance, is joining global protests around the world to demand the people's rights for real democracy in a march to parliament next weekend.