Tuesday 6 September 2011

In just three hours 2,500 Brighton residents sign petition against the Health and Social Care Bill.


   (Photo from the BBC's report)

In just three hours 2,500 Brighton residents sign petition against the Health and Social Care Bill.

Over 50 campaigners from Brighton Keep Our NHS Public, Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition and Brighton Trades Council received an overwhelming response despite the rain when campaigning against the Health and Social Care bill on Sunday September 4.

2,500 people signed the petition, in just three hours, against the government's plans to privatise our NHS, making it clear that the people of Brighton and Hove do not want their NHS broken up and run by private providers.

Phil Clarke from Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition says: "We urge the two Conservative MPs in our city to remember that they stood in the election on a promise of 'no more top-down reforms of the NHS,' but are now planning to vote through the biggest and most destructive ‘reform’ of the NHS since its inception.’ Locally, only Caroline Lucas has currently pledged to vote against this bill."

The petition was handed in to the local Conservative Party on Monday September 5 by Brighton Trades Council President Holly Smith and Russ from the Unemployed Workers Centre.

Whichever way this week’s parliamentary vote goes, we will continue to campaign to defend our NHS and fight for a publicly run, publicly owned health service.


The next Brighton Keep Our NHS Public organising meeting is at 7pm Monday September 12 at Wagner Hall behind St Martins church, Lewes Road, Brighton.