Mayor Anderson rejects plan for NHS cuts at packed meeting of protestors

                                    

protest before Liverpool Health and Wellbeing Board (Liverpool City Council) 1st December 2016 (Cunard Building)

Liverpool Health and Wellbeing Board (Liverpool City Council) 1st December 2016 Part 1 of 3

Last week I witnessed a large protest of local people angry at proposed changes to their National Health Service.

Despite a very large number of people with banners and a megaphone who came into the Cunard Building, unlike previous protests in Liverpool neither the local police (or even Liverpool City Council’s own City Watch) nor local newspapers appeared to be present.

In fact the protest was so large, there was not enough space for all of them in the Banquet Suite on the 6th floor where the public meeting was held.

Mayor Joe Anderson (of Liverpool City Council), Chair of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Board rejected the NHS STP (Sustainability and Transformation Plan) emphatically and let some of the protesters address the meeting with their questions.

Clearly, the protests about this issue are getting bigger and the protesters louder.

Some are openly predicting an early General Election. At this point in time I see an early General Election as unlikely but the political outlook is very fluid.

It remains to be seen what happens next, Liverpool certainly has a long history of protest politics and of calling for political reforms.

The rise in racist abuse following the Brexit referendum is concerning and political uncertainty coupled with economic uncertainty mean that these are ideal conditions for civil unrest to happen.

The recent 2011 riots (at a time of anti-austerity protests) were sparked by the police shooting dead a black man in London. There is a concern that the rise in racism following the Brexit referendum could lead to history repeating itself.

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