Or rather "not in the news"

I would just like to give some support to Eloethan's remarks about competitive tendering in the NHS.

NHS dentistry is a very small part of the NHS budget (about £2 billion).
Orthodontics is a small part of that.
Orthodontic provision in an area of the north-east was put out to tender, and there were several bids, mainly from practitioners but from some corporate bodies too.
After the contract was awarded, there was an appeal and the whole process had to be repeated.
The cost of this fiasco was estimated as £1 million.
You can buy quite a lot of actual orthodontics for £1million, instead of wasting it on a competitive tendering process.

Yes my thoughts too jinglbellsfrocks.

Be very careful as that is verging on a personal attack.

" Once posters have to resort to lying" What?!!!!!

You can't say that!

Diabolical!

Aka - you know you didn't mean for one minute that you thought the cause was worthy - otherwise the word whining wouldn't have been used. It looks more like a poor attempt at irony - I certainly read your post and knew exactly what you were saying!

Jen and Elo - I admire your tenacity on this thread ( as on many others) and you don't deserve the unkind spiteful comments lobbed in your direction. Once posters have to resort to lying - as in 'very worthy cause'or childish commens about the ' thread police ' and banners, you know you've won the argument. There's been some very heartening, sensible posts on this thread and it's clear where the balance of opinion lies. Interesting, isn't it, which group of opinions have been expressed rationally and logically and which group have resorted to cheap jibes?

Apologies. Just shows that you ought not to whinge yourself about people's posts because they expect you to be always negative.

Quote from earlier today Jen

"My post was, and always has, been aimed at those who are whining that their march (worthy though I doubtless is) did not attract sufficient PUBLICITY.

Should read in parenthesis 'worthy thought it doubtless is' Jen

Proves my point that posts are not read !

No, cannot find any reference to it being doubtless a worthy cause. In fact your posts come across as completely the opposite. Just thought I would save you the bother of writing another negative response to me, which is what you always seem to do.
I said on a thread yesterday about the government asking for tax judges, with a view to HMRC getting over £7 billion back over the next year from people who had not paid their taxes.
If the government had done this when they first came to power, austerity would not have been needed, and we would not have been thought of as a tax haven. The NHS would not be in the state it is in.

Who appointed you Thread Police Jen ?

As I said Eloethan doubtless a Very Worthy Cause. At least I think I posted that earlier

jingl sometimes you just nail it!

www.thepeoplesassembly.org.uk/999_march_event

Jarrow march to save the NHS, if anyone's interested. There's a map on the website, and you can join as much or as little as you want.

Don't bother responding, Aka.

I hope you managed to get all that on your banner Eloethan.

Please don't misrepresent those who marched on Saturday as being a bunch of complainers whose concerns are petty and alarmist and whose supporters are not interested in international poverty and injustice. Many of those in the People's Assembly are involved in charities and organisations campaigning and raising money to help alleviate global poverty and to fight the wilful desecration of the environment, with its consequent effect on the supply and distribution of natural resources (War on Want and the Green Party were represented on the march).

The fact that 50,000 people turned up to this event was entirely due to the efforts made by the very small People's Assembly team and local PA groups who leafleted in their neighbourhoods, and surely indicates a growing disquiet that should be reported.

The need for the "austerity" measures is presented as an indisputable fact in the mainstream media and virtually no air time is given to those who take an alternative view. The disinclination of the media to cover the event confirms their bias.

We are constantly told that the cuts are necessary in order to balance the books.

Today in the "I" it was reported:

".... the Chair of Council for the British Medical Association accused the Coalition of ushering in "a bumper year for multinationals. ...."

"Dr Porter said that pressure to tender NHS contracts to as many potential providers as possible had led to "market lunacy". In one case, no fewer than 500 potential providers had been asked if they could provide an expression of interest in running NHS services in Milton Keynes and Beds. Porter said the bureacracy involved with such bids was unaffordable at a time of budgetary constraint "

How exactly do such policies "save money" and lead to a more efficient service? And what are the long term consequences of selling off our public services to companies that are motivated by profit alone. We have seen that once the state sector has been pushed out and private companies have control over resources, it is very difficult for "regulators" to prevent such private companies from colluding with one another to keep prices high.

Oxford Street area from 1200 to 1500 approx. But it's just as much for the PA to say what it means by Central London.

The BBC has a duty to be impartial, it's in its charter. And it frequently fails. As it did on this occasion.

The last I heard the media had the freedom to report what they considered important. And Grannytwice you know what you can do with your shovel [hmm ]

It depends on what you mean by Central London - and what time you were there. I was on the march and in my view it did.

The People's Assembly does itself no favours by claiming on its website that it brought Central London to a standstill last Saturday.

I was in Central London; it didn't.

I suppose it's - what do they call it? emotional fatigue? - that can make us feel a little less sympathy for people living, safe and sound, in this country.

Good post, Petallus. I couldn't put it better.

I have always been baffled by the idea that there is a kind of hierarchy of suffering and only those at the top are entitled to complain or are worthy of sympathy.

Those who are struggling to house and feed themselves and their children do not deserve to be told to stop whingeing because somewhere else in the world people are being blown up. And I don't suppose being blown up is made any better by the knowledge that somewhere else people (and their children) are being horribly tortured for months on end.

The reason marches are not reported on, or are reported in a diminishing way, is because of censorship by the government through the ever obliging media (with a few exceptions).

I would like to know when the next People's Assembly march will take place. If somebody finds out may they could post it on GN.

Aka - try as you might, you can't wriggle out of the incredibley value- loaded negative, demeaning , supercilious use of the word ' whingeing' - anybody else want to give her a shovel?

Hang on, there has been plenty of coverage of the atrocities going on ad infinitum around the world and that is exactly as it should be. However, 20 or 30 seconds air-time to give coverage to a peaceful march of 50,000 is surely not beyond the wit of a newsroom?

Peoples' grievances regarding how this country is run or not should surely be covered as an item in the news.

I don't think lack of publicity is what the OP said, rather some coverage, or would you deem the news regarding the madness in the middle-east as publicity?

And Nonu