Ken Loach and Bristol Left Unity at the Bristol Old Vic

Sam Williams reports on a play and discussion focusing on the NHS.

Ken Loach, the film director and one of Left Unity’s founders, spoke at a performance and discussion at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre last week about the current plight of the NHS, and Bristol Left Unity was invited along. The play, ‘This Might Hurt A Bit’, centred on one family’s journey of care through the NHS, and delivered a nuanced and powerful attack on the coalition’s top-down privatisation of the NHS. It also reminded us all of the principles that the NHS was founded on, and that we need to stand up and fight for our NHS before, beneath our noses, it becomes more and more like the system of health insurance found in the USA.

While highlighting that the current destruction of the NHS is primarily ideologically driven, the play was able to defend the NHS not only with an ideological alternative but with strong facts, figures and common sense. For example, the PFI debacle was laid bare, which began with New Labour and is being applied with gusto by the coalition. I am glad to see that part of Left Unity’s 10-point plan to re-instate, protect, and improve the NHS is “the abolition of the ruinously expensive Private Finance Initiative (PFI)”.

After the play Ken Loach was joined by a panel including a practising GP. We discussed the current state of the NHS and how patient care was being put at risk because of massive cuts to staffing levels. Ken talked about a narrowing of the status quo among the main political parties, and brought up the example that the Labour party’s challenge to the privatisation of Royal Mail now rests on the price it was sold for, not the privatisation in itself.

We already have privatisation within the NHS. How can we stop and reverse this when the main parties’ positions are narrowing? Speakers from Bristol Left Unity commended the clarity of the play and asked the panel how we could take this clear message and win the argument amongst a broader audience. We also noted that similar things are happening in education and elsewhere.

In order to win the argument and change the narrative, Ken made a strong call for supporting Left Unity, because we can provide a clear political articulation against the current policies of the coalition, the status quo of the other political parties, and offer a real alternative. On a personal note, this is my reason supporting Left Unity. That is why Bristol Left Unity will be inviting groups such as Keep Our NHS Public to our meetings to see how we can help support their campaigns on the ground, whilst providing the political representation of those views which is so desperately needed.

After the discussion and Ken’s show of support for Left Unity a lot of people wanted to find out more. We distributed our current election materials and contact details. We also spoke to people in depth about the principles of Left Unity and where we want to go. From the comments made during the discussion, and my conversations with people afterwards, it seemed like people were excited that there was going to be a real political alternative they could support. I hope that this event will go some way in strengthening the Bristol branch of Left Unity.