on several fronts.
• A third and fourth wave of opt-outs will fragment the NHS into a chaotic patchwork of rival businesses, destroying any pretence of planning.
• The first and second wave Trusts will lead the onslaught on the nationally-negotiated pay and conditions of 1.2 million NHS staff: ambulance Trusts have already led the way by lengthening hours, cutting wages and derecognising trade unions.
• The underlying financial crisis within the NHS, concealed until after the election, will trigger a wave of far-reaching cuts and closures.
• In London, a secret inquiry being conducted by William Waldegrave's appointee Sir Bernard Tomlinson is almost certain to recommend the closure of at least two teaching hospitals - prime candidates being St Thomas's and Charing Cross - to trim over 2,000 beds in the capital.
• Tory plans for community care come into force next April. This will leading to a rapid closure of NHS beds, and the privatisation of most continuing care for the elderly, which will be subject to means-tested charges.
Tories covered up the scope of the NHS crisis: now the fight is on to save hospital beds old people's homes. Printed by Tridant Press, Edenbridge, Kent. Published by Idolrare Ltd, 377 City Road, London EC IV WITH MANY councils still financially wrecked by years of government restrictions and then by the Poll Tax - another year's payments on which are now due - there is even worse o come. Already many councils have embarked on new, brutal rounds of spending cuts hitting schools, social services and Michael Heseltine's wacky 'council tax' will, in the words of the Tory Daily Telegraph 'produce just as many anomalies, revolts and howls of rage as the poll tax.
With the threat of new anti-union laws, more privatisation of Post and Rail services, more attacks on education, and renewed moves to push through the racist Asylum Bill, there will be no shortage of fights to be waged by the labour movement in the year ahead. There is no time to be lost.