Walks straight into the propellors... posted by Richard Seymour

...and is distributed into many fine particles. The last time I recall seeing Hewitt get such a hostile reception was during her speech to the TUC in 2001, and even then she didn't get heckled as far as I remember. The result of that bruising encounter was that the press was filled with speculation that Blair's speech the next day would meet a similarly unhappy fate. However, just as Blair was about to make his speech, a news ticker alerted viewers to a plane crash in New York.

There are threats of strike action, which is a surprise given Prentis's recent involvement in the capitulation on pensions. Prentis is reflecting grassroots anger, undoubtedly the compounded result of chronic, simmering fury about the PFI scams which have now proven so costly, so burdensome, so irrational, that thousands of staff are being sacrificed as a result. Everywhere this disastrous scheme has been tried, it has been a total mess. The Queen Elizabeth II hospital outside Woolwich, where I used to live, was in a mire of debt within months of its opening. It was shortly thereafter technically bankrupt. This has been replicated up and down the country, wherever this crackpot scheme has been tried. The government is so insane with its neoliberal pseudo-millenarianism that it is prepared to experiment with NHS patients and still tries to ride out these signs of burgeoning crisis with a shit-eating grin and glib assurances that this is the best year ever for the NHS. I would hope for the Prime Minister to find his heart in need of surgical attention, but predictably he uses only the finest private medical services, such as might once have been on friendly terms with the Queen Mother and her ugly, ugly family.