Dear Nickie Aiken,

Of all the serious things your Government is doing wrong and all the hurt you are causing, I never thought I would have to send you an email about you agreeing to sell off the NHS. Let alone in the middle of a pandemic, when the NHS is on its knees because you have failed to fund it properly for many years, you have supported Brexit, which has pushed heaven knows how many European health professionals who worked in the NHS out the back door, and you have failed for years to ensure that the numbers of specific professionals, such as midwives, are adequate.

Yesterday I got an email from an NGO that supports the NHS, that said this:

“Last night we watched as Tory MPs

·       Voted against an amendment to protect the NHS from trade deals by 357 to 266

·       Voted against giving themselves a say over trade deals in future by 353 to 277.

I also read that: “The House of Lords put forward amendments to protect our NHS. And this government refused to listen.”

How dare you? And how often in the coming years are you going to keep up this foul behaviour? Why are you in Parliament if all you want to do is hand over your powers and our public services, built over a century, to sharks? Resign, Nickie, along with your good friend Boris. We need an MP who will stand up for the people she represents and speak up for and defend our needs.

We need the NHS like never before. Not privatised, not controlled by ignorant businessmen, not chopped up into pieces and sold off like meat. Not dominated by people with less public health experience than the size of their little toenails. What were the results of that pathetic consultation you did about changing the whole set up of the NHS? Over Christmas? Unpublicised? Unpublished and unheeded, I’m sure.

The people of this country need the NHS. Desperately need it. 100,000 have already died thanks to your government’s incompetence and corruption and insistence on privatising the services for test & treat, production of PPE and much more (putting billions in the pockets of their friends into the bargain). We don’t need your politics when all you do is spend your time making sure that no one who needs help with anything receives it.

Oppose and overturn this vote, Nickie, vigorously. Has Boris really kept so few Tories in the Party with any integrity at all? What a terrible legacy you will leave. If I have to say “shame on you” every remaining day of your term in office, as much as it angers and upsets me to have to do so, I will. But know that this is the bottom of the barrel. There is nothing worse than this except a wholesale sell-off all at once.

HANDS OFF THE NHS, Nickie. You will never be elected as a government again if you sell any more of it off and destroy it as a public health service. It belongs to us, not to you. Marge

To my friends and colleagues: PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR OWN MP AND REGISTER A STRONG PROTEST AGAINST THAT VOTE. WE CAN’T GO INTO THE STREETS TO PROTEST IN OUR THOUSANDS BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF SPREADING COVID-19 EVEN FURTHER, WHICH WOULD PUT EVEN FURTHER STRAIN ON THE NHS. BUT WE CAN STILL WRITE TO OUR MPs. WE NEED TO DO SO IN OUR TENS OF THOUSANDS. AND NOT JUST ABOUT THIS. THEY ARE GETTING AWAY WITH BLOODY MURDER. PROTESTING FROM HOME NEEDS TO BE DEVELOPED INTO AN ART.