{"id":2072,"date":"2014-10-31T11:56:59","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T11:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2014-10-31T11:56:59","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T11:56:59","slug":"nhs-prime-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2072","title":{"rendered":"NHS prime concern"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the run-up to the Rochester and Strood by-election, a new survey reveals what really matters to the constituency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voters\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe NHS and its future.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe survey, which was conducted by Survation on behalf of Unite, showed that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe quality of local NHS hospitals and GP services\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 was voters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 top concern, with 37 per cent rating the health service most important. Immigration followed, with 25 per cent rating it their primary voting issue.<\/p>\n

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Other issues rated as most important in the upcoming election included employment opportunities, quality of local schools and crime.<\/p>\n

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Rochester and Strood\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voters are vehemently opposed to the NHS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 inclusion in a US-EU trade agreement known as the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).<\/p>\n

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The health service\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inclusion in what may potentially be the largest bilateral trade agreement ever negotiated would mean the sell-off of key parts of the service to profit-hungry American privateers, as UNITElive has previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In the survey, excluding those who said they didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, a full 76 per cent said they were opposed to the inclusion of the NHS in TTIP. Roughly the same percentage of respondents believed David Cameron should use his veto power, as granted by the EU, to exclude the health service from the agreement.<\/p>\n

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Unite general secretary Len McCluskey argued that the poll\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s results were indicative of something bigger.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe future of our NHS is what really matters to voters and their families in Rochester and Strood, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be what really matters to voters at the next general election,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is not an isolated poll,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA majority of voters across a number of marginal Tory constituencies all want the government to protect the NHS from TTIP.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Indeed, the results of the poll are not simply a local quirk\u00e2\u20ac\u201da previous poll conducted by Survation in August of voters in 13 marginal Conservative-held seats, also found widespread opposition to privatising the NHS via TTIP. A full 77 percent thought Cameron should use his veto power to exclude health service from the trade agreement.<\/p>\n

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The Rochester and Strood by-election is to take place on November 20, after Conservative MP Mark Reckless announced in September he would be standing down to defect to the Ukip party. The by-election is seen to be a close contest between Ukip and the Conservative party\u00e2\u20ac\u201deven though, ironically enough, establishment politicians in both parties support the inclusion of the NHS in TTIP.<\/p>\n

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McCluskey argued that both Ukip and Conservative politicians are out of touch with their constituents and the public in general, which will prove to be their undoing in 2015.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the party that fights most for the NHS\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 not \u00e2\u20ac\u0098the party that fights most against immigration\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 that will win the next general election,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the run-up to the Rochester and Strood by-election, a new survey reveals what really matters to the constituency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voters\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe NHS and its future.   The survey, which was conducted by Survation on behalf of Unite, showed that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe quality of local NHS hospitals and GP services\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 was voters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 top concern, with 37 per cent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[29,59],"wps_subtitle":"Survey shows NHS is by-election voters' top concern","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2073,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}