kept them from going public now that is only 4 years ago. so they knew the whole preparedness for this short of being in place but of course they knew they couldn't put in place because the government had devastated the national health service since the 2012 health and social care act privatized sation had subverted the health service to the point where it couldn't possibly respond as it short of to the pandemic we've seen what's happened not enough ventilators the whole why the whole concept of mass testing which has been so successful in other countries especially germany and should have been right across britain. didn't happen in britain. so. that's that's where that's where the skits more than the scandal in terms of what this corona virus has

meant to the societies that it is ravage and especially to britain it's a crime i want to get to their world in a moment but over here the queen the prime minister the government they're all praising the national health service in fact. every aspect of this is as he including the media is praising the national health service what evidence no mention of privatisation in the media here not even that the new labor leader is top adviser used to work in private health care law being what evidence do you have that privatisation is even an important context in which to understand britain's response to coronavirus well of course they should praise it it's it's it's beloved in britain and when it began in 1948 it was set up as a niren been made clear to give the british people and i quote freedom from fear isn't that ironic we now have

a state of fear due to this virus and the national health service was set up to give a few of the people freedom from fear it's not the the health services not the people who work in the health service it's not the clinicians it's not always the the support people in the health service it's not those who are at the very moment saving the life of the prime minister but it is the those who have undermined the health service particularly with legislation in 2012 but allowed in private is that that that devastated whole areas of it and also that the whole social care system in britain which was an extension of the health service was privatized almost entirely both by labor and tory government. it's beginning again in the 19 nineties and 4 for for the

government then to stand up with its theorists it's a model those who keep changing their minds for one at one moment. according to the imperial college people 250000 people are going to die in britain no no wait a minute it's only 20000 but no it's not really 20000 because they're going to die anyway i mean this kind of bizarre response public response to something but the health service at its peak fully funded not cut back. driven by by its clean clinical staff and not by bureaucrats that would have it would have cope with that i do believe i do believe on earth only a guess from my own knowledge of investigating the health service over several years that the n.h.s.

would have coped with the onslaught of this virus. i do believe that there would have been mass testing that the all the the intelligent application of medical expertise that would have happened in britain it didn't happen it didn't happen because the governments. both tory and labor allowed the health service to to be subverted over this time. so i say it's more than a scandal it's a law it's a crime. before boris johnson was sent to intensive care at st thomas' hospital just near this studio he was giving press briefings flanked by sapan trick vallance who used to work at g s k i just wondered what you thought of the influence of big pharmaceutical companies on the context in which we understand coronavirus i know your most recent film. points just to simon stevens the boss of n.h.s.

england is as being suspect because of his work in private health care in the united states well so i'm a 3 bones knighted by the tory government. spent 10 years as a senior executive promoting private health care in the united states for one of the most infamous private. health insurance company united health whose. chief executive officer was involved in the biggest share scandal in in in american corporate history that had nothing to do personally with stevens of course but that was that was the letter that stevens was climbed before he was plucked out of there by david cameron's. coalition government. and i think from 2014 made made head of n.h.s.

england and under stevens watch. as of november last year bed capacity in the health service had dropped 212-7000 the lowest ever when you think that when the health service began in 1948 it was well over 400000 beds but bed capacity dropped to the lowest ever and the lowest in europe the health service was always proud and rightly so of that its bed capacity was one of the highest in the world. but cut away. cutting to such a degree that the just the usual the 4 percent increase in the health services budget just to keep it on track was cut back to one percent had

a devastating effect and that's why there is a political reason why people are suffering from coronavirus many of them may not want to confront that but it's the reason is that the national health service the visionary national health service the world's 1st public health service was decimated over a period of time and if you read the factorize documents by stealth that's the word they used by stealth sarap tisha silly since the 1980 s. speeded up through the years of new labor but especially accelerating from 2012 onder the david cameron led coalition government. we all hope that fewer people will die here from coronavirus than austerity which the un special rapporteur said was a political decision here in britain do you think that consciousness about

coronaviruses only been created because it is affecting elites because obviously there were reports of a $100000.00 or more dying at least from a stereotype policies after the bank bailouts of 2008 well your if you know professor dani dollar go a very reliable source and his colleagues. at all would got into trouble for some thorough research that showed that something like 120000 people lives were cut short as a direct result of a stir tea and they put their finger on the cut in the cuts in the health service now those are actual lives. cultural that they investigated what we've had so far is a lot of speculation from these modelers that has as i say gone from the extreme

of i think half a 1000000 was one down to hardly anyone at all. why why 1 is why are we why are we depending on these these homeowners this short rod of statistics when in fact it's very clear from the countries that have succeeded in this not seeing off the coronavirus in dealing with it successfully such as germany south korea taiwan even impoverish vietnam certainly in china or itself. was why why or why are we not seeing mass testing across the country yes that's happened in part in part pockets and it's happening belatedly but also it's happening belatedly that ventilators a finally arrived now in that drill exercise in 2016 i mention one of the issues that arose was that they won't enough ventilators. but 4 years ago

they want to not ventilate well we invited obama to valve on the program john i'll just stop you that ball from john pilger after this short break.

city i can take it and. how. when i don't been in pieces no you sunk in so they don't know yet but i mean don't . you love the. missing mom because we've got to think it's time i'll meet. cherie down she said some emotion.

that's. very uncertain. welcome the baby had a fever of 38 so point 30 we're hoping that's. all ok. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics or business i'm show business i'll see you then. this is a story of women women was troubled histories and complex cold cases we know some

of us did lee leave who lives out there but we're not believing the person that they're accusing this impede the young. suited the most dangerous of criminals she's in a single. 23 hours of the tell me that is long enough and it. will do the women on death row. welcome back i'm still here with john pilger you point to austerity privatization privatization linked scientists inaccurate or orange modeling by scientists the government before boris johnson was taken to intensive care was briefing that china is the real reason why the world is facing the coronavirus crisis that china should be considered a pariah nation your previous film before the dirty war in n.h.s.

was called the coming war on china why do you think downing street was briefing that china must be made to pay for coronavirus because the propaganda campaign began. in earnest against china. in 2011 when president obama announced what he'd call the pivot to asia and that meant the biggest build up of u.s. naval forces in the pacific but in terms of policy unless the plod through all of them all of the west but us the notes. including britain that china there would be a propaganda war against china the us was desperate to reclaim its dominance. it's economic dominance it has military dominance but china has risen to a point where it was threatening the whole notion of the us having control

over so much of humanity that the scot used that propaganda which of course is a story could goes into the 19th century in what the early 20th century in the 19th century is what the chinese call the century of humiliation when the west. colonized china. and the chinese were literally humiliated one has one can only spend a short time in china with with open eyes and open ears and you understand very quickly that this is a country that has risen out of the ashes of this history but like whole societies it feels it's history very very deeply and the propaganda aimed at china is is to offset what is a reality china as an economic power has risen and for johnson and others

to to start blaming china whose own. conquest of your like of this. coronavirus. has been. probably one of the great spectacles of this rather melancholy awful period that we're going through to blame china for not giving them information when it's quite clear to anybody who has studied. governments in this country tory and labor new labor and tory governments and their attitude to public health care that the responsibility lies right at their feet well despite what the world health organization say media in this country which doesn't call itself propaganda says china was lying about coronaviruses lied about statistics and they've lied about a whistleblower apparently why is it that for you and there's been no coverage as

far as i can see of the case of julie innocence of wiki leaks in the past 24 hours a publisher a whistleblower is why this apparent mismatch between the emphasis here of the whistleblowers in china but not the publication or the publishers of whistleblowers here in britain but we understand something about government after 2 days and so-called policies towards the crisis caused by the coronavirus when we look at the terrible suffering of julian us on you know a few weeks ago at a bail hearing. a magistrate refused to give this man bail he has a longer nish and he is a perfect candidate if you like for the for. falling victim to a corona virus which is which is ravaging through britain's prisons they're not

telling us the real figures like so must there's some of the lying going on about this just simply on a humanitarian basis the fact that a sounders name is not on the rather short list of prisoners who are being released temporally on humanitarian grounds is an outrage how can how how how is such a cruelty applied to somebody who's committed no crime. who the convicted of no crime whose only crime is journalism. it's there for everybody to see the u.s. wants to extradite him on concocted charges of espionage is of espionage charges several to careless but they should have been ridiculous in law but they

should have been thrown out on the 1st day of the hearing in february but they won't so. my view is if you want to stop understand how power is misleading people let's just use that would misleading people use during this whole coronavirus crisis look at the case of julian assad. government that can treat a man with such with such cruelty with such cruelty a corpse that can treat him with such cruelty. is quite capable of a form of that cruelty and that's how the policies when it's not only form agendas boris johnson who appears to back the legal process regarding june unisom stickiest ahmed the former boss of the crown prosecution service and edge to have been

involved in a conspiracy against design says we must allow the proppant extradition process to follow its course well that's fine let's have a prop up process there isn't a proper process and he should know he's a q c there isn't a proper process anybody who was witness to the number of hearings last year and certainly this year in february well no there's no process. that that that the court has become a kind of it's become a kind of show trial. i mean people without without a a preordained view to have been so shocked by what they've seen there is no process so yes let's have a proper process but more than that keir starmer as the leader of the opposition opposition is needed more than ever today in britain indeed that's what

democracies are about and this government and the government sort of gone before it have to be called to account on a number of issues but especially especially on the treatment of julian assad on the whole world and i would be here all day if i described all the jurists organization the united nations bodies distinguished people united nations report on torture doctors' latest 115 doctors have called on julian i've called on on the the government to let juliana sounds out at least while this coronavirus. crisis is on there are so many of them but they are not in the media and the media of course is a major problem is a major problem for

a songe in that it's suppress the truth about science it's a major problem for the coronavirus crisis so much of this crisis has been media led by a form of a stereo and and worse than that simply an echo of whatever government wants to say of whether whatever its latest model wants to stand up behind their lectern and tell us no critical thinking no understanding i mean was not. wasn't it robert peston who who told the nation in a tweet that the government was considering i think his words were before stein's solution the forced isolation of people over 70 we learned that in a tweet and other words something slip to this reporter clearly. he's

favorable to the government that's how we learned about it before the government told us have we forgotten that in 2012 there was. a landmark report done by university college about the killer disease in britain what was that killer disease it was isolation not known anus they distinguish that it's an extraordinary piece of research was published both in britain and the united states all forgotten well if that's characterized as a war on the poor you're known of course for your coverage of lies about wars until you get here is all of the united nations once a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic in the context i have to say of the labor the shadow foreign secretary has just been appointed here he said then he's saying. israeli atrocities must not be condemned because it would be anti semitic to do so what do you make of the bombs flying around the world during this

time of great a virus israel bombs syria in the past few days and of course saudi arabia has been bombing yemen and u.s. warships headed towards venezuela saudi arabia doesn't give a damn about coronavirus it hasn't given a damn about socal world opinion because it's backed by the united states and britain britain is in there not only supplying it with much of its equipment but helping it. identify targets in the one of the poorest if not the poorest country on earth a country that has had been ravaged by. a cholera epidemic. that most children suffer extreme malnutrition saudi arabia continues to bomb this country with owl when i say al i mean u.k. and u.s.

assistance more than assistance they wouldn't be able to do it without the planes the bombs and the expertise that come from our countries but you know a coronavirus hasn't stopped. the the war the war on the war of sanction the war of blockades rather a quarter of the world's population is currently under american sikeston that is its blockade and one form or another one of those countries worst hit by coronavirus is iran and the united states has continued to turn the screw on this country a country that sat down with all the states of the e.u. with the united states with russia and signed an agreement it was donald trump that tore it up and now this country. iran can't get the medical

supplies it needs it can't get particularly cancer drugs. this kind of almost medieval siege of countries venezuela was another one and yet you know that venezuela was actually coping with the coronavirus it's extraordinary. they i can't remember what the statistics are but they are not high and they've managed to test widely to track the pattern of of the disease and so on while they're on the blockade from the united states while american naval ships are sitting off the coast of venezuela and i remind you of course they don't have to the venezuela is actually the source the greatest source of oil. on earth. these wars go on.

one could say that they extend to a war on the project protectionists own people. look at the unholy mess that the united states is in with some states locked down and no testing and and the and the disease running like wildfire in a country where. probably some of the most extraordinary medicine and drugs. have been practiced for a few there is no you're not unified public health service that's a war on their own people are we an enemy of our own governments that's a question it's an interesting question if we're not why has for example the most extraordinary institution in britain why has it been treated so

miserably why has it been undercut. so that when we need it most it's truck rolls. thank you that's it for the show and for this season will be back on the 22nd of april the brown who's here is going underground in the meantime will be free on your recent favorite episodes of children wherever you are in the world people save as you can join the underground by following up on you tube twitter facebook instagram and say. what is the difference between embarrassing gaffes and elder abuse joe biden certainly excels at the former and maybe is the victim of the latter we're told dimension of mental health is off limits to what degree is the public the right to know. this is

a story of women and women was troubled histories and complex court cases you know some of us did leave. out there. were not. the person that. the cheesiness of the day are considered the most dangerous of criminals she's in a still. all the all 23 hours of the day tell me that it's not enough punishment it will give women on death row.

several countries prepared to lift the lockdowns but the world health organization says restrictions must stay in place warning that premature steps could be disastrous. european leaders fail to strike a deal when it comes to a massive new financial stimulus package which would have included joint european you need for the very worst hit nations. and in other news an inmate's dies of covert 19 at the prison where wiki leaks founder julian assange is being held is that while the u.k. court rules that assad sees a.