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On Saturday 10th March hundreds of people will take part in a March and Rally for the Alternative on Tyneside.

The Northern Public Services Alliance, Northern TUC, trade unions, charities and campaign groups from across the region will be coming together to show why the North East, and the country, needs an alternative to the savage and ineffective public spending cuts and ideological social and economic policies being implemented by the Coalition government.

date: 6th March 2012

embargo: Calling note

On Saturday 10th March hundreds of people will take part in a March and Rally for the Alternative on Tyneside.

The Northern Public Services Alliance, Northern TUC, trade unions, charities and campaign groups from across the region will be coming together to show why the North East, and the country, needs an alternative to the savage and ineffective public spending cuts and ideological social and economic policies being implemented by the Coalition government.

It aims to highlight the region's opposition to the barrage of austerity measures having a devastating effect on our region as the Liberal Democrat half of the Coalition are holding their Spring Conference on Tyneside at the Sage, Gateshead this weekend. Given the focus on the Health bill inside and outside the conference a number of speakers will be highlighting opposition to Conservative NHS reforms and urging the Lib Dems to end their support for the Health Bill.

Participants will assemble between 11-11.30am on Newcastle Quayside then march over to Gateshead ready for the rally to commence at 12.30pm at Baltic Square.

Speakers include:

Ian Mearns MP for Gateshead

Dave Anderson MP for Blaydon

Kevin Rowan, Northern TUC Regional Secretary

Clare Williams, Chair of the Northern Public Services Alliance

Fran Heathcote, PCS union Northern regional vice-chair

Cllr Dave Allan, disability campaigner and Sunderland councillor responsible for health and wellbeing

Dr Clive Peedell & Dr David Wilson cancer specialists at the James Cook hospital

As part of their inspiring campaign against the proposed health reforms, the final speakers, Dr Clive Peedell and Dr David Wilson will be running the 42 miles to the rally from the James Cook University Hospital in Teesside where they work, starting at 6pm on Friday evening, and running through the night with only a few hours rest-stop in Durham before they reach their destination. They have already run 160 miles from Bevan's statue in Cardiff to 10 Downing Street (via David Cameron's Witney constituency office) publicising the opposition to the health reforms and delivering postcards of support for the NHS.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- For details of the March and rally click here: http://www.tuc.org.uk/tucfiles/238/LIBDEM%20A4.pdf

- Dr Clive Peedell, NHS Consultant Clinical Oncologist (at the James Cook hospital, Middlesbrough) and member of the BMA Council has been highlighting his opposition to the Government's Health and Social Care Bill by running 160 miles from the founder of the NHS Nye Bevan's statue in Cardiff through to the Department of Health Buildings in Whitehall via David Cameron's Witney constituency with his colleague Dr David Wilson. He has chronicled the campaign initiative in his blog entitled Bevan's Run.

http://bevansrun.blogspot.com/

Dr Peedells's day job as an clinical oncologist means he treats cancer patients in Darlington, Bishop Auckland and Middlesbrough. He is so opposed to the current Lib Dem support for the Government's health reforms he will be running alongside Dr David Wilson from the James Cook hospital to the march and rally at Gateshead where they will both address the crowd. The run is 42 miles long and they will be starting at 6pm on Friday night and aim to complete the run in under 17 hours with just a few hours rest in Durham.

Speaking ahead of the run and spring conference Dr Peedell has a message for Liberal Democrat members urging them to support a motion rejecting the Health and Social Care Bill and draw inspiration from their party's past. Dr Peedell said:

'We have dubbed this run 'The Bevan-Beveridge run', because we are highlighting the fact that Liberal Democrats have a proud heritage of supporting public services and social welfare through state intervention, based on the work of famous liberals like William Beveridge and John Maynard Keynes. The Beveridge Report for social care in 1942 was the catalyst for the formation of the NHS. However, the 'Orange Book liberals' which now dominate the Liberal Democrats Party leadership, are betraying the founding principles of the NHS with their free market neoliberal ideology and their continued support for the Health and Social Care Bill despite widespread professional opposition.

'We therefore want to offer our support to grassroots Liberal Democrats like Dr Charles West, who want their party to abandon its support for the Health and Social Care Bill. He has organised a petition and emergency motion at the Spring Conference opposing the bill. This motion should be debated and strongly supported by delegates. We also think it is time for the Beveridge Group of the Liberal Democrats to show some of their own 'muscular liberalism' and challenge the Orange Book wing of the party on the NHS reforms at this conference. Andrew George MP and Tim Farron MP have been leading the way, but the Group need to go further. In their own words from their party's website,'there can never be a better time for a Beveridge.'

There are some reasonably good quality photos from the website you can use:

http://bevansrun.blogspot.com/p/photos.html


Pulse magazine's flickr account has some snaps of them in their running gear around the country. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pulsetoday/

- Northern TUC press releases www.tuc.org.uk/northern national releases www.tuc.org.uk and www.twitter.com/tucnews

- Register for the TUC's press extranet: a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre-embargo releases and reports www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

- For TUC advice and information on the world of work www.workSMART.org.uk

Media contacts:

Kevin Rowan, Northern TUC Regional Secretary T: 0191 227 5565; M: 07766250074; E: krowan@tuc.org.uk

Dr Clive Peedell, Cancer Specialist at James Cook Hospital and Drop the Bill campaigner

T:07990 520475 E:clivepeedell@btinternet.com

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