Around 60,000 arrived today in Manchester for the first day of the Conservative Party conference to protest against austerity cuts and NHS changes. There was not a single arrest, at the time of publication of this blogpost.

The central accusation is that the executive members of the Conservative Party were able to legislate, with the help of Liberal Democrat votes, in the House of Commons and House of Lords for an act of parliament which made it very easy for contracts to be awarded to the private sector not the NHS or public sector. The cap allowed for income to be generated privately was massively uplifted.

It is specifically proposed that both legislative measures allowed the privatisation of the NHS through effectively outsourcing it. Andy Burnham MP, Shadow Secretary of State, has described this as making the NHS more like the US market, and has promised many times to reverse the marketisation and to repeal the Health and Social Care Act (2012). The ‘National Hospital Sell-Off’ (NHS), as it has now become described, was tweeted today by Burnham today to be “now advancing like a juggernaut. In last year alone, 81 major contracts – worth £4.5 billion – put out to market. #nhs299“.

The march set off at midday and passed through the centre of the city. It will end with speeches at a rally in Whitworth Park. Greater Manchester Police said that the mile long protest was one of the largest they had ever watched over, and that no arrests have been made.

Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary, said beforehand: “The march and rally will allow thousands of ordinary people to show the government exactly what they think of their policies. Austerity is having a devastating effect on our communities and services, with 21,000 NHS jobs lost over the last three months alone. The NHS is one of Britain’s finest achievements and we will not allow ministers to destroy, through cuts and privatisation, what has taken generations to build.” Burnham has further embellished the central accusation by saying the biggest NHS ‘top down reorganisation’, not democratically called for, put profit before people.

As the march set off at noon, UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis was joined by  Andy Burnham MP and health workers from George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton, which is under threat of privatisation. Campaigners ensured that Twitter hashtag #NHS299 was trending right across the UK – emphasising the importance of the news, but getting the message across in the national media was exceptionally difficult due to lack of coverage from the BBC. 90 minutes after the first marchers had moved off, coaches were still reported to be arriving in Manchester, with the official Twitter account for the demonstration reporting that the front section was “holding at Albert Square for a bit to allow people to catch up”.