The Mandela Community Centre

16/06/2026

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SAVE OUR GP SERVICES

Don’t Let General Practice Go the Way of Dentistry

The NHS was founded on a simple principle: healthcare should be available according to need, not ability to pay.

General practice is the front door of the NHS. It is where illnesses are detected early, long-term conditions are managed, and patients build trusted relationships with healthcare professionals.

Many people are concerned about proposals for the future of general practice, including the BMA’s “Plan B” discussions. While these proposals arise from genuine pressures facing GPs, there are concerns that some changes could move us towards a two-tier system, similar to what many people feel has happened with NHS dentistry.

GPs are not the problem. They are working under immense pressure. The real challenges are underfunding, workforce shortages and rising demand.

What Can We Do Now?

1. Get informed

Read about the BMA’s “Plan B” proposals and understand the debate.

2. Contact your MP

Ask them whether they support GP services remaining free at the point of use.

3. Join your GP’s Patient Participation Group (PPG)

Patients have a voice in shaping local services.

4. Raise the issue locally

Speak to councillors, Healthwatch and NHS leaders about your concerns.

5. Support NHS staff

Advocate for better funding, recruitment and retention of GPs and other healthcare professionals.

6. Share information responsibly

Encourage informed discussion in your community.

Our NHS is not perfect but it’s Ours!
The future of the NHS is not inevitable, it is shaped by the choices we make today.

Protect GP access. Protect the NHS. Protect each other.

MOSAICC

If you haven’t heard of the BMA’s “Plan B” proposals for GP services, Google them now.

27/04/2026

DARE – Derby Alliance for Racial Equity TODAY!
This is about more than a meeting.
It’s about who gets heard, who gets seen, and how we move forward together.
We’re building something real in Derby — a space to connect, to speak honestly, and to take action on the issues that matter.
Monday 27 April 2026
6:30pm – 8:30pm
MOSAICC, Ground Floor, Stuart House, 15–23 Green Lane, Derby DE1 1RS (OPPOSITE THE THAI BORAN)
What to expect:
Shaping the direction of DARE together
Strengthening our collective voice
Update on ID provision for young people (now addressed nationally)
Open conversation on what racial equity in Derby needs right now
Just real people, real conversations, and a shared commitment to change.
Come if you care about fairness.
Come if you have something to say.
Come even if you’re still figuring it out.
CONNECT | COLLABORATE | TAKE ACTION
Let’s build a stronger, more united community, together.
For more info: [email protected]

25/03/2026

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Today, International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

We are asked to remember.
But remembrance without truth is ritual.
And truth without action is comfort.

Let us be clear about what we are remembering.
The Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Not a metaphor. Not a general idea of exploitation. Not something to be softened or relabelled until it loses its meaning.

Millions were taken.
Not numbers. People.
Whole lives interrupted. Futures stolen before they could begin.
Bodies turned into labour. Names replaced. Languages erased. Culture ripped away.
Families broken in ways that still echo.

This was not a moment of failure.
It was a system of extraction. A system that’s lasted for hundreds of years. A system that was designed, financed, enforced!
A system that decided some lives were inferior, expendable and worthless, so that others could rise, conquer and thrive.

And that decision did not disappear.
It adapted. You can still see it.
In who holds wealth and who does not.
In whose pain is recognised and whose is explained away.
In the quiet inheritance of advantage and the quiet inheritance of loss.

So today cannot just be about looking back.

Because apology on its own asks for closure without repair.
It asks those still carrying the weight to accept words, while the benefits remain where they were placed.

That is not justice.

If we are serious about remembering, then we must be serious about repairing.

Reparations are not about blame.
They are about balance.
About recognising that what was taken is still unpaid.

Because this is the truth we often avoid:
the wealth did not disappear.
It settled. To repair is to say we see it. Fully.
And we are willing to change what has been left untouched.

Not symbolic change.
Real change.
Material. Structural. Lasting.
Because dignity cannot exist where its conditions are denied.

There is a line often attributed to Desmond Tutu that stays with me:

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

Today is not a day for neutrality. It is a day to remember with honesty.
To honour with depth.
And to act with courage.
Not just remembrance.
Repair. Not just words. Justice. Equity Change
REPARATIONS NOW!