General Election

[david63]

I wonder if "anorak man" will be at the Cenotaph again tomorrow?

[david63]

As for Grenfell and JRM I only heard the part of the interview where he made the comment and without hearing all of the interview in context then it is somewhat difficult to make any comment.

What I would say, and this is possibly what JRM was trying to allude to, is that none of us know how we would react in such circumstances - and hopefully none of us will ever have to.

[towny44]

I also admit that I only saw the brief clip where he made the common sense comment, but for the rest his tone and demeanour appeared very sympathetic, and common sense seemed to be a sort of afterthought about his personal view rather than any criticism of the GT residents. But just goes to show that anyone in the public eye is now required to run their statements past the thought police before committing themselves.

[oldbluefox]

Why raise contentious issues then cry foul when people have a different opinion to your own? It's an opinion but if you prod the lion in the ear don't be surprised when it snarls at you.

"A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about". Miguel de Unamuno

[Stephen]

Why raise contentious issues then cry foul when people have a different opinion to your own? It's an opinion but if you prod the lion in the ear don't be surprised when it snarls at you.

"A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about". Miguel de Unamuno

I know his brother San

[Manoverboard]

Nige has advised that his Brexit Party will NOT field candidates in Tory held seats but will fight all Labour seats .

[towny44]

Nige has advised that his Brexit Party will NOT field candidates in Tory held seats but will fight all Labour seats .

Unfortunately Labour grabbed our seat from the Conservatives in Theresa's ill fated GE, but without a Brexit candidate I think the Tories stood a good chance of winning it back, so I hope Brexit don't stand this time.

[Stephen]

....Thick as sh......

God help us if this lot ever got in.

[Mervyn and Trish]

Nothing to fear. She'd only be Home Secretary. Responsible for national security.

Oh shite!

[Onelife]

It's time for remainers to swallow their pride and vote for Boris...Our country needs you!

[Stephen]

I think this young head sums it up nicely.

[Onelife]

I can't , for whatever reason open your link Stephen

[Stephen]

Put another groat in the meter

[Onelife]

Put another groat in the meter

I couldn't get its back legs in........any other ideas?

[Kenmo1]

Put another groat in the meter

I couldn't get its back legs in........any other ideas?

Very good, keefy. That made me laugh

Maureen

[Stephen]

Put another groat in the meter

I couldn't get its back legs in........any other ideas?

Do what you normally do........get your wellies out

[barney]

North Devon have announced their Conservative candidate and it turns out to be a lovely lady who lives up the road who I have spoken with many times.
Now torn

I suppose that as the Labour has no chance and the Brexit has stood down, it's between the conservative or the party with the most radical policy ever proposed in the history of British politics.

So , hold my nose and vote Tory ?

[towny44]

North Devon have announced their Conservative candidate and it turns out to be a lovely lady who lives up the road who I have spoken with many times.
Now torn

I suppose that as the Labour has no chance and the Brexit has stood down, it's between the conservative or the party with the most radical policy ever proposed in the history of British politics.

So , hold my nose and vote Tory ?

Good for you Barney, you know it makes sense.

[Stephen]

Strange how all these billions of pounds are suddenly being found and bandied about for the NHS by the big two. Carrot dangling ain't going to work this time. The money was needed years ago.

[towny44]

Strange how all these billions of pounds are suddenly being found and bandied about for the NHS by the big two. Carrot dangling ain't going to work this time. The money was needed years ago.

The main problem with the NHS is that there are too many socialist supporters in senior administrative roles, plus lots of of left wing think tanks that love to spout about the lack of NHS funding.
In the main it works remarkably well and provides a very good service for a very modest per capita spend, and both Labour and Conservative govts. have been only too happy to maintain this status quo for years. However if the voters really want perfection and no waiting times, and still free at the point of use, then there will need to be a massive increase in spending, which since it is mainly revenue spending would need to come out of taxes, as is agreed by both parties. But I doubt that will be explained by any Labour party door step canvassers.

[david63]

The basic problem with the NHS, as most people see it, is that there are not enough staff. Now it matters little as to which party is promising their £billions to resolve this problem as nobody is saying where these doctors/nurses etc. are coming from and if they are new staff then we are talking years before they are trained and qualified.

The NHS problems go far deeper than just staff shortages and no amount of throwing money at the NHS is going to solve it - there needs to be a change from the "one size fits all" approach that is applied from the top down to looking at the problem from the ground floor up. In my experience the ones who know what the problems are, and the solutions, are those at the "coal face".

Everything in the NHS has to be done by committee - there was a problem recently at our local hospital with the new car parking system and it took a "working group" six months to discover what one person could identify in about 10 minutes.

[Onelife]

I think the NHS has a mixture of all the things both John and David have highlighted.....l would also add in medical advances and patient expectation both of which put pressure on resources.

I wouldn't like to go down the line of privatisation (whilst accepting many areas of the NHS are already sourced out to private companies) but the long term outlook for the NHS is unsustainable using its present funding regime.

The biggest drain on the NHS are the PFI (private finance incentive) which are costing billions due to the extortionate amounts of interest having to be paid back for the building of these hospitals.

I don't know how you get round this but the Government needs to negotiate fairer terms with the financiers who are bleeding the NHS dry.

More taxation yes!...and perhaps a state owned NHS national lottery might help lessen the burden of spiralling costs?

[towny44]

I agree with Keefy that PFI payments are a major problem, and our own hospital is being run down because Calderdale Royal has such a huge annual PFI interest charge and must be kept open to service their PFI contract.
Maybe a bit like major retailers lowering their rental costs the NHS should be renegotiating the interest terms on these PFI loans. I recognise this is rather socialist thinking, but circumstances change and as interest rates have plummeted then reducing these charges seems eminently sensible.

[barney]

Yay.
Welcome to the dark side John.

All services, including utilities, should be run for the benefit of the population.

Thatchers biggest con was selling things to the public that they already owned.

Think about it.
The tax payer, you and me, spend millions financing and setting up BT and then the government sell it back to you in shares.

Genius, but corrupt.

[towny44]

Yay.
Welcome to the dark side John.

All services, including utilities, should be run for the benefit of the population.

Thatchers biggest con was selling things to the public that they already owned.

Think about it.
The tax payer, you and me, spend millions financing and setting up BT and then the government sell it back to you in shares.

Genius, but corrupt.

Not really Barney, I started working in a nationalised industry so I know how inefficient they are, and that was the electricity industry which was probably the most efficient of them. But the PFI lenders have had quite a generous deal now for a number of years, so now time to recoup some of Gordon Browns over generosity.