General Chat

18 consecutive years of conservative government Roy...if they were that good why were THEY voted out? just a question :-D

TeresaW, OK fact, 8 years on and they still had to pay bupa to do the job of the NHS when they came to office,

The NHS hospitals couldn't cope (your words not mine)

Gordon Brown's own wards was that never before had a new administration ever been left a more healthy balance sheet

You would have thought that with a healthy balance sheet
they could have invested enough in the NHS to not need to farm the work out to private hospitals

Roy

Me too Rose, I've been saying Child Benefit should be means tested since Diana got it for Wills and Harry!

IF the rich actually do invest in jobs?... I think a fair few of them invest in homes in other countries, spend their money in other countries and don't give a tuppenny damn about investing it back here....imo and experience.

Isn't the point really that the gap between rich and poor has widened and continues to do so? how can that be if the rich are investing in the UK? that's probably a rhetorical question btw if they had been investing in the UK ( as opposed to where they got a better return like the Iceland bank...and even the charities invested there and got screwed accordingly) we possibly wouldn't be in such a bad state.


re nhs It is a personal bugbear of mine that so much money is pumped into providing sometimes substandard care for the elderly and those who need home care, and yet if one is a carer for a relative one is expected to live on very little and do the job for next to nothing ,,,, giving up work ( assuming you have a job) to care for someone almost guarantees that you will be poor in old age. How many families would make the choice to look after an elderly relative if it didn't mean them being empoverished themselves in their own old age?. Homes at £1000 a week can't be a better option than making it feasible to look after someone at home....


sorry gone off at a tangent, but it's all related somewhere along the line...and mention of DC brings down a red mist that tends to leave me incoherent lolol.

I do think it's a good idea to cut Child benefit for high earners... but then I have been saying that since DC was in short pants ;-)

I'm not trying to advertise for Labour, I'm stating fact. The NHS hospitals couldn't cope with the numbers waiting, so the bupa (paid for by the NHS) were used to help reduce numbers by getting them their operations faster, thus reducing NHS waiting lists. Mum didn't pay for it. Something had to be done.


I didn't say they were cutting funds to the NHS. I said, if you read properly, with all the TAX CUTS they are making how are they going to fund the NHS?


And you really believe this government will fund the creation of more jobs do you? We'll see. None of their policies have worked so far still 80+ people chasing each job in this area, no investment in the infrastructure for manufacturing or clerical, cuts to public services and so on, unemployment figures are stills set to peak later this year.

Eldrick, I totally agree with all of that controversial or not

Roy

Nope, they even use and pay for nonsense like therapeutic touch stuff and faith healers. Although, to be fair, the HOSC did reccommend cutting it all right back. They are bound to take more notice of the cochrane collaboration reports now, and about time too.

And now heres a controversial one. Those that can afford it should be oblliged to pay at least a contribution towards medical expenses. If that means some sort of means testing, so be it. Maybe by insurance - whatever.

But in an age when life expectancy is increasing annually, new treatments are being discovered almost daily and costs are rising out of control, it needs brave and strong action to keep any sort of healthcare system maintained by the state in a functioning condition.

Oh, I have some controversial views on the NHS, thats for sure. Especially on self inflicted injury and illnesses!

TeresaW, After nearly 8 years in government they came to power in 1997 and by 2005 so had failed to do anything about waiting times so used Bupa hospital to help bring down the waiting list?

Not a very good advert for labour i think

and this government are putting more money into the NHS so your statement is not true ( that they are making cuts)

the labour government wasted most of the money spent on the NHS due to them using micro management techniques and not spending it on patient care

If you do your own research on quack remedies used by the NHS you will find that most actually find that these remedies have the same effect as a placebo so not the best use of public money

as for JOBS see my earlier post on page one

Roy

I'd prefer it if this government stopped saying all this is to encourage people back to work. Tax cuts won't encourage people back to work...benefits cuts won't encourage people back to work, cutting child allowance to the better paid won't encourage people back to work..

They seem to have missed an important point. JOBS will encourage people back to work.

As for the NHS, yes I agree that there are too many chiefs and not enough indians. I certainly won't mind paying taxes if it went into our NHS for healthcare for all, and with all these tory tax cuts how on earth are they going to fund our NHS (note: OUR NHS)? But they are gradually ruining it, and (controversial statement warning) undoing all the good the Labour Govt did manage to do.

When I was first referred to my hip surgeon for a replacement, the waiting list was 18 months long, back in 2005. At that time, my mum had her hip replaced at Hinchingbrooke hospital, under the NHS, but done in the Bupa hospital, which was a measure Labour brought in to shorten waiting lists and relieve the numbers of people desperately in need of such surgery. My consultant deferred putting me on the waiting list for a year while I had cortisone injections to relieve the pressure and pain, some worked, some didn't but hey. in 2006 I was put on the waiting list for my replacement, and by that time it was only 6 months. I had my hip replaced 6 months later.

Now that same waiting list has increased again. Figure it out for yourselves.

But for the way they looked after my fiance, and continue to do so, I cannot fault them.

I dont' know about quack remedies, I would imagine they only use those that research has shown ARE beneficial to the patient.

Yep, the NHS has got strange priorities. £500 MILLION on quack remedies for a start - a pet of mine. If people want stupid things like homeopathy, don't spend my tax money on it, pay for it yourself. As you say, a surfeit of management roles.

Janet...It's the same by me & im in Surrey

Janet, i think the 25% is standard, for all councils

Eldrick, My wife works for the NHS and has said for the last ten years that their are far more management with all the admin staff management need to operate, Jobs created for the different health authority's to meet government targets and none of them have actually helped to make things better but more of a hindrance to the doctors and nurses actually doing the job of patient care

and when Gordon Brown raised national insurance contributions to fund more nurses and give them a pay rise in the health authority my wife works for, this money was not spent on more nurses or better pay for them, it actually payed for more pay for managers and although it looked like nurses got a pay increase they did not, what actually happened was that the nurses get payed according to the pay band/scale so they increased the pay for the band the nurse was in but at the same time they dropped every nurse one band which meant they were at a lower band which meant they never actually got a pay rise and they never got the extra qualified staff by way of more nurses on the wards

Roy

This is just a query. In our area anyone who lives alone, regardless of financial circumstances is entitled to a reduction of 25% on their Council Tax . Is this not throughout England or just down to each Council?-jl

and speaking from experience of working in the NHS - far too many chiefs and nowhere near enough Indians - get rid of the chiefs and the service will be just as good

Afraid the NHS is the biggest black hole. the 5th biggest employer in the world with 1.7 million employees. 106 billion a year - now thats a black hole and a half. All to be paid for by the taxpayer.

Think the government should look into and quickly the perks and huge expenses the Civil Service rack up especially on credit cards - big black hole there - just as bad if not worse than the benefit frauds.

Sue, i never said it's just the rich who pay taxes

And i do no where you are coming from with your pension, my dad still alive and is in the same boat as you


He lives in an old folks bungalow complex and because he had a small private pension it took him just over where he needed to be for benefits to help with council tax and housing benefit and he is the only pensioner on the estate who has to pay in full for everything


Roy

Roy,
It's not just the rich that pay taxes it's also the pensioners that are still paying taxes.

I still have to pay tax on my state pension,private pensions.
but I don't get any other help like some pensioners as I am just 10p over the amount.

If I hadn't paid married woman's stamp from the 60's I would be able to claim Housing benefit,Council Tax benefit and tax credits.

So please don't say it's just the rich that are paying Taxes.
Sue

I don't think more fraud officers is the answer to people on the fiddle,

The government does not have a cupboard full of money to give to any one fiddling or people who need the cash through benefits

We that is every one who pay tax and even those who through no fault of their own rely on benefits of any description we all pay tax,

every time you buy any thing their is tax on it at some point so we all pay some thing.

But if some one you no is not due to benefits they are not steeling from the government they are steeling from us all

We all have a duty to report any one we no to be fiddling

it's no difference to them taking money from your purse/wallet

Roy

and we need more fraud officers
theres way to may fiddlers out there
scrounging off the country

i have no objections to working while my hubby is asleep at night
as it is i do some community work
putting back a little into my country