Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Within the UK itself I think cultural distinctions are vastly inflated, and people think they are much more different than they are.
Depends. I've often heard on here (not so much recently mind) that the EU referendum was a huge epoch defining exercise in UK democracy; constituent countries of the UK voted one way while others voted very much another way. Those countries also have had very different attitudes to eg the Tories, Thatcher, Johnson etc, so unless one thinks politics is relatively unimportant, I'd classify these as quite definite distinctions.
Fair point, but I was thinking more about general values and principles, where people may perceive the nations to be different, when in fact differences are trivial.
Not sure on that basis that there are many non trivial differences in the general values and principles of most people in Western Europe, much as a certain kind of PBer likes to fixate upon them.
There is a big difference in the values of say Meloni's Italy compared to say Denmark.
Indeed we are closer to the Anglosphere culturally than most of Southern and Eastern Europe
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Scotland is closer to Northern Ireland. Most Northern Irish Protestants are of Presbyterian origin.
The Republic of Ireland is closer to Catholic Europe, hence it is in the EU and Eurozone and the UK isn't.
I would say the Midlands and North and Wales and Cornwall and Essex are probably culturally closer to Australia, while most of southern England is closer to NZ or New England in the US or the Canadian Atlantic coast.
London is probably quite close to Melbourne or Sydney
The EU is a Roman Catholic conspiracy? I have a Gordon Riot to sell you.
Most of the Eurozone are majority Catholic heritage nations. The founding nations of the EEC (except West Germany and the Netherlands) were all majority Roman Catholic and even Germany and Holland now have more Roman Catholics than Protestants (Bavaria of course always majority Catholic).
Of the majority Protestant heritage nations in Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and Finland, only the Dutch, Germans and Finns are in the Eurozone and EU
Forgetting the historically Lutheran Estonia and Latvia there.
Even adding them the majority of Protestant heritage nations are outside the Eurozone, the majority of the Eurozone is Catholic.
Plus more Estonians are now Eastern Orthodox than Lutheran
Irreligion dwarves either sect, and following the ‘historically X’ line of argument, it’s historically a Protestant nation.
Either way, I’m not sure about the Catholicism/Eurozone thing holds that much water; indeed I’m not sure what the point being made is.
Irreligion is irrelevant, it was religious heritage we were discussing. As I said even counting Estonia as Protestant heritage there are still more Protestant European nations outside the Eurozone than inside and the majority of Eurozone nations are still Roman Catholic majority or majority heritage.
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
Conversely, I would say modern Britain is much more similar to New Zealand than Australia, with touches of Canada and the U.S on the one side, and NorthWest Continental Europe on the other.
Australia is increasingly American in style, I think.
Have you been to Oz? Or, indeed, the USA?
Oz really isn't like the USA. It is in the US/Anglosphere, militarily, but culturally it is much more Anglo, indeed European in general (welfare state, no guns, no abortion stuff, low level religiosity, etc)
I have indeed been to both places, although Australia longer ago. Since the enormous influence of the Australian-American Murdoch, particularly, Australia just seems different to me. The species of "posh Australian" I used to meet, for instance, seems almost extinct.
It just seems, from a negative point of view, brasher and with less of a sub-class aspiring to refinement or culture, and, from a more positive interpretation, more expansively, noisily egalitarian, in a geograohically large and young country way, and which reminds me more of the U.S. New Zealand just still seems noticeably more similar to us here in the UK, I think.
Depends where you go, plenty of intellectual, high culture, chardonnay drinking Australians in the most expensive parts of Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.
New England is also probably closer to the UK and New Zealand than Australia and most of the rest of the USA
Yes, I agree about New England. I think that, together with Canada and New Zealand, is probably where England, at least, is closest to, combined, in the case of all of the U.K., with countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Northern France and Belgium.
We always have both those Anglo and Continental influences, which will always make bridge-building between the two one of our most important economic and cultural functions, and partly why Brexit was so silly, pointless, and bound to be inevitably, and at some point, at least partially redrawn back again.
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Within the UK itself I think cultural distinctions are vastly inflated, and people think they are much more different than they are.
Depends. I've often heard on here (not so much recently mind) that the EU referendum was a huge epoch defining exercise in UK democracy; constituent countries of the UK voted one way while others voted very much another way. Those countries also have had very different attitudes to eg the Tories, Thatcher, Johnson etc, so unless one thinks politics is relatively unimportant, I'd classify these as quite definite distinctions.
Fair point, but I was thinking more about general values and principles, where people may perceive the nations to be different, when in fact differences are trivial.
Not sure on that basis that there are many non trivial differences in the general values and principles of most people in Western Europe, much as a certain kind of PBer likes to fixate upon them.
There is a big difference in the values of say Meloni's Italy compared to say Denmark.
Indeed we are closer to the Anglosphere culturally than most of Southern and Eastern Europe
Your values are nothing like mine, how does that work out?
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Within the UK itself I think cultural distinctions are vastly inflated, and people think they are much more different than they are.
Depends. I've often heard on here (not so much recently mind) that the EU referendum was a huge epoch defining exercise in UK democracy; constituent countries of the UK voted one way while others voted very much another way. Those countries also have had very different attitudes to eg the Tories, Thatcher, Johnson etc, so unless one thinks politics is relatively unimportant, I'd classify these as quite definite distinctions.
Fair point, but I was thinking more about general values and principles, where people may perceive the nations to be different, when in fact differences are trivial.
Not sure on that basis that there are many non trivial differences in the general values and principles of most people in Western Europe, much as a certain kind of PBer likes to fixate upon them.
That's true. I think non-trivial differences, largely political (and possibly temporary) are reasonable measures to divide ourselves up over, so long as we don't get nuts about it and make them seem a bigger deal than they are.
Conversely, I would say modern Britain is much more similar to New Zealand than Australia, with touches of Canada and the U.S on the one side, and NorthWest Continental Europe on the other.
Australia is increasingly American in style, I think.
Have you been to Oz? Or, indeed, the USA?
Oz really isn't like the USA. It is in the US/Anglosphere, militarily, but culturally it is much more Anglo, indeed European in general (welfare state, no guns, no abortion stuff, low level religiosity, etc)
I have indeed been to both places, although Australia longer ago. Since the enormous influence of the Australian-American Murdoch, particularly, Australia just seems different to me. The species of "posh Australian" I used to meet, for instance, seems almost extinct.
It just seems, from a negative point of view, brasher and with less of a sub-class aspiring to refinement or culture, and, from a more positive interpretation, more expansively, noisily egalitarian, in a geograohically large and young country way, and which reminds me more of the U.S. New Zealand just still seems noticeably more similar to us here in the UK, I think.
Depends where you go, plenty of intellectual, high culture, chardonnay drinking Australians in the most expensive parts of Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.
New England is also probably closer to the UK and New Zealand than Australia and most of the rest of the USA
Yes, I agree about New England. I think that, together with Canada and New Zealand, is probably where England, at least, is closest to, combined with countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern France and Belgium.
We always have both those Anglo and Continental influences, which will always bridge-building between the two one of our most important economic and cultural functions, and partly why Brexit was so silly, pointless, and bound to be inevitably, and at some point, at least partially changed back again.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DeYes, crepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Oh look you have got more 'likes' than me. What can that mean? You are a twit aren't you falling for that one.
Yes, again, as I say: Well done you
Now we are going around in circles. Is it well done me because I had more likes than you or well done me because I now have less likes than you and likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons. I mean which is it? I need to know whether to go for them or avoid them. You seem confused on the matter.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
Dearie me. You said something very silly, tried to back out of it by saying something even sillier, and played the utterly insufferable card of when someone has had the courtesy to reply to one of your posts saying Ooh I seem to have touched a nerve (paraphrasing slightly).
Feel free to explain how your original post did not imply that you think logic is not involved in the study of law and history. But I must warn you that since out exchange of this morning I have cycled 36 miles with a vertical ascent of 3835 feet so not expecting to be awake much longer.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
That has to be the most poetically put, the most eloquently expressed, the most beautifully written sour grapes lament I have ever seen.
It's quite the come down from this basking earlier: Wasn't that article also "Most Read" in Spectator worldwide for several days? It's almost as if the journalist has worked out what the readers want
Sorry that we aren't all like Spectator readers and that we think your contributions, on average, inferior to kjh's.
Still, you have your fans, some of whom aren't even you.
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Within the UK itself I think cultural distinctions are vastly inflated, and people think they are much more different than they are.
Depends. I've often heard on here (not so much recently mind) that the EU referendum was a huge epoch defining exercise in UK democracy; constituent countries of the UK voted one way while others voted very much another way. Those countries also have had very different attitudes to eg the Tories, Thatcher, Johnson etc, so unless one thinks politics is relatively unimportant, I'd classify these as quite definite distinctions.
Fair point, but I was thinking more about general values and principles, where people may perceive the nations to be different, when in fact differences are trivial.
Not sure on that basis that there are many non trivial differences in the general values and principles of most people in Western Europe, much as a certain kind of PBer likes to fixate upon them.
There is a big difference in the values of say Meloni's Italy compared to say Denmark.
Indeed we are closer to the Anglosphere culturally than most of Southern and Eastern Europe
Your values are nothing like mine, how does that work out?
Well yours certainly aren't those of Meloni's Italy either
Conversely, I would say modern Britain is much more similar to New Zealand than Australia, with touches of Canada and the U.S on the one side, and NorthWest Continental Europe on the other.
Australia is increasingly American in style, I think.
Have you been to Oz? Or, indeed, the USA?
Oz really isn't like the USA. It is in the US/Anglosphere, militarily, but culturally it is much more Anglo, indeed European in general (welfare state, no guns, no abortion stuff, low level religiosity, etc)
I have indeed been to both places, although Australia longer ago. Since the enormous influence of the Australian-American Murdoch, particularly, Australia just seems different to me. The species of "posh Australian" I used to meet, for instance, seems almost extinct.
It just seems, from a negative point of view, brasher and with less of a sub-class aspiring to refinement or culture, and, from a more positive interpretation, more expansively, noisily egalitarian, in a geograohically large and young country way, and which reminds me more of the U.S. New Zealand just still seems noticeably more similar to us here in the UK, I think.
Depends where you go, plenty of intellectual, high culture, chardonnay drinking Australians in the most expensive parts of Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.
New England is also probably closer to the UK and New Zealand than Australia and most of the rest of the USA
Yes, I agree about New England. I think that, together with Canada and New Zealand, is probably where England, at least, is closest to, combined with countries like the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, and Northern France and Belgium.
We always have both those Anglo and Continental influences, which will always bridge-building between the two one of our most important economic and cultural functions, and partly why Brexit was so silly, pointless, and bound to be inevitably, and at some point, at least partially changed back again.
Vive la difference! Or, if you prefer, beo an difriocht. Or indeed, ora i te rereketanga!
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
That has to be the most poetically put, the most eloquently expressed, the most beautifully written sour grapes lament I have ever seen.
It's quite the come down from this basking earlier: Wasn't that article also "Most Read" in Spectator worldwide for several days? It's almost as if the journalist has worked out what the readers want
Sorry that we aren't all like Spectator readers and that we think your contributions, on average, inferior to kjh's.
Still, you have your fans, some of whom aren't even you.
Ah that is so sweet. Thank you very much. £5 in the post.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
That has to be the most poetically put, the most eloquently expressed, the most beautifully written sour grapes lament I have ever seen.
It's quite the come down from this basking earlier: Wasn't that article also "Most Read" in Spectator worldwide for several days? It's almost as if the journalist has worked out what the readers want
Sorry that we aren't all like Spectator readers and that we think your contributions, on average, inferior to kjh's.
Still, you have your fans, some of whom aren't even you.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
That has to be the most poetically put, the most eloquently expressed, the most beautifully written sour grapes lament I have ever seen.
It's quite the come down from this basking earlier: Wasn't that article also "Most Read" in Spectator worldwide for several days? It's almost as if the journalist has worked out what the readers want
Sorry that we aren't all like Spectator readers and that we think your contributions, on average, inferior to kjh's.
Still, you have your fans, some of whom aren't even you.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
That has to be the most poetically put, the most eloquently expressed, the most beautifully written sour grapes lament I have ever seen.
It's quite the come down from this basking earlier: Wasn't that article also "Most Read" in Spectator worldwide for several days? It's almost as if the journalist has worked out what the readers want
Sorry that we aren't all like Spectator readers and that we think your contributions, on average, inferior to kjh's.
Still, you have your fans, some of whom aren't even you.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
All the best Mike, I hope the operation has done the trick.
To be honest, I don’t know if the waiting lists make much difference. It obviously doesn’t help, but the improvements under Labour clearly didn’t keep them in offence.
I think interest rate rises are more likely to be hurting the government.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
Dearie me. You said something very silly, tried to back out of it by saying something even sillier, and played the utterly insufferable card of when someone has had the courtesy to reply to one of your posts saying Ooh I seem to have touched a nerve (paraphrasing slightly).
Feel free to explain how your original post did not imply that you think logic is not involved in the study of law and history. But I must warn you that since out exchange of this morning I have cycled 36 miles with a vertical ascent of 3835 feet so not expecting to be awake much longer.
I've said all I need to say to you. At least @leon is a pleasure to banter with. You are an exceedingly unpleasant person and if you had any understanding of my post you will realise I did not say what you think I said. You jump to conclusions as you have done several times today. Sod off.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Within the UK itself I think cultural distinctions are vastly inflated, and people think they are much more different than they are.
Depends. I've often heard on here (not so much recently mind) that the EU referendum was a huge epoch defining exercise in UK democracy; constituent countries of the UK voted one way while others voted very much another way. Those countries also have had very different attitudes to eg the Tories, Thatcher, Johnson etc, so unless one thinks politics is relatively unimportant, I'd classify these as quite definite distinctions.
Fair point, but I was thinking more about general values and principles, where people may perceive the nations to be different, when in fact differences are trivial.
Not sure on that basis that there are many non trivial differences in the general values and principles of most people in Western Europe, much as a certain kind of PBer likes to fixate upon them.
There is a big difference in the values of say Meloni's Italy compared to say Denmark.
Indeed we are closer to the Anglosphere culturally than most of Southern and Eastern Europe
Your values are nothing like mine, how does that work out?
Well yours certainly aren't those of Meloni's Italy either
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
Dearie me. You said something very silly, tried to back out of it by saying something even sillier, and played the utterly insufferable card of when someone has had the courtesy to reply to one of your posts saying Ooh I seem to have touched a nerve (paraphrasing slightly).
Feel free to explain how your original post did not imply that you think logic is not involved in the study of law and history. But I must warn you that since out exchange of this morning I have cycled 36 miles with a vertical ascent of 3835 feet so not expecting to be awake much longer.
I've said all I need to say to you. At least @leon is a pleasure to banter with. You are an exceedingly unpleasant person and if you had any understanding of my post you will realise I did not say what you think I said. You jump to conclusions as you have done several times today. Sod off.
You said exactly what I say you said, you said it with the absolutely explicit intention of winding people up, and here we are. You seem to have ishooz.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
When Eadric, LadyG, Byronic, SeanT etc.all like your post you are definitely onto a winner...
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Good point about likes.
I too think it should be binned
I must admit I quite like giving them. I probably give many more likes than I make posts, particularly if I appreciate a post but have nothing to add, although occasionally for a particularly good post I will just comment on how good it is as well.
I must admit I have liked a number of @leon's posts not realising he didn't approve and only recently commented on how good one of his posts was.
Conversely, I would say modern Britain is much more similar to New Zealand than Australia, with touches of Canada and the U.S on the one side, and NorthWest Continental Europe on the other.
Australia is increasingly American in style, I think.
Have you been to Oz? Or, indeed, the USA?
Oz really isn't like the USA. It is in the US/Anglosphere, militarily, but culturally it is much more Anglo, indeed European in general (welfare state, no guns, no abortion stuff, low level religiosity, etc)
I have indeed been to both places, although Australia longer ago. Since the enormous influence of the Australian-American Murdoch, particularly, Australia just seems different to me. The species of "posh Australian" I used to meet, for instance, seems almost extinct.
It just seems, from a negative point of view, brasher and with less of a sub-class aspiring to refinement or culture, and, from a more positive interpretation, more expansively, noisily egalitarian, in a geograohically large and young country way, and which reminds me more of the U.S. New Zealand just still seems noticeably more similar to us here in the UK, I think.
Depends where you go, plenty of intellectual, high culture, chardonnay drinking Australians in the most expensive parts of Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.
New England is also probably closer to the UK and New Zealand than Australia and most of the rest of the USA
Yes, I agree about New England. I think that, together with Canada and New Zealand, is probably where England, at least, is closest to, combined with countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern France and Belgium.
We always have both those Anglo and Continental influences, which will always bridge-building between the two one of our most important economic and cultural functions, and partly why Brexit was so silly, pointless, and bound to be inevitably, and at some point, at least partially changed back again.
New England is NOT quite the same as when, say, Nathaniel Hawthorne was writing "The Scarlet Letter", or Emily Dickenson was the Belle of Amherst.
For since those days, the demographics of NE have changed a bit.
With original Yankee stock, of mostly English origin, being largely replaced by (dare I say?) Celts of the Irish Papist persuasion, and Latins (also mostly mackerel-eaters) of French Canadian, Italian and Portuguese heritage. Also goodly number of Blacks (for example Malcolm X), Greeks (Mike Dukakis), Jews (Kitty Dukakis), Poles (Ed Muskie) and sprinkling here and there of Native Americans.
As for more recent immigration, IIRC that's dominated by Chinese (including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu), Cape Verdeians, Brazilians.
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Scotland is closer to Northern Ireland. Most Northern Irish Protestants are of Presbyterian origin.
The Republic of Ireland is closer to Catholic Europe, hence it is in the EU and Eurozone and the UK isn't.
I would say the Midlands and North and Wales and Cornwall and Essex are probably culturally closer to Australia, while most of southern England is closer to NZ or New England in the US or the Canadian Atlantic coast.
London is probably quite close to Melbourne or Sydney
The EU is a Roman Catholic conspiracy? I have a Gordon Riot to sell you.
Most of the Eurozone are majority Catholic heritage nations. The founding nations of the EEC (except West Germany and the Netherlands) were all majority Roman Catholic and even Germany and Holland now have more Roman Catholics than Protestants (Bavaria of course always majority Catholic).
Of the majority Protestant heritage nations in Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and Finland, only the Dutch, Germans and Finns are in the Eurozone and EU
Forgetting the historically Lutheran Estonia and Latvia there.
Even adding them the majority of Protestant heritage nations are outside the Eurozone, the majority of the Eurozone is Catholic.
Plus more Estonians are now Eastern Orthodox than Lutheran
Irreligion dwarves either sect, and following the ‘historically X’ line of argument, it’s historically a Protestant nation.
Either way, I’m not sure about the Catholicism/Eurozone thing holds that much water; indeed I’m not sure what the point being made is.
Irreligion is irrelevant, it was religious heritage we were discussing. As I said even counting Estonia as Protestant heritage there are still more Protestant European nations outside the Eurozone than inside and the majority of Eurozone nations are still Roman Catholic majority or majority heritage.
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
Bloody odd then that the English [edit] were pro Brexit but the Scots aren't.
Likes are a very important metric of whether you are getting your point across. Of course, those who disagree will argue with you. They will anyway. How do you measure whether those who agree think you have made your argument succinctly, effectively or wittily? If they are removed there's no way of knowing. I often think I've made a killer point and there's tumbleweed. And then. I think summat I've posted is banal and obvious and it gets several likes and lots of pushback against it.
All the best Mike, I hope the operation has done the trick.
To be honest, I don’t know if the waiting lists make much difference. It obviously doesn’t help, but the improvements under Labour clearly didn’t keep them in offence.
I think interest rate rises are more likely to be hurting the government.
Am I allowed to like this post because I also want to wish Mike the best for his operation?
If you map Catholicism against Protestant history in Europe, it lines up with the intensity of Euroscepticism, with the fault line going thru Ireland, around England, then approximately along the Hanseatic League. It was unofficially understood that the first President would have to be Catholic and it was rumoured that this was a function in Blair's conversion.
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Scotland is closer to Northern Ireland. Most Northern Irish Protestants are of Presbyterian origin.
The Republic of Ireland is closer to Catholic Europe, hence it is in the EU and Eurozone and the UK isn't.
I would say the Midlands and North and Wales and Cornwall and Essex are probably culturally closer to Australia, while most of southern England is closer to NZ or New England in the US or the Canadian Atlantic coast.
London is probably quite close to Melbourne or Sydney
The EU is a Roman Catholic conspiracy? I have a Gordon Riot to sell you.
Most of the Eurozone are majority Catholic heritage nations. The founding nations of the EEC (except West Germany and the Netherlands) were all majority Roman Catholic and even Germany and Holland now have more Roman Catholics than Protestants (Bavaria of course always majority Catholic).
Of the majority Protestant heritage nations in Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and Finland, only the Dutch, Germans and Finns are in the Eurozone and EU
Forgetting the historically Lutheran Estonia and Latvia there.
Even adding them the majority of Protestant heritage nations are outside the Eurozone, the majority of the Eurozone is Catholic.
Plus more Estonians are now Eastern Orthodox than Lutheran
Irreligion dwarves either sect, and following the ‘historically X’ line of argument, it’s historically a Protestant nation.
Either way, I’m not sure about the Catholicism/Eurozone thing holds that much water; indeed I’m not sure what the point being made is.
Irreligion is irrelevant, it was religious heritage we were discussing. As I said even counting Estonia as Protestant heritage there are still more Protestant European nations outside the Eurozone than inside and the majority of Eurozone nations are still Roman Catholic majority or majority heritage.
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
Bloody odd then that the English are pro Brexit but the Scots aren't.
Were. The English were pro Brexit.
Managed to edit just in time ... but quite right!
Edit: and in any case we're not talking about "Protestant European nations" in HYUFD's words but about modern polities or more precisely their voters.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
Dearie me. You said something very silly, tried to back out of it by saying something even sillier, and played the utterly insufferable card of when someone has had the courtesy to reply to one of your posts saying Ooh I seem to have touched a nerve (paraphrasing slightly).
Feel free to explain how your original post did not imply that you think logic is not involved in the study of law and history. But I must warn you that since out exchange of this morning I have cycled 36 miles with a vertical ascent of 3835 feet so not expecting to be awake much longer.
I've said all I need to say to you. At least @leon is a pleasure to banter with. You are an exceedingly unpleasant person and if you had any understanding of my post you will realise I did not say what you think I said. You jump to conclusions as you have done several times today. Sod off.
You said exactly what I say you said, you said it with the absolutely explicit intention of winding people up, and here we are. You seem to have ishooz.
What is wrong with you? I have not tried to wind anyone up, except in fun, and everyone else reacted normally to that and responded with humour except you.
And you think I have issues.
Even when I politely said I had to go and would be back later you had to make a snarky remark.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Good point about likes.
I too think it should be binned
I must admit I quite like giving them. I probably give many more likes than I make posts, particularly if I appreciate a post but have nothing to add, although occasionally for a particularly good post I will just comment on how good it is as well.
I must admit I have liked a number of @leon's posts not realising he didn't approve and only recently commented on how good one of his posts was.
I once responded to RCS saying he knew someone senior at Disney who was in line for the chop, by saying 'Don't worry, I am sure they will never get rid of Mickey' and I was chuckling away to myself it was so funny, and it got ZERO LIKES. I then realised how stupid and worthless the like system is.
I often give likes to views I disagree with which are well crafted, witty or make me look at a point from a different angle. It isn't always because they echo my thoughts.
On the VoteUK discussion forum there used to be "smite" and "exalt" buttons, which gave a total "karma" score. It was abolished about 5 years ago after members decided they'd had enough of it.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
When Eadric, LadyG, Byronic, SeanT etc.all like your post you are definitely onto a winner...
Indeed. They rarely agreed on anything or spoke to each other.
@MikeSmithson I have only just noticed your comments about your operation. Please keep us updated on how it progresses. As I have discussed this with you before my wife has the same issue and is on the waiting list for the operation. She has been waiting a few months now and on last checking was half way up the queue. I hope it works out and I can give my wife the good news that you are cured as she is worrying about it and as she is a Doctor the fact that she worries, worries me.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Really? I use the like button, where someone has responded to one of my posts, to thank that poster and say that I've read his or her reply, even if I do not disagree with it. More people should use this system rather than the banal "thanks" or the even worse ding-dong type debates about how many people go to which church in which corner of the anglosphere. Honestly, who cares, unless you are going into the hymn book business? It is this sort of repetitive to-and-fro argument that ruins pb imo and if the like button helps avoid it, that is surely worthwhile. It is the flashed headlights of pb. It means whatever you take it to mean.
ETA and often I use it to mean that I do like a post.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Good point about likes.
I too think it should be binned
I must admit I quite like giving them. I probably give many more likes than I make posts, particularly if I appreciate a post but have nothing to add, although occasionally for a particularly good post I will just comment on how good it is as well.
I must admit I have liked a number of @leon's posts not realising he didn't approve and only recently commented on how good one of his posts was.
I once responded to RCS saying he knew someone senior at Disney who was in line for the chop, by saying 'Don't worry, I am sure they will never get rid of Mickey' and I was chuckling away to myself it was so funny, and it got ZERO LIKES. I then realised how stupid and worthless the like system is.
Have a post-dated like for that; it is quite funny.
@MikeSmithson I have only just noticed your comments about your operation. Please keep us updated on how it progresses. As I have discussed this with you before my wife has the same issue and is on the waiting list for the operation. She has been waiting a few months now and on last checking was half way up the queue. I hope it works out and I can give my wife the good news that you are cured as she is worrying about it and as she is a Doctor the fact that she worries, worries me.
Good God @MikeSmithson, I didn't spot that! Hope the recovery goes well.
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Scotland is closer to Northern Ireland. Most Northern Irish Protestants are of Presbyterian origin.
The Republic of Ireland is closer to Catholic Europe, hence it is in the EU and Eurozone and the UK isn't.
I would say the Midlands and North and Wales and Cornwall and Essex are probably culturally closer to Australia, while most of southern England is closer to NZ or New England in the US or the Canadian Atlantic coast.
London is probably quite close to Melbourne or Sydney
The EU is a Roman Catholic conspiracy? I have a Gordon Riot to sell you.
Most of the Eurozone are majority Catholic heritage nations. The founding nations of the EEC (except West Germany and the Netherlands) were all majority Roman Catholic and even Germany and Holland now have more Roman Catholics than Protestants (Bavaria of course always majority Catholic).
Of the majority Protestant heritage nations in Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and Finland, only the Dutch, Germans and Finns are in the Eurozone and EU
Forgetting the historically Lutheran Estonia and Latvia there.
Even adding them the majority of Protestant heritage nations are outside the Eurozone, the majority of the Eurozone is Catholic.
Plus more Estonians are now Eastern Orthodox than Lutheran
Irreligion dwarves either sect, and following the ‘historically X’ line of argument, it’s historically a Protestant nation.
Either way, I’m not sure about the Catholicism/Eurozone thing holds that much water; indeed I’m not sure what the point being made is.
Irreligion is irrelevant, it was religious heritage we were discussing. As I said even counting Estonia as Protestant heritage there are still more Protestant European nations outside the Eurozone than inside and the majority of Eurozone nations are still Roman Catholic majority or majority heritage.
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
Bloody odd then that the English [edit] were pro Brexit but the Scots aren't.
Even over half of Scots did not want to join the Eurozone
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Good point about likes.
I too think it should be binned
I must admit I quite like giving them. I probably give many more likes than I make posts, particularly if I appreciate a post but have nothing to add, although occasionally for a particularly good post I will just comment on how good it is as well.
I must admit I have liked a number of @leon's posts not realising he didn't approve and only recently commented on how good one of his posts was.
I once responded to RCS saying he knew someone senior at Disney who was in line for the chop, by saying 'Don't worry, I am sure they will never get rid of Mickey' and I was chuckling away to myself it was so funny, and it got ZERO LIKES. I then realised how stupid and worthless the like system is.
Your like of likes is likely a snare, grasshopper? Learn to like the zen-like LACK of likes!
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Scotland is closer to Northern Ireland. Most Northern Irish Protestants are of Presbyterian origin.
The Republic of Ireland is closer to Catholic Europe, hence it is in the EU and Eurozone and the UK isn't.
I would say the Midlands and North and Wales and Cornwall and Essex are probably culturally closer to Australia, while most of southern England is closer to NZ or New England in the US or the Canadian Atlantic coast.
London is probably quite close to Melbourne or Sydney
The EU is a Roman Catholic conspiracy? I have a Gordon Riot to sell you.
Most of the Eurozone are majority Catholic heritage nations. The founding nations of the EEC (except West Germany and the Netherlands) were all majority Roman Catholic and even Germany and Holland now have more Roman Catholics than Protestants (Bavaria of course always majority Catholic).
Of the majority Protestant heritage nations in Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and Finland, only the Dutch, Germans and Finns are in the Eurozone and EU
Forgetting the historically Lutheran Estonia and Latvia there.
Even adding them the majority of Protestant heritage nations are outside the Eurozone, the majority of the Eurozone is Catholic.
Plus more Estonians are now Eastern Orthodox than Lutheran
Irreligion dwarves either sect, and following the ‘historically X’ line of argument, it’s historically a Protestant nation.
Either way, I’m not sure about the Catholicism/Eurozone thing holds that much water; indeed I’m not sure what the point being made is.
Irreligion is irrelevant, it was religious heritage we were discussing. As I said even counting Estonia as Protestant heritage there are still more Protestant European nations outside the Eurozone than inside and the majority of Eurozone nations are still Roman Catholic majority or majority heritage.
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
Bloody odd then that the English [edit] were pro Brexit but the Scots aren't.
Even over half of Scots did not want to join the Eurozone
That's from more than a decade ago, on a very specific sub-issue. And not Brexit, so you are pretending that something completely irrelevant is actually a refutation of my point. That is called "fibbing" in logic and history classes.
You'll be claiming next that 86% of Cretaceous dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight didn't want to join Pangaea.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Good point about likes.
I too think it should be binned
I must admit I quite like giving them. I probably give many more likes than I make posts, particularly if I appreciate a post but have nothing to add, although occasionally for a particularly good post I will just comment on how good it is as well.
I must admit I have liked a number of @leon's posts not realising he didn't approve and only recently commented on how good one of his posts was.
I once responded to RCS saying he knew someone senior at Disney who was in line for the chop, by saying 'Don't worry, I am sure they will never get rid of Mickey' and I was chuckling away to myself it was so funny, and it got ZERO LIKES. I then realised how stupid and worthless the like system is.
It happens. @dixiedean has just made the same point. I make a banal comment (@leon will tell you they are all banal) and it gets a host of likes. I then make what I think is a cracking joke and nothing. Obviously my sense of humour. I particularly like it when I see a well crafted argument that I don't agree with and I don't know what to do. I normally like and comment. I once got into a discussion with @Pagan2 when he was new to the site. I didn't agree with what he was saying, but I liked his argument. I encouraged him to write a thread header on the topic. I really had to twist his arm. As far as I am concerned it was my best contribution to the site even though Pagan did all the work. It was excellent and got a great response even though most did not agree with it. I can't even remember what it was on now, but it was thought provoking.
Conversely, I would say modern Britain is much more similar to New Zealand than Australia, with touches of Canada and the U.S on the one side, and NorthWest Continental Europe on the other.
Australia is increasingly American in style, I think.
Have you been to Oz? Or, indeed, the USA?
Oz really isn't like the USA. It is in the US/Anglosphere, militarily, but culturally it is much more Anglo, indeed European in general (welfare state, no guns, no abortion stuff, low level religiosity, etc)
I have indeed been to both places, although Australia longer ago. Since the enormous influence of the Australian-American Murdoch, particularly, Australia just seems different to me. The species of "posh Australian" I used to meet, for instance, seems almost extinct.
It just seems, from a negative point of view, brasher and with less of a sub-class aspiring to refinement or culture, and, from a more positive interpretation, more expansively, noisily egalitarian, in a geograohically large and young country way, and which reminds me more of the U.S. New Zealand just still seems noticeably more similar to us here in the UK, I think.
Depends where you go, plenty of intellectual, high culture, chardonnay drinking Australians in the most expensive parts of Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney.
New England is also probably closer to the UK and New Zealand than Australia and most of the rest of the USA
Yes, I agree about New England. I think that, together with Canada and New Zealand, is probably where England, at least, is closest to, combined with countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern France and Belgium.
We always have both those Anglo and Continental influences, which will always bridge-building between the two one of our most important economic and cultural functions, and partly why Brexit was so silly, pointless, and bound to be inevitably, and at some point, at least partially changed back again.
Canada though has Francophile Quebec
According to the most recent data, more than half the Quebec population are able to converse in English, however.
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Scotland is closer to Northern Ireland. Most Northern Irish Protestants are of Presbyterian origin.
The Republic of Ireland is closer to Catholic Europe, hence it is in the EU and Eurozone and the UK isn't.
I would say the Midlands and North and Wales and Cornwall and Essex are probably culturally closer to Australia, while most of southern England is closer to NZ or New England in the US or the Canadian Atlantic coast.
London is probably quite close to Melbourne or Sydney
The EU is a Roman Catholic conspiracy? I have a Gordon Riot to sell you.
Most of the Eurozone are majority Catholic heritage nations. The founding nations of the EEC (except West Germany and the Netherlands) were all majority Roman Catholic and even Germany and Holland now have more Roman Catholics than Protestants (Bavaria of course always majority Catholic).
Of the majority Protestant heritage nations in Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and Finland, only the Dutch, Germans and Finns are in the Eurozone and EU
Forgetting the historically Lutheran Estonia and Latvia there.
Even adding them the majority of Protestant heritage nations are outside the Eurozone, the majority of the Eurozone is Catholic.
Plus more Estonians are now Eastern Orthodox than Lutheran
Irreligion dwarves either sect, and following the ‘historically X’ line of argument, it’s historically a Protestant nation.
Either way, I’m not sure about the Catholicism/Eurozone thing holds that much water; indeed I’m not sure what the point being made is.
Irreligion is irrelevant, it was religious heritage we were discussing. As I said even counting Estonia as Protestant heritage there are still more Protestant European nations outside the Eurozone than inside and the majority of Eurozone nations are still Roman Catholic majority or majority heritage.
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
Bloody odd then that the English are pro Brexit but the Scots aren't.
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
Good point about likes.
I too think it should be binned
I must admit I quite like giving them. I probably give many more likes than I make posts, particularly if I appreciate a post but have nothing to add, although occasionally for a particularly good post I will just comment on how good it is as well.
I must admit I have liked a number of @leon's posts not realising he didn't approve and only recently commented on how good one of his posts was.
I once responded to RCS saying he knew someone senior at Disney who was in line for the chop, by saying 'Don't worry, I am sure they will never get rid of Mickey' and I was chuckling away to myself it was so funny, and it got ZERO LIKES. I then realised how stupid and worthless the like system is.
Your like of likes is likely a snare, grasshopper? Learn to like the zen-like LACK of likes!
Alexei Sayle's best joke
I was walking through the jungle and I said to my guide "I hate and fear the monotonous drumming which the cannibal tribes keep up day and night."
He replied You are a fool like all white men. You fear the drumming but it is when the drumming stops that you should truly be afraid.
Actually that chart shows little difference overall in NHS waiting times between recent Labour or Tory governments, except they were a bit lower under Labour in 2009-10 and are a bit higher under the Conservatives now (albeit Covid added to the problem).
Well done for going private though, the more higher income people take out private health insurance and use private hospitals, the less the pressure on the NHS. Best wishes for your recovery after your op.
I don't know where you learned maths but trebling is not "a bit" and being north of the worst in 30 years and accelerating is not "little difference".
Still, well done on congratulating OGH for going private, I am sure that has aided his recovery and eased the pain in his wallet no end.
What Australia does is charge higher income individuals a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% of income if they do not take out private health insurance.
The Tories should follow the example of the Coalition Howard government in Australia in 1997 which introduced that so more can follow the excellent example of OGH, go private and cut pressure on the NHS.
The Howard government in 1999 also contributed up to 30% of the private health insurance premium of people with their Medicare universal health coverage
Keir Starmer is actually praying they take this advice.
It would be the most brutal defeat of a governing, or recently governing, party since Baldwin managed to reduce Labour from 287 MPs to 50 in 1931.
It got the Howard government re elected.
There is little point being a Conservative if you don't pursue more conservative policies is there? Conservatives believe in choice in public services with private options too, in healthcare as much as anything else
I know the weather's been a bit warm recently, but I can assure you we are not in Australia.
Culturally we are probably closer to Australia than any other nation on earth except maybe New Zealand.
There is also no point the Tories fighting a battle on who will spend more on the NHS, as Labour will always win it as they are more willing to raise tax higher to pay for it.
The Tories should instead shift the argument to encouraging patient choice in healthcare too
"culturally"
Don't you mean racially? But it isn't particularly true. Just look at Ireland.
I think that Scotland is culturally close to Ireland. England less so. Parts of Scotland, particularly the West Highlands and the Hebrides, are culturally closer to Ireland than they are to England. Other parts, particularly Edinburgh, are culturally closer to England. Most of the UK, except probably the South East, is culturally closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australia seems culturally closer to the USA than the UK, except in sport.
Scotland is closer to Northern Ireland. Most Northern Irish Protestants are of Presbyterian origin.
The Republic of Ireland is closer to Catholic Europe, hence it is in the EU and Eurozone and the UK isn't.
I would say the Midlands and North and Wales and Cornwall and Essex are probably culturally closer to Australia, while most of southern England is closer to NZ or New England in the US or the Canadian Atlantic coast.
London is probably quite close to Melbourne or Sydney
The EU is a Roman Catholic conspiracy? I have a Gordon Riot to sell you.
Most of the Eurozone are majority Catholic heritage nations. The founding nations of the EEC (except West Germany and the Netherlands) were all majority Roman Catholic and even Germany and Holland now have more Roman Catholics than Protestants (Bavaria of course always majority Catholic).
Of the majority Protestant heritage nations in Europe, the UK, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and Finland, only the Dutch, Germans and Finns are in the Eurozone and EU
Forgetting the historically Lutheran Estonia and Latvia there.
Even adding them the majority of Protestant heritage nations are outside the Eurozone, the majority of the Eurozone is Catholic.
Plus more Estonians are now Eastern Orthodox than Lutheran
Irreligion dwarves either sect, and following the ‘historically X’ line of argument, it’s historically a Protestant nation.
Either way, I’m not sure about the Catholicism/Eurozone thing holds that much water; indeed I’m not sure what the point being made is.
Irreligion is irrelevant, it was religious heritage we were discussing. As I said even counting Estonia as Protestant heritage there are still more Protestant European nations outside the Eurozone than inside and the majority of Eurozone nations are still Roman Catholic majority or majority heritage.
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
Bloody odd then that the English [edit] were pro Brexit but the Scots aren't.
Even over half of Scots did not want to join the Eurozone
That's from more than a decade ago, on a very specific sub-issue. And not Brexit, so you are pretending that something completely irrelevant is actually a refutation of my point. That is called "fibbing" in logic and history classes.
You'll be claiming next that 86% of Cretaceous dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight didn't want to join Pangaea.
Show me a single poll then that has over 50% of Scots wanting to join the Eurozone?
My point that most Protestant majority heritage European nations are outside the Eurozone while most Catholic majority heritage European nations are within the Eurozone therefore stands
End of a stressful day. Needed to clear my father's house fast as the new owners want to complete asap and I don't want to cause any delays so I haven't replied to any comments from the last thread so:
@Mortimer - Thank you for your kind post. Appreciated. My dad died aged 96 in February. Just the selling of the house now, which has suddenly turned manic.
@Stuartinromford - I agree completely with your post re maths and eventually everyone hits the buffers in the end, it is just a matter of when. Definitely happened to me. If I had my time again I would do a joint degree of maths with economics or philosophy to put off hitting the maths buffers.
@HYUFD - Thanks for the link re philosophy degree & logic questions. I'm interested but the link didn't work - Page not found. One thing to note (and I say this without having read the link) is the logic you do in a maths degree is far more advanced than stuff you do in a philosophy degree (or in particular questions they may set in an interview) by the nature of the prerequisites. In fact the notation itself will be gibberish without the previous preparation. That is not to say a question set in an interview will not be as difficult, it might in fact be more difficult. There are plenty of everyday logic questions I can't do that an untrained but clever person can do, but which doesn't involve complex logic. And as you know, I don't have a logic degree (I don't even know if such a thing exists), but said it as a riposte to @Miklosvar, although my specialist subjects in my 2nd & 3rd year of maths were all logic topics.
@DecrepiterJohnL - Your post about many Doctors regretting their choice and moving to other careers. I agree. They are often talented in several areas and it follows from my argument of going down the science line first and then wishing they had done something they had more passion for. For most of us we do a degree, and move on, but for a Doctor it is a career. There are so many in the public eye who are ex-Doctors doing non doctoring stuff. My wife (a doctor) often feels the same.
@Miklosvar - You are an arse. When you first appeared on PB I had a pointless pedantic exchange with you and decided to avoid you. Today I made a half serious comment for comic effect that was at the expense of historians/lawyers and people like @TheScreamingEagles and @ydoethur respond accordingly, in fun. You on the other hand responded appallingly, as you nearly always do. I've noticed you have done this with others. With @kinabalu for instance. And your reaction and jumping to the wrong conclusion when I politely said I had to leave for a few hours, but would reply on my return, was an example. Would you have preferred it if I had been rude and just ignored you.
You're rude, pedantic, irrational, and tangential. You appear to be an exceedingly unpleasant person. Not bad going for someone who has only made a few hundred posts.
That being said, he is funnier than you
Are you all right @Leon? That is not up to your usual standard. Even when I disagree with you I still really enjoy your prose; but that?
I wasn't trying to be clever, or witty, or indeed anything - simply pointing out a relevant truth you had carelessly omitted in your 19 paragraph Screed of Tedium
You mean that tedium that has got more likes than any of your posts for the last few days. Just saying.
The definition of Tragedy is: adding up your likes
This is why I asked @rcs1000 to remove the LIKE button. Likes encourage cant, and banal emotion, and the herd mentality, and sad, crowdpleasing drivel, they are scout badges for inadequate morons, but, you know, well done
I may not be a scholar versed in the classical theatrical tradition, but I am pretty sure that that is not the definition of Tragedy.
Something I strongly agree with A point well made (even if I don't entirely agree) Someone pointing out important news/information I didn't know
I'm quite sparing with it. Maybe too much so.
Would add to your three, something that makes me laugh - at the top of my list.
Humble suggestion
* why not ditch "Flag" (is it still working?) and "Off Topic" * replace by sub-dividing "Like" into > like what you say > thought provoking > Ha! Ha! Ha! (more than one interpretation possible!)
Even Selby is going to be lost by the Tories if the current polls are anything like right.
Yes it's tricky to know where they would hold in a BE. Castle Point maybe
You need somewhere with a humongous Conservative majority and no in for the Lib Dems. Maybe with a local row that the Conservatives can pin on someone else- ULEZ for example.
Rayleigh, perhaps some Lincolnshire seats. Borders.
Was interesting to see when you put the average of current polling into Baxter the three safest Tory seats, and 6 or 7 of the Top Ten are in Scotland.
Some of the safest electoral calc seats look like stone cold LD gains to me
Beyond question of utility or otherwise of various polls > seats calculations, is it possible, that some voters are starting to respond based NOT on which party they support the most, but instead on which party they are (at least thinking about) voting for in their local constituency?
For example, my UK doppelganger is a Labour AND Starmer supporter BUT lives in constituency where Lib Dem has best short (it appears today) to take out Tory incumbent.
When polled, is his response re: voting intention Labour? OR Liberal Democrat?
Seems to me they could logically go either way - fielder's choice.
Even Selby is going to be lost by the Tories if the current polls are anything like right.
Yes it's tricky to know where they would hold in a BE. Castle Point maybe
You need somewhere with a humongous Conservative majority and no in for the Lib Dems. Maybe with a local row that the Conservatives can pin on someone else- ULEZ for example.
I'd suggest somewhere in South West Essex.
Brentwood and Ongar, New Forest, South Staffordshire, Braintree, one of the Lincolnshire or Norfolk rural seats would probably be safest for the Tories to hold in a by election. Plus Old Bexley and Sidcup which the Tories did hold in a by election in December 2021
Audible gasps at #ADA2023 as Phase II data for $LLY GGG agonist retatrutide shows up to 24.2% weight loss at 48 weeks in obese & overweight patients without diabetes. 100% of patients at top 2 doses met threshold of 5% or greater weight loss. Nearly half lost 1/4 of body weight. https://twitter.com/ScripMandy/status/1673451979547488256
The sheer numbers on NHS England’s waiting lists highlights that many are having to put up with their medical conditions for longer because of the failure of every Tory government since GE2019 to put the resources.
It's not that, it's the failure of every Tory government since 2010 to reform it to work less like Soviet Russia and more like the system in every other developed country except America. They knew it needed doing, they wanted to do it, the voters knew they wanted to do it, and they didn't do it.
Comments
Indeed we are closer to the Anglosphere culturally than most of Southern and Eastern Europe
The EU and opposition to it is still closely connected to the heritage of the Reformation
We always have both those Anglo and Continental influences, which will always make bridge-building between the two one of our most important economic and cultural functions, and partly why Brexit was so silly, pointless, and bound to be inevitably, and at some point, at least partially redrawn back again.
Feel free to explain how your original post did not imply that you think logic is not involved in the study of law and history. But I must warn you that since out exchange of this morning I have cycled 36 miles with a vertical ascent of 3835 feet so not expecting to be awake much longer.
To be honest, I don’t know if the waiting lists make much difference. It obviously doesn’t help, but the improvements under Labour clearly didn’t keep them in offence.
I think interest rate rises are more likely to be hurting the government.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66020743
Am I doing this right?
Also, TDF is on itv4 and Wimbledon BBC of course so that's July sorted.
I must admit I have liked a number of @leon's posts not realising he didn't approve and only recently commented on how good one of his posts was.
For since those days, the demographics of NE have changed a bit.
With original Yankee stock, of mostly English origin, being largely replaced by (dare I say?) Celts of the Irish Papist persuasion, and Latins (also mostly mackerel-eaters) of French Canadian, Italian and Portuguese heritage. Also goodly number of Blacks (for example Malcolm X), Greeks (Mike Dukakis), Jews (Kitty Dukakis), Poles (Ed Muskie) and sprinkling here and there of Native Americans.
As for more recent immigration, IIRC that's dominated by Chinese (including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu), Cape Verdeians, Brazilians.
Of course, those who disagree will argue with you. They will anyway. How do you measure whether those who agree think you have made your argument succinctly, effectively or wittily?
If they are removed there's no way of knowing.
I often think I've made a killer point and there's tumbleweed.
And then. I think summat I've posted is banal and obvious and it gets several likes and lots of pushback against it.
If you map Catholicism against Protestant history in Europe, it lines up with the intensity of Euroscepticism, with the fault line going thru Ireland, around England, then approximately along the Hanseatic League. It was unofficially understood that the first President would have to be Catholic and it was rumoured that this was a function in Blair's conversion.
Edit: and in any case we're not talking about "Protestant European nations" in HYUFD's words but about modern polities or more precisely their voters.
And you think I have issues.
Even when I politely said I had to go and would be back later you had to make a snarky remark.
Again who has issues?
It isn't always because they echo my thoughts.
A novelist and TV producer has accused a Conservative mayoral hopeful of groping her 10 years ago.
Daisy Goodwin told The Times Daniel Korski sexually assaulted her by putting his hand on her breast during a meeting at Downing Street.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66026515
ETA and often I use it to mean that I do like a post.
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/alleged-teen-rapist-avoids-justice-30315356
I like the likes. Keep ‘em, I say.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110815070707/http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/table_eu_jul2011.pdf (p3)
You'll be claiming next that 86% of Cretaceous dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight didn't want to join Pangaea.
(Actually I only use emojis when pretending to be a millennial)
I was walking through the jungle and I said to my guide "I hate and fear the monotonous drumming which the cannibal tribes keep up day and night."
He replied You are a fool like all white men. You fear the drumming but it is when the drumming stops that you should truly be afraid.
Why I said. What happens when the drumming stops?
He replied: The guitar solo.
My point that most Protestant majority heritage European nations are outside the Eurozone while most Catholic majority heritage European nations are within the Eurozone therefore stands
• Toy Soldier
• Cliche Wallah
• Russian Troll
• Cash Fetishist
• Scottish Subsample
Prize for the best logos.
We are ostensibly discussing why NHS waiting lists will get the Tories hammered.
Care to point out the recent posts about that?
Something I strongly agree with
A point well made (even if I don't entirely agree)
Someone pointing out important news/information I didn't know
I'm quite sparing with it. Maybe too much so.
Humble suggestion
* why not ditch "Flag" (is it still working?) and "Off Topic"
* replace by sub-dividing "Like" into
> like what you say
> thought provoking
> Ha! Ha! Ha! (more than one interpretation possible!)
I'd suggest somewhere in South West Essex.
For example, my UK doppelganger is a Labour AND Starmer supporter BUT lives in constituency where Lib Dem has best short (it appears today) to take out Tory incumbent.
When polled, is his response re: voting intention Labour? OR Liberal Democrat?
Seems to me they could logically go either way - fielder's choice.
So am awarding you +1 to restore zen-Like/Off Topic Harmony of the PB Universe.
Either hypothesis remains possible.
(And may you have even more success against the bookies in the future.)
You provide a valuable forum here.
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano says it's a "sign of great incivility"."
https://news.sky.com/story/anger-in-italy-as-tourist-filmed-carving-initials-into-the-colosseum-12910150
https://twitter.com/ScripMandy/status/1673451979547488256
Remarkable results.
Possible side effect concerns, though.