My daughter has just been told by a ST journalist that her best friend from her year abroad died of methanol poisoning in Laos. They are clearly contacting the deceased’s facebook friends.
I really don’t think I could do that job.
That's awful. I wonder if some governments will advise against travel to the country until they sort out this problem?
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
Actually NHS productivity is significantly improving.
Improving now, it hasn't over the past 5 year period. Yes COVID and strikes, but the NHS have had a lot more money than I think people realise and a lot more staff hired.
Also the issues with things like GP appointments, who are the gatekeepers to the system remains a huge problem.
One hopes that Streeting / Milburn can drive the change / improvements required.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
Actually NHS productivity is significantly improving.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
Why on earth should taxpayers pay a junior doctor starting out £100k a year? If you did that salaried GPs would end up on £500k a year
We’d get much better people if these kinds of roles paid more.
As another example, in the Civil Service I’d have a software engineering role at £100K a year or more, that’s more in line with the private sector.
Same for politicians, I would pay them a lot more.
Taxpayers should not be forking out a fortune for public servants, if they want to earn top dollar they can go into the private sector and face the full pressures of the free market and try and get to the top of the tree there and earn it
Problem is you just don't get enough people to do sometimes vital jobs otherwise. It's all very well telling them to bugger off, and you can manage that for quite some time, but in specialist roles you will eventually end up with not enough people who are do it, especially in things like councils where they compete with one another for limited pools of social workers etc.
The average public sector worker still earns more than the average private sector worker
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
As uncertain a world as it is and as much as people should prepare for it to get potentially worse (and noting there's seemingly little the West could do to influence matters in any case), it seems hard to dispute the argument that leaving Assad to it with his Russian and Iranian allies in the hopes things would return to a stable if brutal situation, has not worked out in the last 9 years, so why would it in the future? He's proven to be unstable and vulnerable despite support before even getting on to his personal despicability.
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
But, again, the bands are missing - guitar bands, boy bands, whatever type of bands. The sole band to put a one new track into the top 10 this year are Linkin Park. I think this has legs, the loss of bands at the summit is going to become a thing and the loss of variety, the grit in the oyster, from that is apparent.
Playing live next year
Duran Duran The Human League Madness Level 42 ABC
1982/83 were great years for music, as this list proves.
Now there's a surprise. "It turns out the apparent rise in Britain’s illness-related inactivity is not about deteriorating health, but about incentives within the benefit system".
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
How is productivity measured in health contexts? Acts of kindness by the extra nurse who has time now won't show up.
Things like appointment, treatments started etc. They haven't increased despite all the extra money and staff.
Do either of those directly lead to outcomes? Surely you measure productivity of healthcare by the death rate. Or something like that. If I need a hip replacement, I don't want appointments, I want to be back at work.
Well this is something that was exposed during COVID, the data collection in usable forms is substandard to allow for high level analysis. It is something that Patrick Vallance is very keen to improve.
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
Back on topic, sort of - while I don't have a favourite tube line*, I do have a favourite bus station. It is Stockport. It's an architectural triumph. Is there any other bus station in the country that you can look around at 11pm on a Friday night and think not just "this isn't horrible" but actually "this is quite nice". Safe, clean, designed for passengers rather than buses. A joy.
*Of course I do really. I have two. One is the Jubilee line, which is my favourite to travel on and which I remember opening; the other is tge Central, which is my favourite to look at, with it's punchy red; and the one line with which the rest would not work.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
Actually NHS productivity is significantly improving.
Improving now, it hasn't over the past 5 year period. Yes COVID and strikes, but the NHS have had a lot more money than I think people realise and a lot more staff hired.
Also the issues with things like GP appointments, who are the gatekeepers to the system remains a huge problem.
One hopes that Streeting / Milburn can drive the change / improvements required.
People talk about go appointments but it's not always as bad as is made out. I had an issue this week. Waited a few days, thought I should get seen. Rang and waited for 20 minutes. Spoke to receptionist who then checked with the duty GP. I was seen by a GP and hour later. I think people sometimes just hark bark to the deli counter approach of old- take a number and wait. My practice is super busy but they try very hard to patients seen, even if initially not by a doctor. My regular chest infections this year (thanks nursery) have been managed by a paramedic or a nurse prescribed, not a gp. Sadly I suspect not all practiced are as good.
Now there's a surprise. "It turns out the apparent rise in Britain’s illness-related inactivity is not about deteriorating health, but about incentives within the benefit system".
I'm not some kind of sicko, so I'm obviously not going to click on that link, but when I was last in London at the beginning of November, it was significantly better than during the Summer.
Now, I should caveat this. My London flat is on Shaftesbury Avenue, so the London I see most is between Holborn, Covent Garden and Soho.
From 2022 to the summer of 2024, the area around my apartment was on a steady downward trend. The homeless heroin, crack and crystal meth addicts (who often also suffered from a whole host mental afflictions) proliferated. During the summer, leaving out apartment building, we'd regularly have to ask the crack smoking homeless to please move.
It felt increasingly unsafe.
Last month, it was like a light switch had been thrown. Never once did I need to step over a homeless person when entering the building. I wasn't aggressively hassled for money. The area had been dramatically cleaned up, and that had a knock on positive impact on the local pubs and restaurants where -despite the weather- large crowds milled outside.
Perhaps the homeless heroin addicts got moved on, and headed up to Sean Thomas's part of the world.
But irrespective, London felt to me safer and cleaner than it had done at any time in the post-Covid world. (And, of course, we now have the Elizabeth Line which whisks me to Heathrow in 35 minutes from Tottenham Court Road tube station, meaning I can leave my apartment just two hours before my flight to LA.)
Maybe they ought to have an occasional Elizabeth line train that goes all the way from Paddington to Heathrow without stopping at the other stations [with the possible exception of Hayes & Harlington where the line splits] in order to make that journey time even shorter. (The operators of the Heathrow Express probably wouldn't be happy with the idea though).
Surely a major issue facing rebels in all sorts of disputes is that many hate each other as much or more as the controlling authority, and so almost by definition rebel groups are not automatically 'branches' of the some broad anti-government faction? Indeed, the main group of the current advances has seemingly had to work pretty hard to improve its diplomatic and PR skills in order to secure co-operation or at least lack of aggression in certain areas, where before they were unable to work together like 'branches' would.
Whether they can work with ISIS who the hell knows, though as an ignorant observer I'd assume that would not be without cost in terms of co-operations with other groups.
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
Actually NHS productivity is significantly improving.
Improving now, it hasn't over the past 5 year period. Yes COVID and strikes, but the NHS have had a lot more money than I think people realise and a lot more staff hired.
Also the issues with things like GP appointments, who are the gatekeepers to the system remains a huge problem.
One hopes that Streeting / Milburn can drive the change / improvements required.
People talk about go appointments but it's not always as bad as is made out. I had an issue this week. Waited a few days, thought I should get seen. Rang and waited for 20 minutes. Spoke to receptionist who then checked with the duty GP. I was seen by a GP and hour later. I think people sometimes just hark bark to the deli counter approach of old- take a number and wait. My practice is super busy but they try very hard to patients seen, even if initially not by a doctor. My regular chest infections this year (thanks nursery) have been managed by a paramedic or a nurse prescribed, not a gp. Sadly I suspect not all practiced are as good.
I recently had to wait 4 weeks to get seen for an eye infection that wasn't clearing up, when I finally got my appointment wasn't a GP and they basically said well I don't know, have you thought about going to a pharmacist......yes that is why i am f##king here, because the over the counter eye drops didn't work.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
I've no idea to your first question, and for sure neither of us has an answer to your second. Iran is, Russia is - both oppose/support Assad. I'm not sure how it plays out.
But to your point on just the US Terror List - I couldn't pick a side with any confidence.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
My father has diabetic eye checkups. He also has a cataract which means that their normal camera doesn't work.
The hospital send an appointment for their normal camera, I tell them it won't work, they say come in anyway, we traipse in (I have to book half a day off to get him there) and, Pikachu surprised face, two weeks later I get a letter saying it didn't work and please book an appointment for the more specialised camera.
He's also on the ophthalmology list as he has some macular degeneration, but it turns out they don't share images or results with the diabetic people so even though they use the same specialised camera, they each have to take their own image.
So, 3 visits instead of 1, and also (not that the NHS seem to care) 1 day of my time lost.
Woe betide you if you refuse to play this stupid game, though, as you are then discharged.
I can only imagine that these inefficiencies are absolutely everywhere.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
My father has diabetic eye checkups. He also has a cataract which means that their normal camera doesn't work.
The hospital send an appointment for their normal camera, I tell them it won't work, they say come in anyway, we traipse in (I have to book half a day off to get him there) and, Pikachu surprised face, two weeks later I get a letter saying it didn't work and please book an appointment for the more specialised camera.
He's also on the ophthalmology list as he has some macular degeneration, but it turns out they don't share images or results with the diabetic people so even though they use the same specialised camera, they each have to take their own image.
So, 3 visits instead of 1, and also (not that the NHS seem to care) 1 day of my time lost.
Woe betide you if you refuse to play this stupid game, though, as you are then discharged.
I can only imagine that these inefficiencies are absolutely everywhere.
I have told about my experience with having a tooth removed because it couldn't be done by a regular dentist. 4 appointments, repeated x-rays, before finally having a single tooth extracted in a 15 min job. There was absolutely no need for all those, my dentist had done the x-ray, had written the report saying what the issue was and the piece of equipment required for the removal, it only needed the single appointment for the extraction.
Having the new tooth put in privately vastly more efficient.
Also off topic, I’m in Senegal this week. Sitting on deck on the ferry about to depart Dakar for Ziguinchor.
Sénégal is ridiculously French. The road signs are identical to those in France: same font, same everything. Restaurant wine lists containing only French wine. There are 3 Decathlons in Dakar, countless Casino and Auchans, and no McDonald’s.
My photo of the day is this, just off Ngor plage:
Marvellieux
Please keep us updated. 1 I love any travel stories and 2. I am vaguely thinking of going to Senegal in January
I'm not some kind of sicko, so I'm obviously not going to click on that link, but when I was last in London at the beginning of November, it was significantly better than during the Summer.
Now, I should caveat this. My London flat is on Shaftesbury Avenue, so the London I see most is between Holborn, Covent Garden and Soho.
From 2022 to the summer of 2024, the area around my apartment was on a steady downward trend. The homeless heroin, crack and crystal meth addicts (who often also suffered from a whole host mental afflictions) proliferated. During the summer, leaving out apartment building, we'd regularly have to ask the crack smoking homeless to please move.
It felt increasingly unsafe.
Last month, it was like a light switch had been thrown. Never once did I need to step over a homeless person when entering the building. I wasn't aggressively hassled for money. The area had been dramatically cleaned up, and that had a knock on positive impact on the local pubs and restaurants where -despite the weather- large crowds milled outside.
Perhaps the homeless heroin addicts got moved on, and headed up to Sean Thomas's part of the world.
But irrespective, London felt to me safer and cleaner than it had done at any time in the post-Covid world. (And, of course, we now have the Elizabeth Line which whisks me to Heathrow in 35 minutes from Tottenham Court Road tube station, meaning I can leave my apartment just two hours before my flight to LA.)
Maybe they ought to have an occasional Elizabeth line train that goes all the way from Paddington to Heathrow without stopping at the other stations [with the possible exception of Hayes & Harlington where the line splits] in order to make that journey time even shorter. (The operators of the Heathrow Express probably wouldn't be happy with the idea though).
It's non-optimal to have a mix of fast and slow trains on a two-line train route - because the fast trains catch up with the slow ones. You can fit a good 15trains per hour down a route where each train has the same stopping pattern as the last, but this quickly falls away with a mix of fast and slow. I doubt you could fit more than 8tph down the Elizabeth line if one of them was an express.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
Why on earth should taxpayers pay a junior doctor starting out £100k a year? If you did that salaried GPs would end up on £500k a year
We’d get much better people if these kinds of roles paid more.
As another example, in the Civil Service I’d have a software engineering role at £100K a year or more, that’s more in line with the private sector.
Same for politicians, I would pay them a lot more.
Taxpayers should not be forking out a fortune for public servants, if they want to earn top dollar they can go into the private sector and face the full pressures of the free market and try and get to the top of the tree there and earn it
Problem is you just don't get enough people to do sometimes vital jobs otherwise. It's all very well telling them to bugger off, and you can manage that for quite some time, but in specialist roles you will eventually end up with not enough people who are do it, especially in things like councils where they compete with one another for limited pools of social workers etc.
The average public sector worker still earns more than the average private sector worker
That's an example of a misleading statistic. Consider a hospital. To cut costs the hospital outsources its cleaning and catering services to private contractors. So we now have a hospital that directly employs doctors (paid £££), nurses (paid ££) and administration staff (paid £) who are considered public sector workers, and private contractors who employ cleaners and cooks (paid £). On average the public sector staff are paid more than the private sector staff - but of course they are.
What is relevant is to do a like-for-like comparison. How much are teachers paid in private schools compared to state schools? What about nurses in private or state hospitals? Or, as much discussed recently, IT professionals in the civil service compared to the private sector?
Those sorts of comparisons show a different picture to the overall averages, and of course they do, because we can see there is a recruitment crisis in many of these sorts of public sector jobs.
Back when I worked in the public sector our union would respond to irate members unhappy with the latest pay offer by pointing out that management didn't think that the organisation had a recruitment and retention problem, and so revealed preference demonstrated that pay was good enough, making it difficult to achieve better pay. Bluntly, they said that they wouldn't be able to achieve better pay deals until more employees voted with their feet and left for better pay elsewhere.
That has happened in some areas of the public sector. In those cases you don't really have any option but to pay more. Now, there's a whole heap of arguments about how you'd raise the money to pay for it, and how best to organise the staff you'd recruit with higher wages to get the most out of them. But if you want the state to perform certain functions, then you have to pay enough to recruit qualified staff to do that.
Now there's a surprise. "It turns out the apparent rise in Britain’s illness-related inactivity is not about deteriorating health, but about incentives within the benefit system".
jeremy warner @JeremyWarnerUK Associate Editor, The Daily Telegraph; columnist on the international and UK economies, finance, and business
Yes and he’s quoting from an FT piece that’s linked in his tweet. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Do you think he'd quote it if it wasn't in line with the Telegraph PoV? I listen to the FT podcasts, quite happy to listen to their thinking. But selective retweets by the increasingly odd Telegraph editorial lines needs a bit of a self-check.
Also off topic, I’m in Senegal this week. Sitting on deck on the ferry about to depart Dakar for Ziguinchor.
Sénégal is ridiculously French. The road signs are identical to those in France: same font, same everything. Restaurant wine lists containing only French wine. There are 3 Decathlons in Dakar, countless Casino and Auchans, and no McDonald’s.
My photo of the day is this, just off Ngor plage:
Marvellieux
Please keep us updated. 1 I love any travel stories and 2. I am vaguely thinking of going to Senegal in January
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
My father has diabetic eye checkups. He also has a cataract which means that their normal camera doesn't work.
The hospital send an appointment for their normal camera, I tell them it won't work, they say come in anyway, we traipse in (I have to book half a day off to get him there) and, Pikachu surprised face, two weeks later I get a letter saying it didn't work and please book an appointment for the more specialised camera.
He's also on the ophthalmology list as he has some macular degeneration, but it turns out they don't share images or results with the diabetic people so even though they use the same specialised camera, they each have to take their own image.
So, 3 visits instead of 1, and also (not that the NHS seem to care) 1 day of my time lost.
Woe betide you if you refuse to play this stupid game, though, as you are then discharged.
I can only imagine that these inefficiencies are absolutely everywhere.
I have an annual eye test at Boots opticians largely to ensure my ability to drive is in order and I pay £25 for detailed imaging
I had a diabetic diagnosis years ago but have not required medication for it and my Boots examination confirmed my cataracts that we already know about, I had no macular degeneration and no sign of diabetes
The test is free every 2 years apart from the optional one, and therefore I do not go on the NHS screening and my GP is aware of this situation
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
Assad is our enemy's ally. He gets taken down.
Assad makes sod all difference to the Ukraine war, he is otherwise a relatively secular ruler who protects his minority Alawi community and the small number of Christians in Ukraine.
He is miles better than the jihadi Islamists opposing him
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
My father has diabetic eye checkups. He also has a cataract which means that their normal camera doesn't work.
The hospital send an appointment for their normal camera, I tell them it won't work, they say come in anyway, we traipse in (I have to book half a day off to get him there) and, Pikachu surprised face, two weeks later I get a letter saying it didn't work and please book an appointment for the more specialised camera.
He's also on the ophthalmology list as he has some macular degeneration, but it turns out they don't share images or results with the diabetic people so even though they use the same specialised camera, they each have to take their own image.
So, 3 visits instead of 1, and also (not that the NHS seem to care) 1 day of my time lost.
Woe betide you if you refuse to play this stupid game, though, as you are then discharged.
I can only imagine that these inefficiencies are absolutely everywhere.
A relative of mine had an emergency scan done once aftering being in severe backpain, and we got concerned when a couple of weeks later we'd still heard nothing. After going round the houses we were able to get through to someone, who said no one had even looked at the scan, and that my relative should have told them they could pass it on to another doctor once the scan had come through, otherwise nothing could be done with it. Asking how he was supposed to know when the scan was ready so he could even inform them of this, or who it should be sent to when he'd not been told of any such person at the time, drew zero sympathy. The presumably overworked staff were admirably honest and direct about how no one talked to each other, it must happen constantly.
Yes, these are just anecdotes, but I find these things are expected.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
I have been to Australia several times and it is good and interesting to holiday in but living there is something very different and certainly not as idyllic as some would have you believe
I am put off by the plagues of mice. The deadly spiders. And the wildfires.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
Why on earth should taxpayers pay a junior doctor starting out £100k a year? If you did that salaried GPs would end up on £500k a year
We’d get much better people if these kinds of roles paid more.
As another example, in the Civil Service I’d have a software engineering role at £100K a year or more, that’s more in line with the private sector.
Same for politicians, I would pay them a lot more.
Taxpayers should not be forking out a fortune for public servants, if they want to earn top dollar they can go into the private sector and face the full pressures of the free market and try and get to the top of the tree there and earn it
Problem is you just don't get enough people to do sometimes vital jobs otherwise. It's all very well telling them to bugger off, and you can manage that for quite some time, but in specialist roles you will eventually end up with not enough people who are do it, especially in things like councils where they compete with one another for limited pools of social workers etc.
The average public sector worker still earns more than the average private sector worker
That's an example of a misleading statistic. Consider a hospital. To cut costs the hospital outsources its cleaning and catering services to private contractors. So we now have a hospital that directly employs doctors (paid £££), nurses (paid ££) and administration staff (paid £) who are considered public sector workers, and private contractors who employ cleaners and cooks (paid £). On average the public sector staff are paid more than the private sector staff - but of course they are.
What is relevant is to do a like-for-like comparison. How much are teachers paid in private schools compared to state schools? What about nurses in private or state hospitals? Or, as much discussed recently, IT professionals in the civil service compared to the private sector?
Those sorts of comparisons show a different picture to the overall averages, and of course they do, because we can see there is a recruitment crisis in many of these sorts of public sector jobs.
Back when I worked in the public sector our union would respond to irate members unhappy with the latest pay offer by pointing out that management didn't think that the organisation had a recruitment and retention problem, and so revealed preference demonstrated that pay was good enough, making it difficult to achieve better pay. Bluntly, they said that they wouldn't be able to achieve better pay deals until more employees voted with their feet and left for better pay elsewhere.
That has happened in some areas of the public sector. In those cases you don't really have any option but to pay more. Now, there's a whole heap of arguments about how you'd raise the money to pay for it, and how best to organise the staff you'd recruit with higher wages to get the most out of them. But if you want the state to perform certain functions, then you have to pay enough to recruit qualified staff to do that.
Very well put. There are complexities here, and an argument to be made about in general public vs private sector, but too often there is an undercurrent of the public sector basically not being deserving of any amount (since the complaint is usually just that its too much, not what it should be), nor recognition of the problem if you don't get enough (which as you note is usually only in a few areas).
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
Why on earth should taxpayers pay a junior doctor starting out £100k a year? If you did that salaried GPs would end up on £500k a year
We’d get much better people if these kinds of roles paid more.
As another example, in the Civil Service I’d have a software engineering role at £100K a year or more, that’s more in line with the private sector.
Same for politicians, I would pay them a lot more.
Taxpayers should not be forking out a fortune for public servants, if they want to earn top dollar they can go into the private sector and face the full pressures of the free market and try and get to the top of the tree there and earn it
Problem is you just don't get enough people to do sometimes vital jobs otherwise. It's all very well telling them to bugger off, and you can manage that for quite some time, but in specialist roles you will eventually end up with not enough people who are do it, especially in things like councils where they compete with one another for limited pools of social workers etc.
The average public sector worker still earns more than the average private sector worker
That's an example of a misleading statistic. Consider a hospital. To cut costs the hospital outsources its cleaning and catering services to private contractors. So we now have a hospital that directly employs doctors (paid £££), nurses (paid ££) and administration staff (paid £) who are considered public sector workers, and private contractors who employ cleaners and cooks (paid £). On average the public sector staff are paid more than the private sector staff - but of course they are.
What is relevant is to do a like-for-like comparison. How much are teachers paid in private schools compared to state schools? What about nurses in private or state hospitals? Or, as much discussed recently, IT professionals in the civil service compared to the private sector?
Those sorts of comparisons show a different picture to the overall averages, and of course they do, because we can see there is a recruitment crisis in many of these sorts of public sector jobs.
Back when I worked in the public sector our union would respond to irate members unhappy with the latest pay offer by pointing out that management didn't think that the organisation had a recruitment and retention problem, and so revealed preference demonstrated that pay was good enough, making it difficult to achieve better pay. Bluntly, they said that they wouldn't be able to achieve better pay deals until more employees voted with their feet and left for better pay elsewhere.
That has happened in some areas of the public sector. In those cases you don't really have any option but to pay more. Now, there's a whole heap of arguments about how you'd raise the money to pay for it, and how best to organise the staff you'd recruit with higher wages to get the most out of them. But if you want the state to perform certain functions, then you have to pay enough to recruit qualified staff to do that.
The public sector could of course follow the private sector with more performance related pay, easier firings if they don't perform and no final salary pensions at all but I doubt that would be all that popular
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
What a nasty comment and it is 15 years next May
It doesn't change the reality facing politicians of all parties
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
Assad is our enemy's ally. He gets taken down.
Assad makes sod all difference to the Ukraine war, he is otherwise a relatively secular ruler who protects his minority Alawi community and the small number of Christians in Ukraine.
He is miles better than the jihadi Islamists opposing him
Druze rebels are tearing down portraits of #Assad in the city of #Suwayda.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
I have been to Australia several times and it is good and interesting to holiday in but living there is something very different and certainly not as idyllic as some would have you believe
I am put off by the plagues of mice. The deadly spiders. And the wildfires.
And the snakes...and the kangaroos...and even the cuddly animals like Koalas, carry Chlamydia...
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
Assad is our enemy's ally. He gets taken down.
Assad makes sod all difference to the Ukraine war, he is otherwise a relatively secular ruler who protects his minority Alawi community and the small number of Christians in Ukraine.
He is miles better than the jihadi Islamists opposing him
His ousting will be a failure for Russia, which is good. He is also a murderous bastard little different to ISIS. They behead people, he drops gas on his citizens. Losing a Mediterranean naval base will not be good for the Russians, it would be good if the rebels felt like wasting the Russian air bases too.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
What a nasty comment and it is 15 years next May
It doesn't change the reality facing politicians of all parties
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
My father has diabetic eye checkups. He also has a cataract which means that their normal camera doesn't work.
The hospital send an appointment for their normal camera, I tell them it won't work, they say come in anyway, we traipse in (I have to book half a day off to get him there) and, Pikachu surprised face, two weeks later I get a letter saying it didn't work and please book an appointment for the more specialised camera.
He's also on the ophthalmology list as he has some macular degeneration, but it turns out they don't share images or results with the diabetic people so even though they use the same specialised camera, they each have to take their own image.
So, 3 visits instead of 1, and also (not that the NHS seem to care) 1 day of my time lost.
Woe betide you if you refuse to play this stupid game, though, as you are then discharged.
I can only imagine that these inefficiencies are absolutely everywhere.
It used to be the job of opticians to do this IIRC, and they did a pretty efficient job of it in my experience.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
No, we could increase our birthrate for starters so we don't have such a top heavy population
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
Assad is our enemy's ally. He gets taken down.
He is miles better than the jihadi Islamists opposing him
If you say so. He may cling on, at least to some of the country.
But it's not in our hands at all, and the very fact it is not and that he is so weak despite that, undercuts the idea he is some kind of unfortunate necessity for the region, since if the premise is the brutal reality is you get types like him as the price for stability (for minorities etc), then he is not exactly been delivering on his end of that faustian bargain, he cannot even get control of half his country.
If he was, with Russian and Iranian backing, enforcing a brutal peace, there would be more brutally pragmatic voices in his support.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
No, we could increase our birthrate for starters so we don't have such a top heavy population
And how do we deal with the problem in the 25 years until this new increased birthrate cohort grows up to economic utility?
There seem to be quite a few reports floating about of a stitch-up between Putin and Turkey, with him potentially having known about their plans for months.
If so, maybe the Russians have decided to cut a deal with Turkey, to retain influence through them in thd Middle East.
If Damascus falls Erdogan won't be able to control the jihadi Militants who will take over Syria, it would soon become a haven nation for terrorists plotting global jihad
I think the new government would be preoccupied by internal affairs, and not interested in us.
It would be a big defeat for Putin and Iran though, and they are our geopolitical enemies at the moment.
The new government would be dominated by former Al Qaeda sympathisers motivated by jihad above all
You do talk some utter tosh on occasion.
Assad is not only a grotesquely brutal dictator, he’s also an incompetent unable even to keep the order his similarly brutal father managed.
Under his rule a fifth of the country’s population became refugees overseas; another fifth at least internally displaced; hundreds of thousands died - and Syria hosted an actual islamic terrorist state of precisely the kind you fear.
And no one, least of all yourself, really knows who might dominate whatever government succeeds him. It’s equally likely to be an improvement as it is something worse. And it’s going to happen whatever your opinion.
No it is reality. Assad kept Syria from falling to ISIS. We know the rebels are dominated by a group on the US terrorist list linked to Al Qaeda.
The brutal reality in the Muslim Middle East is the choice now is largely between ruthless dictator or a nation dominated by Islamic militancy, with a handful of exceptions like Jordan. See the removal of Gaddafi or Saddam and the aftermath
Not to try and excuse any of the various nutters fighting for control - but Assad and the whole Syrian regime is on the US terrorist list. Maybe Assad is the least bad nutter. But pick your poison.
Is Assad sending and sponsoring terrorists in London and other western streets? No. The AQ linked terrorists if they take over Syria ultimately will
Assad is our enemy's ally. He gets taken down.
Assad makes sod all difference to the Ukraine war, he is otherwise a relatively secular ruler who protects his minority Alawi community and the small number of Christians in Ukraine.
He is miles better than the jihadi Islamists opposing him
His ousting will be a failure for Russia, which is good. He is also a murderous bastard little different to ISIS. They behead people, he drops gas on his citizens. Losing a Mediterranean naval base will not be good for the Russians, it would be good if the rebels felt like wasting the Russian air bases too.
One Med base makes sod all difference to the Ukraine war, far better if anything Assad keeps going in Damascus and Russia keeps diverting troops and planes to help him hold it.
ISIS want global jihad and to wipe out western civilisation and Christianity and have global Islam under Sharia law, that is the main difference between them and many in the AQ linked rebels and relatively secular Assad
Somebody wondered yesterday which celeb would back Gregg Wallace,
Dame Prue Leith seemingly threw her support behind Gregg Wallace and insisted he 'shouldn't be sacked or cancelled' amid ongoing misconduct allegations.
'But that's his problem, that he's insensitive. He hasn't, that I can see, disobeyed the law. I don't believe people should be cancelled or sacked. I can see why you would ask somebody to step aside while they investigate things, which I suppose is what they're doing. But I think the tragedy in this is that I bet you Gregg has no idea what he's done wrong'.
Somebody wondered yesterday which celeb would back Gregg Wallace,
Dame Prue Leith seemingly threw her support behind Gregg Wallace and insisted he 'shouldn't be sacked or cancelled' amid ongoing misconduct allegations.
Now there's a surprise. "It turns out the apparent rise in Britain’s illness-related inactivity is not about deteriorating health, but about incentives within the benefit system".
The conclusion is a bit weird, because he starts by saying that the inactivity rate hasn't risen at all, and the apparent rise in the LFS is a result of deteriorating response rates to that survey.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
I have been to Australia several times and it is good and interesting to holiday in but living there is something very different and certainly not as idyllic as some would have you believe
I am put off by the plagues of mice. The deadly spiders. And the wildfires.
We were on a boardwalk Queensland when our guide showed us a deadly plant that can kill
Also told not to paddle in the water on a lovely beach near Cairns due to stonefish
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell.
Trying hard not to see a parallel in the growing support for assisted suicide here.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
No, we could increase our birthrate for starters so we don't have such a top heavy population
There's no way of increasing the birthrate, having one or two kids (or none) is a lifestyle choice for people. If we want people to start breeding earlier, we need to make house prices cheaper so people can afford a family-sized house in their twenties. This means building shit loads of houses all over the South East, which I would presume you are opposed to.
I agree - in part - with @HYUFD’s realpolitik take. Assad is a horrendous c*nt but it it arguable that those most likely to replace him - extreme jihadis like ISIS 2.0 - will be even worse. Especially for women in Syria
We must be careful what we wish for. If ISIS & co do seize the whole country that is likely to destabilise the entire region even more than it is already as they will seek to export their violent revolution to neighbouring countries and to use Syria as a launchpad to attack the west
I can foresee more regional wars in MENA and western troops back in Syria to crush ISIS
Or we will pay Israel to level the entire country
It also means millions more Syrian refugees fleeing a new Taliban
Surely a major issue facing rebels in all sorts of disputes is that many hate each other as much or more as the controlling authority, and so almost by definition rebel groups are not automatically 'branches' of the some broad anti-government faction? Indeed, the main group of the current advances has seemingly had to work pretty hard to improve its diplomatic and PR skills in order to secure co-operation or at least lack of aggression in certain areas, where before they were unable to work together like 'branches' would.
Whether they can work with ISIS who the hell knows, though as an ignorant observer I'd assume that would not be without cost in terms of co-operations with other groups.
Syria’s a complicated mess, certainly. But I’ve yet to see any evidence that ISIS have any involvement in the current loose coalition that you describe.
Killer of diabetics. Convinced his course participants to put themselves in pre-insulin days, when Type I was a death sentence. Ooof. :
An alternative healer has been jailed for 10 years for the manslaughter of a 71-year-old diabetic woman who stopped taking insulin at his slapping therapy workshop.
Danielle Carr-Gomm died in October 2016 while taking part in the Paida Lajin therapy event, which sees patients being slapped or slapping themselves repeatedly.
Hongchi Xiao, of Cloudbreak, California, was convicted by a jury in July at Winchester Crown Court of manslaughter by gross negligence after he failed to get medical help for Ms Carr-Gomm at the event in Wiltshire.
He was also sentenced to a further five years on extended licence after his time in prison.
The 61-year-old was extradited for the trial from Australia, where he had previously been prosecuted after a six-year-old boy also died when his parents withdrew his insulin medication after attending the defendant's workshop in Sydney.
Mr Justice Bright added Xiao will be liable to be deported to America after serving his sentence. ... Ms Carr-Gomm believed it worked and delivered glowing testimonials, the court previously heard.
The court heard that Xiao said "well done" to Ms Carr-Gomm, after she told the participants that she had stopped taking her insulin at the week-long retreat.
By the third day "she was vomiting, tired and weak, and by the evening she was howling in pain and unable to respond to questions", prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said.
Ms Carr-Gomm, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1999, was "howling in pain" and "frothing at the mouth" as she became seriously ill before she died on the fourth day of the workshop. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1el71pq2e1o
What could have caused that? Coming off insulin is dangerous for a Type 1 diabetic - eventually it will cause diabetic ketoacidosis, but howling in pain and foaming at the mouth after being off insulin for less than a week seems odd.
The Elizabeth Line is so popular it's often standing room only despite having 9 carriages. I assume it'll pay off its debts much quicker than anyone expected. They ought to build the north/south version next.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
No, we could increase our birthrate for starters so we don't have such a top heavy population
There's no way of increasing the birthrate, having one or two kids (or none) is a lifestyle choice for people. If we want people to start breeding earlier, we need to make house prices cheaper so people can afford a family-sized house in their twenties. This means building shit loads of houses all over the South East, which I would presume you are opposed to.
There is, more funding for mothers, more tax breaks for those who choose to work part time and be with their children.
Part of the reason for house prices being so expensive is so many women working full time and 2 incomes being used for mortgages. Plus most of the UK population does not live in the more expensive London and home counties anyway even if more affordable homes built there.
Of course if we ended up with global Islam under Sharia law homosexuality would likely be illegal again and women would be restricted from many employment roles and expected to have more children
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
What a nasty comment and it is 15 years next May
It doesn't change the reality facing politicians of all parties
A true comment and near 2 decades as I said
I suppose with your flawed use of statistics 15 years is near 20 but 5 years is a long extra time in retirement
Surely a major issue facing rebels in all sorts of disputes is that many hate each other as much or more as the controlling authority, and so almost by definition rebel groups are not automatically 'branches' of the some broad anti-government faction? Indeed, the main group of the current advances has seemingly had to work pretty hard to improve its diplomatic and PR skills in order to secure co-operation or at least lack of aggression in certain areas, where before they were unable to work together like 'branches' would.
Whether they can work with ISIS who the hell knows, though as an ignorant observer I'd assume that would not be without cost in terms of co-operations with other groups.
Syria’s a complicated mess, certainly. But I’ve yet to see any evidence that ISIS have any involvement in the current loose coalition that you describe.
Nor have I, but even if the possibility exists that it will happen, that would surely fracture the existing one. It would also be somewhat at odds with the concerted efforts thus far.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
Actually NHS productivity is significantly improving.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
No, we could increase our birthrate for starters so we don't have such a top heavy population
There's no way of increasing the birthrate, having one or two kids (or none) is a lifestyle choice for people. If we want people to start breeding earlier, we need to make house prices cheaper so people can afford a family-sized house in their twenties. This means building shit loads of houses all over the South East, which I would presume you are opposed to.
There is, more funding for mothers, more tax breaks for those who choose to work part time and be with their children.
Part of the reason for house prices being so expensive is so many women working full time and 2 incomes being used for mortgages. Plus most of the UK population does not live in the more expensive London and home counties anyway even if more affordable homes built there.
Of course if we ended up with global Islam under Sharia law homosexuality would likely be illegal again and women would be restricted from many employment roles and expected to have more children
So you propose tax breaks that will, necessarily, end up with poorer people subsidising richer people.
I agree - in part - with HYUFD’s realpolitik take. Assad is a horrendous c*nt but it it arguable that those most likely to replace him - extreme jihadis like ISIS 2.0 - will be even worse. Especially for women in Syria
We must be careful what we wish for. If ISIS & co do seize the whole country that is likely to destabilise the entire region even more than it is already as they will seek to export their violent revolution to neighbouring countries and to use Syria as a launchpad to attack the west
I can foresee more regional wars in MENA and western troops back in Syria to crush ISIS
Or we will pay Israel to level the entire country
It also means millions more Syrian refugees fleeing a new Taliban
There's room for cold pragmatic takes, but that doesn't seem to be what it is, since there is surely a difference between accepting the possibility things get work with a near assertion it definitely will be, or without recognition that Assad does not seen capable of the extended control people might reluctantly want as a price for stability.
Post-Assad options, at least for 50% of the country, may be the real realpolitik take in the short and medium term, if he is unable even with support to reassert his position.
If it is the case he is too weak, then is it realpolitk to then ask, well, which of the other groups is better or worse, rather than just expressing that it would be better if he were stronger?
Bazball can take a game away rapidly.....just over an hour of play, 13 overs, 72 runs....
The great thing about Test cricket is that even some pretty hopeless seeming positions can be overcome with enough effort, luck, and some individual brilliance, given enough time.
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
It's not just pay though is it? Moving overseas means a different pension and tax system. And for sure working in the NHS right now can be pretty shit. But the answer isn't a ridiculous 300 percent jump in junior doctors starting salary, it's sorting out the NHS. That's fixing infrastructure, getting staffing levels up and all the basics. The Tories have proven over the years that they cannot be trusted to do these basics. But the answer isn't just more pay
Funding is up 20% in real terms and staffing is up 25% in 5 years....productivity is through the floor.
My father has diabetic eye checkups. He also has a cataract which means that their normal camera doesn't work.
The hospital send an appointment for their normal camera, I tell them it won't work, they say come in anyway, we traipse in (I have to book half a day off to get him there) and, Pikachu surprised face, two weeks later I get a letter saying it didn't work and please book an appointment for the more specialised camera.
He's also on the ophthalmology list as he has some macular degeneration, but it turns out they don't share images or results with the diabetic people so even though they use the same specialised camera, they each have to take their own image.
So, 3 visits instead of 1, and also (not that the NHS seem to care) 1 day of my time lost.
Woe betide you if you refuse to play this stupid game, though, as you are then discharged.
I can only imagine that these inefficiencies are absolutely everywhere.
I hear you. This is what my mother wrote in a recent email:
"I have no idea what is happening with cataract surgery. I have short sight, glaucoma, cataracts, and the beginnings of macular. Also Parkinsons affects the small muscles that pull on the lens to focus. The medics I see are highly trained, highly skilled in their areas. And overworked . and fed-up. and they do not talk to one another and I sit in the middle and they appear to contradict one another. All hell breaks out if I dare to ask a question. That is where we are at the moment. There is supposed to be a letter in the post."
Luckily my brother was able to go with her to an appointment and so there seems to be some movement on cataract surgery.
I remember some description of hell being a place where you would sit down for a feast, but you would only have enormous long cutlery to eat with, and so you couldn't feed yourself anything. Heaven would be the same, except that the people at the table would feed each other, with the hilariously long party cutlery. The NHS sounds like hell. Like people frantically trying to race up a down escalator, while tripping each other up and barging each other out of the way.
Bazball can take a game away rapidly.....just over an hour of play, 13 overs, 72 runs....
The great thing about Test cricket is that even some pretty hopeless seeming positions can be overcome with enough effort, luck, and some individual brilliance, given enough time.
That looks improbable here however.
Getting big scores in NZ is very difficult. They are just showing highest successful run chase ever and its 350.
If the second session carries on like this, NZ will need a miracle.
My wife's just told me that on her Facebook page the siren alarm comments are funny
They all went off in the Red Lion in Old Colwyn at the same time !!!!
It came through my hearing aid and I nearly had a heart attack !!!!!
I was scrolling as you do, heard the noise, and nearly jumped 6 foot in the air. I thought my phone had a virus !!!!
I said to my husband what's that noise - he said its on telly - then my phone started talking in Welsh, then English and I nearly had a heart attack !!!!
I agree - in part - with @HYUFD’s realpolitik take. Assad is a horrendous c*nt but it it arguable that those most likely to replace him - extreme jihadis like ISIS 2.0 - will be even worse. Especially for women in Syria
We must be careful what we wish for. If ISIS & co do seize the whole country that is likely to destabilise the entire region even more than it is already as they will seek to export their violent revolution to neighbouring countries and to use Syria as a launchpad to attack the west
I can foresee more regional wars in MENA and western troops back in Syria to crush ISIS
Or we will pay Israel to level the entire country
It also means millions more Syrian refugees fleeing a new Taliban
People fled Syria to escape the Assad regime in far greater numbers than they are to escape the advance of the HTS rebels. So far the only people fleeing the HTS advance have been Alawites in Homs. Turkey, for example, may believe that a defeat for Assad would enable many of the Syrian refugees in Turkey to return to Syria.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
No, we could increase our birthrate for starters so we don't have such a top heavy population
There's no way of increasing the birthrate, having one or two kids (or none) is a lifestyle choice for people. If we want people to start breeding earlier, we need to make house prices cheaper so people can afford a family-sized house in their twenties. This means building shit loads of houses all over the South East, which I would presume you are opposed to.
There is, more funding for mothers, more tax breaks for those who choose to work part time and be with their children.
Part of the reason for house prices being so expensive is so many women working full time and 2 incomes being used for mortgages. Plus most of the UK population does not live in the more expensive London and home counties anyway even if more affordable homes built there.
Of course if we ended up with global Islam under Sharia law homosexuality would likely be illegal again and women would be restricted from many employment roles and expected to have more children
Well yes, birth rates are a problem - but the immediate reason we are spending so much on our old people is that our old people are living much longer than when the pension age was set. 100 years ago, the average number of pension years claimed was, what, -6? It is now +16. It's great that people are living longer. But if they are living longer at the expense of the state, that's a problem. Perhaps we ought to have another lock on pensions - that pensionable age rises with life ex pectancy. Backdated to about 30 years ago when we could last afford pensions.
I’m sorry but THERE’S A MASSIVE FUCKING OWL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY
Good thing too, I'm still waiting for the free owl we were all promises years ago.
It’s quite distracting. I was preparing an astute and informative comment on post-Assad politics in Syria as I crossed the main plaza and then I saw the MASSIVE FUCKING OWL
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
You have no idea. No clue. Why should a junior doctor just put if training earn that much? In the NHS pay increments on a regular basis. That's why starting salaries are used by the unions, as the reality is different after a few years. And no doubt doctors get better with experience. We all do. We have consistently failed to train enough doctors in the UK for a number of reasons. Firstly training them needs training places and that means doctors in hospitals. It's not just uni places. And the doctors have always been careful to keep numbers down too, after all keep supply down keeps the wages high. And no doubt there is an attraction to moving overseas to Aussie or NZ for instance, but higher salaries aren't everything. Taxes, pensions etc are different. So its not as simple as just paying doctors more.
I have a clue thank you, as friends have recently emigrated because the salaries in the NHS are so awful. They get far more abroad.
If we’d have paid them more, they’d have stayed.
I have been to Australia several times and it is good and interesting to holiday in but living there is something very different and certainly not as idyllic as some would have you believe
I am put off by the plagues of mice. The deadly spiders. And the wildfires.
And the snakes...and the kangaroos...and even the cuddly animals like Koalas, carry Chlamydia...
Doctors in general get paid absolutely nothing in this country. Similar to the Civil Service I would be increasing salaries substantially and we’d get better people.
£100K a year or more for a junior doctor would be a good start.
Why on earth should taxpayers pay a junior doctor starting out £100k a year? If you did that salaried GPs would end up on £500k a year
We’d get much better people if these kinds of roles paid more.
As another example, in the Civil Service I’d have a software engineering role at £100K a year or more, that’s more in line with the private sector.
Same for politicians, I would pay them a lot more.
Taxpayers should not be forking out a fortune for public servants, if they want to earn top dollar they can go into the private sector and face the full pressures of the free market and try and get to the top of the tree there and earn it
Problem is you just don't get enough people to do sometimes vital jobs otherwise. It's all very well telling them to bugger off, and you can manage that for quite some time, but in specialist roles you will eventually end up with not enough people who are do it, especially in things like councils where they compete with one another for limited pools of social workers etc.
The average public sector worker still earns more than the average private sector worker
Has anywhere successfully increased their birthrate in a meaningful and sustained way with political measures?
Genuine question. I know many places are trying to do it, but if ones like China and South Korea are an indication it often does not work.
Maybe France.
Meloni in Italy is also trying and with VP elect Vance's jibe against childless cat ladies and the GOP moves to restrict abortion and support the family I suspect they will try as well
Legal merits or not of the ban notwithstanding, has anyone checked if Thomas has received any extra large 'gifts' from any chinese 'friends' he has 'forgotten' to declare?
Could be critical for when this reaches the top court.
I’m sorry but THERE’S A MASSIVE FUCKING OWL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY
Good thing too, I'm still waiting for the free owl we were all promises years ago.
It’s quite distracting. I was preparing an astute and informative comment on post-Assad politics in Syria as I crossed the main plaza and then I saw the MASSIVE FUCKING OWL
Indeed, you are basically the Alan Whicker of PB now
Has anywhere successfully increased their birthrate in a meaningful and sustained way with political measures?
Genuine question. I know many places are trying to do it, but if ones like China and South Korea are an indication it often does not work.
Maybe France.
Meloni in Italy is also trying and with VP elect Vance's jibe against childless cat ladies and the GOP moves to restrict abortion and support the family I suspect they will try as well
The question though was whether it has worked anywhere - we know more and more will be trying, can they learn anything from what has not worked in places like South Korea? There was an FT piece awhile back about efforts in Hungary having levelled off despite massive efforts, mere political will and cash does not appear to be enough.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
What a nasty comment and it is 15 years next May
It doesn't change the reality facing politicians of all parties
A true comment and near 2 decades as I said
I suppose with your flawed use of statistics 15 years is near 20 but 5 years is a long extra time in retirement
And still nasty and unnecessarily personal
As opposed to your loving and generous comment that those of us significantly younger than you must work to an age when you and your peers were ordering large G and Ts from the cruise liner lounge!!!
Thank God for google translate Disculpe, no sé si lo sabía, pero ¿hay un búho fucking enorme en la plaza principal?
Si senor.
Malditos turistas.
I just complained to the authorities but they’re trying to laugh it off, the main dude actually said this
Sí señor, tiene razón. Tenemos un búho fucking enorme en la plaza principal, pero me gustaría informarle sobre la iguana motherfucking gigante que hay junto a la iglesia.
Neil Henderson @hendopolis · 10m MAIL: Reeves: we can’t boost UK defence without making cuts #TomorrowsPapersToday
I despise this government
The other option is 3p on income tax - willing to pay a £1000 extra in tax.
Or they could slash train drivers pay and cut GPs pay
You've just knocked the income tax increase to 2.9p better find a lot more savings (which don't exist)..
In your ideological view, there is much overspend in the NHS that could be cut back too and more use made of private health insurance
Your are not addressing the real problem that income tax needs to rise and NI reduce for everyone in work
Additionally the triple lock is unsustainable as Stride honestly said, and by the next election it needs to go and be replaced with inflation plus 1 or 2%
Plus corporation tax needs to come down to 20% or less
Where I have an issue with Labour is the awards to doctors, and especially train drivers, were unconditional and should have had improved productivity as a condition
Higher council tax bands are needed plus an increase in fuel duty and some form of wealth tax
Now, you will not agree at all but change has to come and it starts with honesty, not a Ming vase strategy
No it doesn't, NI should be ringfenced for contributory unemployment benefits and state pension as intended and some social care.
The Tories would commit politicial suicide if they scrapped the triple lock, then lost their pensioner core vote to the LDs and Reform as a result. Corporations are hardly the first target for tax cuts.
No we dont't need a wealth tax either and council tax is the responsibility of local authorities
Predictable response
It is good politics for Stride to raise it now for 2029 as by that time no party will be able to afford it
Indeed it is highly likely the pension age will have to rise to 70 in the next few years
The LDs will certainly keep their commitment to the triple lock and if the Tories lose most of their pensioner vote to them and Reform there will never be a Tory government again.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
You have no idea what the Lib Dem policy will be in 2029 but they like everyone else knows the triple lock is unaffordable
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
Says the over 80 year old already having enjoyed his near 2 decade retirement
HYUFD, I'm in my late 40s and I recognise that the only way to address tge issue of how to afford our post-retirement population is to shorten that post-retirement period. Given killing people off at the top end of that might be electorally difficult to sell, delaying the start point seems the only way. I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
No, we could increase our birthrate for starters so we don't have such a top heavy population
There's no way of increasing the birthrate, having one or two kids (or none) is a lifestyle choice for people. If we want people to start breeding earlier, we need to make house prices cheaper so people can afford a family-sized house in their twenties. This means building shit loads of houses all over the South East, which I would presume you are opposed to.
There is, more funding for mothers, more tax breaks for those who choose to work part time and be with their children.
Part of the reason for house prices being so expensive is so many women working full time and 2 incomes being used for mortgages. Plus most of the UK population does not live in the more expensive London and home counties anyway even if more affordable homes built there.
Of course if we ended up with global Islam under Sharia law homosexuality would likely be illegal again and women would be restricted from many employment roles and expected to have more children
So you propose tax breaks that will, necessarily, end up with poorer people subsidising richer people.
No, as poor people have children too and rich people often don't
I agree - in part - with @HYUFD’s realpolitik take. Assad is a horrendous c*nt but it it arguable that those most likely to replace him - extreme jihadis like ISIS 2.0 - will be even worse. Especially for women in Syria
We must be careful what we wish for. If ISIS & co do seize the whole country that is likely to destabilise the entire region even more than it is already as they will seek to export their violent revolution to neighbouring countries and to use Syria as a launchpad to attack the west
I can foresee more regional wars in MENA and western troops back in Syria to crush ISIS
Or we will pay Israel to level the entire country
It also means millions more Syrian refugees fleeing a new Taliban
People fled Syria to escape the Assad regime in far greater numbers than they are to escape the advance of the HTS rebels. So far the only people fleeing the HTS advance have been Alawites in Homs. Turkey, for example, may believe that a defeat for Assad would enable many of the Syrian refugees in Turkey to return to Syria.
Comments
Also the issues with things like GP appointments, who are the gatekeepers to the system remains a huge problem.
One hopes that Streeting / Milburn can drive the change / improvements required.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/2024#:~:text=Median gross weekly earnings for full-time employees were £,year), in April 2024.
As for raising state pension age, life expectancy has stalled
jeremy warner
@JeremyWarnerUK
Associate Editor, The Daily Telegraph; columnist on the international and UK economies, finance, and business
*Of course I do really. I have two. One is the Jubilee line, which is my favourite to travel on and which I remember opening; the other is tge Central, which is my favourite to look at, with it's punchy red; and the one line with which the rest would not work.
I think people sometimes just hark bark to the deli counter approach of old- take a number and wait. My practice is super busy but they try very hard to patients seen, even if initially not by a doctor. My regular chest infections this year (thanks nursery) have been managed by a paramedic or a nurse prescribed, not a gp.
Sadly I suspect not all practiced are as good.
According to the last government HYUFD voted for.
Tackling the illicit drug trade fuelling Assad's war machine
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tackling-the-illicit-drug-trade-fuelling-assads-war-machine
Whether they can work with ISIS who the hell knows, though as an ignorant observer I'd assume that would not be without cost in terms of co-operations with other groups.
And your last sentence has no effect on the need to increase pension age or even means tested
This is the future longer term for pensions
I've never met a poor GP.
But to your point on just the US Terror List - I couldn't pick a side with any confidence.
The hospital send an appointment for their normal camera, I tell them it won't work, they say come in anyway, we traipse in (I have to book half a day off to get him there) and, Pikachu surprised face, two weeks later I get a letter saying it didn't work and please book an appointment for the more specialised camera.
He's also on the ophthalmology list as he has some macular degeneration, but it turns out they don't share images or results with the diabetic people so even though they use the same specialised camera, they each have to take their own image.
So, 3 visits instead of 1, and also (not that the NHS seem to care) 1 day of my time lost.
Woe betide you if you refuse to play this stupid game, though, as you are then discharged.
I can only imagine that these inefficiencies are absolutely everywhere.
Having the new tooth put in privately vastly more efficient.
Disapprove: 63%
Approve: 37%
Quantus / Dec 4, 2024 / n=800
https://x.com/USA_Polling/status/1865164348169032035
Please keep us updated. 1 I love any travel stories and 2. I am vaguely thinking of going to Senegal in January
Merci
What is relevant is to do a like-for-like comparison. How much are teachers paid in private schools compared to state schools? What about nurses in private or state hospitals? Or, as much discussed recently, IT professionals in the civil service compared to the private sector?
Those sorts of comparisons show a different picture to the overall averages, and of course they do, because we can see there is a recruitment crisis in many of these sorts of public sector jobs.
Back when I worked in the public sector our union would respond to irate members unhappy with the latest pay offer by pointing out that management didn't think that the organisation had a recruitment and retention problem, and so revealed preference demonstrated that pay was good enough, making it difficult to achieve better pay. Bluntly, they said that they wouldn't be able to achieve better pay deals until more employees voted with their feet and left for better pay elsewhere.
That has happened in some areas of the public sector. In those cases you don't really have any option but to pay more. Now, there's a whole heap of arguments about how you'd raise the money to pay for it, and how best to organise the staff you'd recruit with higher wages to get the most out of them. But if you want the state to perform certain functions, then you have to pay enough to recruit qualified staff to do that.
I had a diabetic diagnosis years ago but have not required medication for it and my Boots examination confirmed my cataracts that we already know about, I had no macular degeneration and no sign of diabetes
The test is free every 2 years apart from the optional one, and therefore I do not go on the NHS screening and my GP is aware of this situation
He is miles better than the jihadi Islamists opposing him
Yes, these are just anecdotes, but I find these things are expected.
I expect it to be very dangerous to be out and about in our area until late afternoon tomorrow
https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/assad-regime-shocked-by-rebels-lightning-advance-qhjjt5znf
It doesn't change the reality facing politicians of all parties
It should be clear now that the "protector of minorities" was as much despised by those same minorities as he was by the Sunni majority.
https://x.com/ThomasVLinge/status/1865068328290578764
I'll happily work another few years if it implies a future for my children. I don't see why this logic shouldn't extend to the population as a whole.
But it's not in our hands at all, and the very fact it is not and that he is so weak despite that, undercuts the idea he is some kind of unfortunate necessity for the region, since if the premise is the brutal reality is you get types like him as the price for stability (for minorities etc), then he is not exactly been delivering on his end of that faustian bargain, he cannot even get control of half his country.
If he was, with Russian and Iranian backing, enforcing a brutal peace, there would be more brutally pragmatic voices in his support.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Airline_Review-d8729039-Reviews-British-Airways
1/5
1/5
1/5
1/5
1/5
ISIS want global jihad and to wipe out western civilisation and Christianity and have global Islam under Sharia law, that is the main difference between them and many in the AQ linked rebels and relatively secular Assad
Dame Prue Leith seemingly threw her support behind Gregg Wallace and insisted he 'shouldn't be sacked or cancelled' amid ongoing misconduct allegations.
'But that's his problem, that he's insensitive. He hasn't, that I can see, disobeyed the law. I don't believe people should be cancelled or sacked. I can see why you would ask somebody to step aside while they investigate things, which I suppose is what they're doing. But I think the tragedy in this is that I bet you Gregg has no idea what he's done wrong'.
Also told not to paddle in the water on a lovely beach near Cairns due to stonefish
https://au.news.yahoo.com/viral-photo-shows-deadly-threat-in-sand-at-aussie-beach-a-true-landmine-080223668.html
We must be careful what we wish for. If ISIS & co do seize the whole country that is likely to destabilise the entire region even more than it is already as they will seek to export their violent revolution to neighbouring countries and to use Syria as a launchpad to attack the west
I can foresee more regional wars in MENA and western troops back in Syria to crush ISIS
Or we will pay Israel to level the entire country
It also means millions more Syrian refugees fleeing a new Taliban
We have no intention of leaving the house until it has passed
(Except a red warning, I'm not stupid).
But I’ve yet to see any evidence that ISIS have any involvement in the current loose coalition that you describe.
Part of the reason for house prices being so expensive is so many women working full time and 2 incomes being used for mortgages. Plus most of the UK population does not live in the more expensive London and home counties anyway even if more affordable homes built there.
Of course if we ended up with global Islam under Sharia law homosexuality would likely be illegal again and women would be restricted from many employment roles and expected to have more children
And still nasty and unnecessarily personal
"The Florence Nightingale award - for the cleanest hospital in the area"
Post-Assad options, at least for 50% of the country, may be the real realpolitik take in the short and medium term, if he is unable even with support to reassert his position.
If it is the case he is too weak, then is it realpolitk to then ask, well, which of the other groups is better or worse, rather than just expressing that it would be better if he were stronger?
That looks improbable here however.
"I have no idea what is happening with cataract surgery. I have short sight, glaucoma, cataracts, and the beginnings of macular. Also Parkinsons affects the small muscles that pull on the lens to focus.
The medics I see are highly trained, highly skilled in their areas. And overworked . and fed-up. and they do not talk to one another and I sit in the middle and they appear to contradict one another. All hell breaks out if I dare to ask a question. That is where we are at the moment. There is supposed to be a letter in the post."
Luckily my brother was able to go with her to an appointment and so there seems to be some movement on cataract surgery.
I remember some description of hell being a place where you would sit down for a feast, but you would only have enormous long cutlery to eat with, and so you couldn't feed yourself anything. Heaven would be the same, except that the people at the table would feed each other, with the hilariously long party cutlery. The NHS sounds like hell. Like people frantically trying to race up a down escalator, while tripping each other up and barging each other out of the way.
If the second session carries on like this, NZ will need a miracle.
They all went off in the Red Lion in Old Colwyn at the same time !!!!
It came through my hearing aid and I nearly had a heart attack !!!!!
I was scrolling as you do, heard the noise, and nearly jumped 6 foot in the air. I thought my phone had a virus !!!!
I said to my husband what's that noise - he said its on telly - then my phone started talking in Welsh, then English and I nearly had a heart attack !!!!
And I could go on !!!!
Genuine question. I know many places are trying to do it, but if ones like China and South Korea are an indication it often does not work.
Disculpe, no sé si lo sabía, pero ¿hay un búho fucking enorme en la plaza principal?
Malditos turistas.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/dec/06/tiktok-sale-ban-us
Could be critical for when this reaches the top court.
Sí señor, tiene razón. Tenemos un búho fucking enorme en la plaza principal, pero me gustaría informarle sobre la iguana motherfucking gigante que hay junto a la iglesia.
I really really really hope I’m wrong