Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Although I did see recently that some Navy is appealing for anyone with hardware that can read 8" floppies to get in touch. Their warships still use them...
Musk is a clown who believes his own genius is so all-encompassing that any moronic idea that enters into his drug-addled brain should be immediately carried out.
Ban Twitter in Europe! Musk is personally interfering in the German election by spreading lies to support anti-democratic neo-nazis. We shouldn't tolerate this shit.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Good morning, everyone.
The floppy disk had storage of 1.44 MB. I'm pretty sure my current PS5 game data for FFVII Rebirth is 140 GB or so... which is kind of nuts.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Pretty sure they could get Grok to write some meaningless but plausible-sounding garbage in reply.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I once applied for a job at a school where some twit replied to all applicants (and I mean all applicants) on their personal email addresses in cc not bcc.
Which is how I found out my boss had applied for the same job...
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
It's inevitable that in any universal healthcare system based on insurance that the state will be heavily required to fund many people's insurance premiums. Universal healthcare is fundamentally economically redistribution with the wealthy subsidising those without much money. A lot of heavy users of healthcare will be retired, poor, long term sick or dependent in some other way, so government funded.
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Farming is the most heavily subsidised industry going. If the same approach had been taken in other sectors, we'd still have a steelworks in Consett and shipyards on the Tyne.
Farming is less subsidised in the UK than the French, Germans and Americans subsidise their farmers and our government has clobbered family farms with inheritance tax now too.
We still do have steel works in Port Talbot and Scunthorpe, indeed Tata Steel Port Talbot received a £500 million government subsidy last year
I agree we need more shipyards too, not least due to our now tiny navy in an increasingly dangerous world
Interesting facts that don't disprove the point I made.
And slightly going off at a tangent, why does the government just throw money out in subsidies, rather than wanting a share of the asset for its investment? Same with CCS. £22 billion, and after 10 years the taxpayer owns nothing.
Very much they do, we need to subsidise our farmers more and indeed should subsidise core steel and shipyard industries too.
It is the production that comes out of it that delivers for the taxpayer, they don't need to be all nationalised
Why subsidise British farmers if farmers in other countries can produce the same food at lower cost?
We don’t subsidise them. We buy positive externalities from them.
If you do X with your land it means that you can’t produce crops for sale but it means that Sandy City won’t flood next year. That is worth paying for.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
We won't have a government of national unity for the simple and obvious reason that Starmer has a huge parliamentary majority for the next 4 1/2 years.
You must be in a uniquely moribund line of work, as for the last year private sector mean wages have had bigger rises than either the public sector or inflation.
Yeah I am a software engineer.....apparently a thing in short supply so we have to offer visas.....no not a moribund career.....now if you show me a average private sector pay rise where you cut out the forced one via min wage and director payrises maybe we can talk....I know people in all sorts of sectors and every year we hear private sector pay had this percentage rise.....funny none of the people I know ever get that much
And you expect the government to massively increase pay for private sector software engineers how? All they can do is tax you less if you earn above minimum wage
Wasn't asking them to do anything as all politicians are incompetent....when you have worked in various industries since the 80's and never met anyone that has got the payrise that government claims to be the private sector payrise average you begin to think it politicians talking bollocks
Obviously you weren't earning high enough and didn't meet the market forces skill and production level to even meet the average rise for your industry then
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Farming is the most heavily subsidised industry going. If the same approach had been taken in other sectors, we'd still have a steelworks in Consett and shipyards on the Tyne.
Farming is less subsidised in the UK than the French, Germans and Americans subsidise their farmers and our government has clobbered family farms with inheritance tax now too.
We still do have steel works in Port Talbot and Scunthorpe, indeed Tata Steel Port Talbot received a £500 million government subsidy last year
I agree we need more shipyards too, not least due to our now tiny navy in an increasingly dangerous world
Interesting facts that don't disprove the point I made.
And slightly going off at a tangent, why does the government just throw money out in subsidies, rather than wanting a share of the asset for its investment? Same with CCS. £22 billion, and after 10 years the taxpayer owns nothing.
Very much they do, we need to subsidise our farmers more and indeed should subsidise core steel and shipyard industries too.
It is the production that comes out of it that delivers for the taxpayer, they don't need to be all nationalised
Why subsidise British farmers if farmers in other countries can produce the same food at lower cost?
We don’t subsidise them. We buy positive externalities from them.
If you do X with your land it means that you can’t produce crops for sale but it means that Sandy City won’t flood next year. That is worth paying for.
That is a different regime to general farm subsidies which, for example, encourage over-grazing.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
It's inevitable that in any universal healthcare system based on insurance that the state will be heavily required to fund many people's insurance premiums. Universal healthcare is fundamentally economically redistribution with the wealthy subsidising those without much money. A lot of heavy users of healthcare will be retired, poor, long term sick or dependent in some other way, so government funded.
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
It's not that unusual to have most healthworkers being public employees. (btw are you counting GPs as salaried government employees?)
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
That won't work as it was sent from a central mailbox and recipients bcc'ed.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
If I had lunch with you I'd probably want to say something that pleased you too.
Top leadership at the State Department has instructed its employees to ignore @elonmusk’s productivity inquiry, saying, essentially—we will evaluate our own people. A sign not all Trump officials are on board with Musk’s DOGE email.
Top leadership at the State Department has instructed its employees to ignore @elonmusk’s productivity inquiry, saying, essentially—we will evaluate our own people. A sign not all Trump officials are on board with Musk’s DOGE email.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
Is this the most surreally geeky conversation ever held on PB?
* made someone laugh on PB * Stopped using PB when it wound me up * Walked the dog * Sneaked a look at PB * Got a like from someone who usually disagrees with me
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
I've never handled an 8". 5.25" floppies are what I used to use. Then, as you say, replaced by the 3.5" 'stiffy', which is what the icon shows. I still have some in a box somewhere.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
The disc is still floppy, but the casing is hard. 5 1/4 inch floppies are the floppies of the centrist.
Question: how much do I charge for YouTube collaborations? Answer: errrrr, let’s consult the tinterweb. Several different formula sites all of which offer wildly different values for how much I should charge…
@Leon - you charge for your ass. How did you set your initial rate…?
My wife charges $200 per reel for a collab on Insta if that’s helpful. She’s classified as a nano-influencer but priced aggressively vs the normal range because she appeals to a premium segment of high-disposable income customers
* made someone laugh on PB * Stopped using PB when it wound me up * Walked the dog * Sneaked a look at PB * Got a like from someone who usually disagrees with me
Er that’s it Elon
Response, job well done.
If Trump read PB the world would rapidly become a much happier place.
Although come to think of it, his apoplexy would lead to President Vance.
Bild has today usefully told us which party has the shortest/longest manifesto (FDP 19600 words/Die Linke 33000 words). And which party has the longest word in their manifesto. The FDP wins with
I've never handled an 8". 5.25" floppies are what I used to use. Then, as you say, replaced by the 3.5" 'stiffy', which is what the icon shows. I still have some in a box somewhere.
Did you ever make a "flippy"?
You can open a 5.25 disk case, cut 2 extra holes in it so you can use it upside down in a single side drive mech
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
Is this the most surreally geeky conversation ever held on PB?
Not geeky enough until you discuss the boxes of punch cards for the mainframe.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
For the public there are only three systems: One that attempts, however sub-optimally, to treat everyone on the basis of need and free at the point of delivery, with a reasonably progressive 'broadest shoulders' funding system (UK); those that can treat everyone but discriminate on the basis of wealth etc (USA); those that do none of this (Niger, Sudan and lots of others).
SFAICS there is virtually 100% agreement that a version of the UK model is right for us. Which means that the argument is arcane for nearly everyone.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
Bild has today usefully told us which party has the shortest/longest manifesto (FDP 19600 words/Die Linke 33000 words). And which party has the longest word in their manifesto. The FDP wins with
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
Is this the most surreally geeky conversation ever held on PB?
Not geeky enough until you discuss the boxes of punch cards for the mainframe.
The pipes of mercury used in some of the early Cambridge computers are my favourite. (From a rather fun book called 'A computer called Leo' about the Lyon's Coffee house's early adoption)
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
Of course, neither of them looked like discs. You had to take it on trust that the square things in your hand had something circular inside.
The pipes of mercury used in some of the early Cambridge computers are my favourite. (From a rather fun book called 'A computer called Leo' about the Lyon's Coffee house's early adoption)
W. D. & H. O. Wills, the tobacco company, bought a LEO
Bild has today usefully told us which party has the shortest/longest manifesto (FDP 19600 words/Die Linke 33000 words). And which party has the longest word in their manifesto. The FDP wins with
Looking around just now, there are pretty limited betting markets here for the German elections. Union to win seems nailed on.
Ladbroke have a few. CDU/CSU over under at 30.5. I think under is worth a punt as most recent polls put them on 28-30
AfD at 15-20% at 14/5 boosted too, as I think that they will be adversely impacted by Musk and Vances interventions (no one likes foreigners directing their vote) and also the Linke surge may take some of the NOTA vote.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
France funds its healthcare via insurance
It's a government controlled health insurance scheme and the government sets the premiums based on a % of income etc. In practice it does not really differ from funding it from tax. According to statista in 2023 France spent 18% more on health per capita, Switzerland 50%, than UK. Singapore isn't listed. Adding an insurance system won't make UK healthcare cheaper, but waiting for capita or another to authorise treatment plans will almost certainly reduce life expectancy. Ask anyone trying to get a pension statement from a Capita administered scheme.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
It's inevitable that in any universal healthcare system based on insurance that the state will be heavily required to fund many people's insurance premiums. Universal healthcare is fundamentally economically redistribution with the wealthy subsidising those without much money. A lot of heavy users of healthcare will be retired, poor, long term sick or dependent in some other way, so government funded.
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
As an aside, we should remember that most health advances come from the cash-rich American environment.
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
Of course, neither of them looked like discs. You had to take it on trust that the square things in your hand had something circular inside.
* made someone laugh on PB * Stopped using PB when it wound me up * Walked the dog * Sneaked a look at PB * Got a like from someone who usually disagrees with me
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
The disc is still floppy, but the casing is hard.
Would you say the same about your penis "in the act" ?
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
It's inevitable that in any universal healthcare system based on insurance that the state will be heavily required to fund many people's insurance premiums. Universal healthcare is fundamentally economically redistribution with the wealthy subsidising those without much money. A lot of heavy users of healthcare will be retired, poor, long term sick or dependent in some other way, so government funded.
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
As an aside, we should remember that most health advances come from the cash-rich American environment.
Historically the us government spent a lot on healthcare research. That stopped a few weeks ago.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
France funds its healthcare via insurance
The Swiss example isn’t quite as straightforward. I paid a relatively high rate of tax in Geneva, well over 30% once Federal, Cantonal and Commune taxes were added together.
On top of taxes you have your mandatory “Chomage” cover - your insurance for if you are made unemployed which was a few % and you have your mandatory health insurance which isn’t cheap unless you want a basic cover. There is also a communal religious tax that can catch you out.
Ultimately the headline rates are lower than the UK but with an insured health model and insured social security model a lot of the burden is removed from the state.
Added to that is very granular government where everyone down to the communal mayor has their budget and can control the level of taxes and the Swiss demand high standards and can boot out any layer of gov who doesn’t use their money well.
I felt, although more a feels thing, that people were healthier and more active - very few fatties and people on mobility scooters, which inevitably helps costs.
Switzerland doesn’t also carry a lot of weight around that the UK does, it doesn’t have the same level of defence costs (about 0.7% gdp) and has a lot of high value manufacturing and financial business to the size of it so many people on high wages so those tax receipts are better proportionately than for the UK.
The pipes of mercury used in some of the early Cambridge computers are my favourite. (From a rather fun book called 'A computer called Leo' about the Lyon's Coffee house's early adoption)
W. D. & H. O. Wills, the tobacco company, bought a LEO
The sales team christened it Lose Every Order
One of their former buildings, looks very much like it would suit an ITV Poirot story, is now flats on the coast road in Newcastle/North Tyneside.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
France funds its healthcare via insurance
It's a government controlled health insurance scheme and the government sets the premiums based on a % of income etc. In practice it does not really differ from funding it from tax. According to statista in 2023 France spent 18% more on health per capita, Switzerland 50%, than UK. Singapore isn't listed. Adding an insurance system won't make UK healthcare cheaper, but waiting for capita or another to authorise treatment plans will almost certainly reduce life expectancy. Ask anyone trying to get a pension statement from a Capita administered scheme.
It will improve efficiency and allow tax to be spent on other things, quality of education, transport etc also better in Singapore and Switzerland with less tax
* made someone laugh on PB * Stopped using PB when it wound me up * Walked the dog * Sneaked a look at PB * Got a like from someone who usually disagrees with me
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
The disc is still floppy, but the casing is hard.
Would you say the same about your penis "in the act" ?
It’s 9am on a Sunday. Far too early for that. Barely up.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Always fascinated by the confidence with with left-leaning posters pontificate about the way forward for Conservatives.
Given the collapse in the fortunes of the Labour party since winning the elections, it might be worth thinking about how Labour respond to the populism of Farage (who is far from hard right).
The Conservatives need to stand for something, like small government, personal responsibility, fiscal rectitude, rather than just talking about it - whilst governing from the centre left - as they did in the past few years.
Just spent a few days with 100 or so colleagues. What was clear was the difference of opinion between those who live/work in the Southern cities ('Farage hasn't got a hope of winning', 'People will come around to Starmer') vs those who live in the towns/country/midlands-north ('I fear next PM will be Farage in a coalition', 'Starmer will be forgotten by history when he suffers a huge defeat next time').
The pipes of mercury used in some of the early Cambridge computers are my favourite. (From a rather fun book called 'A computer called Leo' about the Lyon's Coffee house's early adoption)
W. D. & H. O. Wills, the tobacco company, bought a LEO
The sales team christened it Lose Every Order
One of their former buildings, looks very much like it would suit an ITV Poirot story, is now flats on the coast road in Newcastle/North Tyneside.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Merz is basically the German Jenrick, tough on immigration and an economic Thatcherite.
He also might end up in government with the SPD anyway ie the equivalent of a Tory and Labour government even though he would probably have enough seats to govern with the AfD but they are seen as too pro Putin and far right
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Always fascinated by the confidence with with left-leaning posters pontificate about the way forward for Conservatives.
Given the collapse in the fortunes of the Labour party since winning the elections, it might be worth thinking about how Labour respond to the populism of Farage (who is far from hard right).
The Conservatives need to stand for something, like small government, personal responsibility, fiscal rectitude, rather than just talking about it - whilst governing from the centre left - as they did in the past few years.
Just spent a few days with 100 or so colleagues. What was clear was the difference of opinion between those who live/work in the Southern cities ('Farage hasn't got a hope of winning', 'People will come around to Starmer') vs those who live in the towns/country/midlands-north ('I fear next PM will be Farage in a coalition', 'Starmer will be forgotten by history when he suffers a huge defeat next time').
If you’re a democrat you accept someone else will win. Right now that’s in flux. Personally I de British conservatism and maga style right wing populism as very different ideologies. I am not alone in that.
I hope British conservatism gets off its knees. I don’t want a Putin puppet in number 10.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Merz is basically the German Jenrick, tough on immigration and an economic Thatcherite.
He also might end up in government with the SPD anyway ie the equivalent of a Tory and Labour government even though he would probably have enough seats to govern with the AfD but they are seen as too pro Putin and far right
Metz is a lot older than Jenrick. I think that matters at the moment. Successful politicians tend to be older. Something to do with uncertain times. The Tories were foolish to skip a generation. There’s nothing reassuring about Jenrick or Badenoch.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
France funds its healthcare via insurance
It's a government controlled health insurance scheme and the government sets the premiums based on a % of income etc. In practice it does not really differ from funding it from tax. According to statista in 2023 France spent 18% more on health per capita, Switzerland 50%, than UK. Singapore isn't listed. Adding an insurance system won't make UK healthcare cheaper, but waiting for capita or another to authorise treatment plans will almost certainly reduce life expectancy. Ask anyone trying to get a pension statement from a Capita administered scheme.
It will improve efficiency and allow tax to be spent on other things, quality of education, transport etc also better in Singapore and Switzerland with less tax
Insurance based systems involve a lot more bureaucracy and paperwork behind the scenes.
As with most things - like railways, water, university education - the ownership and funding model is a red herring. Those who think you change outcomes by restructuring the back office, which is essentially what this is about, are almost always disappointed.
We don't have democracy when all we can vote for is A or very slightly different A....discuss
The Greens and Reform UK, who stood in most seats, were both offering very different manifestos to Lab and Con. Ditto the Workers Party, who stood in 152 seats, and the TUSC, in 40.
Quite. We had lots of choice, its a coping mechanism to say we dont.
* made someone laugh on PB * Stopped using PB when it wound me up * Walked the dog * Sneaked a look at PB * Got a like from someone who usually disagrees with me
Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week.
Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.
I'm starting to feel slightly more optimistic.
The levels of overreach from AfD's american branch and its own pet teen nazis are going to cause a reaction.
America is better than this and the fight back will begin soon.
Let's hope so. But these guys know what they're doing and they've got lots of obedient followers who are well tooled-up. "Fight fight fight". This is the problem. Can they start a civil war? Probably yes.
I hadn't realised this before, but the first letters of "fight fight fight" spell 666.
Here is the email that was sent:
How many of the 2 million people it was sent to will hit reply all?
Presumably they are all in bcc rather than cc. The latter is a cardinal error with mailing lists as then everyone has everyone else's email details.
I love how we still use the term 'carbon copy'. Although I suspect many younger folk have no idea that this is what cc stands for.
Also the save icon being a floppy disk!
Saw something, which might not be real but funny anyway, where a teenager was going through some storage boxes of their father’s and finds a disk and asks why he’s 3-D printed the save icon.
The thing is that the save icon isn't even that floppy.
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
The disc is still floppy, but the casing is hard.
Would you say the same about your penis "in the act" ?
It’s 9am on a Sunday. Far too early for that. Barely up.
Did I get my lagershed timings the wrong way round?
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
France funds its healthcare via insurance
It's a government controlled health insurance scheme and the government sets the premiums based on a % of income etc. In practice it does not really differ from funding it from tax. According to statista in 2023 France spent 18% more on health per capita, Switzerland 50%, than UK. Singapore isn't listed. Adding an insurance system won't make UK healthcare cheaper, but waiting for capita or another to authorise treatment plans will almost certainly reduce life expectancy. Ask anyone trying to get a pension statement from a Capita administered scheme.
It will improve efficiency and allow tax to be spent on other things, quality of education, transport etc also better in Singapore and Switzerland with less tax
Insurance based systems involve a lot more bureaucracy and paperwork behind the scenes.
As with most things - like railways, water, university education - the ownership and funding model is a red herring. Those who think you change outcomes by restructuring the back office, which is essentially what this is about, are almost always disappointed.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I disagree. Though the ultimate source of funding may be similar, the incentives under a model with a significant insurance element and independent ownership of hospitals are very different from our state-owned and directed model.
Both have their merits and problems - our approach is much less bureaucratic and maybe more accountable, for example, whereas theirs seems to deliver better patient care overall and is probably less politicised and more responsive. But their inner workings and incentives are very different.
Anyway the idea that children in traffic accidents are left to die in France and Germany and therefore somebody who was treated here owes the NHS anything, however grateful he may be to individual members of staff, is completely illogical.
How Trump picks his team ... be one of the 'family' or a family friend.
Caine who will be in Chair of the Joint Chief of Staffs had a position with Thrive Capital - part of the Kushner family investments. Looking more like a kleptocracy every day.
Caine has also worked in the private sector. He is currently a partner at Ribbid Capital, a venture capital firm founded in Silicon Valley and a partner at Shield Capital, according to his LinkedIn. He is also on the board of Voyager Space, a space and defense firm and an advisor for Thrive Capital.
An interesting hypothetical if you’re wondering if Elon Musk is a genius or not is to compare his behaviour in any situation to what a complete moron would do in the same situation
Geniuses are perfectly capable of also being complete morons.
Heck the clueless genius is a bit of a trope in itself. So its a bit weird we still tend to assume every genius is a renaissance man.
The pipes of mercury used in some of the early Cambridge computers are my favourite. (From a rather fun book called 'A computer called Leo' about the Lyon's Coffee house's early adoption)
W. D. & H. O. Wills, the tobacco company, bought a LEO
The sales team christened it Lose Every Order
One of their former buildings, looks very much like it would suit an ITV Poirot story, is now flats on the coast road in Newcastle/North Tyneside.
Lovely frontage
The Glasgow factory is the same
If I ever make it up,there I’ll have to look it up.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
It's inevitable that in any universal healthcare system based on insurance that the state will be heavily required to fund many people's insurance premiums. Universal healthcare is fundamentally economically redistribution with the wealthy subsidising those without much money. A lot of heavy users of healthcare will be retired, poor, long term sick or dependent in some other way, so government funded.
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
I wonder what the cost of moving to an insurance-based system would be and the timescale required to do it. Has any work been done on that? It's hard to believe it could be achieved within the lifetime of a single Parliament or without considerable upfront state investment if the aim is to create a European-style system as compared to a US one.
There’s a big market in the UK for political leaders that safely make politics go away and dampen revolutionary excitement. The genius of the Tories historically was to corner that market whilst sneaking in a bit of right wing ideology under the radar . For some reason they have forgotten that winning formula.
Bild has today usefully told us which party has the shortest/longest manifesto (FDP 19600 words/Die Linke 33000 words). And which party has the longest word in their manifesto. The FDP wins with
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I think the point is that the NHS isn't the best ranked health system in the world, and some other countries do better. I think it's a bit of a straw man as most people already know this.
But it's worth asking what specifically people would change. There are all kinds of differences and similarities between all these other countries as well as with the UK.
The one outlier is the US which spends a lot more money than everywhere else for generally worse outcomes.
Critics of the NHS often point to the French system. What’s notable about the French system is that it has substantially higher spending per capita than in the UK.
Had lunch with an old friend last week - an avowedly centre-right soft Tory. He surprised me by saying it would be much better if we stopped trying to pretend we could have first-class public services on the cheap - he'd prefer it if we were taxed a bit more and had better services... like, e.g. France (his example).
Some of the best public services in the world are in Singapore and Switzerland which tax less than we do.
France funds its healthcare via insurance
It's a government controlled health insurance scheme and the government sets the premiums based on a % of income etc. In practice it does not really differ from funding it from tax. According to statista in 2023 France spent 18% more on health per capita, Switzerland 50%, than UK. Singapore isn't listed. Adding an insurance system won't make UK healthcare cheaper, but waiting for capita or another to authorise treatment plans will almost certainly reduce life expectancy. Ask anyone trying to get a pension statement from a Capita administered scheme.
It will improve efficiency and allow tax to be spent on other things, quality of education, transport etc also better in Singapore and Switzerland with less tax
Insurance based systems involve a lot more bureaucracy and paperwork behind the scenes.
As with most things - like railways, water, university education - the ownership and funding model is a red herring. Those who think you change outcomes by restructuring the back office, which is essentially what this is about, are almost always disappointed.
Ultimately it’s about
Don’t leave us hanging mate
Ultimately it’s about. Isn’t it?
I think I was going to say effective management and sufficient funding.
Starmer needs to get out the lectern . Tell the public that there needs to be an immediate increase in defence spending and raise taxes to pay for that . It’s either that or cuts to public services to pay for it .
There’s a big market in the UK for political leaders that safely make politics go away and dampen revolutionary excitement. The genius of the Tories historically was to corner that market whilst sneaking in a bit of right wing ideology under the radar . For some reason they have forgotten that winning formula.
I have an unevidenced theory (because I'm too lazy to check) that the best way to be radical and revolutionary is to seem boring and persuade people your big change is hardly a change at all.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Merz is basically the German Jenrick, tough on immigration and an economic Thatcherite.
He also might end up in government with the SPD anyway ie the equivalent of a Tory and Labour government even though he would probably have enough seats to govern with the AfD but they are seen as too pro Putin and far right
Metz is a lot older than Jenrick. I think that matters at the moment. Successful politicians tend to be older. Something to do with uncertain times. The Tories were foolish to skip a generation. There’s nothing reassuring about Jenrick or Badenoch.
Starmer needs to get out the lectern . Tell the public that there needs to be an immediate increase in defence spending and raise taxes to pay for that . It’s either that or cuts to public services to pay for it .
Probably both, as they need cuts to pay for other stuff that can't be put off.
We don't have democracy when all we can vote for is A or very slightly different A....discuss
The Greens and Reform UK, who stood in most seats, were both offering very different manifestos to Lab and Con. Ditto the Workers Party, who stood in 152 seats, and the TUSC, in 40.
Quite. We had lots of choice, its a coping mechanism to say we dont.
Starmer needs to get out the lectern . Tell the public that there needs to be an immediate increase in defence spending and raise taxes to pay for that . It’s either that or cuts to public services to pay for it .
One of the pluses of government since last year’s election has been the lack of lecterns. The last lot used to pull them out for any old minor political restatement.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Merz is basically the German Jenrick, tough on immigration and an economic Thatcherite.
He also might end up in government with the SPD anyway ie the equivalent of a Tory and Labour government even though he would probably have enough seats to govern with the AfD but they are seen as too pro Putin and far right
Metz is a lot older than Jenrick. I think that matters at the moment. Successful politicians tend to be older. Something to do with uncertain times. The Tories were foolish to skip a generation. There’s nothing reassuring about Jenrick or Badenoch.
Bring back Boris? You are Mad Nad AICMFP.
Alas Boris is not that reassuring voice. TSE was closer with Osborne.
Starmer needs to get out the lectern . Tell the public that there needs to be an immediate increase in defence spending and raise taxes to pay for that . It’s either that or cuts to public services to pay for it .
Probably both, as they need cuts to pay for other stuff that can't be put off.
Or loosen the fiscal rules. The markets were quite sanguine during Covid when countries took on more debt .
There’s a big market in the UK for political leaders that safely make politics go away and dampen revolutionary excitement. The genius of the Tories historically was to corner that market whilst sneaking in a bit of right wing ideology under the radar . For some reason they have forgotten that winning formula.
I have an unevidenced theory (because I'm too lazy to check) that the best way to be radical and revolutionary is to seem boring and persuade people your big change is hardly a change at all.
And sneak the announcement in via very boring announcements with more controversial sacrificial ideas that are designed to be quickly binned.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Always fascinated by the confidence with with left-leaning posters pontificate about the way forward for Conservatives.
Given the collapse in the fortunes of the Labour party since winning the elections, it might be worth thinking about how Labour respond to the populism of Farage (who is far from hard right).
The Conservatives need to stand for something, like small government, personal responsibility, fiscal rectitude, rather than just talking about it - whilst governing from the centre left - as they did in the past few years.
Just spent a few days with 100 or so colleagues. What was clear was the difference of opinion between those who live/work in the Southern cities ('Farage hasn't got a hope of winning', 'People will come around to Starmer') vs those who live in the towns/country/midlands-north ('I fear next PM will be Farage in a coalition', 'Starmer will be forgotten by history when he suffers a huge defeat next time').
I am always fascinated by people who have so many more political conversations than I do out in the real world. I almost never hear anyone on buses, in supermarket queues or in pubs talking about politics. It's a subject I have always actively tried to avoid when with work colleagues.
British conservatives might note how the CSU/CDU have recovered (tbc) despite having a bad record and without merging or doing a deal with their hard right rival.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
Always fascinated by the confidence with with left-leaning posters pontificate about the way forward for Conservatives.
Given the collapse in the fortunes of the Labour party since winning the elections, it might be worth thinking about how Labour respond to the populism of Farage (who is far from hard right).
The Conservatives need to stand for something, like small government, personal responsibility, fiscal rectitude, rather than just talking about it - whilst governing from the centre left - as they did in the past few years.
Just spent a few days with 100 or so colleagues. What was clear was the difference of opinion between those who live/work in the Southern cities ('Farage hasn't got a hope of winning', 'People will come around to Starmer') vs those who live in the towns/country/midlands-north ('I fear next PM will be Farage in a coalition', 'Starmer will be forgotten by history when he suffers a huge defeat next time').
I am always fascinated by people who have so many more political conversations than I do out in the real world. I almost never hear anyone on buses, in supermarket queues or in pubs talking about politics. It's a subject I have always actively tried to avoid when with work colleagues.
Most people i know who bring up politics in real life talk like poorly informed political tweets, so things quickly reach a point where measured discussion would be impossible.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
I disagree. Though the ultimate source of funding may be similar, the incentives under a model with a significant insurance element and independent ownership of hospitals are very different from our state-owned and directed model.
Both have their merits and problems - our approach is much less bureaucratic and maybe more accountable, for example, whereas theirs seems to deliver better patient care overall and is probably less politicised and more responsive. But their inner workings and incentives are very different.
Anyway the idea that children in traffic accidents are left to die in France and Germany and therefore somebody who was treated here owes the NHS anything, however grateful he may be to individual members of staff, is completely illogical.
The comparison being made initially was to the pre-NHS situation in the UK, not to the systems in France and Germany today.
There are differences between the UK, French and German systems, yes. But they are more like each other than they are like the pre-NHS situation here or the US system today.
I think the French system does currently deliver better outcomes. But then that’s largely because they are spending considerably more per capita than we are.
I note that we don’t have independent ownership of hospitals, but we do have independent ownership of GP practices.
I agree that the UK system is very politicised and that is probably a bad thing.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
It's inevitable that in any universal healthcare system based on insurance that the state will be heavily required to fund many people's insurance premiums. Universal healthcare is fundamentally economically redistribution with the wealthy subsidising those without much money. A lot of heavy users of healthcare will be retired, poor, long term sick or dependent in some other way, so government funded.
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
I wonder what the cost of moving to an insurance-based system would be and the timescale required to do it. Has any work been done on that? It's hard to believe it could be achieved within the lifetime of a single Parliament or without considerable upfront state investment if the aim is to create a European-style system as compared to a US one.
Would also be interesting if there have been studies on changing the tax system to (like the Swiss) a national tax level, a regional and a local level where the people who live in certain areas can work out what they really do need or not need.
Would localities slash the tax rate to attract people and business and hopefully generate more by increasing the size of the tax base rather than rate or would they go high to spend on services to attract people who value that more etc.
I am very glad we have Sir Keir Starmer as PM now and not Nigel Farage. I do believe he will come to be viewed as one of the great PMs.
Well maybe in fantasy lefty land, Starmer will be a great pm in the same way as genghis khan was seen as a pacifist who preached peace and love
I think Starmer will be remembered, post-power, in the same vein as Eden, Callaghan, Major, May and Sunak. And Carter, Hollande, Scholz. Decent enough person but couldn’t quite rise to the occasion.
Sorry decent person doesn't cut it he wanted to be a leader but he cannot lead Being a nice guy doesn't cut it else we would have elected Ed Davey
Given the events of the last month it is quite possible that within a year we shall have a government of national unity; and if I had the choice of the two to lead it right now I would go for Blair (for whom I never voted) and Cameron.
We won't have a government of national unity within a year because there is no national unity frankly.....there are people like most on here that are ok and thinking the status quo is just dandy....then there is people like me who rent and dont see our pay rising and about to start tearing things down frankly.... my pay rise this year 1%, my power bill up 10% my water up 10% my council tax up 5% rent up 12% food prices up by more than 1% story of the last quarter decade.......where are we going to find national unity when most politicians come from a class that never suffered that and most middle classes like here don't either?
Well unless you work for a nationalised industry or the state, earn minimum wage or live in state provided housing not a huge amount the government can do about that given the global rise in prices and cost of living since the Ukraine war and Covid and now with Trump's tariffs coming along too. Even council tax is the council's responsibility.
Though they could maybe do more to support our farmers to reduce food prices and 'drill baby drill' to increase energy supplies. Plenty of votes have been cast in protest for Corbyn and now for Farage, it doesn't mean they have the answers either
Really do fuck off,government policies have led to the bottom 50% being in this situation and frankly the tories and labour and all politicians can fuck right off. They govern for the interests of people like them and dont give a shit about the rest of us and they wont till we say enough and start dragging them out into to the street
Really? Go back 150-200 years there was no NHS, no minimum wage, no social housing, no unemployment benefits, no state pension etc. Your ancestors really were left to the mercy of the market then with at most a bit of poor relief or the workhouse and the odd alms house and church soup kitchen for support.
This government I would also remind you was elected, given you couldn't even be bothered to vote in that election why on earth should we care what your opinion is of it and the previous government it defeated anyway?
I think the NHS was a regrettable development.
Since it saved my life, I beg to differ.
Being our main source of medical care, and especially emergency medical care, it has saved millions of lives. If we had an updated version of the patchwork of friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc. etc. that preceded it, that would be the major saver of lives.
It would indeed be the major saver of lives... but I very much doubt it would have saved mine.
I cannot comment on the specifics of your case. But I will say that I believe in healthcare for all, with provision for those unable to pay. I just think the NHS itself isn't the way to do it.
Without the NHS I would not be able to comment on the specifics of my case.
For you it's theory; for me it's reality.
OK - if you want to make that experience public, I would certainly be interested. If you don't, that's fine too.
I broke my back as a teenager, in 1979 in a road traffic accident, and became a paraplegic.
Soon after my accident, the NHS moved me to Stoke Mandeville (from Sussex) and their rehabilitation support led me to lead a fulfilling life, employed in IT and finance - I have paid back in tax many times over the cost of my care but at the time there was no likelihood that I would.
What treatment would I have received without the NHS? My family could not have afforded the ambulance service, let alone the months of care and rehabilitation I received.
Friendly societies, private hospitals, charitable hospitals etc.? At best they'd have eased my decline and early demise.
For me it's personal.
And yet France, Germany, Holland, Austria, etc., don't have the NHS and still manage to look after children who get into traffic accidents.
And better cancer survival rates, shorter waits for treatment, better emergency care etc. etc. etc.
The NHS provides pretty substandard care amongst OECD care at an about-average price.
So we definitely shouldn't idolise it or take it personally or treat it sentimentally when we're discussing health policy. It's a means to an end, and there are other means which may serve our countries better. Other kids who get into traffic accidents, and indeed all other patients, deserve nothing less.
It's inevitable that in any universal healthcare system based on insurance that the state will be heavily required to fund many people's insurance premiums. Universal healthcare is fundamentally economically redistribution with the wealthy subsidising those without much money. A lot of heavy users of healthcare will be retired, poor, long term sick or dependent in some other way, so government funded.
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
I wonder what the cost of moving to an insurance-based system would be and the timescale required to do it. Has any work been done on that? It's hard to believe it could be achieved within the lifetime of a single Parliament or without considerable upfront state investment if the aim is to create a European-style system as compared to a US one.
There is no one European-style system, so it would depend which system you meant. Italy has something pretty like the NHS. The German and French systems have significant differences. Etc.
Bild has today usefully told us which party has the shortest/longest manifesto (FDP 19600 words/Die Linke 33000 words). And which party has the longest word in their manifesto. The FDP wins with
Looking around just now, there are pretty limited betting markets here for the German elections. Union to win seems nailed on.
Ladbroke have a few. CDU/CSU over under at 30.5. I think under is worth a punt as most recent polls put them on 28-30
AfD at 15-20% at 14/5 boosted too, as I think that they will be adversely impacted by Musk and Vances interventions (no one likes foreigners directing their vote) and also the Linke surge may take some of the NOTA vote.
AfD 15-20% probably a loser but maybe a bit of value at those odds. I'd also take unders on the CDU/CSU 30.5 line.
But not much value in either I reckon.
Last averages from spiegel.de (other averages are very similar):
Union 30% AfD 21% SPD 15% Greens 13% Left 7% BSW 4% FDP 4%
Which would make Union+SPD the only viable coalition, which is what we all expected from the beginning.
I'm kind of expecting the Greens to be a bit squeezed in the polling both in favour of the SPD. Likewise the Left may benefit at the expense of the BSW.
The big question is whether either of the BSW or the FDP gets 5%. If they do it possibly means a 3-party coalition is needed (unless as suggested the SPD do better than the polls and Union at least match their polling). The FDP has gone all-in on the (somewhat desperate) tactic of claiming the only way to avoid a Union-Green coalition is to vote FDP.
I was half-expecting the AfD to outperform the polling this time (unlike last time). - Maybe all the disinformation on social media would increase their vote among people that polling companies might miss a bit, because they don't normally vote, or are hard to reach. - AfD supporters might turnout at a higher rate as they have some enthusiasm. The most likely, and preferred by voters, outcome (another grand coalition) isn't going to fire people up. The same coalition who were in power until just over 3 years ago.
However, the recent events with Trump and Musk and Ukraine, which has caused a massive storm in Germany, I think will get more people out voting for the traditional parties.
I don't know why there is so little variation between German pollsters - herding? - they are usually pretty accurate in federal elections, but it's a small sample size so a bigger miss is always possible.
When will UK politicians stop peddling this nonsense that the US really cares about the so called “ special relationship “ ?.
At the moment I'm enjoying Labour sucking up to Donald Trump and saying how important it is to support him in his peace deal to stop the war in Ukraine, but simultaneously condemning Reform for not *checks notes* being strong enough in condemning Donald Trump’s proposed peace deal. It's a delicious snack for connoisseurs of naked hypocrisy.
Comments
When was the last time you dialed a number on a phone with an actual dial? And what did you hang it on when the call ended?
Somebody was talking recently about a film that was already in the can. There is no can. There is no film.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/doj-heads-tell-staff-not-to-reply-to-musk-demand-for-job-details
Musk is a clown who believes his own genius is so all-encompassing that any moronic idea that enters into his drug-addled brain should be immediately carried out.
Ban Twitter in Europe! Musk is personally interfering in the German election by spreading lies to support anti-democratic neo-nazis. We shouldn't tolerate this shit.
The floppy disk had storage of 1.44 MB. I'm pretty sure my current PS5 game data for FFVII Rebirth is 140 GB or so... which is kind of nuts.
Which is how I found out my boss had applied for the same job...
The NHS is not unusual in its funding so much as its delivery, being delivered in the main by salaried government employees rather than by private organisations billing government funded insurance schemes.
America is different as they don't really have a health care system, they have a healthcare business, and the point of a business is to extract as much money from users as is sustainably possible, and to terminate delivery to those where the business does not make a profit. Hence the high cost and poor outcomes of US healthcare are intrinsic to the operating model, and on its own terms it is a highly successful business.
If you do X with your land it means that you can’t produce crops for sale but it means that Sandy City won’t flood next year. That is worth paying for.
It used to mean "here I am at the airport".
Now it just means you've clicked something on your phone from anywhere in the world.
That and viagra.
Feeling groggy, chock-a-block, batten down the hatches, no room to swing a cat, toe the line, loose cannon, pipe down, learn the ropes... etc.
It's called being sociable.
Top leadership at the State Department has instructed its employees to ignore
@elonmusk’s productivity inquiry, saying, essentially—we will evaluate our own people. A sign not all Trump officials are on board with Musk’s DOGE email.
https://x.com/Yamiche/status/1893517922586239358
The real floppy disc was the 8-inch, not the 3.5" that was rather rigid.
Email sent to all staff.
Three or four people inadvertently reply all.
Three or four more people then reply all, asking people to stop replying all.
The joys of the modern corporate world.
* made someone laugh on PB
* Stopped using PB when it wound me up
* Walked the dog
* Sneaked a look at PB
* Got a like from someone who usually disagrees with me
Er that’s it Elon
Response, job well done.
France funds its healthcare via insurance
Although come to think of it, his apoplexy would lead to President Vance.
As you were.
And which party has the longest word in their manifesto. The FDP wins with
"Telekommunikationsnetzausbaubeschleunigungsgesetz"
49 words apparently
Well they both have floppy disks.
Close enough, anyway.
You can open a 5.25 disk case, cut 2 extra holes in it so you can use it upside down in a single side drive mech
A large number of good responses have been received already. These are the people who should be considered for promotion.
SFAICS there is virtually 100% agreement that a version of the UK model is right for us. Which means that the argument is arcane for nearly everyone.
The sales team christened it Lose Every Order
Ladbroke have a few. CDU/CSU over under at 30.5. I think under is worth a punt as most recent polls put them on 28-30
AfD at 15-20% at 14/5 boosted too, as I think that they will be adversely impacted by Musk and Vances interventions (no one likes foreigners directing their vote) and also the Linke surge may take some of the NOTA vote.
Step one, find a credible leader. Lose the obsession with the untested next generation, perhaps go back to go forward.
https://x.com/SocialConservad/status/1893557637033173491
In practice it does not really differ from funding it from tax. According to statista in 2023 France spent 18% more on health per capita, Switzerland 50%, than UK. Singapore isn't listed.
Adding an insurance system won't make UK healthcare cheaper, but waiting for capita or another to authorise treatment plans will almost certainly reduce life expectancy. Ask anyone trying to get a pension statement from a Capita administered scheme.
On top of taxes you have your mandatory “Chomage” cover - your insurance for if you are made unemployed which was a few % and you have your mandatory health insurance which isn’t cheap unless you want a basic cover. There is also a communal religious tax that can catch you out.
Ultimately the headline rates are lower than the UK but with an insured health model and insured social security model a lot of the burden is removed from the state.
Added to that is very granular government where everyone down to the communal mayor has their budget and can control the level of taxes and the Swiss demand high standards and can boot out any layer of gov who doesn’t use their money well.
I felt, although more a feels thing, that people were healthier and more active - very few fatties and people on mobility scooters, which inevitably helps costs.
Switzerland doesn’t also carry a lot of weight around that the UK does, it doesn’t have the same level of defence costs (about 0.7% gdp) and has a lot of high value manufacturing and financial business to the size of it so many people on high wages so those tax receipts are better proportionately than for the UK.
So it’s not really a fair comparison.
Lovely frontage
Given the collapse in the fortunes of the Labour party since winning the elections, it might be worth thinking about how Labour respond to the populism of Farage (who is far from hard right).
The Conservatives need to stand for something, like small government, personal responsibility, fiscal rectitude, rather than just talking about it - whilst governing from the centre left - as they did in the past few years.
Just spent a few days with 100 or so colleagues. What was clear was the difference of opinion between those who live/work in the Southern cities ('Farage hasn't got a hope of winning', 'People will come around to Starmer') vs those who live in the towns/country/midlands-north ('I fear next PM will be Farage in a coalition', 'Starmer will be forgotten by history when he suffers a huge defeat next time').
He also might end up in government with the SPD anyway ie the equivalent of a Tory and Labour government even though he would probably have enough seats to govern with the AfD but they are seen as too pro Putin and far right
I hope British conservatism gets off its knees. I don’t want a Putin puppet in number 10.
As with most things - like railways, water, university education - the ownership and funding model is a red herring. Those who think you change outcomes by restructuring the back office, which is essentially what this is about, are almost always disappointed.
Ultimately it’s about
Fuxsake.
Both have their merits and problems - our approach is much less bureaucratic and maybe more accountable, for example, whereas theirs seems to deliver better patient care overall and is probably less politicised and more responsive. But their inner workings and incentives are very different.
Anyway the idea that children in traffic accidents are left to die in France and Germany and therefore somebody who was treated here owes the NHS anything, however grateful he may be to individual members of staff, is completely illogical.
Heck the clueless genius is a bit of a trope in itself. So its a bit weird we still tend to assume every genius is a renaissance man.
Surbiton Railway Station also has a similar look
https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-im-ki-check-die-wahlprogramme-der-parteien-in-50-woertern-67b74f79a918eb195a721374
I think I was going to say effective management and sufficient funding.
If we vote for parties outside the consensus.
Hence the rise of Reform.
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/20/nx-s1-5304454/jan-6-pardons-drugs-firearms
NEW THREAD
There are differences between the UK, French and German systems, yes. But they are more like each other than they are like the pre-NHS situation here or the US system today.
I think the French system does currently deliver better outcomes. But then that’s largely because they are spending considerably more per capita than we are.
I note that we don’t have independent ownership of hospitals, but we do have independent ownership of GP practices.
I agree that the UK system is very politicised and that is probably a bad thing.
Would localities slash the tax rate to attract people and business and hopefully generate more by increasing the size of the tax base rather than rate or would they go high to spend on services to attract people who value that more etc.
I'd also take unders on the CDU/CSU 30.5 line.
But not much value in either I reckon.
Last averages from spiegel.de (other averages are very similar):
Union 30%
AfD 21%
SPD 15%
Greens 13%
Left 7%
BSW 4%
FDP 4%
Which would make Union+SPD the only viable coalition, which is what we all expected from the beginning.
I'm kind of expecting the Greens to be a bit squeezed in the polling both in favour of the SPD. Likewise the Left may benefit at the expense of the BSW.
The big question is whether either of the BSW or the FDP gets 5%. If they do it possibly means a 3-party coalition is needed (unless as suggested the SPD do better than the polls and Union at least match their polling). The FDP has gone all-in on the (somewhat desperate) tactic of claiming the only way to avoid a Union-Green coalition is to vote FDP.
I was half-expecting the AfD to outperform the polling this time (unlike last time).
- Maybe all the disinformation on social media would increase their vote among people that polling companies might miss a bit, because they don't normally vote, or are hard to reach.
- AfD supporters might turnout at a higher rate as they have some enthusiasm. The most likely, and preferred by voters, outcome (another grand coalition) isn't going to fire people up. The same coalition who were in power until just over 3 years ago.
However, the recent events with Trump and Musk and Ukraine, which has caused a massive storm in Germany, I think will get more people out voting for the traditional parties.
I don't know why there is so little variation between German pollsters - herding? - they are usually pretty accurate in federal elections, but it's a small sample size so a bigger miss is always possible.