Current Affairs 2017 General Election

[Ruairi77]

Public spending has risen every year. Cuts are a myth. It's inefficiency and incompetent public sector big shots who are the problem. They piss money down the drain like Joey Barton on betfair.

maybe you should have a totally private system, like here in America. Get ready to fork over $400 a month for insurance that doesn't really cover anything!

 

[ToffeeTim]

maybe you should have a totally private system, like here in America. Get ready to fork over $400 a month for insurance that doesn't really cover anything!

I just want people in the public sector to treat money as if it were their own. The culture in some quarters is disgraceful.

 

[roydo]

maybe you should have a totally private system, like here in America. Get ready to fork over $400 a month for insurance that doesn't really cover anything!

Well we have both.

But if you cant afford, dont want, Private cover, the NHS is free at the point of use, to everyone.

It is a terrific organisation, sadly, politicised by politicians.

 

[The binman chronicles]

Public spending has risen every year. Cuts are a myth. It's inefficiency and incompetent public sector big shots who are the problem. They piss money down the drain like Joey Barton on betfair.

I get the impression that a lot of the staff know how to play the system, whether it is overtime or leaving the NHS and coming back on as agency for large wages. The very same staff then complain about funding.

Obviously not saying that it is all staff who do this or it is the only reason why the NHS is in trouble, but it keeps popping up in things i read and from a few people who work in the industry that I know.

 

[Clint Planet]

Public spending has risen every year. Cuts are a myth. It's inefficiency and incompetent public sector big shots who are the problem. They piss money down the drain like Joey Barton on betfair.

That just doesn't hold any water at all.

(a) Cuts, in real terms, are not a "myth."

(b) I've no doubt there are inefficiencies within the NHS making it less 'lean and mean' than it could be. Let's not kid ourselves here, though - private contractors syphoning off their share of a profit-led NHS must also be seen as an "inefficiency," seeing as it is dosh which could otherwise be working for the patient but isn't. Suddenly not so clear-cut now, is it?

Do you get riled about private sector "big shots," by the way, Tim? No, thought not. They're entrepreneurs who deserve every penny... etc.

 

[Kendall's Dream]

Public spending has risen every year. Cuts are a myth. It's inefficiency and incompetent public sector big shots who are the problem. They piss money down the drain like Joey Barton on betfair.

3 days ago

 

[ToffeeTim]

3 days ago

That makes no sense. How can a 4.15% rise equate to a cut of 4.5m.

 

[Clint Planet]

Well we have both.

But if you cant afford, dont want, Private cover, the NHS is free at the point of use, to everyone.

It is a terrific organisation, sadly, politicised by politicians.

Let's be clear about private healthcare in the UK, though. It is, essentially, queue-jumping. You pay in to a private fund, you get NHS doctors treating you first.

In that sense, it is the poor being punished for their poverty - money talking. Oddly enough, not a national scandal, though.

 

[ToffeeTim]

That just doesn't hold any water at all.

(a) Cuts, in real terms, are not a "myth."

(b) I've no doubt there are inefficiencies within the NHS making it less 'lean and mean' than it could be. Let's not kid ourselves here, though - private contractors syphoning off their share of a profit-led NHS must also be seen as an "inefficiency," seeing as it is dosh which could otherwise be working for the patient but isn't. Suddenly not so clear-cut now, is it?

Do you get riled about private sector "big shots," by the way, Tim? No, thought not. They're entrepreneurs who deserve every penny... etc.

The public sector's duty is to act in the best interest of society and to a lesser extent the taxpayer. That doesn't apply to the same degree in the private sector so they don't rile me. You'll struggle to find the same culture of waste in a profit seeking entity. And if you do, you can be sure there will be people in that organisation pulling their hair out and wanting answers.

 

[tsubaki]

I just want people in the public sector to treat money as if it were their own. The culture in some quarters is disgraceful.

Tim - I agree with you, its just that I think you are looking in the wrong place as to where the money is being wasted. The vast majority of public sector employees - nurses, police, ambulance staff - has had no pay rise, or 1% (edit: both of which are effective cuts in wages), each year since 2010. The armed forces budget does not have a massive hole in it because of the fourteen grand, rising to twenty-three grand, a year they pay squaddies.

 

[roydo]

Let's be clear about private healthcare in the UK, though. It is, essentially, queue-jumping. You pay in to a private fund, you get NHS doctors treating you first.

In that sense, it is the poor being punished for their poverty - money talking. Oddly enough, not a national scandal, though.

Oh sure. I know.
But again, it comes back to how the NHS is run, as much as it is funded.

I am no Tory heavy flag waving supporter, but I do get confused why some parties try to paint the NHS as a nutjob organisation, then try to pin that on funding being cut by the nasty Tory party. I can only draw one conclusion.

I dont see that in my experience.

 

[Clint Planet]

The public sector's duty is to act in the best interest of society and to a lesser extent the taxpayer...

Have a little think about that.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Tim - I agree with you, its just that I think you are looking in the wrong place as to where the money is being wasted. The vast majority of public sector employees - nurses, police, ambulance staff - has had no pay rise, or 1% (edit: both of which are effective cuts in wages), each year since 2010. The armed forces budget does not have a massive hole in it because of the fourteen grand, rising to twenty-three grand, a year they pay squaddies.

I'm talking about executive level errors, beauracratic messes. Certainly not the hundreds of thousands of excellent, underpaid, overworked, policemen, nurses, doctors, soldiers, firemen etc we have.

They could easily be paid proper wages if the people with no actual job description where given the boot. It's a beuaracratic mess and basically the public sector needs massively reduced IMO. Not popular but that's my experience.

I deal with HMRC regularly. No idea why they sometimes even bother chasing tax when they do so in the most pathetic, expensive, time consuming, inefficient way imaginable.

 

[Clint Planet]

I dont see that in my experience.

With respect, your personal experience pales in comparison to the doctor I quoted before (amongst many, many others working in the NHS and alarmed by the looming crisis), as it does in the face of the facts quoted in that previous post.

Out of interest, what would it take to convince you that the NHS was in crisis? I'm intrigued.

 

[roydo]

With respect, your personal experience pales in comparison to the doctor I quoted before (amongst many, many others working in the NHS and alarmed by the looming crisis), as it does in the face of the facts quoted in that previous post.

Out of interest, what would it take to convince you that the NHS was in crisis? I'm intrigued.

Never said it wasnt in crisis.

I said it wasnt suffering from "Chronic Tory cuts"

edit. And what would you do? Spend even more money on it, or actually look at how it spends said money?