Did you know that UKIP ......

That doesn't really answer my question, does it. I want the outline of a manifesto.

Sadly I think Hollydaze has got it just about right Tegan, as they seem to be attracting people on this basis alone.

Well that's a good party to vote for, then, Hollydaze. And when they get in they say, "Help! We didn't expect this. What do we do now?" and they get all the private health bosses and the financial whizzkids to say, "Give us your money and we'll help you."
Of course, you do not vote in this country, do you?

Tegan, all the people who voted for Ukip are going to find out what they voted for in September, when he produces his manifesto.

Tegan

As there is little hope of UKIP winning the general election, they probably haven't a manifesto as yet - who knows. Their aim seemed to have been about forcing government to grant the UK population the vote that they had been asking for (and been promised - another promise broken). I don't see why that is so hard to understand.

If you believe that UKIP are the only Party that have members who hold racist or homophobic views, I suspect that would be a tad naieve. I will give one example (showing another angle):

Ann [Widdecomb] converted to Catholicism in 1993, mainly because of her objection to women being ordained as priests, and her pro-life stance.

She isn’t against contraception before marriage, but asks me now, ‘I’d say to people who want to use the pill before wedlock, “Why are you having a relationship outside marriage at all?”’

Most of the professional politicians have the sense to keep their private thoughts private but that doesn't mean they don't think or believe they are right. There will be many other gaffs some politicans have made and they will be on google somewhere for those who want to check to see whether or not it is purely a UKIP phenomenon.

All this talk about GPs wanting to charge is also a nonsense. Previous government allowed GPs to renegotiate their contract to the detriment of patients; I remember and miss the service that used to be on offer by local GPs and it certainly wasn't the cattle train that if feels like now. After my husband died, I was inconsolable, couldn't stop crying and couldn't sleep - I knew I needed help; did my GP come to see me? No, I had to sit in the waiting room of the surgery - crying (until embarrassment made me leave before I had seen the GP. They then rang and offered another appointment. The old GP service would have been the GP coming to see you in the privacy of your own home). If people had to pay to see a GP, there would be a fair few GPs with very few patients.

There's no need to feel frightened (do you really feel frightened or is that just an emotive comment?) - come the general election, people will do what they always do: vote in Tories or Labour and the status quo will continue.

Wind your neck in durhamjen and read what I have written rather than what you want to see. I have said very clearly that I doubt they would end up running the country - can I say it any clearer that would make you understand that?

Of course, you do not vote in this country, do you?

Do you think that negates my concern over what happens in the UK?

I believe it was a UKIP policy which wanted to 'allow mutual providers, including GP's to charge a flat fee to see non emergency cases'. Of course, with them ripping up the manifesto that is behind them now. Yes, I am frightened because I'm living in a world where someone who talks about places like 'Bongo Bongo land' is taken seriously by a lot of people. Who also, when he makes inane comments to the media puts it down to 'feeling tired'. Farage and his party [whoever they are]ARE racist and homophobic and they sicken me.

What Hollydaze says is not necessarily what would happen, though, is it? I imagine you did not think that Ukip would have the largest number of MEPs this time last week.
I certainly did not.
Haven't heard that phrase before. What does it mean?

I do not understand your comment about GPs paying. What happened to you is sad, but nothing to do with GPs being paid for every consultation by the patient.
I had to go to the GPs quite often after my husband died. If I started crying they would give me a tissue and take me into a side room until my appointment. It's to do with the people who work there, not whether they are paid by you or not.
The point is the NHS is supposed to be free at the point of use. We should not be paying every time we go into a surgery.

As Galen pointed out on another thread, GPs have been voting against charging patients for appointments for years - and they did so again last week. So we won't be paying every time we go into a surgery...

GPs voted against what Hunt is doing to the NHS, as well, Ana. Didn't stop him.
I'm as worried as Tegan about this, and the TTIP, which Ukip support.

Tegan

During a visit to an electronics factory in Scotland, Prince Philip saw a messy fuse box and said it looked "as though it was put in by an Indian"

Prince Philip has previously made remarks offensive to minority groups. In May, during a visit to the Welsh Assembly, he met a group from the British Deaf Association, pointed to a Caribbean music band, and said: "Deaf? If you are near there, no wonder you are deaf."

On a visit to China in 1986 he told British students: "If you stay here much longer you'll all be slitty-eyed."

Should we oust Prince Philip from our Royal Family?

Jeffrey Archer, Tory hopeful for Mayor of London, refused to apologise yesterday for saying that black women in Britain used to be fat and badly dressed, claiming his comments were taken out of context.

Diane Abbot made the comment ' ''White people love playing 'divide & rule'".

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-liberal-councillor-steve-radford-7122909

Look up Ian Lavery and racism

So on and so on and so on. As I have said, if you think racism, homophobia and misogyny are peculiar to UKIP, you would do well to do some research on all of the others (or not if you don't want to feel depressed).

I have little sympathy for GPs - they do a job and they get paid for it by the Government using taxpayers money.

The point is the NHS is supposed to be free at the point of use. We should not be paying every time we go into a surgery.

And that is how it is at present - what is the point of fighting a battle before the battle even exists? A suggestion by some doesn't make it a fact.

My comment regarding GPs and what they will provide was to show that GP concern about the service patients receive seemed to be more about their own hours and pay and not having to do more than they absolutely have to; so I'm not sure I would trust them to act purely in the best interests of the patient. Once patients start paying for a service, they start to expect more for their money.

Some of us do pay (indirectly) to visit a surgery. Well we do if we need a prescriptive medicine anyway. A recent chest infection (still not totally clear) cost my upwards of £25 ! and I know people who have to ask the GP which item on the prescription is the most important as they cannot afford 2 items !

Shocking isn't it?

Sorry, Holly, but you start off by saying you have little sympathy for GPs, but you expect them to have sympathy for you.
I have sympathy for them because they are in a position that they do not want to be in.
Claire Gerada is now saying that the way GPs are paid should be changed. They should be paid per 1000 consultations, not by the number of patients on their books. Half the GPs agree; the rest can see all sorts of complications. However, what they agree on will not become law. That will only be decided by Jeremy Hunt.
Patients expecting more for their money will not make the surgery visit any better for people who are really ill.

I have no sympathy for UKIP and don't like their attitude. Europe is now at peace and that is worth a lot. The protest voters are right to vote that way if they think that their parties will do anything different should they get into power. But just being negative is much easier than being really positive about something.

Although NIgel Fararge's wife is German she doesn't seem to have noticed that Germany introduced a charge for visits to the Doctor's surgeries and last year after approx 5 years, they have withdrawn it. it did not change anything at all. it was a complete faiiure which just made more work for the surgery staff - not the doctor.

Sorry, Holly, but you start off by saying you have little sympathy for GPs, but you expect them to have sympathy for you.

No, I don't expect them to have sympathy for me, empathy maybe, I expect them to do a job and one that used to require them to show compassion. GPs seem to be little more than someone who knows someone to refer people to and write prescriptions. GPs used to be much more than that were greatly respected in their communities.

they are in a position that they do not want to be in

I don't understand what that refers to

Patients expecting more for their money will not make the surgery visit any better for people who are really ill.

I don't understand that comment either.

I appreciate you are trying to explain things from your perspective but I'm not sure what you are referring to in those specific instances.

GPs carry out 90% of the face to face work in the NHS yet only get 9% of the money.
I am not on the side of GPs particularly, but that fact seems grossly unfair to me. That is probably why we cannot get GPs to be helpful so much.
I had to ring my surgery to get test results yesterday. I was told I needed face to face with both the nurse and the GP. Both appointments are in July, the GPs because I want to see the GP I have seen face to face before. If I need to see a GP it makes sense to see the one I know.

People who expect more for their money usually do not make things easier for the people they are challenging. That's what I meant. My mother in law is in hospital at the moment, and one of my brothers in law has put the backs up of the staff because of his demanding attitude.
Therefore the rest of us get the flack when visiting her.

GPs carry out 90% of the face to face work in the NHS yet only get 9% of the money.

What are the reasons given for that? Would it be because it is based on a skill set premise?

My mother in law is in hospital at the moment, and one of my brothers in law has put the backs up of the staff because of his demanding attitude. Therefore the rest of us get the flack when visiting her.

If your brother feels that your mother-in-law isn't being treated in a way he would be happy about, doesn't he have the right to voice that concern? I would agree that being stroppy isn't the way to achieve favourable results but neither is going along with things you are not happy about. If the staff in the hospital are giving you flack - one, it's not very professional and secondly, what does it say about them that they will seek 'revenge' on family members that have been civil to them?

I have been fortunate enough to have private treatment (in the UK) and patients are treated, imo, much better; you also become aware of treatments that are available privately that the NHS don't tell you about; that bothers me a lot. I was also treated in a manner that addressed the fact that I have a right to know certain information about my treatments as opposed to it being treated like a closely guarded secret (when challenged why, I was told it would have worried me unnecessarily - the fact that they misdiagnosed worried me even more). This approach has nearly cost me my life twice. I have learned that if I am concerned, don't ignore my gut instinct irrespective of what GPs and other doctors may tell me - that saved my life twice.

ave no sympathy for UKIP and don't like their attitude. Europe is now at peace and that is worth a lot.

I think some of the people in Ukraine would not agree. What bothers me here is that, if Ukraine are part of Europe, why aren't they supported more by the rest at this time? would we get more support if the UK was invaded?

Experigran, you pipped me at the post, was just going to say pretty much the same thing, is Ukraine deemed part of Europe? If so, it certainly isn't at peace. I don't think we should be complacent enough to think that the EU is pivotal in giving us peace, in fact I think it could be considered quite divisive by some. The EU of late has thrown up some very unsavoury political parties on the far right, such as Jobbik, or whatever they call themselves. I believe they are the third most popular party in Hungary, which says a lot about some of the citizens in that country, given this party strongly echos the Nazis of yesteryear. They have some very alarming policies and they are some of the bedfellows we find ourselves joined to now. No I don't think we should assume that Europe will continue to be a peaceful place. We are not the homogeneous cohesive mass that the EU would like us to be, which can only be expected when trying to get a consensus out of so many countries with different aspirations and polarised positions on many issues, particularly budgets. There is a lot of bickering and infighting. Many countries are experiencing dissent on a scale not seen for a long time.

DUrhamjen GPs late extremely well paid these days considering the hours they work compared with when were on call 24/24 7/7 52/52. I was rarely home before 7pm. On call 2-3 nights a week. One weekend in 4 off duty and one half day a week.
We saw anyone who needed us on the day they asked and never turned anyone away. We would do on average about 20-30 home visits a day and never turned a request for a visit down. We were a practice of 5 doctors with 17500 patients.

We saw anyone who needed us on the day they asked and never turned anyone away.

That is how I remember GPs being. When my son was about 18 months old, he suddenly swelled up (his entire body) and his eyes were like golf balls. I rang my GP (I was a young mum and inexperienced) and she came straight to the house. She took one look at him, told me to wrap him in a blanket and she drove us to A&E where he was admitted for 3 days - he'd had a severe reaction to the measles vaccine. Needless to say, I had complete trust and faith in her.

Excellent posts HollyDaze

because of the way we vote, UKIP cannot be voted into power at the general election.But it will split the other 2 main parties if people do vote UKIP, so anything could happen with power sharing.I see UKIP [someone asked what it's for] as several posters have said already, for putting the wind up the other parties, making them aware of a nations anger with them on the EU and particularly on immigration [and the feeble efforts to control it.]

ri.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A7x9Uniyf4hT9isAMMV3Bwx.;_ylu=X3oDMTBybWpoN25zBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2lyZAR2dGlkAw--/RV=2/RE=1401483315/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.commissioning.gp%2fnews%2farticle%2f953%2fgps-receive-only-9-of-the-total-nhs-budget-but-carry-out-90-of-all-patient-contact%2f17%2f/RK=0/RS=EHcTVNntUx11KDRGmSXx.BfCTZI-