NHS Fees for migrants

There is a danger of a digression, here, aka! I shall resist...

Exactly Anno. However, I shall permit the French media to announce an Anglo-Saxon win in the Tour de France on Bastille Day.

Posted too soon - Mamie wasn't it good!?

Absolutely brilliant. What a fantastic last effort; soooo exciting.

A good day for British (well, English) sport again - Tour and Cricket - jolly good show, chaps.

This is when I know I am definitely a 'furiner' - when people get all excited about ..... cricket !!!

Always found ti funny that many British people talk about 1066 as being a battle against 'the French' - which was nothing of the sort. Civil war one could say, Viking cousin over Viking cousin.

The Normans, being 'Gallicized' Vikings, did, however, introduce an alien culture and language into this country.

Indeed, but not really French as such. The NOrmans were mocked by the French for their accent and weird speech and ways.

Can you really say "The French" at that stage though, Granjura? I am always amazed by how late it was that the French language was established. Then again when I hear the neighbours' patois, perhaps not!
Have you read Graham Robb's book, The Discovery of France? Fascinating stuff.

Granjura , why do you think you are a furriner because you are not partial to cricket ??

Well, because I am a furiner - and despite loving my 39 years in the UK, married to a Brit- I never understood the excitement my husband and many feel at even listening to cricket on the radio! Nor did I ever get into netball -but I can tell you a lot about skiing and ice-hockey ... can't grin as my new laptop does not have square brackets -Swiss keyboard

I get it ,So you are a Swiss born ???

Not all UK-born residents understand the allure of cricket either, granjura!

ANA , you obviously have not spoken with Mr N, he has spent the better part of the day watching the cricket ..

Hey ho , BLESS

True, ana! But it is quite inoffensive in the background, on the whole. So much better than screaming commentaries on football - in which, fortunately, Theseus doesn't evince any interest whatsoever.

Anyway, I digress. We are indeed nearly all descended from immigrants of some sort, and I think that is something worth remembering in this debate about NHS fees.

Yes Nonu, from the French speaking part of Switzerland. Came to London for 6 months in 1970 and spent the next 39 years in London, Staffs and later Leics. I qualified as a teacher as a mature student when our youngest went to school. Now we are both retired - fell in love with an old house here in my native mountains, and have lived here since 2009. Still visit the UK often, grandchildren in Surrey and a flat in Market Harborough, not far from were we lived.

Yes Ariadne, our grandchildren are a mix of 3 different races and 10 nationalities going back a few generations.

But surely, the NHS cannot be the health service of choice for the rest of the world, can it?

Thank you Granjura .

Well, it obviously is the health service of choice for at least a large proportion of the rest of the world!

A large proportion of seven billion people - no wonder the NHS can't cope!

Our NHS would be the service of choice for a large proportion of the rest of the world. Don't see what's funny about that...

Me neither !!!!!!!!!!Still some folk have a different take on things .

Ana - I take it you are assuming that the rest of the world envies our health service? Or is there some research? Of course, it is not an unreasonable assumption.

Sigh...