Cameron's Christmas message

Somehow it rarely is for your average common or garden socialist though, especially those who aspire to the political heights.

It was a complicated arrangement rosequartz, involving a substantial amount of money, property and so on, so clearly worth the complications!! but perfectly legal, and for the purposes of protecting family finances, very sensible. Just a bit surprising bearing in mind that TB always gave the impression of vehement disaproval of these sort of tactics in other people, particularly the evil Tories. Oh well, once again, 'don't do as I do' etc!!!
Heavens, who can it be, this monster terrorising residential homes?!! My money is on Letwin, could be all three of course working in shifts!!!!!

Caroline Benn died before Tony
I think everyone knows that

Besides, if his family's wealth came from his wife's side, perhaps he felt it would be unfair of him to cause them to lose out because of inheritance tax, and left it to his wife.

I don't think the above means 'he left his money to his wife', I took it to mean that Tony left the management of her own money to his wife Caroline whilst she was alive and left her to decide what to do re any inheritance etc. Presumably he may have inherited from her, I don't know. That's their business as long as everything was done legally.

Perfectly plain to me (although it could be misread by those who wish to misconstrue it I suppose).

I didn't wish to misconstrue it , I took it as it was written - he left it to his wife, we were discussing his money and his will . If I do make an error in reading a post it is that -an error not a choice

Rosequartz Cairns? Are you in Australia?
Where do you get your "Welsh patients being sent over the border in droves" etc from. Sounds suspiciously like Cameron's attacks on NHS Wales during the election campaign.
There are a lot of differences between NHS England and NHS Wales but here in Wales you don't here a lot of complaints about it being worse. Things are managed differently - we don't have Trusts which can lead to several hospitals in an area competing or duplicating. The administrative areas are larger. We have more poverty so the demographic of patients and their disease patterns is a bit different to England. Most people seem heartily relieved that the Labour government in Cardiff gives us a little protection from Westminster policies.
And no, I don't have any relatives in the upper echelons of any part of the public sector. But I do know that in all walks of life you can find staff members criticising "the management". Unless you have strong management in the NHS there is going to be chaos. Particularly in the current very challenging circumstances.

The Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board isn't much praised in my neck of the woods - it was put into special measures in June.

I certainly haven't heard anyone complaining about health treatment in Wales , I accept there will be tories who will claim such nonsense but it's just support for Cameron's lies . Anne Clwyd did complain but her complaint was of the treatment her husband received from the nursing staff in that hospital.

I don't even know anyone from Wales who has been in an English hospital. I have a very large extended family and sadly some have poor health, two nephews who are haemophiliac have always had great care, sister with Parkinson's the same, just a few weeks ago another sister had a heart attack, ambulance turned up quickly, she was admitted to hospital , few hours later a second attack, whisked off to a larger hospital and was in theatre that same evening - a Saturday . Will not bore with anymore ailments but we have good health care in Wales and people are not crossing the border in droves

They probably don't have a choice.

Rosequartz Cairns? Are you in Australia?
Where do you get your "Welsh patients being sent over the border in droves" etc from. Sounds suspiciously like Cameron's attacks on NHS Wales during the election campaign.

No, not now, and only some of the time in answer to the first question, but I like to keep up with the news as friends and family are there.
The health care there is very expensive, no NHS.

2nd question - from the GP (go private if you can), from the BBC local news, from friends (wonderful service across the border in England so they say!) and from my own family, some of whom live across the border and are full of praise for the service they have received in England from the NHS. Sadly, some Welsh patients have to be sent to a private hospital in England to receive treatment - but at least the Welsh NHS pays for that for them. A pre-booked delivery having to be ambulanced to Bath because there was no room in The Heath?
These are only the ones I have heard about.

Don't have a direct line to Cameron in fact and have no idea what he said about the Welsh NHS.
And if you could access the Welsh/West news on BBC (surely not biased?) you might hear something about the crises too.

Most people seem heartily relieved that the Labour government in Cardiff gives us a little protection from Westminster policies.
Perhaps that is 'most people you know' as it is not 'most people I know'. It is all subjective, isn't it.

from friends (wonderful service across the border in England so they say!)
To clarify - from friends in Wales who were sent to England for treatment because the waiting list in Wales was years for an operation performed in England within a couple of months.

Sorry, but that is how it is here, call a spade a shovel as the Australians say.

I don't even know anyone from Wales who has been in an English hospital.

Perhaps not where you live, perhaps it is better run there.

As I said, it's not likely patients would be given a choice if they live in Wales. 'Would you prefer to be treated in England, Mrs ABC?'

Hardly likely.

I am speaking of three separate counties rosequartz

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34834830
www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/12030391.450_Gwent_operations_carried_out_in_England_to_cut_waiting_lists/

South Wales Argus: (November 2015)

HUNDREDS of Gwent patients have had cataract and orthopaedic operations in Bristol since January, as health board chiefs battle to reduce long delays for surgery.
And the treatment exodus is set to continue in 2015/16, to try to reverse a rise in the number of patients waiting more than 36 weeks from referral to treatment that has gone almost unchecked for a year.
To date 399 Gwent patients - 168 requiring orthopaedic surgery and 231 needing cataracts removed - have gone to an NHS treatment centre in Bristol run by independent provider Care UK.
This followed Welsh Government approval late last December for 450 cataract and orthopaedic procedures for Gwent patients to be carried out across the Severn Bridge. The exact cost has not been revealed, but the bill will have run into several hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Long waiting times for orthopaedic surgery are a problem across Wales, but the situation is particularly acute in Gwent where the number of patients waiting longer than 36 weeks rose by more than 500 per cent during the year to January.

^The Welsh NHS is paying for some cardiac patients to be treated at a private clinic in Bristol to reduce the waiting list, it has emerged.
It comes as surgeons in Wales say they are still waiting for answers over what is being done about heart patients dying while waiting for operations.^
The Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) wrote to Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) in July last year.

All made up by David Cameron of course.

I am speaking of three separate counties rosequartz

Fair enough anniebach, so is it right to lump the whole of NHS England into one basket when criticising it?

I accept there will be tories who will claim such nonsense but it's just support for Cameron's lies

I have never said I am a Tory, and I don't know why Cameron should have to lie when the evidence is there before our eyes.

They are getting treatment free, it is well known Wales has always had a problem with getting doctors because of the poverty there is more Ill health and doctors don't want to live and work in those areas , not the fault of the Assembly and it is wrong to present it as such , Wales had doctors from overseas long before England.

The South Wales Argus is an American owned newspaper and for some years has been printed in Oxford !

I don't know why doctors don't want to live here, it's nice enough for most of us! Not everywhere is poverty-stricken with bad health. The same would apply to England too!

Yes, they are getting treatment free, no argument about that, in most cases - in England! That's the point.
(although it does seem to be routine now for the GP to ask everyone if they can go privately)

The South Wales Argus is an American owned newspaper and for some years has been printed in Oxford

And your point is?
Oh, I forget, there seems to be something going on about Oxfordshire on threads that I can't pick up on (perhaps a bit slow). My paternal family came from Oxfordshire so I would like to know what it is that is so strange about Oxfordshire.
Sorry, should have found a link from the Daily Mail or the Sun, I am sure there must be one if I look online [sigh]

Does the South Wales Argus print lies, then, just because it's American-owned and printed in Oxford? How odd...

There's plenty of information online about the state of the NHS in North Wales, but I suppose you're not bothered about that part of the country, Anniebach.

I was the one who speculated as to T Benn's reasons for only paying what tax he was legally obliged to pay rather than more than that. And I didn't know at the time of that speculation that Caroline Benn died before him. Obviously, or I wouldn't have speculated thus

I didn't know what his wife's name was either, or even whether he had a wife. I knew he had some kids. I think. One doesn't actually need a wife to father kids.

ANYWAY (not shouting, just emphasising), my point was that he paid what the law said he had to pay, like any decent, law-abiding person. How many of you have ever volntarily paid more tax than you had to pay? Come on. Own up.

Anyone? .....

What? No-one! How shocking!

Have you got the idea yet? It's tax LAW that's at fault most of the time if not always.

Got it Ana! David Cameron has a private old-fashioned printing press in his back bedroom in his Oxfordshire house, he has a private secretary (paid for out of our taxes ) churning out copies of the South Wales Argus and distributing them surreptitiously to the poor gullible fools in South Wales.

They try to read them while they're waiting in the GP's surgery, only to be told they can't have a cataract operation for 3 years unless they go to England, in which case they can be 'done' in two months, then they can go home and read the South Wales Argus properly!

Meanwhile those people within the 'special measures' Health Board jurisdiction have to mortgage their hovels to cross the border to England (unless they die on the way of course...)

Sorry, back to TAXES