Government Watch - 2

I am sorry to say this, but it seems to me that the UK is already a smaller, meaner, nastier country than it was even two years ago, and if the worst happens and the brexiters have their way, we will rue the day that we threw away our heritage -because a guillible minority of the population were fooled and deluded on one day last year.

Spot on varian

Quite right Varian
But what can we say about all those people completely taken in with the rhetoric and lies? Sometimes I just despair.

varian what a good post! I so much feel like that

There was a time, and right now I can't remember how long ago it was, when I felt very proud to be British.

We were a democracy. We had free education, right up to university level. The NHS provided a wonderful heath service free at the point of need. We had an unarmed police force, and there was a sense of decency and fairness.

All that mattered more to me than the fact that the UK was an important country in the world, but I felt proud that we had moved on from our colonial past to develop a good relationship with our former colonies.

I really was proud and grateful to have been born British.

I wish I could still feel like that.

Our politicians have let us down. They have stepped back from their role as leaders and become docile followers of the right-wing foreign billionaire newspaper proprietors who control the gutter press and manipulate public opinion.

We are no longer a free country.

Of course, while we are more concerned about Brexit, the NHS is collapsing.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/17/brexit-nhs-collapse-nurses-leave-flu-epidemic-hospitals

111 worked for me years ago, but that was when Durham was trialling it.
Last year when I broke my wrist, my son rang 111. He was told to ring the surgery, who just said they would send me to A&E so ring them. He rang the nearest who said they had no xray facility after 5 pm, and told us to go to the main one, but there was no paperwork or anything to say that's what we had done.
I wonder what would happen now. Would I be sent back home to ask the GP for a letter?

'They have to go through 111 or their GPs'. Don't people often go to A&E because they can't get doctors appointments. And, isn't 111 pretty bad? [don't quote me on this but I'm sure I've heard people in the medical profession say so].

Interesting article here: Is world-leading NHS healthcare an affordable proposition?

The introduction says:

The unquestioned assertion that a highly developed currency-issuing nation cannot afford high quality healthcare [1] is based upon a set of inter-related and almost universally-held false assumptions:

Money is in limited supply (as there is no ‘magic money tree’).
Taxes fund government spending.
Private banks lend out pre-existing savings.
NHS spending is a burden on the economy rather than a boost to the economy.

Well explained and covering areas we have discussed on here before such as economic churn - although they use the gentler 'flow', and a good explanation of 'good' taxation.

It's really good to see the myths of free-market capitalism challenged - as they are being more and more.

These are probably only experts though and you know how they are no good at all!!!

Wouldn’t it be such a relief?

OECD latest UK economic survey is out and is saying a second referendum that reversed the leave vote would have a positive and significant impact on the UK economy which, it says, is on track to be crippled by its EU divorce.

Just listening to a bit about the Homelessness Reduction Act - even its name is worrying. Does the shipping out of the homeless by giving them a one way ticked to 'elsewhere' remind anyone else of sending children to the colonies? It sounds an appalling way to threat people.

This is very worrying.

www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb-kills-panama-papers-journalist

I've just been reading this. We are fast becoming a police state.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/15597078.Revealed__how_Police_Scotland_treated_a_political_activist_like_a_terrorist/?ref=mr&lp=2

We have to get our laughs where we can with the NHS, Jess.

Have you heard that Hunt wants A&Es to refuse access to people who just arrive there.
They have to go through 111 or their GPs. That's real emergency isn't it? It'll kill a few thousand off a month, which should make the NHS more affordable - until people catch on and start listening to what some groups like KONP have been saying for years.

How long does it take you to see your GP?

Yes that gave me a LOL DJ

This is brilliant. The comment is "Today I met the man who encouraged me to join Labour and campaign in the general election."

NHS changes, again. Maybe the government thinks this is a good way to reduce the population.

This is brilliant.

www.disabilitynewsservice.com/dpac-shortlisted-for-human-rights-award-after-parliament-direct-action/

DPAC could get a human rights award for demonstrating against the government in the House of Commons.
You couldn't make it up. Unless it's been on The Thick of It already.

Still three years to go, GracesGran.

kittysjones.wordpress.com/2017/10/01/jeremy-corbyns-greatest-success-is-the-discrediting-of-neoliberalism/

Discuss with relation to the mess the Tories are making of our economy now.
Why is there not a penalty for any politician who tells lies?

When the government use the term "increased funding" they mean they have given more money to schools or NHS - but not enough to cover their rising costs. Simple example: teachers get an increment every year, so if the increased funding to a school is less than the increased salary bill, then the school is worse off and has to make cuts. And most of their money is spent on staff, so staff cuts...

Cockroaches, rats, and filthy cells. Insufficient clothing with prisoners without underwear and day wear. Spend enormous amounts of time locked up without any or minimal remedial care.
Sounds very Victorian to me petra

Briefing for November 2017 Budget: Incomes not keeping up with prices Suggestions from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation