pap

Many of our services are provided through private entities, so I'm entirely unsurprised to see that Canada has more private saturation, what with its vicinity to those market-seeking companies to the South. FWIW, though, I really don't agree that private provision is the way to go. The private sector isn't inherently more efficient than the public sector, even if that has been "true" in practice. This country has just been very poorly managed for decades, the idea of NHS as a burden has been allowed to germinate, and been entirely watered by the Conservative-led government, as I predicted it would be four years ago. Continual stories about some failing NHS institution or another, with the eventual charge of the "inherently efficient" private sector. It's the same old trick they do with every public thing they want to sell. De-fund it, creating problems that show the institutions to be dysfunctional and actually cost more dosh (agency nurses, etc) than funding it in the first place would have cost, creating budgetary black-holes that add further weight to the argument that it should be sold off. People fall for it every time.

Completely agree, and I think people underestimate the amount of soft power it confers on a nation. Countries living to those principles are well perceived by others. I've seen a lot of southern US jaws drop when I tell them how our system works. Most of them think its amazing. Going back to the idea of having employers do healthcare, that happens a lot in the US, and my belief is that it is ultimately counter-productive. Many of these firms operate their redundancy policies on a seniority basis, so you end up with an unproductive aging workforce, slow to understand new processes and technology, hanging on for dear life because they know they're knackered without their health plan. Of course, many of these people will have developed age-related health conditions, so the policies get used and the premiums go up.

You are on here all day. You have the time to qualify your points. Canada.

Sorry, WG. You were talking nonsense then and you are now trying to justify yourself after the fact with quibbles about implementation. It is the principles behind the NHS that people cherish, the notion that we won't leave someone to suffer or die on the basis of his or her net worth.

My plan for solving nearly everything. 1) Nice-hearted types in the South should move to the North 2) Callous f**kers living in the North to migrate south. 3) Both regions to declare independence. 4) North waits a few years for the South to rip each other to f**king pieces, eventually literally. 5) South repopulated by aforementioned nice-hearted types. 6) Large f**k off national reunion party with plenty of ganja. House prices, overpopulation, the demand on services, the general hostility of man. All sorted within 10 years

I believe that is about the size of it. Or governments. Radical idea, I know - but I reckon it'd be easier to get businesses to pay tax so that governments can fund a health service. Has that been tried before? It would cater for the long-term sick or disabled that Jeff's universal employer care scheme will never cover.

For your own sake, stop f**king posting until you can bother to check the accuracy of the claims you're making. Finding another country with free at the point of use healthcare is not f**king hard.

So basically, "f**k you Hockey. I'd rather you died than I paid for you". A solid bed of c**ts. No offence, UJ.

Yeah, thanks for the clarification. I don't agree. Where does the image say Black Wednesday caused a recession? As I recall, Black Wednesday was partially the result of a recession, the Tories having mismanaged finances so bad that the UK was no longer fit to be a member of the ERM. On the second point about Labour's involvement in the last financial crisis. No-one is rolling around with wheelbarrows of cash to pay for loaves of bread. The one time it looked like we'd have a run on a bank, it was addressed by nationalising the problem institutions. It seems we have different ideas about what "the worst of it" entails. What did Labour do wrong, apart from prop up a private sector industry with public sector cash? Finally, the idea that austerity is a way out of recession is absurd, at least in this day and age and especially with this particular implementation. The government has borrowed more, yet people are getting less. We have lost the economic activity of millions because they've not got a pot to píss in. The only people benefiting from austerity are the money lenders and banks that are making up the difference in cost of living, and it was the greed of those capitalist f**kers (along with light touch regulation) that got us into the mess we were in back in 2007. I come on here to read people's personal opinions. Let's have a bit more of that, and a bit less of the regurgitated soundbites you're serving up for dinner here.

Yeah, that's what we did before. Lot of people killed each other for no good reason. Do you have any points applicable to civilised societies?

Same question to you that Tokes got. Which bits do you dispute?

Look, all I'm trying to say is that if you vote Tory, you're either doing it out of self-interest (rich) or hatred of your fellow man because you're a stupid grasping c**t in love with ideological rapists, murderers, thieves and vandals (poor Tory voter). Hyperbole? Where?

Let me spin this back on you. Which bits do you dispute?

Despite his protests, he probably will. Though Conservative voters fall largely into two camps, those who have a lot of money and want to keep it and those who have considerably less money but see voting Tory as some kind of aspirational achievement, bletch's example from the fictional world does it for me. A solid bed of c**ts. People who, when it comes down to it, don't give a flying f**k if others starve or die.

Only if you like the Tories. I appreciate this thread must be hard for all of you, having awkward bastards like me hold a light up to the Conservatives' shocking activities. Y'know, the ones that are pushing people into poverty, sickness and death (or any combination of the above).

Not going to embed as quite rude. http://nocomments.uk/content/pap/ids.png

Not if it's the starting pistol to a race to the bottom. One thing that you're perhaps taking for granted is how favourable the UK already is to any company wanting to do business. Leaving aside the huge giveaways to the likes of Vodafone and Barclays, one can move about freely with no real threat to life and limb. The multi-national I work for has sites around the world where you need bodyguards to get from the airport to the facility.

Corporation tax is part and parcel of running a business. No-one is forcing these people to go into business for themselves, and the tax sits lower than it has for a while. If business owners are having difficulty finding customers, I'd suggest that is a lot more to do with the distribution of wealth in the economy. What would you rather have? An elite of the rich holding onto the vast resources they've accumulated, actively lobbying to ensure they get more, or millions of people with disposable income, all contributing to the economy?

More money for dividends. HTH.

Depends on the person and amount of free time, I reckon. I didn't spend four months in 1997 poring over printouts of Tekken 2 move-lists just to button-bash

Baby bro is looking forward to this. The last Mortal Kombat game was very good, too.

I suspect the big point of difference is how much of other posters' personalities are comprised of jingoism and nationalism, in comparison to your own. I didn't want England to lose, but I was very happy for Pelle to get on the scoring sheet. Mind you, it's been a long time since England have reflected what I like about our national character. Difficult to get too excited about the likes of John Terry or Wayne Rooney. And that's a fair point, but he hasn't been far off lately. Maybe this'll end up feeding some good performances back into Saints. Deft header.

The nerd in me likes this one:- http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/1/8324661/microsoft-ms-dos-april-fools-joke