buctootim

Its not the NHS which is the problem - its the cost of healthcare increasing as better medicine enables people to live longer, but live longer with more illnesses which need to be treated. Its not an NHS issue, its a developed world issue.

How does that work? How will more weekend staffing reduce bed blocking? Having most elective work done during the week gives economies of scale and reduces anti social hours payments. If you start re-rostering to have clinics at the weekends you will increase costs (anti social hours payments, additional receptionists, record clerks, medical secretaries etc) for no additional capacity and reduce medical cover during the week.

When I used to commute a paper and a coffee was the best part of the journey. Peering at a phone isnt the same.

Depends how you measure things. Total spend in real terms is very slightly up, spend as a % of GDP is slightly down. The real problem is increasing demand year after year, mainly because people are living longer but the number of healthy years they are alive isnt increasing - so you have more sick old people to look after. Therefore the amount of money available per patient has declined significantly.

The managers are tasked with making sure the hospital operates smoothly and cost effectively, the doctors are tasked with patient care. The problem tbh is that managers dont know enough about the medical or surgical details to know for sure when doctors tell you something cant be done for patient safety reasons whether they really mean it, or its because they dont want to do it.

Amazing what you turn up when reading about the NHS. George Osbourne's brother has been struck off as a psychiatrist for sleeping with a vulnerable patient. The best part is that in he married a muslim, converted and changed his name to Mohammed and in 2010 was warned for dodgy prescriptions to a crack addicted prostitute. Colourful family! http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/feb/11/george-osborne-brother-adam-struck-off-psychiatrist-affair-with-patient-medical-tribunal

I admit I haven't followed the dispute closely. However from what I understand Hunt wants to increase the amount of weekend working by junior doctors whilst paying them slightly less as an overall package than they get at the moment - so they would be working more unsocial hours for less money. The driver for this is the supposed excess death rate at the weekends - but this has been debunked. People who were already in hospital dont have a higher death rate only those who are admitted. Hunt says this shows you need more junior doctors at work at the weekends but analysis of the numbers show the rates are inflated by the fact that largely only emergencies are admitted at weekends compared with a mix of emergencies and electives during the week - ie weekend admissions are sicker. So work more unsocial hours for less money because of a flawed rationale seems to be it.

Chandlers Ford?

People tend to not to like having their view of the world challenged because it causes them to doubt the things they do and believe in. Its mentally more comfortable to dismiss contrary opinions as stupid or mad than to change your beliefs, particulalrly for older people. Its known as cognitive dissonance, and there is an association between higher levels of cognitive dissonance and lower intelligence - so ironically the thick are more likely to accuse you of being thick because you have a different view to them.

...

If he thought him running would lead to Trump being elected I dont think he'd enter the race.

He funds the charity I work for and also helped the previous one with infrastructure support. My boss in the US has been telling him he should run but he doesn't seem to have much of an ego and enjoys his role as a philanthropist. Interested in oceans, climate change, women, democracy, public health. Used to be a Republican, but you'd never know it to talk to him. A rich guy interested in the world and helping people. If he entered the race I think he could win it - he could appeal to both parties middle ground, especially if the options were Trump and Sanders . As you say, tough as an independent though - and how much could he achieve without Congress behind him? That could put him off imo, from what little I know of him he seems to like a very lean decision making process - not the kind of endless persuasion being President would entail. He's friendly with the Clintons so maybe hes waiting to see how things unfold there first.

This. Also its just ****ing rude disturbing other peoples view of the game.

cutlass

Imagine if they had never changed their name from Swaythling - the humiliation of being the same divsion as a Scummer suburb. .

I had no idea Bernie Sanders had a British brother who stood as a Green MP in Oxford. Bernie credits his brother Larry with shaping his politics. http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/30/bernie-larry-sanders-brothers-us-uk-politics

He smoked a Gauloise while typing it.

Because the far ends of the spectrum are the only possible choices?

I agree the YouGov narrative summarising the findings is slack and a little misleading. That doesn't necessarily affect the findings of the research though, which I think most knew instinctively anyway. By balance I mean party political balance. That should have no impact on constraining investigative journalism into issues such as Wikileaks, child abuse, MPs expenses or WMD. Nor do I think you need balance in every piece. Thought provoking writing or broadcasting, exposing the reader to new ideas or angles is what good journalism is all about. For me competing views expressed in the same paper / programme / site - as long as they are backed by fact - is the ideal. Thats something I think the Times achieved for a while, up till a few years ago. PJ O'Rouke is one of my favourites - an excellent, funny thumbnail portrait of the US election is on the BBC site right here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35521558 Intuitively you'd expect the internet to have delivered a much better informed electorate given the much greater plurality of information sources sources available. It doesn't seem to have happened though. There has been an explosion of opinion but a reduction in carefully researched and cross referenced journalism as budgets have fallen. Control of information flow and public opinion seems as secure in countries like Russia as it was 30 years ago.

Bernie Sanders is doing far better than expected and Clinton has been feeling the pressure. It seems she expected to pick up far more support from women as she attempts to be the first woman President. It hasnt panned out that way and two prominent supporters prominent supporters demonstrated a very weird take on feminism at the weekend. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright remarked on Saturday at a Clinton rally that “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other,” as Clinton stood nearby and clapped. This followed nationally known feminist Gloria Steinem’s comment that young women liked Bernie Sanders because “the boys are with Bernie.” There is quite a reaction against those comments http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/08/us/politics/gloria-steinem-madeleine-albright-hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders.html?_r=0 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/08/nobody-involved-in-the-madeleine-albright-gloria-steinem-hillary-clinton-flap-has-much-to-be-proud-of/ http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/07/hillary-is-confused-about-feminism-bernie-supporters-say.html

Apologies. Verbal likes to snipe and condescend. It isnt helpful to rise to it.

Good post. A pick and mix approach to policies, issues and parties is also important for democracy. Floating voters are a bulwark against extremism.

I thought that was Clegg at first. Perhaps they've morphed, when was the last time anyone saw them in a room together?

You seem to have lost the ability to understand fairly straight forward research in your race to be right and uniquely insightful. The YouGov questions ask respondents about 'the media, not 'the press'. Im more interested in the press because that is where the most obvious lack of balance is.

cards