Category: politics

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RIP NHS & Great Britain

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-65167520

It is no secret that the Conservative Party have for decades, indeed, since inception, wanted to get rid of the NHS in exchange for a more profitable US style insurance system.

Under this incarnation of the Tories we are seeing it happen at an accelerated rate.

It is my believe that they saw the Covid19 pandemic as an opportunity not to be missed to weaken the service so much as to be near impossible to fix without an unaffordable investment.

The theory is simple, for years use a policy of austerity to freeze the wages of all those working in the NHS. It would take years to kick in but eventually staff would leave so much as to make the service collapse. They likely never considered that they could escalate the process. Then there was Covid!

Staff within the NHS were put under enormous pressure whilst still living on ever shrinking wages. As staff left, as inevitably they would, conditions for the remaining staff became unbearable. Now doing the work intended for several staff members.

Staff, therefore, left even quicker placing even more pressure on the service.

Within the NHS they worked out two key points which are vital to understand to comprehend the current union action. The most important point is knowing that salaries need to be attractive to encourage staff to join the NHS and, the second, not quite as important as the first, compensation for all the current remaining staff for the years they had their salaries cut to fun the government austerity policy.

So, this is not a simply case of already OK paid people demanding an unrealistic salary, it is about the very survival of the NHS so, of course the @Conservative Party want them desperately to lose this fight.

What do the Conservatives hope to gain from destroying the NHS?

Wealth for the UK. The NHS costs a huge amount of money (7% of the entire wealth we produce), money a government could funnel into tax cuts. Tax cuts buy votes, it keeps them in power. Many of the current Conservative MP’s have connections, some direct, others indirect with private health care companies whether it be by directorships or investments. They personally will gain from the uptake of private health care.

With the reduction of the NHS budget they will be able to afford a much less version of the NHS for the very poor only and, they get to define who the very poor are. Many of the elderly and sick will (sadly) die off reducing the burden on the basic health service, social care and benefits. It is an Utopian world where the Government remains in power by tax hand outs and reduces costs on the most needy giving them yet more money to spend on tax handouts.

What can they realistically achieve before a general election?

Division. Division seems to be their entire game plan for the next General Election. Whether it be immigration, crime attributed to race or striking workers crippling the country, it seems to be what they are going with. They have to really as they sure don’t want anyone analysing their 13 year long record of mismanagement!

Could an incoming Labour government repair the NHS?

Simple answer is, no. They won’t have the money to do it with unless they commit to record levels of borrowing. To do that assures they will be a one term government. As debt rises they will need to either radically increase growth, nigh on impossible since leaving the EU else, raise taxes.

Would they rejoin the EU?

Yes, if they have the balls for it! It is the only sensible thing to do. Nothing promised from Brexit, none of the benefits happened. I can tell you that Northampton still sounds just as Eastern European as it did prior to Brexit, there are just as many perceived ‘foreigners’. I added to it by marrying one so, I obviously support migration in both directions.

As has been seen by the utter disinterest of the US to strike a trade deal with the UK, we are just not significant any more on the world stage. Best this government can come with is some weird trade deal with countries like Peru. They cannot even come up with a single guaranteed benefit of that. It is all based on the vague possibility that some of those signed up to it might sort themselves out and offer as maybe 1% of what we lost when we left the EU.

Conclusion is simple. The NHS is near death and the government despite their protestations that they are investing millions extra in it, are letting it die. They are letting the situation of our country get desperate because desperate people go for desperate solutions, accept crazy reasons for why things are the way things are.

If the country comes together and votes in the next general election for whichever party will get this government out of office, the country will be all the better for it, we will all be the better for it.

In my area, only Labour can beat the Conservative MPs. Voting for anyone else leaves those MP’s with the chance of holding onto their seats.

To steal a line for yet another Idiotic ex World Leader, Donald J Trump and, corrupt it.

Let’s Make Britain Great Again … not that MBGA is particularly catchy and won’t look great on a hat.

Making us great again as we used to be and I mean, really used to be. That has nothing to do with immigration, nothing to do with striking workers, unmarried mothers, those on benefits, pensioners and so on. Those things ‘USED’ to be things we supported, encouraged even. We knew that we needed skilled workers and they had to be paid, we knew we needed a growing population to pay tax in later life and grow the economy. We were proud we had a system in place which supported us at some of our lowest times and, most preciously, we valued our elderly, our grandparents, great aunts and uncles. We didn’t treat them as an unaffordable burden on society.

Just think about it, if we start downgrading our elderly like we are, it’s our own future we are damaging. Likely, most of us will some day be elderly, why would we dare to dismantle the safeguard in place now so that there is nothing left when we are old? You think we’re not? You are wrong. When the government went along with the triple lock on pensions and awarded a 10% increase in pensions, there were calls across the country to scrap it, how could we afford such a huge increase when the country is in so much need? Last year, pensioners were left effectively worse off as pensions rose less than inflation. Then the government announces a scheme to get pensioners back to work, they’re retiring too early, they need to work more. Actually, they have more than one scheme for it. They are already pathing the way to abolish the state pension entirely. With the long term wishes of this government clear, there are people born today who will never get a state retirement pension and, if the pension can go, what chance then the NHS?

One final thing just popped up

Doesn’t our Prime Minister just look like a kid sending a pic to his mates saying:

“Hey guys, it’s me, at Madame Tussauds, look who I am meeting” @rishi

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Dictator

What makes a dictator?

Could anyone have seriously thought that in the 1930’s a tiny ex military man, not a very successful one at that, would take the world to war?

Would anyone have thought Ferdinand Marcos would have denied his citizens in the Philippines the right to an election?

No, no one thinks these things generally because they are not the sort of thing that happen in our country, whichever country we live in

Few have started out planning to cancel our democracy. They get to the point where their actions are such that giving up power and the protection which comes with it becomes too terrible to contemplate.

What is it which changes a democracy into a dictatorship?

It is the absolute belief that the need of the party is greater than the need of the nation. Though, the leader will always say they are taking measures to secure the needs of the nation and protecting them from the dreadful possibility of someone else coming to power and messing everything up.

How difficult is it to convince the nation that the others are so terrible that the incumbent has to stay in place?

Very easy indeed!

There is an expectation already in place that the leadership of the country are inherently going to work for the best interest of the country and, though we know they ‘all’ lie that these untruths are needed in the interest of national security.

Our current leader, Boris Johnson ( #boris ) is a typical Brit. Somewhat eccentric, a little barmy but, a loveable rogue and, says the many, that’s OK. He himself stated in an interview a few years back that the way he operates is to create so many stories, so many scandals that it becomes difficult to keep up with it. During the confusion he can do just about anything he wants as the people can no longer tell the truth from the lies.

Almost since Parliament began has been a thing called the parliamentary code. It is a rule developed to ensure that when a minister lies, they must resign. It forces a certain standard. The minister has always had the option to decline an answer and, indeed, to step around the question on the basis of National Security as Margaret Thatcher often did during the Falklands war. But, that code of honour was there to protect us from a minister, even a Prime Minister who would seek to subvert truth for their own personal gain. Boris Johnson, this Prime Minister has done this, he has lied to parliament. 

Any other minister would have been honourable, held their hands up and resigned but this is not how the current resident of Number 10 Downing Street thinks.

What he has done is to change those rules. He can now not be investigated unless he approves it and when he is found guilty of lying to parliament, it is him who decides the punishment which is no longer resignation, it can be as basic as an apology much like all those he has issued with regard to the parties he attended.

When a person in power starts stripping away the safeguards which could stop them being in power it is a fast downward slope. His party have already been changing electoral boundaries to make it more likely their own candidates will win in a General Election. But, there remains still the chance that the people might still find a way to rise against that.

With the war in the Ukraine raging said to last another maybe even two years, I can hear it now. Boris announces that in the interest of effective government at a time of international instability, he has suspended the general election until further notice and yes, he has that power.

Let me have this little bet with you …

In two years time the Government of this United Kingdom will announce exactly that. In the interests of National Security at a time of International instability, elections are hereby terminated.

That is then ‘it’, we are no longer a democracy. The Conservative Party have an 80 seat majority and will be able to pass any law they like unchallenged in any meaningful way.

That is my little bet with you, there will not be a General Election in two years time. If I am wrong I will resign apologise

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Who would be Queen?

Camilla

Camilla

I respect that the current Queen has the right to an opinion but, to go against the general feeling of the country, is that OK?

It is the problem with not having a constitution and just going by the way we’ve always done it, there really are no hard and fast rules to dictate what is right and the will of the people and what is wrong and not the will of the people because, what we think does matter even though the monarchy is not a democracy.

Many of us will feel that it sets a terrible example where the next monarch so openly had an affair throughout his marriage and then goes onto become the head of a Church which still says divorce is wrong and adultery is a sin. To be in charge of that one must at least give the impression of being squeaky clean.

We were all but promised when Diana died that Camilla would never be Queen and yet, here we are.

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They make the rules but, they don’t follow them

What do we do?

We know there is a pandemic, that means that every country on this planet lives with Covid, no country is unique, no country has got rid of it.

We do not need a government to tell us these things unless we really are that obsessed with fake news.

However, to keep safe we have to be advised on what keeps us safe and what makes no difference.

Shall we look at those measures and examine them, no fake news just common sense?

  • Face masks? Ask yourself this, pandemic aside, would you feel comfortable going to a dentist if they didn’t wear a mask or, would you be happy if you were wheeled into an operating theatre and none of the nurses or surgeons were wearing a mask? Did you ever see any surgeon anywhere who was not wearing a mask? If they didn’t work against virus and other nasties, why do we expect them to be worn, why is that just ‘normal’? So, it stands to reason, that it is common sense that wearing a mask during a pandemic makes sense.
  • Vaccinations, do they work? A little history, smallpox … we don’t have this horrible illness in the UK now because we have a vaccine against it. Other countries which do not vaccinate against it still has smallpox. Likewise, measles, mumps and rubella, none of those are life threatening in the UK yet, they are in countries which don’t have the vaccines given automatically to the majority of us as children. In short, if enough people have it and there is a critical mass of people who have to have it, they just work. Even if we are suicidal or believe we are so healthy we do not need the vaccine, it protects others amongst us that might actually become seriously ill from a virus or, indeed, prevents death and, we don’t know who those people are, we might think we do but, we really don’t. To make matters worse, the people who might become ill or die don’t know it’s them. How can that be? Because people who think they’re healthy don’t go see a doctor, we have no routine testing for otherwise healthy people. There are mates who might have a heart condition, they don’t know they do but, there it is. These ‘healthy’ people get covid and then, they’re dead, a statistic. Some have lung problems they don’t know they do but perhaps their parents were heavy smokers and they still live at home, don’t smoke themselves but, their lungs are damaged. They’re just 18, crazy healthy, play football at weekends, can stay up all night clubbing but, their lungs are damaged and the first thing covid attacks are the lungs, they die. It’s not just about you nan of the old bloke in Primark. We can all understand the argument there, they’re old so they are going to die soon so, what difference does it make … well, stop thinking about them. It’s your brother, sister, best friends of your teenage children.
  • Vaccine risks, what about that? Every vaccine in some very rare cases has some bad side effects which might in even more rare occasions, lead to death. Your argument here is that you are never going to put yourself at risk of death regardless of the low risk because you are more sensible than that except that … all these things are many more likely of causing death than any vaccination and yet, how many of them apply to you? Smoking, using a car, crossing the road, standing on a ladder, unprotected sex, binge drinking, using cannabis, using any other ‘recreational’ drug … do you need more to find one or two which apply to you? All that which you accept as an OK risk but, you won’t take a vaccine which can save your life or the life of someone you care about.
  • Vaccine passport, that’s just too much control isn’t it? When it comes to things which can kill we are surely used to quite evasive measures to prevent such things before getting into a club are we not? Do they use scanners? Do they look in bags? Do they pat people down to check for weapons? Do they ask for proof of age at all? So, all those things to keep you and me safe, they’re just part of going to such places and we accept that don’t we? Can we go clubbing in Ibiza without having a passport? So, why are you really making an argument about showing a covid vaccine? Are you the sort of person who still refuses to wear a seatbelt in a car because it takes away your life choices? Do you still smoke in the pub despite knowing it’s illegal? If you are doing both those things still then, you are that sort of people who will ignore all common sense to shove it to the man. Hmm.

Because we know now that the Government has not been following the rules they have told us we have to follow, how do we behave now?

The Prince caused an accident, he was a figurehead of the country, part of the system. Was he wearing a seat belt?

If you get angry that a seat belt wasn’t worn do you stop wearing one? Maybe you are ‘that’ person who would do exactly that, I don’t know. I would love to think most people would never now be persuaded to not wear a belt because they know it isn’t just their safety but it’s the safety of all our mates in our car or our kids in their car seats … it’s a happy coincidence that it might also save the life of someone we care about in another car.

So, what is the difference between wearing that seat belt and abiding by all the common sense things we looked at earlier? Most if not all of those now we are doing because, it’s just ‘right’ to do it, I can but hope I have shown you that in what I wrote earlier.

Let’s not allow our decisions to be drawn down into the abys by those who have less standards than we do.

Fake news … to show how easy it is to fall for a compelling argument even though it’s totally untrue, I lied, the prince was wearing a seatbelt. As Boris openly admitted in an interview and, this is 100% honest, now and then someone needs to lie to get people to do the right thing. He was referring to a bus advertising £350million day which he knew was a lie but said it was important to get people to vote leave.

Be you, don’t be daft and become them because they annoy you. Because they were wrong on that doesn’t mean that the science is wrong.