Off Topic Political Debate

French system is IMO excellent. Ours is too we just must be prepared to not only pay for it but invest in it. If we can invest in Trident I would have thought NHS was just as important

 

I like having the NHS free at the point of use. If a person has to pay for an appointment, first it hits the poor primarily and secondly it makes a person consider whether they can afford to be ill. If it weren't fo brexit the NHS would be the key subject for discussion.
Soon it will have to be completely re-thought out.
Taxation must increase to pay for it. We need to also look at how efficient it is and can be. It must stay free at the point of use - and dentistry should be brought back into the same category. We also need tolook at how it dovetails with othe rhealth and social care services.

 

You're right. On the dentistry I changed from Denplan back to NHS out of principal just recently. Its noticeable how the treatment differs, the NHS dentist seems to want to do as many fillings as possible to maximize his revenue. They also bring cost into the equation for folk deciding whether to have a filling or extraction, the extraction being the much cheaper option which has to be wrong it could cause some people to lose teeth unnecessarily because they cant afford their contribution on the filling...

 

Add opticians to that. Genuinely, this was not a choice people have made, to be long-sighted, short-sighted, whatever. We need to make sure people (even with 20:20) go regularly for the health checkups that are also part of opticians' care.

 

Francois Fillon, the Republican Party candidate for the French presidency is under investigation into embezzlement and abuse of public funds. It follows claims that he helped swindle 500,000 euros out of the state by pretending that his self style "housewife" had also been assisting her husband as a parliamentary attachee for almost 10 years. His wife said last year "until now, I had never been involved in the political life of my husband"

Oh dear, they should have got their stories to match!!

Only in France would a candidate facing such a serious investigation not drop out until his name was cleared. It seems that most French politicians have been accused of misappropriating public funds at some time or other.

The standard of UK politics is much higher than we ever gave it credit for compared to other nations.

 

This was a line in a play I saw once:
"It's like wondering which tastes better - cat **** or dog ****."

 

I was looking through stuff I'd randomly bookmarked and came across this article. It's from 2014 but had this paragraph that I found quite interesting

https://newleftreview.org/II/87/wolfgang-streeck-how-will-capitalism-end

It's not you Cologne is it?

 

Bit depressing that people on the intellectual left always come up with long long texts which only the initiated will ever read through to the end. Enough to say that advanced capitalism and democracy are incompatible. The former used the other only as a means to secure the necessary mobility of capital and labour.

 

True, that was not the easiest read, the font didn't help either.

Silicon Valley billionaires are buying up islands in New Zealand, Hawaii, basically places where they'd be safe if everything goes wrong...

Canary in the mine? (not you Dave )

 

Just looked at the tab and realised I still had about 4 paragraphs left

 

After 40 years of Conservatives squabbling about Europe it was delightful to see all but one MP unite with a common policy to invoke article 50.
It is now the Labour Party that is seriously split down the middle. Although most Labour MP's joined the leadership to support the government a minority disobeyed Corbyn. Some shadow cabinet ministers will be sacked. They already cannot find enough candidates to fill the shadow positions. Corbyn also had another bad day at PMQ's. He makes the PM looks increasingly statesmanlike.

 

This is the problem with your postings SH. Just Tory Hq soundbites that invite opposition. I am saddened by what is Happening to some people who have been damaged by the negativity this thread nurtures I hope we can move on from this sort of posting. I would rather have my old 606 message board friends come back if it came to it and close down this limited discussion. If it carries on like this you will be last man standing..

 

Yorkie, if he is the last man standing he'll think he's won.

 

I can respect a man who believes in one Goad...but an endless number of them?

 

What it meant was that a significant number of Labour MPs voted according to their conscience, and defied a whip. Voted according to what they think is the best (or least destructive) course for Britain to take - representing their constituencies at the same time. If I'm not mistaken SH. that is what we pay MPs to do.

 

There is nothing wrong with my postings, I could quite easily criticise much of what you post but I have better manners than you. If you don't like it stay off the thread. There are loads of anti Tory posts and cartoons which you are quite happy to agree with or just ignore. Most of my views are the same as the majority in the UK. I'm quite happy to be the last poster.

 

The main two political parties disagree with your view. They believe the MP's should respect the will of the people and vote according to the decision of the referendum. Even the Lib Dems had two of the nine MP's abstain.
The vote was overwhelming in respecting the people so good democracy at work.

 

You might like to reread some of your postings SH. before pointing the finger elsewhere. You have managed to insult or belittle at least 8 posters on here - including one recently which went well beyond all 'manners', and for which I have seen no sign of remorse on your side.

 

You would do well to look back at some of your insulting postings, hopefully you can behave better in future.

 

I have only ever reacted SH. which you know as well as anyone else. You are trying to provoke now.....but it will not work. Just about every second post of yours has nothing other than the intention of provoking a response from someone - why do you do it ? Attention seeking or what ?