It's been going on a long while. I had a frozen shoulder ( unable to move it) I was referred ( and quickly...this was about 2012 though) to a medical facility on industrial estate near High Wycombe where a doctors gave me a steroid injection in my shoulder. Worked brilliant It was outsourced..and obviously paid for by the NHS...but this firm at least used their own property. I believe it was a commercial sports injury firm.
Would banning people from private work for 5/7 years make any difference? I don't think there's a large private demand for F1s and junior registrars. Take private wards and practice away from some of the bigger hospitals (Imperial, Newcastle, The Christie etc etc) and they would have huge budget holes. I'd flip it on it's head and say it would be criminal for the NHS not to be charging private patients to use things like CT scanners - which they've invested big capital budgets into - in the times when they would otherwise be idle. I don't think this issue is as black and white as it first appears.
Same thing for me when I had my colectomy. Just due to a shortage of NHS beds, though. It'll be fine when the Tories have finished building those 40 new hospitals.
The Tories are keen on saying that voting Reform will just let Starmer in, but with a YouGov poll in the week putting Reform just 3 points behind the Tories, what happens if they should overtake them? Farage would be able to say that a Tory vote is a wasted vote. I reckon Reform will get 8-10 seats.
Chaos in the Stratford upon Avon Conservative Party. After Zahawi finally stood down there was no candidate in place when the election was called, a situation which persisted until last Wednesday, two days before the nomination deadline. Then the local Tory party association members were called to a meeting to select a candidate from a shortlist of three (there had been no long list) two of whom they had never even met before, and none of whom they knew were potential nominees before actually arriving at the meeting. The local candidate was a lady who had the notable achievement of failing to get on the local council in one of the most Tory boroughs in the known universe, there was a bloke called Lyons who is one of Sunak’s special advisors (presumably not on D-day travel plans) who came with a strong recommendation from central office, and the final candidate was Chris Clarkson, MP for Heywood and Middleton in Manchester. He had won with a majority of 351 in 2019, but seeing the writing on the wall, said he wouldn’t be standing again this time last year. Clearly the chance of one of the few remaining safe(ish) Tory seats was too much to resist, not least for his pension pot. In a fractious meeting Clarkson won, but many of the local tweed and blue rinse brigade, including the leader of the local council, are pissed off. Bloody hell, I’m tempted to vote Lib Dem, just for the upset potential. I reckon the Reform vote will surge here, which might let the Dems in….
Big wins for the populist right predicted in the EU elections, and in France this has already pushed Macron to call an election. Interestingly none of these parties are advocating leaving the EU, focussing on reducing migration, reducing green policies and cutting support for Ukraine.
Cutting support for Ukraine is not universal among European right wing parties. Immigration and net zero are.
How tragic that the kind of people that the heroes of D-Day were fighting against are now being elected once more in Europe.
The heroes of D-Day weren’t fighting for mass and illegal immigration, but freedom of choice and self-determination. Weak, liberal policies have caused the problem. Right wing policies must solve it, The closest element to fascists today are the masked and aggressive Antifa.
How tragic that the kind of people that the heroes of D-Day fought for then allowed a liberal elite to exert a growing influence over our society, abandon our history, mock national pride, and smear those with differing opinions as bigots. Our democratic systems are never perfect but we ultimately get what we deserve when either the people become complacent, or our political masters don’t listen.
