As a Tory I care passionately about protecting the NHS and I do not believe in any form of health rationing. The NHS was founded on the principle that it will deliver healthcare to all who are in need and is free at the point of delivery, regardless of lifestyle. This marks us out as being a truly decent and civilized society and I strongly reject any notion regarding only treating certain types of people who fit the "acceptable" criteria. Apartheid in heath should never be on the agenda for any political party. No faceless bureaucrats should be allowed to decide who is worthy of treatment and who isn't! Jeez this is the Gt Britain not the Soviet Union!
Here you go, proud Tory, defend this! http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/terminally-ill-face-being-forced-690027#.UtaFxyNXrJF.twitter
So if a girl fancies doing up her t*ts (for no medical reason) we should all help to fund it? Count me out on that one, and we wonder why the NHS is becoming unaffordable.
Of course we shouldn't and I wasn't suggesting that! Surgery for purely cosmetic reasons should not be made available. I was talking more about discriminating against the Obese, Smokers, Drinkers etc.
The Mirror is to Labour what the Mail is to the Tories, both publications are 'economical with the truth' at best and spout unmitigated propaganda, I wouldn't wipe my arse with either of them
I've got this mental picture of you now Warky, sitting at your keyboard with a pint in one hand, a cream cake in the other and a *** hanging out of your mouth !
Initial treatment would not be cosmetic, but any attempt to then repair any disfigurement would be classed as such. I realise you were not implying that, but it's more a point I was making to those that would have very abitrary yes you can/no you can't sort of rules. Bah!
Smokers contribute billions in Taxes each year as over 90% of the price of cigarettes is TAX and they tend to die young which means that the Govt also saves on pensions and treatment in old age! Without Smokers and Drinkers the NHS would not get the resources it needs. I say we should bring back tobacco advertising and encourage more people to take it up! This way we can TAX the living shiit out of them and save the NHS!
I know that you're only joking Warky but if I had my way I would completely ban cigarettes and smoking. I lost my dear Mum to lung cancer through smoking at far too young an age (64) and her last days were horrendous. I've always maintainted that if any smoker had witnessed what we did with Mum they would never drag on another ***. Imagine if you will sitting on the end of your Mother's bed praying for The Lord to take her and release her from it all. Sorry about that fellas, that terrible memory just came flooding back.
No worries at all KIO, it must have been an awful thing to go through and you have my deepest sympathy. My Dad died from lung cancer at the age of 63 after being a smoker all his adult life. My Step Dad also smoked all his life like a bloody trooper and yet he died at 81 and not from any smoking related illness!
I have private health insurance and the standard of living is better than the UK . They don't get to vote in their leader but seeing the options in the next election Con Lab or U Kip I would not vote for any of those clowns either. They don't have an imigration problem the economy is the 2nd best in the World nobody is in debt . Britain is ruined and I would happily swap passports and switch to the winning team. Unless you have actually been here your preconceived ideas of little yellow people on bikes serving their Western masters is a million miles from the truth. I saw Zuckerberg from Facebook trying to weasle his way into the largest consumer market in the World on the news and they told him to go **** himself.
They don't constantly invade countries behind USA claiming to be making the World safer when we all know they are just doing the work of oil companies . Two pointless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq then Lybia all because an ex CIA agent who they paid and trained to fight the Russians supposedly masterminded 911 . And people actually believe we are making the World a safer place ?.
SN - I lived in China for a while and it is a fascinating place, though not the rosy utopia you seem to be painting. Granted, it has a lot going for it. Give it a couple of months and wait for the 'real' conversations to occur when people are on their own with you and free to express their feelings about where and how they live. I was blown away by the difference between the groupthink and the actual mindset of folk when I listened to them 1-1, particularly the 20-40 year olds. I had dinner with the Mayor of a town once and over a bowl of Goose Feet soup which cost circa 100 quid, he dismantled the whole of the PRC. I could not believe my ears. On the one hand people are paying lip service to their masters and on the other their is a real desire for a different political system. Uprisings in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Uramuqi and many more places go largely unheard of in our media and are squashed by the PLA. People disappear. Falun Gong is labelled an evil cult (they are meditating Buddhists, for want of a better definition) and are tortured and killed (because a load of them turned up at Tiannemen one day and meditated en masse - the Government **** themselves because 1- they'd never heard of them and 2 - how could all this be organised under their noses?)...Anyway, it is an enormous and wonderful place, just a bit mental Enjoy
Thanks China I am not naive as to think it is paradise I am shielded by living in Wuhan with my wife and her family are quite wealthy so other than restaurants and visiting family I have not been exposed to the many hidden horrors. After 14 years in London I have become very cynical of the UK and have found that it a very harsh place with stabbings and violence on a weekly basis in East London the place had no identity . I was pissed off with cctv on every corner and a ridiculous cost of living. I will be back in February and by then maybe the China bubble will have burst. Also the 3 choices of political parties in Uk are all terrible. The Chinese are going to keep the power within the same people but at least they don't pretend to be on your side. Working class people praising priveliged public scool educated millionaires is sickening. I am very interested in the Hong Kong protests and the way the Government are dealing with the protestors, they are blatantly not going to let them elect their own leader and the whole story of young students taking on the might of China fascinating. I was working in Leicester square when young British students were beaten up and kettled by Police in robocop style riot gear because the people they voted for lied to their faces about free education and since then our government has banned public protests .
I hear you SN 23...I left Blighty in 1997 and on my infrequent returns have noticed massive changes to the relative freedoms I enjoyed as a youth growing up there. My enjoyment of the world is the enormous differences that are there to see and learn from. I also worked in Hong Kong for a few years so have a real interest in what's occurring there - China will not bow down to the protests of the students there, but what I find more interesting is that the students have finally found a collective voice - when I taught there they were a vacuous bunch just concerned with the latest tech/fashion. I'm loving that they are fighting for what they deem to be their right to protest. Enjoy Wuhan - never went there in spite of being fairly close (Hefei). China really is mind blowing!
On the plus side they bulldoze churches something you would surely love to introduce in England too..
I doubt if your blinkered view of China is supported by the millions working on the farms. You lived in London - I live in a Norfolk village - not a stabbing or violent attack to be seen. British students kettled - Chinese students shot, squashed by tanks or taken away and murdered. I know what I prefer. If you disagree with UK foreign policy you are free to say so. Just you try asking in China why they prop up the odious regime in North Korea. If you don't just disappear you will be locked away for a long time. I know a businessman who was in China last year and asked his Chinese client in all innocence how far away North Korea was. He was stopped as he left the restaurant, detained and questioned for 4 hours and then released with the advice that he left China within the following 48 hours. Having to vote for Ed Milliband doesn't seem to be such a major problem after all!!!
