Off Topic Politics Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
Kaito said:
Since the Tory Party came to power the NHS has lost 17,000 hospital unit beds, which include, surgical, maternity and beds previously available for patients suffering with mental health issues, eating disorders and learning difficulties. In the same period the population has increased by 8,000,000 people. The population has aged, therefore placing increased demands on an already fragile NHS, which has now gone beyond breaking point in many areas.

Continued pressure on hospitals is also due to the cuts in social care and facilities that were previously managed by external NHS units. The enormous pressure the NHS and its staff are under can not be sustained without there being catastrophic consequences. All this has resulted in 5,449 deaths of patients who have been left on trolleys waiting for treatment, since 2016.

Many doctors, nurses, paramedics, porters and other essential staff are at breaking point. My future daughter in-law who is a junior doctor at a very large local hospital has repeatedly said that if there isn’t a huge sea change in the way the NHS is funded and managed we are going to have a disaster on our hands.

These stories that are coming out of the NHS are not fabrications, not lies to win or increase the chances of votes, they are what is happening. To be perfectly honest it doesn’t matter who does, or who doesn’t believe it. It doesn’t matter who uses it for political gain, or who flatly denies it.

What does matter is that the NHS as it was, before all the cuts and political point scoring started, is fully restored to a health service that is well equipped, well staffed and is free to all those in need. It is one of the fundamental rights as a citizen of this country and it should be beyond the realms of political and media point scoring.

They say we only really appreciate something when it is no longer there. I don’t want anyone to have to appreciate the NHS in that way. We are all going to need it at some point, so fight to protect it, treasure it and appreciate those who give so much of themselves to make it work.
Click to expand...
Once again, brilliant.
 
Mystery solved. The nurse involved in spreading disinformation, isn’t actually a nurse, but a PA to her GP husband.
Their son, however, is a friend of Matt Hancock, no less.
This disgusts me.

You must log in or register to see media
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Kaito and ChilcoSaint
I just found out the 4 year old daughter of a friend of mine who has a history of pneumonia was turned out of her bed in the Bristol Children’s Hospital at 3am last Friday night because another child had a greater need. Not staged, not made up, not good enough, but inevitable. Guess what, my friend doesn’t blame the staff, or the NHS, but puts the blame squarely with the Tory cuts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Schrodinger's Cat and StJabbo1
St Badger said:
Another view on the hospital and how the media has been used to deflect attention from Johnson, when he is getting a metaphorical kicking. Also mention of automated bots tweeting the exact same comment but claiming to be different people.

https://bylinetimes.com/2019/12/10/...atomy-of-an-election-disinformation-campaign/
Click to expand...
That’s a great piece of journalism, and, apart from laying to rest the mythology that’s grown up around this case, it raises a lot of questions about the impartiality of senior broadcasters like Kuenssberg and Peston.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kaito and San Tejón
Recent elections have probably killed the concept of democracy. How can you possibly vote for someone you believe in, how can you know who is telling the truth? A lot is spoken about the right of women to vote, in the UK it was only in 1918 that all men were given the right to vote. It was only 10 years later that women got the right to vote. That was only 100 years ago. Before that you had nothing. There were a few golden years, the NHS, human rights, equal pay. Then, all hail the internet, which will connect the workers of the world. ****, didn't work. Who owned it? same old same old. Not much point in democracy when you're told who to vote for. BRING OUT YOUR DEAD!!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Schrodinger's Cat
Extract rom a BBC news item:

A campaign group is calling for fact-checking of political advertising to be a legal requirement after what it describes as a "fake news and disinformation general election"

■ for the Conservatives, it said that 88% (5,952) of the party's most widely promoted ads either featured claims which had been flagged by independent fact-checking organisations including BBC Reality Check as not correct or not entirely correct

■ for Labour, it said that it could not find any misleading claims in ads run over the period

Nuff said!
 
  • Like
Reactions: RSS, San Tejón, ChilcoSaint and 1 other person
St Badger said:
Another view on the hospital and how the media has been used to deflect attention from Johnson, when he is getting a metaphorical kicking. Also mention of automated bots tweeting the exact same comment but claiming to be different people.

https://bylinetimes.com/2019/12/10/...atomy-of-an-election-disinformation-campaign/
Click to expand...

Interesting, if depressing, to see how this stuff works.

Maybe the most telling point is we should all guard against confirmation bias. I've become a little more aware of my own and now try to double check stuff I hear and read before accepting it as valid. Sad times.
 
Archers Road said:
Who took the bed away, that the child was originally in? And does it make any difference anyway?
Click to expand...
Truly if a bed was taken away yes it does make a difference. That decision needs to be investigated too if that happened. We are not getting all the facts about this. Nor will we I doubt.
 
Beddytare said:
Truly if a bed was taken away yes it does make a difference. That decision needs to be investigated too if that happened. We are not getting all the facts about this. Nor will we I doubt.
Click to expand...
Did you see my post about my friend’s daughter a couple of hours back? Are you going to demand an explanation for that too?
 
It should be mentioned that hospital beds have been in decline since the 1980's so it's not just the Tories responsible even if it is mostly them. Labour are at fault as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Schrodinger's Cat and ChilcoSaint
tomw24 said:
It should be mentioned that hospital beds have been in decline since the 1980's so it's not just the Tories responsible even if it is mostly them. Labour are at fault as well.
Click to expand...
Read up the thread. As I reported from my own experience, Thatcher started it, Major and Blair continued it, but the real decline has been in the last 9 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back