The Political Thread

[Jim_Campbell]

When did I say there was no privatisation? I thought I have said that as long as the service is good and it is payed for by the NHS I am happy.

Right... so all the available evidence says that the publicly-funded, publicly-run NHS has delivered some of the most efficient healthcare in the world, and that privately-driven systems, such as the US system for which the Tories have expressed much admiration, are far more expensive. On top of that, as soon as a private company becomes involved, the actual spending of public money disappears behind a cloak of 'commercial confidentiality' and our money, tax-payers' money, is spent with zero accountability.

I genuinely cannot believe that even intelligent people are unable to see the problem with the following scenario: you have (let's say) £10M to run a particular health/care service for a year. You can give it to a publicly-run body whose workings are, by legal necessity, required to adhere to standards of transparency and accountability, and who will spend £10M delivering that service. OR you can give it to Virgin, or Circle, or whoever, and say to them "Here's £10M to run this service. Anything that's left over at the end of the year you can keep."

[ZenArcade]

The bottom line here is that the current administration is ideologically determined to destroy the NHS. The concept of a publicly funded, publicly run organisation is an utter anathema to a party predicated on free market economic principles.
Cutting the funding; the potential introduction of TTIP will literally result in death by 1000 cuts. The situation now is a monied 1%er 's wet dream ; for the rest of us it is another step on the road to societal oblivion. Z

[GordonR]

I see PFC Trolly McBridgelurker has already reported for duty here, in double-quick time.  Good work, private!

[The Legendary Shark]

Just going to leave this link here, for the benefit of those forum members who think that talk of creeping NHS privatisation is just alarmist propaganda from lefties...

Wiltshire's entire range of NHS Child Services privatised without public consultation.

I don't like to be the guy who says "I told you so", but I fucking well did tell you so.

Bah.

Jim

That Deborah Elliott, who often seems to spell her name Debra Elliott, appears on many medical boards' records. I haven't read them all, of course, just doing an initial snoop around, but a fair few instances of her involvement seem to be in connection with contracting out NHS services. She may be worth looking at.

[Old Tankie]

Thank you for the insults, always a pleasure to chat to you, GordenR.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

There's nothing wrong with a mixture of public and private health care. It would be how it's implemented that would be the thing!

The insanity of procurement definitely needs to be sorted out like a business but the people in charge do it for no bonuses or profits. It would still be ran by the government.

The government should use their power to stop the rising costs of drugs by making a stand and threatening the use of a generic cheaper alternative. Obviously I would expect that to not cover all drugs. BUT I would hope the message got out quickly that companies couldn't take the piss anymore.

The problem is that all governments have friends in the industries involved, or family members or even members of the government themselves.

Enough of all that though, I've been surprised at the quietness on here as the EU has gone into meltdown over borders, terrorists, etc...

Countries closing borders down, razor wire going up, Germany reducing the numbers allowed in now. Does this mean that the Big idea is falling apart. Discuss!

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Yeah there is no way the EU can continue the way it is. I saw in the Indy this morning that a majority of those polled want out of the European Union. Not that surprising since a large part of British history has been antagonistic towards or even fighting with centralizing European powers through the ages.

[Old Tankie]

SNP down to 54.

[Hawkmumbler]

Cutting the funding; the potential introduction of TTIP will literally result in death by 1000 cuts. The situation now is a monied 1%er 's wet dream ; for the rest of us it is another step on the road to societal oblivion. Z

Do you have statistics to support this claim? Because if not i'm calling bullshit, as i've met a great many people in my life tus far and i've only ever met the one person who thinks dissolving the NHS into private institutes to line the pockets of our fat cat dictators, and thats you.

[Hawkmumbler]

Welp, I quoted the wrong post, I meant to quote the below.

When did I say there was no privatisation? I thought I have said that as long as the service is good and it is payed for by the NHS I am happy.  After all, most GP surgeries are private businesses, and have been for years.

[Old Tankie]

What is your point?

[Hawkmumbler]

Privatisation is bad, irregardless of the quality of the individual clinic.

[Old Tankie]

Fine, but I don't agree.

[NapalmKev]

The way I see it - Privatisation is about making the owners of the 'provided service' richer. In a publicly funded scenario all funds go towards providing the service itself.

It really is that simple!

Cheers

[The Legendary Shark]

Privatisation isn't necessarily a bad thing in and of itself, in my view - like everything else, it either works well or it works badly.
.
Corporatisation, however, is a different beast altogether. Corporatism is virtually identical to Fascism and must be stopped.