Thread: Local Elections 2026
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Old Yesterday, 19:57   #74
jem
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Re: Local Elections 2026
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth View Post
We have to go back at least one layer further. We want cheap prices and business responds with cheap labour to deliver that whilst maintaining profits.

We want more from the NHS because we need more from the NHS, collectively.

To get more from the NHS, we need a government that supports economic growth and doesn't piss money away on excessive benefits.

So, it comes back to government competence.
Now at the risk of dragging this thread kicking and screaming back on course;

"We want cheap prices and business responds with cheap labour to deliver that whilst maintaining profits.” Well duh, by far the biggest cost to any company is labour costs, staff salaries. You want to reduce the price of your goods, then that’s really the only way to go.


"We want more from the NHS because we need more from the NHS, collectively.

To get more from the NHS, we need a government that supports economic growth and doesn't piss money away on excessive benefits.”

Or do we need the NHS?

Now before everyone piles in to flame me; just hear me out. Do we want the current NHS (conceived in the 1940s), or do we want an effective national health system which, maybe is funded differently - yes, will still provide treatment to everyone who needs it - but being funded by direct taxation only, is that really the best way to do it?

I vaguely remember my late father telling me that the ‘NHS is the envy of the world’ - although you do have to question if that actually right, so why have few other countries adopted the same model?

And this is not a hard choice between the UK and US models - what happens in France or Germany? If you are a poor person in Germany with a serious illness, do they just leave you to die at the side of the road? Of course not, there are safety nets.

The question is this, is the current way the NHS is funded the ‘best’ way - are there alternatives to provide the same level of cover? And yes I know there have been studies which appear to show that the way the NHS is currently funded is the cheapest way to provide the best cover - but if they are true then why haven’t other countries taken it up?

Every single party and politician secretly knows that the current system is simply not sustainable, but dare not suggest it; as it is electoral suicide.

At some point the question will need to be answered, it’s a case of who has the ‘cojones’ to do it!
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