Brown on the ropes?

I think in order to make any changes to the present system, and to have any chance of sorting out the absolute mess that these so-called politicians have left our country in, will need a miracle... Or maybe, just maybe a hell of a lot of motivation and courage from me, you and thousands of others who are fed up with the way everything seems to be going down the pan.

There's just one thing we need to do first though, and that is to take ourselves out of the comfort zone that Governments want us to be in.

Damn! I'm missing Big Brother!!

laterz.

[slowcoach]

Originally Posted by Xaccers

I drive a P reg Citroen Xantia. I have a "white collar" technical job, went to university, earn a decent wage.
Does my car mean I'm not middle class?

I have a soft spot for Citroën so I will have to let you off for that.
Mind you, if you had the 2CV6 I saw the other day, looked brand new, you could arrive at the Queens Garden Party in classless style.

Originally Posted by Derek S

Well the GP's are happy with their new contract. And the Government get all manner of shiny statistics to play around with.

Of course they're happy with it - they get paid a stack more, for less commitment. Not for them the responsibility of providing out-of-hours service, not in our shiny 21st century health 'service'. Not when you can force the unwell - who are, by definition, unwell enough not to be able to wait until the next day to see a doctor - to spend ages camping on the phone to give their details to a nurse working for NHS 24, further ages waiting for a distant GP to phone back and tell them to go to bed and if things don't improve to visit the out-of-hours provision at the 'local' hospital (a 40-mile round trip in our case, which my wife had to make the other week, only to get a row off them for turning up at the 'wrong' hospital because it was run by a different health authority, so they had to fill in the 'out-of-area patient' form as well, poor souls. Apparently the 'right' hospital was the one that's a 55-mile round trip).

Chris that is really disgusting treatment i hope your complaining because surely thats not right. Gp's have done very well out of this government and it's weak negotiating over the years to the point that many gp's now seem more bothered about targets ad getting home at a good hour then actual patient care.

This is certainly the case with my gp who on one hand lecture's me about not going to see him sooner when there is a problem and then basically chucks me out of his office as i have had my alloted time. Sorry despite what labour say all the time for me since they took power the NHS has declined far worse then it appeared to under the tory's though i dare say the usual suspects will be on now telling me how wrong i am.

[Xaccers]

Ah you see, the NuLab mantra is "Choice is best"
I don't care that if I need an operation, I can choose to have it 100 miles away because they give a better chance of success, I want to have the operation at my local hospital and have the best treatment possible.
Likewise with education, I wouldn't want to have to send my kids 20miles away to the best school in the area because I can choose to, I want to send them to the local school and have it just as excellent as all the others.
By giving choice, they're relinquishing responsibility "Didn't get the treatment you wanted? Well you should have chosen differently then. Not our fault you didn't choose to travel 200 miles to better facilities"

Similarly if you give people targets, they'll work to hit those targets, not work to do their job to the best of their ability.
Look at what happened after Tone did his speak to the nation and some woman complained she couldn't get a doctor's appointment for 2 weeks.
New target: No one should wait longer than 48 hours to see their doctor.
Result: You have to phone between 8:30 and 9:00 to get an appointment on the day, if you don't get through then you're not recorded, so doctors hit their target 100% but the level or service has gone down.

[Cobbydaler]

Harriet Harperson has come out with a cracker:

Originally Posted by BBC News

You know, people ring up Gordon Brown to get advice from all around the world on economic circumstances.

Link

I can visualise it now...

Aid: President Sarkozy's on the line Mr. Brown.

Brown: What does he want?

Aid: Wants to know if you've any new ideas for stealth taxes that he can pinch to help with his 50 billion Euro budget deficit...

[Sirius]

I just cannot understand how the great pretender Brown has destroyed this country and it's economy in such a short time. Problem now is we have two more years of this brain dead wonder.

When will they learn and put a muzzle on harriet she has no idea and insists on displaying it publicly.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Sirius

I just cannot understand how the great pretender Brown has destroyed this country and it's economy in such a short time. Problem now is we have two more years of this brain dead wonder.

They've been doing it for 11 years.
It's only until recently that other forces have gotten so bad that the natual movement of the economy is showing up their mishandling whereas before the previous boom covered for them.

It kind of looks like Brown has been left holding the can. Where's Tony hiding out these days?

Trouble is Enuff brownshirt doesn't even have that defence as when blair was pm brown threw his weight around so much on policy he can't deny his involvement one of the reasons people have had enough. You can tolerate a fool while things are good but if they turn bad then the people turn faster.

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Damien

Yes, Whomever takes the leadership will almost certainly be facing defeat. That said it's still a better chance than Brown seems to have at the moment and what Labour MP's will be thinking about is keeping their own seats.

It's worth bearing in mind that under Blair it still looked like Labour would win a fourth term, Labours collapse in support has been under Brown.

Blair seen what was coming as probably did the cabinet, the so called house price crisis, northern rock, economy downturn all still would have happened, economies run in cycles and if you hit the good part you just lucky. What is different with blair he can feed us the spin with much more skill and I dont think he would have done any kind of U turn on the 10p tax issue and as such would have came out looking stronger.

[Osem]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7528513.stm

How long before someone else puts their head above the parapet?

If he goes though we will just get another unelected (by us) mouthpiece and not a lot will change. i think if they oust brownshirt which is looking more likely by the day it is time for a general election.

Originally Posted by RizzyKing

If he goes though we will just get another unelected (by us) mouthpiece and not a lot will change. i think if they oust brownshirt which is looking more likely by the day it is time for a general election.

Even the Labour Party recognises this - it's the biggest reason, within the party, for *not* sacking Brown. If he is replaced, the demands for an election would be so loud, and so persistent, that the country would become effectively ungovernable until it had happened. And the way things are now, Labour would probably lose that election.