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I'm not aware of any coherent plan that looks even vaguely like solving the problems in the NHS or the housing crisis. Should we even be considering high speed rail lines and airport runways as being of higher priority? The thinking seems to be that if we look after business everything else will fall into place.
As usual a tory government carries on blissfully unaware of the social unrest which inevitably lies not far down the road.
For me, HS2 is a complete white elephant. The much mooted figure of £40bn for this project is scary beyond belief, and like with most capital projects in the UK will probably end up way over budget with the taxpayer left footing the bill again. And for what real purpose? Getting to London 20 minutes quicker!?
The NHS is another cashcow - billions are pumped into this service but the management of where that money actually goes is left wanting. If you're a "preferred supplier" with the NHS it means you can charge over-the-odds for things you'd find at a fraction of the price either online or in your local DIY store.
and then there's the issue of employing agency staff due to shortages of full time staff due to cut backs! Agency staff cost far more than fulltime staff, and yet this seems to be ignored by management.
As for social housing. That's never going to happen as it might upset the supply/demand status quo for investors.
And I wouldn't necessarily put all the blame on the Tories; previous Labour governments didn't show much backbone spreading the wealth and opportunity to all either.
For me, HS2 is a complete white elephant. The much mooted figure of £40bn for this project is scary beyond belief, and like with most capital projects in the UK will probably end up way over budget with the taxpayer left footing the bill again. And for what real purpose? Getting to London 20 minutes quicker!?
The NHS is another cashcow - billions are pumped into this service but the management of where that money actually goes is left wanting. If you're a "preferred supplier" with the NHS it means you can charge over-the-odds for things you'd find at a fraction of the price either online or in your local DIY store.
and then there's the issue of employing agency staff due to shortages of full time staff due to cut backs! Agency staff cost far more than fulltime staff, and yet this seems to be ignored by management.
As for social housing. That's never going to happen as it might upset the supply/demand status quo for investors.
And I wouldn't necessarily put all the blame on the Tories; previous Labour governments didn't show much backbone spreading the wealth and opportunity to all either.
Yes I agree with your last point. I should have stated both Labour & Tory governments.
HS2 is a demonstration of vested interests at work. No way it should be going ahead in its present form. Biringham will be 10 minutes faster to London then from New Street? It'll take 15 to walk from new street to the new station which isnt having any other rail links!
Housing will always be a problem when the plans to let developers build 5 beds on greenfield sites in desirable areas. To be fair its a complex problem due to there being small areas of the country alot of people want to live in.
The NHS isnt that bad relative to the rest of the world, not that thats great in absolute terms. Aging populations and increasing numbers of effective but high cost treatments dont have an easy answer.
The housing market is only complex because it's been wrecked by successive governments allowing unrestricted borrowing.
Prices soared way out of line with incomes and destroyed the system we had before which worked fine. For example a young couple could put their names down with a realistic chance of a council house in which they could stay as long as they wanted, or they could save up for a deposit to buy a house of their own and release their council property for another family. That system worked.
Then Thatcher, to her eternal shame - and following her misguided 'nation of house owners' ideology and an ignorance of the reality that WE WILL NEVER BE A NATION OF HOUSE OWNERS decided to allow the lucky sitting tenants to buy the property at a discount price and thereby deny that property to all the future families who would in turn have occupied that house. That house then went on the private property market to be sold and resold over the subsequent obscene greed years.
This why we see record numbers of homeless people and youngsters forced to live with parents whilst ex council houses are being sold for hundreds of thousands of pounds. Disgusting.
How can anyone still support the NHS when it's massive flaws are obvious for everyone to see
America was duped into believing Obama when he pushed socialized medicine on the populace that didn't want it.
Aside from all the lies he told, the ACA is imploding with rates going up by 116% in some places this year alone.
1) Politics in the UK is often cut along class lines, unless there's some social justice cause (gays, religion, national independence movements, etc...), hence why Muslims and Blacks are courted by the left, and Hindus and Asians are courted by the right. It's stupid to think that a neoliberal political party would want to do anything other than support neoliberal politics.
2) There's nothing wrong with having a privatized healthcare system similar to the ones found in "liberal europe". I'd also say that the housing crisis wouldn't be solved by the left-wing either, who happened to preside over the period of astronomical housing growth in the UK.
1) Politics in the UK is often cut along class lines, unless there's some social justice cause (gays, religion, national independence movements, etc...), hence why Muslims and Blacks are courted by the left, and Hindus and Asians are courted by the right. It's stupid to think that a neoliberal political party would want to do anything other than support neoliberal politics.
2) There's nothing wrong with having a privatized healthcare system similar to the ones found in "liberal europe". I'd also say that the housing crisis wouldn't be solved by the left-wing either, who happened to preside over the period of astronomical housing growth in the UK.
The housing crisis IMO can only be solved from the direction of the left, where there is at least the intention to provide social housing, unlike the right that still clings to the ideological myth of a house owning society. The homes are needed NOW - not when it becomes politically convenient to tackle the problem. If it means prefabricated buildings then so be it.
We are constantly told that the NHS is struggling due to lack of funds and trained staff together with the fact that we are living longer and putting as a result additional strain on resources.
Frankly we should pay more. We can easily afford it.
The housing crisis IMO can only be solved from the direction of the left, where there is at least the intention to provide social housing, unlike the right that still clings to the ideological myth of a house owning society. The homes are needed NOW - not when it becomes politically convenient to tackle the problem. If it means prefabricated buildings then so be it.
We are constantly told that the NHS is struggling due to lack of funds and trained staff together with the fact that we are living longer and putting as a result additional strain on resources.
Frankly we should pay more. We can easily afford it.
From my side of the pond, I agree. Seems that you used to have housing available for all. From what I hear, those council houses were sold off! That leaves less housing available to everyone who can't afford a house. You're ending up with what we have over here and that's not a good thing.
And no matter what anyone says about your NHS, it's still better than what we struggle with over here--the endless medical expenses. President Obama's administration tried to fix it--and we do have more people insured than ever before--but it needs more work. Less profit for the enormous insurance companies would be a start. And the doctors should be making the decisions, not someone sitting at a desk in an insurance company.
At least Britain made a good effort to help everyone--seems that it was good while it lasted. You probably need to make more housing available. I know the immigrant situation probably hasn't helped but isn't it the law now that immigrants need to have enough funds to support themselves rather then become immediately dependent upon government? Seems sensible.
The housing crisis IMO can only be solved from the direction of the left, where there is at least the intention to provide social housing, unlike the right that still clings to the ideological myth of a house owning society. The homes are needed NOW - not when it becomes politically convenient to tackle the problem. If it means prefabricated buildings then so be it.
We are constantly told that the NHS is struggling due to lack of funds and trained staff together with the fact that we are living longer and putting as a result additional strain on resources.
Frankly we should pay more. We can easily afford it.
Nope. The "left" if there is any such thing, is the same as the "right"! They just give preference to different variants of scumbags.
The "left" as you speak of , the Diane Abbot, Jeremy Corbyn, Nick Cleggs etc would fill all the social housing with scroungers from other countries who have not paid 1 single penny into the system, thus your "left" would only bankrupt the country, as even you can see that if the pot is emptiying faster than it can be filled, you won't be building any houses.
The "right" that you speak of would simply just fill the pockets of "carpetbagger" sumbags, again mostly from other countries, who do not give a flying figg about who gets to live in the house, as long as they get paid. Of course no British workers will be employed, no,no ,no, why do that? Just hire a bunch of foreign workers on slave wages. Not just paid i might add, they make sure they get paid 10x, by using backhand/shady deals to ensure any future contract are handed their way.. nudge nudge, wink wink.
We, the UK needed to stop imigration, we needed to give preference to UK born workers, we needed to stop giving free health care to anyone who turned up, we needed to send back anyone who was here illegally, we needed to stop giving free housing to anyone who turned up with a begging bowl, we needed to stop giving free education to said scroungers, we needed to recind citizenship/passports to those not born here comitting serious crimes, etc etc etc.
Well, we didn't & what's worse we still don't, being "right" or "left" is just a media spin line to fool twits who belive this nonsense. People are so stupid & thick, they don't even realise most of the "left" are in fact "right" & vice versa, ask your once CND loving Mr Blair.
Anything that happens now will NOT make a jot of difference, the horse has already bolted. You won't "get it", most don't, hence the situation we are in now, the time for putting plasters on has long passed, we need urgent & repeated defibrillation!
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