Reply to: NHS study: Globalisation is bad for your health

[contractorinatractor]

Surely one can be of the opinion that PFI wasn't a great 'initiative' AND the Conservatives are happily driving specific aspects of the country into the gutter?

What country would purposefully drive needed aspects of the general operations into the gutter? The only reason I can fathom is further privatisation of hospitals - although the evidence clearly shows this will not benefit the poor, unemployed (of which people can be temporarily unemployed then have sudden severe illness strike), elderly and vulnerable - hello USA, how are you?

In the Telegraph article posted, the image caption is:
"Twice as many people were kept waiting for more than six weeks for crucial cancer tests last year than before the Coalition took office, according to government figures."

This is symptomatic of the Conservatives' drive towards increased efficiency and reduced costs. As anybody who runs a busy household knows there is only so far you can pair back the monetary outgoings slightly before a myriad of issues have a domino effect across the entire household. Councils have been cut back to such an extent that basic services aren't being approached anymore - things that benefit the economy: Paths are no longer gritted (so consumer spending goes down drastically during winters with bad weather), clean public tourist buildings (many covered with rampant moss).

But those pale in comparison to the approach to schools, healthcare, elderly care, plus numerous other basic necessities of a country; but income inequality is now researched to such an extent that it is clearly the worst it has been for a modern country in a modern UK. Rather than ensure a fairer share of the pie, aggressive tax avoidance has permitted the rich to get an order of magnitude beyond what would normally be thought of as acceptable. I see zero attempt by the Conservatives to tackle this, even though the measurement shows that late 2009 to late 2017 has been crazy in the terms of mass accumulation of wealth by the elites.

The number of households in relative poverty in England is in the millions - in a supposedly 'developed' country. No, there are not simply millions of households with a bunch of lazy adults - many presumably parents - who can't be assed working; they are likely on zero hours contracts here and there, sporadic work, which we all know has been the encouraged status for employers since 2009.

The USA isn't a shining example for all to copy. There's a good reason European countries aren't lining up to copy the pro-corporate anti-'man in the street' rhetoric of the USA: appalling income inequality and terrible quality public services. Both positions taken in this thread are actually correct; but the solution is not to punch yourself in the face repeatedly just to attain some arbitrary deficit target. No modern 'high tech' developed country goes backwards 50 or 60 years just to reduce a deficit quite so drastically.

[tiggat]

Further evidence that you have little idea of just how far the effects of PFI actually stretch.

And you a full-blown Barista too!!

You seem to be holding some secret knowledge, please share if it exists

[shaunbhoy]

Here's a nice picture, you can shade in the cost of financing PFI (£4bn)

Further evidence that you have little idea of just how far the effects of PFI actually stretch.

And you a full-blown Barista too!!

[Soho]

Yes, it's important to lower the cost of living which is mainly aggravated by cost of living and the wage rates. How this problem is to be tackled by the government, I have no idea but something needs to be done soon.

[tiggat]

SB you need to use lots of pictures!

Here's a nice picture, you can shade in the cost of financing PFI (£4bn) using crayons if you like, do you know how numbers work or is that too much of a stretch for you?

[Hobosapien]

IIRC the whole 'keep it off the books' rational was EU driven as we would have faced EU sanctions if we'd 'subsidised' these 'industries'.

Shouldn't they be receiving foreign aid from China, France, ..., in return for giving them all the work building UK power plants and the like? That is how foreign aid really works.

[NigelJK]

IIRC the whole 'keep it off the books' rational was EU driven as we would have faced EU sanctions if we'd 'subsidised' these 'industries'.

[shaunbhoy]

SB you need to use lots of pictures!

Yes, and crayons will probably help too.

[vetran]

im still waiting for your explanation of this

SB you need to use lots of pictures!

[tiggat]

The costs of servicing the eye-watering debts that this way of operating inevitably leads to cripples the Treasury on an ongoing basis.

im still waiting for your explanation of this

[shaunbhoy]

Google tells me PFI contracts account for 2% of the NHS budget, I don't see your link between PFI contracts and the current NHS problems, in the face of 10 years of economic mismanagement and a 10% fall in public health spending.

Well PFI deals were not exclusively restricted to NHS projects, they were also extensively used to build schools, and to fund a whole raft of other public service schemes.

The costs of servicing the eye-watering debts that this way of operating inevitably leads to cripples the Treasury on an ongoing basis.
New Labour, and Gordon Brown in particular, hocked the country up to the eyeballs before finally being turfed out in 2010.

Now had they not left this profligate legacy then it may have freed up a lot more cash to be invested in things like the NHS.

But as I said, it gets quite complex. I can almost sense you rocking back and forth as the penny starts to drop.

HTH

[tiggat]

I would, but I fear it would go so far over your head it would leave a vapour trail.

Sorry...........life's too short. But Google is your friend. Go for it.

Google tells me PFI contracts account for 2% of the NHS budget, I don't see your link between PFI contracts and the current NHS problems, in the face of 10 years of economic mismanagement and a 10% fall in public health spending.

[shaunbhoy]

please explain it to me

I would, but I fear it would go so far over your head it would leave a vapour trail.

Sorry...........life's too short. But Google is your friend. Go for it.

[tiggat]

Maybe get a grown-up to explain it to you eh?

please explain it to me

[shaunbhoy]

Right it's the PFI deals, that's why the economy hasn't recovered since the recession.

Maybe get a grown-up to explain it to you eh?