chairman bill wrote:And do you know what? I've just realised how reading the shit that you write, is probably partly responsible for my hatred of the LibDems, maybe more so than anything they've actually done in office.

Strontium Dog wrote:

Scot Dutchy wrote:

Strontium Dog wrote:She's very much in a minority. Dissatisfaction with the NHS is at an all time low. Another coalition failure...

Evidence? or just another SD assertion?

Why don't you learn to use Google?

Scot Dutchy wrote:

Strontium Dog wrote:

Scot Dutchy wrote:

Strontium Dog wrote:She's very much in a minority. Dissatisfaction with the NHS is at an all time low. Another coalition failure...

Evidence? or just another SD assertion?

Why don't you learn to use Google?

Which right wing think tank are you googling?

It now seems certain that hospitals and other NHS providers in England overspent their budgets in 2014/15 by more than £800 million. This is despite nearly £900 million being provided by the Treasury or switched from capital budgets to plug the growing black hole in NHS finances. According to the regular survey undertaken for the report, almost 60 per cent of trust finance directors said that they were dependent on additional financial support or had drawn down their reserves in 2014/15.

The financial outlook for 2015/16 is even gloomier, with two-thirds of hospitals concerned about staying within budget over the next year. Although commissioners are more optimistic, 40 per cent of finance leads from clinical commissioning groups are also concerned about whether they will be able to balance the books in 2015/16.

Alex Thomson of Channel 4]Is St George now trying to slay the Sturgeon dragon?

I write from Inverness on St George’s day at a time when Westminster, London and England have rarely seemed so distant and foreign to so many – and that cuts both ways.

Not least because the main English parties are playing the nationalist card at every turn now in their St George-like attempt to slay the Sturgeon dragon.

Tricky ground for the English parties and the SNP, playing the nationalist card – especially for many north and south of Gretna Green.

Many Scots (and I am half English, half Scot) are enraged when they hear English politicians talking about a “constitutional crisis” should the SNP end up holding the balance of post-election power in Westminster.

You what? Seriously?

Here you will quickly be reminded that few English voices were ever raised when a Tory government was elected by other nations, to rule over Scots who never voted for them.

Again, and again, and again.

Many here will chuckle on St George’s day at the possibility that the English may get a taste of their own democratic medicine, should SNP MPs unelected in England, N Ireland and Wales, wield influence after 7 May.

Their good humour only warms at the sight of the John Majors, Boris Johnsons et al being wheeled out to talk Armageddon. It’s funny. It’s ironic.

And it is very echoey – the reverb of the Wave of Fear released by London during the referendum campaign back in the autumn.

Equally many here will cheer on English nationalism of the devolution kind. There’s enormous sympathy for Geordie, Scouse, Brummie, Mancunian or Cornish frustration with Westminster for obvious reasons – for those pushing regional English identity and regional devolution in England along the lines Nick Clegg has pushed recently.

Because they have tasted the Holyrood flavour here, and Scots of all parties and persuasions broadly approve its vintage.

Donald Dewar may or may not be spinning in his grave at what his limited Scottish devolution has become and how nationalism and national identity has developed.

Limited it was – past tense. The momentum has rolled on somewhat since then however. But its basis is not so much nationalism, Scottishness versus the English and Englishness, as that simple irony: Scots have had years of “constitutional crisis” to deal with.

Should it now be England’s turn then? As St George could have said but didn’t: “Saddle up and deal with it.”

Strontium Dog wrote:Ignoring my point to push your own agenda. Well done.

Scot Dutchy wrote:

Strontium Dog wrote:Ignoring my point to push your own agenda. Well done.

You had none.

It is not my agenda. I just was reporting the state of the NHS which you claimed everyone was satisfied with. Do people in Britain have so low expectations?

mattthomas wrote:

Scot Dutchy wrote:

Strontium Dog wrote:Ignoring my point to push your own agenda. Well done.

You had none.

It is not my agenda. I just was reporting the state of the NHS which you claimed everyone was satisfied with. Do people in Britain have so low expectations?

2014 data showed growing dissatisfaction with A&E services, but that doesn't matter because reasons...

Strontium Dog wrote:

chairman bill wrote:Oh, so that's the only metric is it? You need to get out more. Try a busy medical or surgical ward. Try a community mental health team. See the stress that staff are working under. See the staff near breaking point. See the staff who've had promotions frozen for seven years now. See the staff who are having their pay grades moved en masseto the next lower point because the service has to save money. Not just a 1% pay rise, but a 1% rise on a pay grade they're dropping. Staff on a Band 6 not getting any unsocial hours payments for working nights or weekends. Everyone working their socks off because of staffing shortages. Desperate that patients don't suffer, whilst staff are reaching a point of burn-out. And then having worked themselves to the bone, having been part of a contract bid that is £7million less than the private sector bid from a company with lots of Tory MPs & peers on the board or as shareholders, see the contract go to that private company. But hey, that's freedom 'n' liberty, and only people who hate freedom would complain.

And do you know what? I've just realised how reading the shit that you write, is probably partly responsible for my hatred of the LibDems, maybe more so than anything they've actually done in office.

I'm sorry that my posting of uncomfortable facts, like the fact that dissatisfaction with the NHS is at an all-time low, so irritates you.

However, I'd suggest that if facts are causing such irritation, the problem is not with the facts.

Scot Dutchy wrote:I just was reporting the state of the NHS which you claimed everyone was satisfied with.

Scot Dutchy wrote:

mattthomas wrote:2014 data showed growing dissatisfaction with A&E services, but that doesn't matter because reasons...

Strange how SD missed that

Strontium Dog wrote:

Scot Dutchy wrote:

mattthomas wrote:2014 data showed growing dissatisfaction with A&E services, but that doesn't matter because reasons...

Strange how SD missed that

SD missed nothing, he just prefers not to cherry pick, and will instead look at the entire picture. I'll leave the selective ignorance to those attempting to push an anti-liberal agenda.

mrjonno wrote:What genuine liberal would support making people pay taxes so that others can get health care, ie the NHS?

That's actually an authoritarian view (which I have no problems with as I like authority when used wisely).
The Liberal view would be pay directly for your own health and charity looks after the unfortunate/stupid

chairman bill wrote:Whereas you have a limited & fixed idea of what liberalism is