[Archived] When will the next general election be called?

[Paul]

12 hours ago, Baz said:

I see Carillion is in big trouble, massive company who specialise in big government building and outsourcing projects (new hospitals, roads, jails etc). If it goes under it could cause utter chaos in the public sector.

The biggest problem? Over £500m of pension funds missing from their scheme.

Guess who has gotten rich (Yes a personal friend of Cameron), and who will end up paying the pension money?

A central plank of government policy is to outsource both capital projects and day to management to the private sector on the basis the private sector is more efficient. 

From the government’s perspective there is a logic to this, and I get the point, in that in theory there is a known cost for the project or service and it’s therefore simpler to budget the country’s spending. 

Where this falls down is government requires the winning tender to be the lowest cost without regard to quality, ability to deliver etc. (an aspect of my work used to include supply to local authorities). The second issue is profit and shareholder returns.

Couple these two factors together and you have companies attempting to cut costs, work for low margins while still generating sufficient returns to satisfy shareholders. It doesn’t work.

Carillion, Four Seasons Health Care, Virgin East Coast (though the whole story is a bit different) etc. It’s cheap while it works but eventually these suppliers fail and the tax payer picks up the bill.

As a nation we expect quality services delivered cheaply. Too many are more concerned with owning a mobile, a 55” TV or a Sky subscription to even think about paying for the real services they need. 

The sooner government raise personal taxes, chases down the businesses who don’t pay tax and imposes punitive taxes on alcohol, sugar products and anything else which triggers disease the better.

We either pay the real cost of the services we expect through taxation or the country will continue to spiral down the toilet. The electorate voted for this so they must be happy with people dieing in hospital corridors. 

[jim mk2]

 

There's no need to raise personal taxes. Clamp down harder on tax evasion - both personal and corporate - and slash the number of ways of avoiding tax. At present there are more than 1,000 measures in place to enable companies and private individuals to avoid paying tax. None of them can be justified while public services, the armed forces and the police are being starved of money. 

How the 1% see it.

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2017/jul/27/disgusting-astonishing-how-do-uks-top-1-view-tax-avoidance-voices-of-the-one-percent

[JAL]

19 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

The simple logic is to spend now and then reign in spending once the economy starts growing again.

Unfortunately the Tories like to pretend this isn't feasible for some reason. The whole austerity principle doesn't make sense.

How big is the interest on the national debt and if the interest was to rise on this national debt then how much would these people have our nation by the bollocks ?

If you was a Labour supporter you'd want to be avoiding having another general election any time soon due to this huge debt burden.

Wait if your confident and let the Conservative party turn it around or simply destroy the country and themselves in the process.

 

[Baz]

12 hours ago, Paul said:

A central plank of government policy is to outsource both capital projects and day to management to the private sector on the basis the private sector is more efficient. 

From the government’s perspective there is a logic to this, and I get the point, in that in theory there is a known cost for the project or service and it’s therefore simpler to budget the country’s spending. 

Where this falls down is government requires the winning tender to be the lowest cost without regard to quality, ability to deliver etc. (an aspect of my work used to include supply to local authorities). The second issue is profit and shareholder returns.

Couple these two factors together and you have companies attempting to cut costs, work for low margins while still generating sufficient returns to satisfy shareholders. It doesn’t work.

Carillion, Four Seasons Health Care, Virgin East Coast (though the whole story is a bit different) etc. It’s cheap while it works but eventually these suppliers fail and the tax payer picks up the bill.

As a nation we expect quality services delivered cheaply. Too many are more concerned with owning a mobile, a 55” TV or a Sky subscription to even think about paying for the real services they need. 

The sooner government raise personal taxes, chases down the businesses who don’t pay tax and imposes punitive taxes on alcohol, sugar products and anything else which triggers disease the better.

We either pay the real cost of the services we expect through taxation or the country will continue to spiral down the toilet. The electorate voted for this so they must be happy with people dieing in hospital corridors. 

I agree with most of this. I too work for a company who supplies local government. One change that should happen is that companies performance in previous contracts should be taken into account, both in terms of the quality score in tendering, and also they should be made to pay back any bail-out they have received on other contracts I.e. if Virgin Rail get a bail-out on the east cost contract - they should have to repay that before being allowed to bid on the west coast contract.

 

[darrenrover]

On 13/01/2018 at 01:02, jim mk2 said:

 

Carillion is such a big and important company with so many government contracts it will not be allowed to collapse and will have to be taken into public ownership. Another case of the taxpayers having to bail out the private sector. Time to bring back public contracts in house. Outsourcing, like globalisation and privatisation, is finished. 

Just a small point, why are Carillion in difficulty? anyone on here really know? Time to bring back public contracts in-house? any proven success stories to report on this tactic?

[perthblue02]

19 minutes ago, darrenrover said:

Just a small point, why are Carillion in difficulty? anyone on here really know? Time to bring back public contracts in-house? any proven success stories to report on this tactic?

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jan/13/carillion-in-crisis-outsourcing-operation-debts-rescue-talks

[Baz]

So I believe Carillions creditors (big banks) have refused to bail Carillion out, unless the government underwriter the debt. So, if privatisation works we'll have the profits, but if it doesn't, then please Mr UK tax payer - help us out.

Call me silly, but if there is any nous, surely the UK government buys Carillions assets (hospitals etc) at a knock down price, which gives the UK tax payer value, allows Carillion to continue and have enough cash to pay it's creditors (Banks)?

 

[den]

A&E performance worst on record.

This is shocking. How the government are getting away with this I really don’t know. The NHS’s performance has dropped dramatically since 2010, after being rescued by Labour in 1997. Disgraceful. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-figures-latest-accident-emergency-performance-a-e-record-winter-crisis-a8300901.html

[Husky]

17 minutes ago, den said:

A&E performance worst on record.

This is shocking. How the government are getting away with this I really don’t know. The NHS’s performance has dropped dramatically since 2010, after being rescued by Labour in 1997. Disgraceful. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-figures-latest-accident-emergency-performance-a-e-record-winter-crisis-a8300901.html

I think they are getting away with it because of the usual tried and tested deflection tactics. These days: Russia, Russia, Russia.

To be fair, it probably is the Russian's fault.

[den]

[Baz]

19 hours ago, den said:

Any comment Chaddy? You voted for these people to do a better job with the NHS than Labour didn't you?

[chaddyrovers]

14 hours ago, Baz said:

Any comment Chaddy? You voted for these people to do a better job with the NHS than Labour didn't you?

Ive waiting for someone to ask me to comment about this..

But I'm not going to get into a debate about this. 

But to say that we need to spend alot more money on the NHS overall like GP's working weekends, A and E, etc. 

 

[den]

9 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Ive waiting for someone to ask me to comment about this..

But I'm not going to get into a debate about this. 

But to say that we need to spend alot more money on the NHS overall like GP's working weekends, A and E, etc. 

 

GP’s working weekends is your answer? Well first of all they have to find a way of stopping the decline of GP numbers under the Tories. Surgeries are closing throughout the country because under this government they have become disillusioned. Many are retiring early and some are moving abroad to work. The threat of them being forced to work weekends is just one of the reasons why GP numbers have fallen under this government. 

[Norbert Rassragr]

Blindly throwing money at the NHS is not the answer. Cutting costs like ending PFI contracts, not using the NHS for things like Ibuprofen and simple coconut oil hand cream that you can get for pound shops or Superdrug would be a start. Then trying to stop super markets selling subsidised booze and cheap junk food could cut the long term strains on health. Use the billions of pounds per year in a better way, as well as increasing funding.

[Baz]

13 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

Ive waiting for someone to ask me to comment about this..

But I'm not going to get into a debate about this. 

But to say that we need to spend alot more money on the NHS overall like GP's working weekends, A and E, etc. 

 

No debate? Why not? 

There aren't enough GPs as it is, but this government has cut bursarys to student doctors and nurses and massively increased their tuition fees, then pays them a lot less than they can earn in Australia, and has the audacity to denounce them for standing up for not having to work 80 hours a week.

A&E? A much bigger problem is bed-blocking due to the massive social care cuts imposed by the Tories, forcing many care homes to go under. It's funny that when the government talks about health spending, they somehow always miss the social care budget from their figures. An deliberate oversight?

I don't care for Corbyn, but this government is appalling.

[only2garners]

Chaddy - GPS are working weekends already. Not all of them every weekend obviously but there will be an opportunity for you to see a GP across the weekend. This has been the case for a number of years. My wife was working on occasional Sundays for a couple of years before she retired in 2015. In truth Sunday surgeries are a waste if time - hardly anyone comes and most of those who do can easily come on a Monday to Friday.

As others have pointed out the real critical problem is that GP numbers are falling. No one wants to do the job anymore because of the hours and the workload. Those old enough are retiring early, young doctors are increasingly looking to work overseas for more money and less hours. Those in the middle are cutting their hours to have a semblance of work/life balance. In my wife’s surgery not a single GP works full time hours now.

And Brexit is meaning that doctors from overseas, who have been helping to stop the system from completely breaking down, are going home. 

[Paul]

I used to rate Theresa May second to Thatcher. These days I’d give them equal billing. 

Corbyn’s election can’t come soon enough. 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I was speaking to my first choice GP a few months back. He was one of the partners in the practice, he'd been a GP at my surgery for a good while but I'd heard he was retiring early. I thanked him for everything he done for me over the years and wished him a happy retirement. 

He said " I love the doctoring side of the job but the politics and paperwork are just too much. I'm not jumping through Governmental hoops anymore ".

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Just now, Paul said:

I used to rate Theresa May second to Thatcher. These days I’d give them equal billing. 

Corbyn’s election can’t come soon enough. 

She seems to be suffering from memory loss. She's forgotten she's ever been the longest serving Home Secretary ever.

[den]

The Home Secretary who spoke of creating a hostile environment for immigrants as Home Secretary - and was in charge when the home office shredded the papers of the Windrush generation - then as PM had to be lead kicking and screaming to apologise to those British residents who have lost their jobs, lost their access to benefits, were denied NHS treatment and in some cases have been detained with no access to food when they wanted it, or the toilet when they wanted it for weeks, or even sent back to countries where they have no relatives or friends?

This, disgracefully, is where the Tory government under pressure from its right wing members - the same people pushing and winning the argument for brexit,  which was almost entirely based on immigration - is taking the country. 

[Norbert Rassragr]

Calls for Amber Rudd to resign are growing, though just like the supposed dossier about Tory paedophiles going missing (and the subsequent disaster of an investigation), the real culprit is still hanging on hoping it will all blow over.

[Mike E]

8 hours ago, Paul said:

I used to rate Theresa May second to Thatcher. These days I’d give them equal billing. 

Corbyn’s election can’t come soon enough. 

I don't like Corbyn particularly.

But I'd personally piggyback him into Number 10 rather than give May (or any of those around her) much longer.

Even on Corbyn's side the only MPs (of those I know enough about) I like are Starmer and Rayner.

[jim mk2]

Thatcher caused national and social division and economic chaos, May is weak and hopeless but Cameron takes the  biscuit as the worst PM in my lifetime.

He and Osborne inflicted austerity on the country, hitting the weakest and poorest worst, as a solution to the financial crisis and the excesses of the rich. Meanwhile their friends and party donors have got even wealthier over the past 8 years. 

Worse, he caved in to the Tory right wing (and Rupert Murdoch) and gave us an unnecessary EU referendum,  which has split the nation, encouraged xenophobia and racism, and likely to hit the economy for 10 years or more. 

[K-Hod]

6 hours ago, Mike E said:

I don't like Corbyn particularly.

But I'd personally piggyback him into Number 10 rather than give May (or any of those around her) much longer.

Even on Corbyn's side the only MPs (of those I know enough about) I like are Starmer and Rayner.

Remember mate, it’s policies, not people we are voting for.

[Mike E]

38 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

Remember mate, it’s policies, not people we are voting for.

In which case I have nobody ???

Torn between unaffordable BS and racism, or outright cruelty.