Cameron Vs Blair/Brown

No doubt there are many examples of ow the health service in some area has been screwed, but...

My wife works in a private hospital and they are really struggling. Why? Several years ago they had loads of patients who wouldn't wait several times as long for inferior NHS treatment. Now the quality of treatment is very similar and the waiting list difference is nowhere near as bad. and the hospital chain in general are doing badly - it's not just a local thing.

Personallly I think Cameron is the best leader the Tories have had in ages. How the heck they could have picked Duncan Smith or Howard is beyond me. Having said that I just don't think the British public will take the chance. At the end of the day most of the issues facing the government, especially pensions and healthcare, will be no different irrespective of who's in power. It's a simple equation of more older, retired people taking money out compared to younger, working ones putting money in.

Cheers Keith

I just hate this welfare state which we have become. They are the **** Turpin of the modern day, discouraging hard work with high taxation. It could be said that for those who genuinely fall on hard times get assistance (which im all for) but the system is set up now for too many to exploit. There are large sections of society who have no intention of looking for work as they know that after filling a few forms, they can get as much if not more from the government than they would going out to work. People should be rewarded for working hard not penalised.

Ill get off the soapbox now

Way too early to tell.


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Originally Posted by robchester

I just hate this welfare state which we have become. They are the d*ck Turpin of the modern day, discouraging hard work with high taxation. It could be said that for those who genuinely fall on hard times get assistance (which im all for) but the system is set up now for too many to exploit. There are large sections of society who have no intention of looking for work as they know that after filling a few forms, they can get as much if not more from the government than they would going out to work. People should be rewarded for working hard not penalised.

Ill get off the soapbox now

Effectively the welfare state was established with the NHS in 1948 and it' s difficult to see how this government have extended it I am not sure how this government have discouraged hard work with taxation as direct taxation has reduced under this government which has been to the benefit of those in work rather than those out of work because indirect taxation e.g Council tax, VAT are paid by people whether they are working or not.

Sure, there are some who scrounge but it's a very small number. In Leeds where iIwork the poulation is 750,000 there are 12,000 unemployed and about 31,000 on invalidity benefit/single parents. A significant proportion of the unemployed are very short on skills, have been brought up by parents (or more frequently parent) where there is no pattern of work.

Ther is a problem with the benefit and tax system not being properly unified so that people leaving benefit into low paid jobs are likely not to be much better off which, of course, creates the disincentive culture you refer to in your post, robchester. This applies most to people with a significant number of dependants and the trouble here with reducing rates of benefit is that it will lead to more children being brought up in poverty with low skills etc or if families are pressed too hard with children taken into care which is both extremely expensive for the taxpayer and ineffective. A nsignificnat number of young men in prison have been brought up in care.

I'll get ogg my soapbox now

Steve W - I simply don't believe that there are only 12K people unemployed in a town the size of Leeds. That might be all that are allowed to claim Jobseekers' Allowance but there will be many more turned away for whatever reason.

If I were in the U.K to cast my vote I see no reason why the basic principals I believe in would not see me vote for the same party. Labour are suffering not only for at times unpopular policy decisions but also for the fact that the novelty of the wind of change that they brought to the running of the country, has now been exhausted.

The Tories again will present the facade of a united party with a single aim,yet the reality will not be too different from that which we have seen before. It's not worth getting uptight about who is in government as, from regime to regime the guy in the street does not see a whole lot of real positive difference.

Perhaps pondering some of the major decisions taken by the present government,would a Tory version have done so many things that differently?

Originally Posted by Peter Henry

If I were in the U.K to cast my vote I see no reason why the basic principals I believe in would not see me vote for the same party.

But Peter - you voted with your feet

[Viney]

Blair is a bell end, Cameron looks like a bell end.

What we need is someone with some balls, and willing to stand thier ground and not be a puppet.

Brown looks ok for the roll, but then looks can be decieving. He would be good, but hes a financial man, who would replace him?

Portillio i think would be good for the conservs, but thats not gonna happen. Hauge was i think good, but wasnt given a fair run.

We need the new Queen of the Jungle to run for Prime minister