Brown's spend, spend, spend during his Chancellor's days has brought us into the current economy we are facing today. His appeal at a Downing Street meeting for the lenders to pass on cuts appeared to fall on deaf ears with HBOS, which owns the Halifax, increasing its rate on some mortgages from 6.09 to 6.59 per cent. Borrowers taking out this type of deal will now pay 46 more a month. On a two-year tracker, the rate will increase from 1.49 points above base rate to 1.99 points, giving a current rate of 6.99 per cent.

Other lenders are expected to follow Halifaxs lead.

If the Government wants the banks to lower mortgage rates to home owners - why not just offer them through Northern Rock? Everyone would rush to the Rock to get the loans forcing banks to match the rates or lose the business? Or maybe the government would then run into bigger credit crunch?

lol, the waste is immense plus immpigration disaster, pensions robbed, crime failure with all the stabbings and shootings and no police around, education failure as country full of thickos.....do i need to go on.....oh yeah and all the corruption from blair, mandelson, geoffrey robinson, tessa jowell etc etc

Fred , I have no axe to grind on behalf of the Conservative Party - any comments I make here are my own personal experience. Look at shifty Osborne this morning over the Russki affair

10 years ago we had a Bobby on the beat here and no hooligans. Now we have no Bobby and my neighbourhood is rife with drunken hooligans and boy racers.
10 years ago I could get an appointment with my GP within 3 days now most times its 3 weeks
Last year I was supposed to go into my local large hospital for an operation - every ward had cases of MRSA and my op was cancelled and still not been done.

can another party do any better , I do not know

A lot of your comments are true geordiebut let us not forget the Major Government is on record as being the worst in living memoryand if you want to mention corruption there is only one winner there!.Majors men and women! The next Tory PMCameron.is sixpence short of a shillingnot a great future I fear!.trust me Im not on Browns sidejust a little more realistic.

major got blamed for things like cash for questions.....how much was that....1000 quid or something quite trivial.

how much was geoffey robinson under suspicion for.....from memory i think it was 12 million!!!! then theres cherie blair's house from an aussie convict foster. u only have to go into labour run areas and u know immediately u r in one as they r usually sh?tholes as hardly a soul gives a damn

Cameron's is/was a junkie ... apparently.

is that true? u wouldnt think either by looking at him

Ask him.

Mad,

"10 years ago I could get an appointment with my GP within 3 days now most times its 3 weeks
Last year I was supposed to go into my local large hospital for an operation - every ward had cases of MRSA and my op was canceled and still not been done."

Delays in GP and hospital appointments were appalling 10 years ago, mainly due to poor organization, lazy professionals and also the abuses by some consultants in favour of their private practices.

There is absolutely no reason for having more than a 2-3 day delay in obtaining an appointment to see a GP and I believe anybody with an acute onset of disease should receive and appointment for that day. (Especially children.) But doing so needs organisation

MRSA is beginning to be successfully contained and possibly eradicated, but a lot of these problems are/were due to the outsourcing of cleaning services to the private sector, under the influence of the previous conservative governments.

And trying to apply capitalist economics, without understanding of the hospital procedures and environment etc.. If they had concentrated on improving the management and chain of professional responsibility they would have been more successful.

The NHS is still inefficient and in some cases still badly organised, but the resolution of the problems is to address the specifics and not to outsource.

Can you explain to my GP Fred why it shouldn't ake me three weeks to get an appointment? I'm afraid that's the case right now and has been for a number of years.

Have you died of anything yet pt ?

Stop wasting his time then.

:-)

Dil :-))

to tell the truth , I have come to the conclusion that its all those bastards not dying thats causing the appointments problem

Dil :-)

Sorry I am a little late getting back Geordiebeen out for a pint and a little late getting back.now where was we scandal and corruption?
In 1993 Major began the "Back to Basics" campaign it was interpreted by many (including Conservative cabinet ministers) as an attempt to revert to the moral and family values that the Conservative Party were often associated with.. "Back to Basics". however, became synonymous with scandal -- often exposed by Tabloid newspapers .. David Mellor. a cabinet minister was exposed as having an extramarital affair. The wife of the Earl of Caithness committed suicide amongst rumours of the Earl committing adultery David Ashby was 'outed' by his wife after sleeping with men. A string of other conservative MPs including Alan Amos. Tim Yeo. and Michael Brown all were involved in sexual scandals.. There was also the spectacularly bizarre autoerotic death of Stephen Milligan..Other debilitating scandals included "Cash for Questions". in which it was revealed that several Conservative MPs had been given money by Mohamed Al Fayed to ask questions in the House of Commons.. Graham Riddick. David Tredinnick Tim Smith and Neil Hamilton were all exposed in the scandal. Later David Willetts resigned as Paymaster General after he was accused of rigging evidence to do with Cash for Questions.Defence Minister Jonathan Aitken (whose Parliamentary Aide was Stephen Milligan) was accused of secretly doing deals with leading Saudi princes.. He denied all accusations and promised to wield the "sword of truth" in libel proceedings which he brought against the Guardian newspaper. At an early stage in the trial however it became apparent that he had lied on oath with the result that he was subsequently convicted of perjury and sentenced to a term of imprisonment.add to that Major shagged Edwina Curry.and Archer shagged his whole party.and you have a group of individuals running our Country that couldnt run a hundred yards with a tale wind!

PHolden, If you have a acute possibly dangerous condition, you can ask for and emergency consultation and under his rule and regs he has to see you that day. You are entitled to camp down in his premises until he does so.

But as I stated the delay is due to the ineptitude of the GPs concerned or his/her arrogance or indifference.

Oh Fredpotty aint turned up on here as well? .and he has got a dangerous condition its calledplum stuck in gob syndrome

Fred, whilst not disagreeing with what you say with regard to an acute condition or emergency, the simple fact is that for whatever reason it takes a ridiculous time to see your GP, three weeks is the norm in my area.

Incidentally, Tabasco should go and see his own GP about that huge chip sitting on his shoulder, but doubt it would do any good.

Our doctor will phone you back within an hour or so and then decide if you warrant seeing that day and not leave it up to the receptionist as many do.

Dilyour doctor wears paint a mask.and bangs a drum.medication normally consists of antelope horn powder.particularly good for Loss of Libido in Women

No she don't ... bit of a looker in fact :-)

Your not denying the antelope horn powder for the wife!