Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

i dare say most miners or steelworkers would rather have stayed in those industries too, but life isn't like that and times and circumstances move on

however, i'm quite surprised how LOW the % quoted is for those self-employed for 5 years, and that then drops away significantly as further time elapses .... so what does that tell you?

not a convincing article at all, but then it was primarily about creating an attention-grabbing headline than content

Here is an item for believers in conspiracies

All Passengers of Missing Flight MH370 Alive? Russian Intelligence Claims Plane Hijacked by Terrorist Called ‘Hitch’, Landed in Afghanistan

Russian intelligence sources have claimed that all passengers and crew members aboard the missing Malaysian Flight MH370 are alive and the plane was, in fact, hijacked and flown to Afghanistan. (Also Read: MH370's Co-pilot Made Mid-Flight Call from Mobile Phone)

A source in Russian's FSB secret service has reportedly said that the plane was hijacked and flown close to the Afghan-Pakistan border and all people aboard the plane are currently being held hostage.

The intelligence source provided the data to a correspondent of a Russian newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets.

"Flight MH370 malaysia Airlines missing on 8 March with 239 passengers was hijacked. Pilots are not guilty; the plane was hijacked by unknown terrorists. We know that the name of the terrorist who gave instructions to pilots is "Hitch." The plane is in Afghanistan not far from Kandahar near the border with Pakistan," the source was quoted as saying.

The Russian newspaper has said that the passengers have been divided into seven groups and are living in mud huts with almost no food, according to Daily Star.

The report said that 20 passengers who were Asian have been smuggled into a bunker in Pakistan. It is also claimed that the terrorists are possibly seeking to bargain with either America or China.

The news, however, has not been confirmed by authorities either in Malaysia or China and must be taken with caution as there are no credible evidence to prove that this is what has happened. Also, the news cannot be independently verified due to the anonymity of the source to the Russian newspaper.

cynic - 16 Apr 2014 07:45 - 39612 of 39622

i am very fond of oysters and lobster, but even the idea of having to eat them day after day would quickly pall the appetite......................ends

well you, you prawn posted more political posts than anybody yesterday.!!!!!!!!

MaxK - 16 Apr 2014 08:02 - 39613 of 39623

So where is the money going?

Britain has fewer hospital beds than most European countries, OECD says.........ends

syphoned off to private companys, thats where the money is going.

But a Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Bed numbers are not an accurate marker for good care. The NHS is treating people quicker than ever, and more care is being delivered in the community, so far fewer need to stay overnight – which is often better for patients who prefer being at home.

‘Hospitals are also better managing bed capacity to cope with balancing peaks in demand for routine and emergency care.’

yesterday was an oyster and lobster day :-) ..... and it was actually enjoyable and interesting too, and not one of those silly knockabouts

======================

‘Hospitals are also better managing bed capacity to cope with balancing peaks in demand for routine and emergency care.’
but that can also mean shovelling patients out the door asap, and perhaps prematurely
admittedly we now have a far larger population and there have been huge advances in medical care and technique, but unless i am much mistaken, new mothers (for example) get booted out the next day, whereas in the past, they'ld have spent 2/3/4 days in hospital

gf, I believe when Labour threw cartloads of money at the NHS the bulk of it went on higher salaries for senior management, patients and nurses saw very little benefit.
2517

Inflation drop doesn’t mean wages will rise
16
Wednesday
Apr 2014
Posted by Mike Sivier in Business, Cost of living.


‘For the privileged few’: If you’re earning the average wage of £26,500 per year, or less, then nothing George Osborne says will be relevant to you.

Why are the mainstream media so keen to make you think falling inflation means your wages will rise?

There is absolutely no indication that this will happen.

If you are lucky, and the drop in inflation (to 1.7 per cent) affects things that make a difference to the pound in your pocket, like fuel prices, groceries and utility bills, then their prices are now outstripping your ability to pay for them at a slightly slower rate. Big deal.

The reports all say that private sector wages are on the way up – but this includes the salaries of fatcat company bosses along with the lowest-paid office cleaners.

FTSE-100 bosses all received more pay by January 8 than average workers earn in a year. Their average annual pay rise is 14 per cent. Bankers get 35 per cent. These are all included in the national private sector average of 1.7 per cent, which means you get a lot less than the figures suggest.

Occasional Chancellor George Osborne said: “These latest inflation numbers are welcome news for families.” Why? Because they aren’t sinking into debt quite as fast as they were last month? They’re great news for the fatcats mentioned above, along with MPs, who are in line to get an inflation-busting 11 per cent rise; but as far as families are concerned, rest assured he’s lying again.

“Lower inflation and rising job numbers show our long-term plan is working, and bringing greater economic security,” he had the cheek to add. Employment has risen, although we should probably discount a large proportion of the self-employed statistics as these are most likely people who’ve been encouraged to claim tax credits rather than unemployment benefits and will be hit with a huge overpayment bill once HMRC finds out (as discussed in many previous articles).

The problem is, Britain’s economic performance has not improved in line with the number of extra jobs. If we have more people in work now than ever before in this nation’s history, then the economy should be going gangbusters – surging ahead, meaning higher pay for everybody and a much bigger tax take for the government, solving its debt reduction problem and ensuring it can pay for our public services – right?

We all know that isn’t happening. It isn’t happening because the large employment figures are based on a mixture of lies and low wages. The economy can’t surge forward because ordinary people aren’t being paid enough – and ordinary working people are the ones who fuel national economies; from necessity they spend a far higher percentage of their earnings than the fatcats and it is the circulation of this money that generates profit, and tax revenues.

Osborne compounded his lies by adding: “There is still much more we need to do to build the resilient economy I spoke of at the Budget.” He has no intention of doing any such thing. He never had.

Conservative economic policy is twofold, it seems: Create widescale unemployment in order to depress wages for those who do the actual work and boost profits for bosses and shareholders; and cut the national tax take to ensure that they can tell us the UK cannot afford a welfare state, opening the door for privatised medicine and private health and income insurance firms.

This is why, as has been discussed very recently, leaders of the Margaret Thatcher era including Nicholas Ridley and Keith Joseph determined that the defeat of the workers would require “the substantial destruction of Britain’s remaining industrial base” (according to ‘The Impact of Thatcherism on Health and Well-Being in Britain’). It is, therefore, impossible for George Osborne to seek to build any “resilient economy” that will improve your lot, unless you are a company boss, banker, or shareholder.

The plan to starve the public sector, as has been repeated many times on this blog, has been named ‘Starving the Beast’ and involves ensuring that the tax take cannot sustain public services by keeping working wages so low that hardly any tax comes in (the Tory Democrat determination to raise the threshold at which takes is paid plays right into this scheme) and cutting taxes for the extremely well-paid (and we have seen this take place, from 50 per cent to 45. Corporation tax has also been cut by 25 per cent).

This is why Ed Balls is right to say that average earnings are £1,600 per year less than in May 2010, why Labour is right to point out that the economy is still performing well below its height under Labour…

… and why the government and the mainstream media are lying to you yet again.

sticky - are spanish, french, belgian or even german (just a random list) better places to be?
i don't think that's quite the right question either, as it should be more slanted to whether or not it is free, the care more caring and so on and so forth
it's not nearly as simple as you might like to pretend

that said, there is more assuredly an awful lot wrong with nhs, but i don't think it's anything like just chucking several £bn into the pot either

cynic
When my two were born, my wife was back next day with the first and back the same day about 5 hours after the second. Both born at University College H as I was. When I was born, the same year as you I think, my mother was in hospital for at least a week which was normal.

MONDAY, 14 APRIL 2014

Every major chunk of your NHS offered to Private Health listed here. A massive £15 billion quid's worth.................................

http://www.greenbenchesuk.com/

One of the big changes in hospital care is the number of day procedures such as hernia. These used to require a stay and now patients go home afterwards. The UK is a leader in such treatments and this would reduce the need for beds.

Well ask yourself Cyners where is the NHS going when the government is syphoning it all off to their mates??????.

What will it be like in 5 years time if this rate of sell off above in the drop down list carrys on.

Dont listen to Hays he wants an economy based on pure capitalism not responsible capitalism.

sticky .....
what is the total nhs budget?
it may well be that nhs gets good value for money having tendered out these procedures ...... for all sorts of reasons .... do you have proof to the contrary, or are you just on one of your customary "bashing crusades"?

you also seem to glibly assume that the top consultants etc would like to work in nhs full time (or at all), which of course is not the case and for all sorts of reasons

Cyners go on the list and scroll to the right, it gives you the details of the contract.

And yes I dont want the NHS sold off to third partys who can hold the government to ransom.

Lets face it does this government have a good record with third partys eg ATOS etc etc.

I dont think so.

And if top consultants dont want to work for the NHS I can tell you now they can go F off, theirs plenty to take their places.

DWP Block Report To Cover Up Work Programme Shambles
Posted on April 16, 2014 by johnny void

IDS-slugThe DWP are refusing to release an evaluation of the floundering £6 billion pound Work Programme despite the report having recently featured on Channel 4 news.

The evaluation is believed to be critical of the Work Programme and in particular benefit sanctions, warning that they found: “no conclusive evidence that sanctions were changing job search behaviour or increasing job entry rates.”

A Freedom of Information request asking to see the report has today been refused by the DWP on the grounds that they plan to publish it at an unspecified later date (PDF). The evaluation was scheduled to be released in the Summer of last year.

This is not the first time the DWP have treated Freedom of Information (FOI) rules with contempt in a shoddy effort to conceal what’s really going on, and wrong, with the department. A ruling by the Information Commissioner;s Office (ICO) ordering the release of the names of charities benefiting from free labour under the Mandatory Work Activity (MWA) scheme has been completely ignored. A second ICO ruling (PDF) ordering the DWP to confirm whether a charity was involved in workfare was issued last month, and has so far been snubbed. The DWP were found in breach of the FOI again (PDF) at the end of last month when they were slammed in a ruling for not taking the reasonable steps required to clarify another request relating to Mandatory Work Activity.

The DWP have claimed that if the public were allowed to know who is using workfare then the scheme might collapse. They pretend this would stop people benefiting from the ‘disciplines’ that workfare offers and may even harm the economy. After all, if people knew that household names such as The Salvation Army, the YMCA, Groundwork and The Conservation Volunteers were all forcing people to work without pay then they might decide these charities were a bunch of wankers and never give them a penny again.

There is no such excuse for refusing to release an evaluation into the Work Programme however – a report produced with our money. The only person likely to look like a wanker if people see this document is Iain Duncan Smith himself who is still pretending how wonderful the Work Programme is. The Work Programme statistics already show the scheme is a disaster and steadily getting worse. No doubt the DWP hope they can hide just how much of a wanker Iain Duncan Smith actually is until after the next election. But it’s too late. Everybody knows.


Posted on April 16, 2014 by johnny void

sticky .... you didn't answer the key (NHS) questions i asked; you just glided past them as if they were irrelevant, which of course they are not

as for top quality consultants, there patently are NOT a bundle of same just floating about wondering what to do with their time, so don't be so silly

and as i wrote originally, it may well be that NHS not only thinks but is actually getting good value for money for at least a large proportion of the work that is tendered out, and there can be any number of reasons for that
do you have the knowledge to counter that?
of course you don't and indeed you would not be expected to, any more than i do

The problem with I see with private companies running "sections" of the NHS is that they are doing it for profits which could be utilised by the NHS itself rather than into the pockets of "company owners" at the expense of the tax payer and at detriment to other NHS Service.

Also, the biggest sections are being cherry picked.

There is no reason which I can see, why management on publicly owned company should be better or worse than a private company.

But I do see the necessity for some areas of management to have a relatively high number those with a background in Public and Preventative Medicine.


-----------------


The rush to privatising all aspects of "business", tends to be built on false ideology and often in hope of personal gain or advantage.

.

fred - you are not necessarily correct as intimated in my previous post

almost as an aside ...... many if not most consultants split their time between NHS and private - and indeed, why should they not do so
however, from the handful of consultants that i happen to talk to at my golf club - we have many medics there - they are pretty cheesed off with the treatment they get from NHS, and for reasons that sound valid to me