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've never had this fear of NHS being privatised exactly, and certainly some form of payment from those who can afford it cannot be a bad idea .... after all, if you can afford private health insurance, why should you not pay when you use the public service?

it's unlikely, but i'ld much rather see "pay when used" than an extra tax (extra NIC or hike in income tax) which would just disappear into the great maw of the treasury with no identifiable beneficiary

well done Max; you've learnt to read :-)

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

i wonder if your morrison's pig pie was made from real pork :-)
not even a trace of horse?

Apologies Cyners Stand Pies...............

Apologies Cyners Stand Pies...............

Again............

http://www.foodsofengland.co.uk/standpie.htm

Yep thats what I was meaning Cyners a small % to pay for hospital treatment, eg, white van man on say 60£ grand per annum surgery costs £6,000 he pays £600 or circa.

Obviously a lot more detail needed but that my idea , no taxes or extra NI and no foreigners shipped in and shipped out.

Something people can afford.

Try the French model for the NHS, works very well, superb treatment, but not free to all comers.

Why what is it Max please?

ah, you mean generic raised pies that could be game or chicken and ham or whatever ...... no, not a tradition i've ever come across except in edwardian households .... of course h'firth is a long way from modern civilisation ....
mind you, i'ld have thought that pukka pakoras and samosas would have taken over in your area by now :-)

No chance. What million pound houses.

They have down the road in Meltham but not here.

Nope its just a tradition suprised you didnt know about it, Lanchashire and others are the same.

Hey we were cut off from civilisation here last night until 10am this morning.......Great. No tourists.

Not sure about Freds neck of the woods??????

Hmmm FTSE looking ok for tomorrow so far as is dow.

Japs will spoil it.

Just half day tomorrow......... drat.

Back to the Misery.


Roll on monday.

my mother was a yorkshire lass and she certainly didn't bring that tradition with her when she married my dad
i don't recollect my grandmother (yorkshire) ever mentioning it either

dow very curious .....
cnn after hours shows dow futures down a further 41 points at 17941
however, IG is quoting cash dow as +19.5 at 17998


btw, cash ftse is quoted as +4.1 at 6553.4

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

anyway old chap, i'm off to bed to read, but shall no doubt converse tomorrow before golf at midday .... that'll be a joke after another hard frost, but it'll be good to get out

have to be organised though, as shall be cooking the beef when i get back, so def must remember to collect it in the morning!

Hmmm?

This stuff can only happen in America:

"A young woman was accidentally shot and killed by a 2-year-old boy she was shopping with today in an Idaho Walmart," police said. "It is unclear how the two are related."

Lt. Stu Miller of the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office said during a media briefing, "...that the boy pulled the handgun from the woman's purse and pulled the trigger."

So apparently, the young lady has a loaded handgun in her handbag, which is open and she goes into the Walmart store (Yes! It can only happen in a Walmart store, folks!) with a 2 yr old boy.

The safety catch of the gun is in the 'Off' position - which means you merely have to pull the trigger to immediately fire the gun. The 2 yr old boy reaches into the open bag, pulls out the gun and squeezes the trigger, shooting the young lady dead.

The store then closes for the day.

And it's onto the next.....

Hmmm? I wonder if the 2 yr old boy was fully (or only partly) trained in the use of handguns? Sounds like only partly to me. That's disgusting!

Yep IG showing that.

Id think IG was right and CNN still in holiday mode.

Anyway Cyners thats me done for now.


Got to put the horses to bed and get the dogs out.

See ya tomorrow Jimmy.

America - the land of guns, hamburgers, crap wine and watery Budweiser. The gun laws in America will never change as long as the NRA has so much influence.

By Peter Dominiczak, Political Editor
9:57PM GMT 30 Dec 2014
The former Labour prime minister criticises Ed Miliband's leadership of the party and warns that he has alienated British businesses

Ed Miliband will not win the general election because he has veered too far to the Left and has alienated British businesses, Tony Blair has said.

In a withering assessment of the Labour leader’s chances of becoming the next prime minister, Mr Blair suggested that Mr Miliband risks taking Labour back to the dark days of the 1980s and early 1990s, when the party suffered a series of heavy defeats to the Conservatives.

His comments will come as a major blow to Mr Miliband and come just five months before voters go to the polls in what is predicted to be the tightest general election in decades.

The former prime minister, the most electorally successful politician in Labour history, said that May’s general election risks becomes one in which a “traditional left-wing party competes with a traditional right-wing party, with the traditional result”.

Asked by the Economist magazine if he meant that the Conservatives would win the general election in those circumstances, Mr Blair replied: “Yes, that is what happens.”

Mr Miliband has repeatedly attempted to distance himself from Mr Blair and the New Labour movement, but has faced criticism for left-wing economic policies which some have argued are anti-business.

In a thinly-veiled condemnation of Mr Miliband’s leadership of the party, Mr Blair said that Labour “succeeds best when it is in the centre ground”.

“I am still very much New Labour and Ed would not describe himself in that way, so there is obviously a difference there,” Mr Blair said. “I am convinced the Labour Party succeeds best when it is in the centre ground”.

When asked what lessons he derives from his experience of election-winning, Mr Blair replied: “Not alienating large parts of business, for one thing.”

The Telegraph in October disclosed that Mr Blair had told long-standing political allies that Mr Miliband cannot beat Mr Cameron in the election.

Mr Blair’s intervention comes just one month after Mr Miliband faced a leadership crisis after a number of MP’s from his own party questioned his ability to win the election.

At least four backbenchers called on Mr Miliband to step down amid growing concerns he is leading Labour to a heavy defeat.

A number of MPs have accused Mr Miliband of being out of touch with ordinary Labour voters, particularly in the north of England.

Although Labour has a narrow lead over the Conservatives in most opinion polls, some Labour politicians are worried that lead will not survive ever more intensive Conservative attacks on Mr Miliband’s credibility in run-up to the election.

Allies of Mr Blair also fear that Mr Miliband is not doing enough to appeal to the centre-ground voters who gave the party three general election victories between 1997 and 2005.

Since leaving Downing Street in 2007, Mr Blair has made few direct interventions in British politics, spending much of his time abroad.

However, he has repeatedly hinted at his unhappiness with Mr Miliband’s stewardship of the Labour Party.

In July, he warned Mr Miliband about retreating into a left-wing “comfort zone” and said the party has not yet developed a “narrative that is about the future of the country.”

And he in November said that Labour must show a “strong political lead” if it wants to form a majority in 2015.

A Labour Party source said: “[Tony Blair has] made it abundantly clear on several occasions he wants and expects Labour to win under Ed Miliband.”

Tories to be exposed in new year.

Tory peado members to be exposed early 2015.

Why wait, why not now?

gf.

A brief overview of the French healthcare system:

http://about-france.com/health-care.htm


It doesent include all the bells and whistles or the drawbacks, but it will give you some idea of how it works.

But the real difference is that it is not open to abuse like the nhs.