UK Election!

Nothing to do with class, just treating them like the business they are and subjecting them to the same taxes. I would also remove their charitable status as none of them do ore than a token gesture to justify being a charity.

I 90% agree with Labour’s policy but in fairness…aren’t there lots of things that are 0% or 5% VAT rated even when provided by for-profit businesses cause they’re in a special category of Good Things e.g. healthcare (physios, GP services, dentistry…) and other forms of private education (music lessons, Kumon clubs, special education tuition), tampons…

VAT is much more about what the product is than who manufactures it, isn’t it…?

Charitable status is a different one obvs. But it seems like the main difference is 80% business rates exemption. Is that a big deal or not? I don’t know how this stuff works

@ernielynch

Are you actually being serious or was that intended as casual hyperbole?

I am being serious.

Evan Harris, to use your example, has never completed his training, and so has no real experience of being a doctor in the NHS other than as a trainee. And he’s definitely not a GP, so is unlikely to have any insight into what it takes to be a GP.

heard it as some leasehold reform was going through but not the ban om no fault evictions

No fault eviction will remain. There are going to be a lot of Tory rental investments with tenants to be evicted and sold

are you on crack.

Have you seen the prices these days? Crack is VAT-rated at 20%.

It’s an exception, but one of 650 constituencies is hardly a large one.

Farage only ever one one seat, and look where that got us.

So all those ordinary, average earning families who’s only hope of a decent school for the kids was scrimping, no holidays, no new car, make do and mend, to get them in a fee paying school will now be priced out of the sector and will have to find places in state schools (funded by taxes)

How “average earning” do you need to be to have £30k* to spare?

£30k is more than the average UK net full time wage!

*assuming 2 kids and you’re not picking a favorite.

GP: Not an urgent care service. If you’re that poorly, that you need to see someone quickly; hi thee to A&E.

Sort of.

But A&E aren’t setup to deal with someone coming in with some random symptoms that need a blood test to rule out cancer and a week could be a long time in a cancer diagnosis.

Or even something relatively minor that’s keeping you off work. Your employer might pay you sick pay to be at home with a bad back until you get some painkillers and a chiropractor. But that’s a huge economic cost when you consider the GP is seeing hundreds of patients a week.

The tax breaks for kids at public schools are greater than the per capita spend on kids at state schools and ofcourse many of those benefits are bestowed on the kids of foreign plutocrats. Sending all kids to their local schools would benefit everyone.

a week could be a long time in a cancer diagnosis.

Honestly, not really. And if it were they’d be sick enough to need admission to hospital anyway.

This is part of the problem of people not really understanding the role of a GP.

Or even something relatively minor that’s keeping you off work. Your employer might pay you sick pay to be at home with a bad back until you get some painkillers and a chiropractor. But that’s a huge economic cost when you consider the GP is seeing hundreds of patients a week.

There are very few, if any, things like that. Most things just need time to get better.

ofcourse many of those benefits are bestowed on the kids of foreign plutocrats.

There would be an argument for keeping the VAT exemption for private education provided to foreigners by UK businesses: it’s effectively an export of services. Come to think of it, universities don’t charge VAT either…

lolsalot at the private schools post

nice fishin.

Sort of.

There’s a subtle difference between being seen urgently and urgent care. If a GP needs to see you urgently then that’s probs a triage/symptom decision, and most GPs will have a same day appt set aside for it. If you need urgent care, a GP will probs send you down to A&E/minor injuries anyway, so you may as well cut out the middleman.

If you have a droopy face, if you’ve had a seizure, chest pains, shortness of breath/can’t breathe, bleeding enough to make a puddle. Go directly to A&E. You’d probs be surprised how many times a week I have to tell patients that.

Now up to 75 tories standing down

I heard it as some leasehold reform was going through but not the ban om no fault evictions

Yes, that’s what I heard at stupid o’clock this morning, too.

So they’re still pandering to the owners of properties but those who rent from them can do one as there are less votes in it, is how I translate that.

I doubt it if giving pats ‘legal rights’ to demand appts is what they have in mind.

I have to confess that I haven’t studied the details of the LibDem policy but is there any evidence that the right to a GP appointment within 7 days would be specific to a surgery?

There is currently a legal right to see a GP and/or access NHS care but as far as I am aware no one has the right to be seen by a specific GP surgery.

As I understand it the LibDem policy seeks simply to put a timeframe on an existing legal right. Which to most people probably sounds reasonable. We are after all talking about 7 days ffs, pre-thatcher you didn’t even need to make an appointment to see your GP.

Pleasantly surprised. Not sure if that was just luck or the Scottish surgeries are fairing better than down south.

Pretty much my/our experience down here, using a surgery that also gets a lot of grief from the local muppets on SM. Phone them, they decide what kind of priority you are, phone or face to face appointment, you get seen or directed to pharmacy/more appropriate service.

I don’t know if my expectations are low, or if other people don’t understand that GPs operate a different approach to 20-30 years ago, or maybe I’m incredibly fortunate.

There are going to be a lot of Tory rental investments with tenants to be evicted and sold

Probably so they can emigrate 😉

I 90% agree with Labour’s policy but in fairness…aren’t there lots of things that are 0% or 5% VAT rated even when provided by for-profit businesses cause they’re in a special category of Good Things e.g. healthcare (physios, GP services, dentistry…) and other forms of private education (music lessons, Kumon clubs, special education tuition), tampons…

I think the logic was “essential” things rather than “good” things (although cake is 0 rated!).  VAT on medicines/healthcare/medical devices is properly complicated and confusing!

Charitable status is a different one obvs. But it seems like the main difference is 80% business rates exemption. Is that a big deal or not? I don’t know how this stuff works

Its a huge issue.  The rates for a typical private school would be eye watering.  But it will also impact on stuff they buy – shiny new kit bought by a charity school will potentially be cheaper than the same stuff bought by a local authority school!

BUT there’s probably a bigger issue in terms of the scope of charities too.  e.g. if your local “council” gym is outsourced to an “arm length organisation” it is probably because it is a charity and benefits exactly the same as private schools do where as a council running it would not!  Probably be better to let local council be vat registerred with similar beneifts to being a charity!

Councils don’t pay VAT, well they do but then claim it back.

pre-thatcher you didn’t even need to make an appointment to see your GP.

Pre Thatcher, there wasn’t the levels of mental health problems, of substance abuse, hypertension, obesity, T2D or other fun LT chronic disease issues there is now though.

I think pats should be able to see a clinician* in a decent time frame, I think they should have a prescription issued in  reasonable time frame, and perhaps even see the same GP for their health issues. I also think that if you want that, then we also need to educate folks about food, and alcohol better and tax them more highly so that folks are dissuaded from abusing them , we should regulate what goes in food, and so on. Starting at the wrong end of the issue (by the time folks are sick enough to need a doctor) isn’t gong to make these chronic diseases go away.

*not necessarily a GP

On the issue of private education I’m with grimep, I agree that it shouldn’t be the preserve of the wealthy. Decent education should be a right, not a privilege.

So it’s time that a privilege for a select few was abolished.

Even Labour Party right-wingers have struggled to justify private education in the past.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hattersley-hits-at-private-schools-1575871.html

perhaps even see the same GP for their health issues

Sorry to disagree with you here, but not “perhaps”.

Continuity of care has been shown time and time again to be the best way to add value to healthcare systems. We lose that at our expense. It should be a fundamental of primary care, not a “nice to have”. And it is the opposite to what we currently are aiming for.

Pre Thatcher, there wasn’t the levels of mental health problems, of substance abuse, hypertension, obesity, T2D or other fun LT chronic disease issues there is now though.

That woman had a lot to answer for!

*not necessarily a GP

Again no. Needs to be a GP and that’s what we should be aiming for. GPs are equally or more cost effective than other professions and it goes back to continuity of care being the way that primary care adds value.

I’ve worked in too many practices that rely on locum and agency GP to make up the sessions to think that its achievable with the work-force we have currently though. Otherwise, I don’t disagree with you.

Based on the mental state of my GP wife and the heavily redacted post work debrief, I’m not sure why anyone does that job. Of the little she could tell me, this week was fairly harrowing even as a listener never mind being first hand.

The British public need their health sorting before it gets to the point of seeing a doctor.

This thread was a timely reminder to make sure I was registered to vote postally(?) and I have used the website to do that today. Amazingly, it was easy to use.

+1 to that.  Took a bit of going around in circles to get the start point but once on it it was easy to both register as an overseas voter and apply for a postal vote even before the registration was confirmed.  Just to make life easy for anyone else looking, the overseas voter start point is exactly the same as for a UK voter even though the election site seems to imply it is a different process
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

I enjoy my job, it’s rewarding.

However I only work three days a week and am good at negotiating and maintaining boundaries at work. Not all my colleagues are so lucky.

Sunaks election definitely has a watery theme

https://x.com/JAHeale/status/1793992596890497230?t=8dejidTO63QifaN9aYWaaA&s=19

On the issue of private education I’m with grimep, I agree that it shouldn’t be the preserve of the wealthy. Decent education should be a right, not a privilege.

So it’s time that a privilege for a select few was abolished.

I could not agree more!

I’ve worked in too many practices that rely on locum and agency GP to make up the sessions to think that its achievable with the work-force we have currently though.

It’s not. We need to retain GPs and for it to be possible to work at it full time, and that’ll cost a lot of money up front. But at the moment we’re applying short term solutions that are actually making things worse in the long run.

My issue with private education is that selective education seems to benefit those who are selected at the cost for those who are not.

However I only work three days a week

My GP only works one and a half days a week which adds a tad to his availability. But I value the continuity of care which you referred to and that stops me going elsewhere.

That plus the fact that we are of a similar age and can compare the perils of getting old.

Sunaks election definitely has a watery theme

Is Starmer actually arranging Rishis schedule?

its amazing really

Day0 A dead eyed Sunak u-turns & calls a GE in a torrential downpoor drowned out by D-Ream/Steve Bray

Day1 Sunak gets caught out taking staged qs from Tory councilors dressed as warehouse workers, fails to organise a footy chat in a brewery

Day2 (so far) Sunak has to ditch all his flagship policies (including Martyn’s law, who’s mum he’d promised way back on Day0 would pass b4 summer) CCHQ asks for 100 replacement MPs b4 bank holiday & Sunak tries a relaunch at the place they launched the Titanic

Day32 With the polls showing cons as the likely 5th party & most Tory MPs left on holiday, Outside Downing St , Sunak riding on the shoulders of a bare chested Gullis challenges Starmer to a joust live on TV each night for 6 consecutive nights

its amazing really

Day0 A dead eyed Sunak u-turns & calls a GE in a torrential downpoor drowned out by D-Ream/Steve Bray

Day1 Sunak gets caught out taking staged qs from Tory councilors dressed as warehouse workers, fails to organise a footy chat in a brewery

Day2 (so far) Sunak has to ditch all his flagship policies (including Martyn’s law, who’s mum he’d promised way back on Day0 would pass b4 summer) CCHQ asks for 100 replacement MPs b4 bank holiday & Sunak tries a relaunch at the place they launched the Titanic

Meanwhile Starmer doesn’t make any news & people don’t really know what he’s about so on election day vote blue cos they’ve not seen Starmer in the news for the past 6 weeks.

Day32 With the polls showing cons as the likely 5th party & most Tory MPs left on holiday, Outside Downing St , Sunak riding on the shoulders of a bare chested Gullis challenges Starmer to a joust live on TV each night for 6 consecutive nights

I reckon Starmer’d win if it came to a kick-up – Sunak might be younger but he’s got no balls, he’d cry if you hit him. I’m not saying Starmer’s Muhammad “I’m hard” Bruce Lee but I reckon there’s more to him.

Outside Downing St , Sunak riding on the shoulders of a bare chested Gullis challenges Starmer to a joust live on TV each night for 6 consecutive nights

This image made me chuckle far more than it should…

Meanwhile Starmer doesn’t make any news & people don’t really know what he’s about so on election day vote blue cos they’ve not seen Starmer in the news for the past 6 weeks.

The Venn diagram of who owns most of this lot and who’s a Tory might be hard to spot because it’s a decent circle.

src=”addictivetips.com/app/uploads/2019/11/03_Who-owns-the-news-in-the-UK.png”

I thought Rishi Sunak sounded quite buoyant yesterday.

Well, he’ll soon put that right.

Why in God’s name would you visit Titanic Quarter https://t.co/jZTHWLgtzg
— James Heale (@JAHeale) May 24, 2024

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How does one post up twitter links now they’ve gone full x.com?

Ohhh FFS, I can’t embed images.

Basically you can waste a few minutes of your life squinting a this trying to spot the Lefties in the Guardian and extrapolate from that why you never hear about the Labour party.

addictivetips.com/app/uploads/2019/11/03_Who-owns-the-news-in-the-UK.png