Healthcare is such an emotive subject that people let their political ideals get in the way of rational debate….choice is being thrown around by various MPs as a concept of allowing patients to choose where to go for treatment….they are doing what politicians always do and pandering to the public….when i pick people up to go hospital they often stipulate what A&E they want to go to, even if the closest one is literally just round the corner, this has been going on for as long as i’ve been in the job (11 years)….its not a new phenomenon….it is however a pain in the arse as people make choices about their treatment on such frivolities as which hospital in the area has the best food….or simply local gossip.
The public (in general) do not make well informed or well researched decisions, instead focusing on hearsay and choosing whatever their mate from work chose too.

As others have said, the way it will realistically happen (and already has been for about 10 years now!…keep up at the back) is that organisations (including the NHS) will bid to provide services in an area and generally use the staff and infrastructure that is already in place….this is the way it currently happens and the way its happened for as long as i’ve been with the NHS….it was happening under Labour too but its amusing to see people overlook that fact and paint this as a current Tory idea.

When my NHS trust lost the contract for non emergency ambulance journeys in the area it went to GSL (now G4S) and the new firm tranferred all staff across, bought the vehicles we’d been using and the service continued the next day as though there’d been no discernible change….GSL were able to offer a cheaper contract to the hospitals because they didnt have ambulance stations to maintain and they had about half the number of managers we are lumbered with in the NHS.

Same process happened with police custody duties in the area that Hampshire Ambulance (now south central) were covering. They lost the contract to a firm called Primecare who then lost the contract to G4S….each time the staff moved with whoever was providing the services and there was no discernible change to staff or the end user.

There are a huge amount of scare tactics spouted by people when this subject is broached, in reality if a private firm took over your local A&E tomorrow you would likely not notice any change in the service you received….you would see the same staff in there as had been there a few days earlier under NHS management….you would probably see the new firm’s logos everywhere but then the NHS plasters its logo everywhere too and there would undoubtedly be far less managers….this is a good thing, the biggest bill in my NHS trust is the wage bill so it makes sense to cut all the staff who are not essential for front line work, this is something the private sector is very good at and something the NHS struggles with….hence all the non jobs available in the NHS and the hugley inefficient use of frontline staff seconded onto desk job projects.

As somebody who works in the NHS i dont see the problem, due to the corporate manslaughter act and the generally litigious society we live in today, private firms who are already involved with NHS contracts know they cant deliver a sub par service or they will be bent over and royally shafted….and then lose their contract to a rival anyway.
Providing a poor service is not in their interest.

TJ – the NHS is the most efficient provider of healthcare in the world?….

….hahahahahahahahahahaha….hang on…..ahahahahahaha.

Right, got that out the way.

I work in the NHS, i also have a contract with a private firm doing similar work….the private firm is more efficient in just about every way.
My initial training course was far more comprehensive with the private firm, the private company employs exactly who it needs to employ…not whatever nonsense position some think tank or pointless government organisation tells it to employ….and the end result for the pt is of a higher standard too, why?….because staff in the private firm dont feel they are working as an insignificant cog in the behemoth that is the NHS, staff are motivated, there is a closer working relationship with senior managers in the private firm precisely because there isnt the proliferation of middle managers that the NHS is encumbered with….clinical staff are very much frontline staff and admin is taken care of by civilian employees….all things considered i enjoy the work i do for the private firm far more than my NHS work, the only thing keeping me in the NHS is the pension at the end of it.

To give you an example of how ‘efficient’ the NHS is, my trust employs somebody to visit the ambulance stations and report on how energy efficient they are….yes, this person DRIVES around the stations reporting on energy consumption!….we have registered Paramedics taken off road for months at a time to carry out projects and admin while frontline ambulances are left single manned or taken off road entirely because of low staffing levels….we have a 24 hour emergency service but only employ part time mechanics to maintain the fleet, when vehicles break down the pool of resources available to the public drops because there is nobody available to repair said vehicle….but its OK, we have a full time lesbian-bisexual-gay and transgender officer!

Trust me, the NHS is about as far from efficient as can be….although i am not in favour of privatisation as a whole, something does need to change, the NHS is unsustainable in its current guise unless everybody wants to pay more tax….for the same tax as we currently pay we could have a far better NHS if all the crap was cleared out and outdated working practices were changed.

Woody makes a good point, how many 60+ year olds will be physically able to do the work of a fire fighter, paramedic or police officer…actually any job that involves a fair degree of physical work?
For people in these careers who have moved on from front line work and are sat at a desk then its not so much of an issue but how effective (really) is a 65 year old fire fighter going to be?….or a 65 year old beat bobby?….almost comical isnt it when you think about it?

Got no probs with people in these jobs being pensioned of earlier than most.

No tough guy here, i’d shit myself if conscription was ever introduced….just perfectly comfortable with having a government and armed forces that do this kind of thing so i can get on with enjoying myself.

Gosh there are some people on here who really do over analyse things.

The world can be an unpleasant place, human nature has shown itself to be incredibly destructive over the years.

With this in mind i am more than happy with the UK having an aggressive foreign policy and mounting various foreign escapades to effect regime change that favours the UK or to secure oil supplies….its a dog eat dog world and i sleep like a baby knowing that the UK government is usually quite happy to crap on a weaker country in order to maintain this status quo.

Back to the original post, RIP McAleese….men of his ilk are awesome, totally unencumbered by the wishy washy morals the rest of us fret over.

Cheers anyway.

Will they work with my 9mm XT hubs?

I took the cassette off when i bought new wheels recently and then took each sprocket apart….i was amazed how much crap collects between each piece, gave it a good clean and its probably something i’ll do a couple of time a year now.

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Never found chain stretch to be an issue but then i dont ride fixies….the constantly adapting rear mech takes care of what minimal chain stretch you’ll get if you look after the drive train properly.

My bike is usually filthy but i’m OCD about the chain from years spent motorcycling.

Theres just something ‘right’ about a 120mm hardtail.

Simple, reliable, do it all….like a faithful old Labrador.

Eh?….i’ve had chains last years both on mountain bikes and motor bikes, all depends on how they’re looked after.

Never let it get rusty and cover it with lube/WD40/ACF50/GT85/grease etc and you wont go far wrong.

I have a Samsung MP3 player that has incredible sound quality, a deep rich bass that Apple products can only dream of….that said i also have an ipod because they are so convenient and hold loads of music….the Samsung item has only got 1GB of memory and was expensive in comparison to the lower end Apple products.

ipod = loads of memory, cheap.

Others = better sound, expensive.

When it was the old rule with each athlete getting 2 chances, the start of a race like the 100m could be painful to watch….with 8 athletes at the start there was the potential for 8 false starts before people started getting disqualified…often they were called back and reset, then reset again….then reset again, it was very annoying.

When they changed to a false start meaning a yellow card for everybody and the next person to false start was eliminated they got the balance just about right in my opinion.

The new rule whereby a false start automatically eliminates a competitor is awful….deprives the crowd, the sponsors etc….and the guy who won the 100m tonight will forever be told he only won because Usain Bolt was DQ’d….bad for the whole sport.

Could build it yourself?….i’m in the middle of collecting the parts to do just that.

Got a Kona Caldera frame and SLX 2×10 chainset so far, will be using the wheels from my current bike (Mavic EN521) and probably the brakes too…need to source some 120mm forks and then i’ll get building.

May i have a go on your wife?

NHS.

Hard to say which way this will go….on the one hand the population’s health is getting worse, we have the highest rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity and hypertension in europe so my job should be safe….on the other hand the NHS is simply unsustainable in its current guise unless people get used to the idea of paying a lot more tax.

Simple (but harsh method)

Get rid of centrally funded health care.
Reduce income tax and/or national insurance.
With the extra income people are now free to buy their own health care…obese poeple would get charged more so either wouldnt bother (no worries, death beckons) or cough up more to pay for their blood pressure meds, diabetes treatment, heart attack rehab etc etc….

All the time a fat person is cosseted by the NHS and told they have a ‘disease’ by the government then they have very little incentive to take any personal responsibility.

The OP is right to be disappointed with how the bike has held up.

He has gone about things incorrectly by taking matters into his own hands but should bearings and headsets be failing after 15 rides?

I doubt we’re talking Gee Atherton levels of riding here, probably the normal off roading that 99% of us do most of the time….i’d be hacked off too.

For comparison my £600 Trek 4-series has had nothing fail despite living outside and having been cleaned 3 times since May….i’m gobsmacked that people think its acceptable for the components on an £1800 bike to fail this early into its lifetime.

SS – summer season not single speed.

Thats just it though Elfinsafety, the aristocracy did fight their way up….just not in your life time or mine….thats why it is called ‘old money’ and bitching about it hundreds of years later is rather sad dont you think?

Are you proposing a system with no inherited wealth, whereby everybody starts from zero?….what would happen to somebody’s wealth after they die in that scenario?….no opportunity or means to pass things on to offspring seems very mean.

Like i said earlier, where do you draw the line?….do you stop my parents from leaving me their house?

Elfinsafety.

Yeah got the morals bit the wrong way round – typo, sorry.

Define earned?…hard to do, like i said in the previous post what constitutes ‘earned’ back then will be seen as theft by todays standards.

Some wealthy families made their money during Empire by exploiting people and resources from foreign countries…at the time it was seen as legit and nothing wrong with it…today its rightly frowned upon.
Conversely some ‘old money’ families have made a mint through legitimate means which would stand up to modern day scrutiny.

What i cant stand about so called modern and fair society is how bitter and spiteful people get about inherited money and the obsession with the class system.

I swapped from a set of folding to wired recently and honestly cant tell the difference…but then i’m a very average rider.

I tend to buy whatever is cheap or on offer at the time….hence my last two sets of tyres were Panaracer Cinder (folding) and Specialized Captain (wire bead) as they were £20 a pop.

Elfinsafety.

That was the way it was done then….appropriation of wealth that way today is rightly seen as abhorrent.

You are trying to apply the morals from hundreds of years ago to modern politics, it doesnt work.

Like is said, at some point ‘old money’ has been earned (however horribly by modern standards) and shouldnt just be taken away from somebody because of something their ancestors did….that just seems spiteful to me.

Ah good, every forum has one of these debates now and again.

I’m neither pro or anti monarchy but those who believe that abolishing the Monarchy will somehow create a sense of equality that has been missing from British society are surely being incredibly naive?

There are always haves and have nots….as others have said at what point do you draw the line?….my parents want to leave me their house, this is inherited wealth, why should i get their house just because of my birthright….is it fair that my mate whose parents dont own a house wont get one when they die?

If you go back far enough in British history you’ll find that the old aristocratic families got their estates by taking incredible risks during wars….sometimes by supporting the right pretender to the throne, sometimes by raising an army, often going into battle themselves….although their wealth and privilege now seems unfair you’ll find that at some point it was earned in the first place and then simply maintained and passed down from generation to generation….which i have no problem with.

I really like Ally McBeal and also Friends….

….no i’m not gay.

Drop The Dead Donkey was good, as was Big Train, The Fast Show was brilliant too….Newman & Baddiel was awesome.

I used Timpsons on my local high street….took a few minutes and they guaranteed it waterproof again afterwards….cost a tenner i think, depends how much your watch is worth to you i suppose?

Summer holidays were great, 6 weeks worth of having a laugh with your mates….whats not to like?
Dont understand why kids want their parents to ‘stimulate’ them the whole time….the summer holidays were a good excuse to get away from your parents and do your own thing each day even if it was just going round a mates house.

I reckon the total for my build will come in at less than a grand….cheap by the standards in here but its decent gear sourced at the best prices….all new too, there must be others like me?
The thought of spending more than £1500 on a bicycle seems like madness to me.

Did Prague as a lads weekend a few years ago now….thoroughly enjoyed it.

If you go to the city centre you will get lured into the big strip clubs and fleeced, the beer wont be that cheap and the girls will be trying the ‘hard sell’ tactics….unpleasant.

The food was great, the Czechs see themselves as an up and coming middle class nation and take pride in their food and drink….the beer in particular is world class.
In the first bar we went to they had Stella on draught which was about the same price as here….we quickly switched to the local brews which were nicer anyway and less than £1 for 500ml (pint is 568ml for reference).
The architecture is incredible…stark soviet style utilitarian buildings interspersed with classical Gothic buildings make for an incredible atmosphere when its all lit up in the evening.

We found a delightful strip club on the outskirts of the city which was small and cosy, the girls were stunning and didnt try the hard sell.
As 4 fairly polite young men we were a stark contrast to the boorish, older Germans that you find in a lot of the clubs and as a result the girls in the club spent most of the evening chatting to us between doing their turns on the stage….no money was exchanged and no hints at prostitution were made, we were perfect gentlemen and they seemed genuinely nice….so much so that when we enquired as to skiiing in the Czech republic they offered to take us out of the city the following day and show us some resorts, we took them up on the offer and again no money changed hands and nothing seedy was ever suggested….what i’m getting at is that if you go to somewhere like Prague looking to get pissed and shag whores then you’ll be treated as a money machine and fleeced accordingly….if you’re pleasant and normal you’ll have a far better time.

As a comparison i went to Riga the following year with one of the guys i went to Prague with but unfortunately he invited some of his uni mates who were intent on upholding the British lager lout stereotype and it was something i will never repeat.

Hoping to go back this year with the other half.

theman….very good but looks like a Nissan to me.

iDave, exactly….and then a rucksack weighing another several kilos on their back, water bottle, GPS/Computer on the bars etc etc….and then fret about whether they should buy lighter tyres or not!

So that they are seen to be doing something….the scourge of modern politics.

Very few of our parties actually garner the popular vote that would make sense to most of us….the electoral system is crap.

The last stats i saw had the population split about 50/50 for Labour/Conservative….with the smaller parties making up such a small number as to be almost non existent.

I believe one of the main parties had a majority recently despite winning less total votes than the opposition.

Like i said, vote them out, its voter apathy and people doggedly sticking to their beliefs (or usually who their parents voted for) that allows Westminster as a whole to get away with half the stuff they do.

Cookeaa, thankyou….voice of reason at last….start panicking folks if an election gets suspended not if bloody Twitter is suspended for a while due to rioting for christs sake.

FunkyDunc….agreed about the direction Singletrack magazine is heading….i probably bought it for the last time this month….it has become achingly trendy and an advertising rag for high end parts.

The journalistic pieces were painful too….that column from the try-hard who was banging on about current FS bikes being the be-all and end-all and anything old or nostalgic is crap was laugh out loud funny….sadly i think it was a serious piece though.

Exactly, always amuses me when somebody bangs on about weight when we’re talking about such tiny amounts….if you added 120g to my bike i wouldnt notice it!….even funnier when somebody harps on about how light their bike is then packs a rucksack full of crap to take on the ride….brilliant.

Then vote them out!

The single wisest thing i ever heard from a political commentator was an American chap saying that whichever party is in power should be voted out at the next election.

His reasoning was that parties spend their first term trying to win a second term and not actually doing much at all….then once in for a second term they become complacent….and never get round to actually doing the bidding of the electorate.

By giving them the constant fear of being voted out he reasoned that they would actually make use of the 5 years they had and the electorate would see some positive changes as it would drive home the message that politicians are public servants and should do what the electorate wants not what they themselves think is best.

Unfortunately in this country we foolishly elect a party and then cant get rid of them for the next 18 years or 11 years….is it any wonder they feel smug and powerful and then shit all over the electorate?

There’s a massive difference between the marches against public spending cuts, countryside alliance marches and the tuition fees protests etc and what happened recently….i dont remember the protesters from these (generally peaceful) marches taking to the streets for days, assaulting passers by, and looting their local high street….maybe i missed something?

Only a government wanting to commit political suicide would declare the tens of thousands attending a march against spending cuts as ‘criminals’ and then declare the incident a ‘riot’….they’d be out on their ear at the next election….i know most of them in Westminster act like pricks but give them some credit!

Massive over reaction (again) to anything the nasty Tories do eh?

Slightly different, we get to go to the polls every 4/5 years and boot them out….the countries with constantly restricted internet access usually dont have this luxury.