Sounds like lots of other folk struggling to get 34/34 trousers over their legs.

When it warms up a bit and you need to get yourself some smart summer chinos go to Gant. Tailored and straight legged and not horrible baggy arsed rubbish you see everywhere.

TandemJeremy – Member
how old are you? anything over 28 forget it

Jeremy……you’re doing it again.

The answer to the question is Edwin

http://www.edwin-europe.com/mens_denim.php

Edwin Nashville are jeans for grown up men. Dark indigo, no stupid attachments, regular highish waist so your backside doesnt hang out the back. Regular straight fit, skinny jeans are a disaster.

If you are in London they sell them in Son of a Stag in Brick Lane, think Selfridges might have them. From Japan of all places but for some reason they fit rugby sized lads too.

You can park all day at Highgate tube for £4, prob want to get there before 0900 so maybe tight. Otherwise drive down to our place in Crouch End, we’ve got day passes for the CPZ, doesnt cost you anything. From Crouch End its a fast bus to Finsbury Park, then Victoria or Picadilly Line to the West End, will take about half hour.

Why dont you just say you are right wing, pro choice and think competition makes everything better for everyone.

Socially liberal, economically conservative rather than “right-wing” but yes definately pro market choice. A lot of people are you know.

Oh and thanks for the aggression and abuse. I’d take it seriously if I could understand what you are on about.

all of whom ( should be) cooperative and share knowledge and experience to bring everything to the best standard so are offering the same “product” at the same price hence its a natural monopoly.

Introduce competition and you remove the cooperation and drive down standards

Well thats not the same thing as saying healthcare cant operate with competition. You’re just saying you dont like competition per se. We know TJ that you prefer collectivist solutions to pretty much any issue, but that doesnt get you anywhere. You might as well just say you want to turn the clock back to 1979 and take the country back to closed shops and an economy dominated by state monopolies.

So you think Britain should look at the Singapore model because of that ?

Unfortunately I reckon most people might not be bothered by your personal experiences

No, but you asked why I brought up Singapore. Thats why, my own personal experience. You might not be bothered by it but it’s my opinion which I formed all by myself. I’d rather not be told what to do by you or anyone else.

I dont know how anyone could seriously consider healthcare a monopoly. If I needed say a hernia done, how many hospitals in London could my GP recommend? 10?…..20?

You and other health workers might LIKE the fact that NHS Scotland operates as a monopoly, but then you would, wouldnt you?

Almost everyone it eh health services are against them – this is unprecedented. the royal college of GPs even – an non trade union non political body as well as the BMA ad so on.

This is why I’m not sure that these are the right reforms. As I understand it the plan is to put the GPs in charge, but the GPs either dont want to be in charge, or they do and would structure the reforms a different way.

ye the NHS should be immune from market forces – it is a natural monopoly and no market can possibly work in healthcare.

Possibly is putting it a bit strongly. So much so that it suggest you don’t approach the discussion with an open mind.

Go on. Tell me……why “Singapore” ?

Has it anything to do with Dan Hannan ?

mmmmmmmmm Nope. My first child was born there. I almost died there.

it also benefits from a much healthier lifestyle and low penetrance of western diet – the government controls this tightly

Oh there is always an excuse. You made this up. Singaporeans smoke like crazy, drink too much, eat salt drenched Chinese food and dont take any exercise.

I think we would all like to achieve what you would like an dhwat is fair but I dont see how this “choice” will actually help poor or ill-informed people to get a better service.

How do you know? People make informed decisions all the time, but only once they know they have a choice.

Look I dont know that these current reforms are the right ones, I don’t. What I do believe is that health provision is just another service for which I am a consumer. A lot of people think the NHS is sacred ground and should be immune from market forces. I remember thinking like that but I have changed my mind.

If you work in the NHS and you see the world through a prism where public sector workers in general and healthcare staff in particular exist on a wholly superior moral plane from those of us who grub away in the private sector, there isn’t any amount of evidence that is going to change your mind. Me, I’ve worked in the public and private sector and seen plenty to admire and criticise in both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore#Health

Singapore has a generally efficient healthcare system, even with a health expenditure relatively low for developed countries.[177] The World Health Organization ranks Singapore’s healthcare system as 6th overall in the world in its World Health Report.[178] In general, Singapore has the lowest infant mortality rate in the world for the past two decades.[126] Life expectancy in Singapore is 79 for males and 83 for females, placing the country 15th in the world for life expectancy. Almost the whole population has access to improved water and sanitation facilities. There are fewer than 10 annual deaths from HIV per 100,000 people. There is a high level of immunisation. Adult obesity is below 10%.[179]
The government’s healthcare system is based upon the “3M” framework. This has three components: Medifund, which provides a safety net for those not able to otherwise afford healthcare, Medisave, a compulsory health savings scheme covering about 85% of the population, and Medishield, a government-funded health insurance scheme.[177] Public hospitals in Singapore have autonomy in their management decisions, and compete for patients. A subsidy scheme exists for those on low income.[180] In 2008, 31.9% of healthcare was funded by the government. It accounts for approximately 3.5% of Singapore’s GDP.[181]

Well NHS Scotland did its best to let my mother die of bowel cancer a few years ago. Told her she had to wait 11 weeks for surgery……until my brother in law (consultant haematologist) started making threatening phone calls to the powers that be, telling them to pull their fingers out of their collective backsides, cancel that Friday afternoon four-ball and get busy. Had her op two weeks later and survived one of the most lethal forms of cancer.

That episode made me more sure than ever that health provision needs radical reform. Its all very well for a well connected medical family like ours, what if you are some poor bugger in the East End of Glasgow who doesn’t know how the system works. You just do as you are told and are grateful for what you are given and sit in ignorance and watch your mother die.

spend a lot more per person, spend a lot more on admin.

Oh I forgot TJ, your concern is always to save the taxpayer money isnt it. In this case the English taxpayer.

Or for that matter the old lady who is scared and in pain etc etc.

this is why the concept of patient choice is at best meaningless adn at worst increases health inequlities

or in other words because I dont think absolutely everyone will be able to make a choice, none of you are getting to.

Patronising statist nonsense. What do the French and Germans do?

Labour blogger John Rentoul in the IoS

Why, then, is it so unpopular? To answer this question you have to understand the politics of the NHS. This rests on these axioms. One, everyone loves the NHS. Two, everyone agrees that the NHS must be run more efficiently, to keep up with rising costs, the ageing population and, now, the slower planned growth in NHS spending. Three, any changes that impinge on the interests of people who work in the NHS will be condemned as privatisation, especially if they are nothing of the sort. Four, everyone will agree that this is the end of the UK as a civilised society/enough to make Nye Bevan spin in his grave/quite simply a disgrace. Five, the media will move on and eventually start again at step one.

Now, this cycle can be repeated indefinitely under Labour governments, because everyone knows that the NHS is Labour’s greatest achievement and no one is allowed to point out that if the Conservatives had designed the NHS in 1948 they might have brought in something more like the social insurance model that tends to produce better results in continental Europe.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-lansleys-bill-is-safe-but-he-is-not-6785686.html

Just popping my head in. Is it going pretty much as expected?

I love Sky Atlantic

Not for nothing Ernie, but could you just give it it a rest with all this Daily Mail stuff? You aren’t alone in doing it, anyone that doesn’t take the approved left of centre line you label as such. It’s such a cliche, and massively patronising. You know who reads the Mail? Working class and lower middle class women.

Party at Berns – http://www.berns.se/en

I think we’re having dinner here. Sunglasses needed?

BTW – at hit the north I met someone who said you were a decent bloke in real life

Its true. I’m a Prince.

I never used to report people much at all. Only for blatant “isms” occasionally. However on discovering that the mods seem to at least in part base banning on the number of reports I have reported a lot more when they are being personally offensive as its the right wing ranters that didn’t get the bans as us lefties didn’t report.

Sure, thanks for all that. Just give us an idea of how many so far this year.

rather than the traditional rufty tufty sweary laddish culture that used to be the norm for off road biker types,

Thats a tradition I can live without thanks, it’s nice here.

so it was you who reported me was it

Not me. I’m an adult.

Thanks for confirming it was you that ran to teacher. Roughly how many complaints have you made about your fellow STW members since say Jan 1? Just an estimate….