Cost of Living Crisis

so whats you are proposing is give them some kind of tokens?

Thinking off the top of my head:

Housing, paid
Utilities paid (with suitable insistence on environmentally considerate usage)
Food delivered
Public transport costs paid
Clothing paid by photo ID voucher
Photo ID paid.
I’m sure IKEA or similar could do a cracking deal to furnish a house and prove kitchen equipment for a few £££ to the government.

Did I miss anything? I did say a basic safety net. Nobody should freeze in our world.

Utter broad brush horseshit.

My mum stopped working to raise us kids whilst my dad worked himself to the bone to provide for us. She subsequently went back to work but had to “retire” early because of her advancing MS meant she could no longer physically do the work or drive herself to her job.

She deserves the decency of a country that supports its less fortunate to a level that is more than just “well you’ll not freeze to death.” And if you think we should trust this country and this government to provide food to people you might want to have a look at what the private companies they contracted (and who made tidy profits from) were dishing out to those those kids who were on free school meals during Covid lockdowns whilst MPs are tucking into restaurant quality food and booze subsidised by the tax payer.

I’m sorry, I just don’t understand the mindset of “if you need help you can expect the bare minimum to keep you alive at best” especially with private companies then profiting from the provision of some of those services. That isn’t looking after people that need it. It’s callous and heartless and falls for the trope that societies problems are caused by those at the bottom playing the system so they should be punished and ridiculed rather than those at the top who are far worse and love to punch down.

12 Likes

Who’s punishing or punching down? I know exactly what you mean about the private companies providing pitiful meals. A decent PM would have knocked on their door with a film crew next day (having seen the pictures) and destroyed the owners for the utter bastards they were. Next day there would have been Vegas level buffets provided.

Governments have to apply a broad brush, doing anything else just means thousands of staff doing the checking. Give everybody 20% more rather than paying people to means test. Or should we employ those people as it gives better employment figures? The wheels within wheels of government make our club look like your local bakery.

It’s all part of the government’s plan to shorten NHS waiting lists.

They know what they’re doing.

2 Likes

Fundamental issue here is over privatisation.

They’ve been privatising things that are natural monopolies, or services when they can then show budget cut cuts. It all leads to a lowering of standards.

This is why the UK has potholes and why we’re pumping shit into the sea. This why hospital meals are sometimes pitiful and potentially a health hazard. This then impacts actual services like health and education. It’s got fuck all to do with “needing more graft”, it’s about making sure the money goes to the right places. Too much currently goes into the coffers of private firms.

3 Likes

Oh there’s no question that a cynic would say that COVID and high energy prices are a hell of a bonus to Government budgets. And don’t think for a microsecond this hasn’t been considered / discussed. Covid 2 that only kills over 70s is (probably) in production. Cheaper than all their NHS / care / housing etc etc etc. Some will laugh. some will criticise, some will think………

I had a little op a few years ago courtesy of a private hospital on the NHS. Yes they cherry pick the profitable and easy operations Excellent service food and experience. Is that a bad thing if it’s cheaper and better to use a private company?

Please check the line in asterisks.

Bangladesh is such a weird country. The price of coarse/cheap variety of rice has increased by 20% in the last few weeks, during the same period the the price of finer rice has increased by 15%.

1 Like

It’s almost certainly not. The will use the private hospitals when all the available slots on the publicly owned ones are full.

The only exceptions would be if it was a specialist procedure where the equipment and/or expertise didn’t exist in the NHS.

The upper end of society and it permeates through our daily lives. If you’re rich and well off you can afford to avoid paying what should be your full tax contribution. If you’re a regular working person, well the government will have your full tax contribution off you before you even see your own wages. And I don’t know if you’ve ever had to claim benefits for anything but it’s not a nice experience and it isn’t just handed to you.

But who is it that gets demonised by the government? Who do the press focus their stories on? Who will channel 5 make a programme about? Those people with so much wealth they can afford to pay thousands of pounds to avoid having to pay their taxes or the people at the bottom, some of who will fiddle the system to get a bit more?

All of that is punching down. Demonise the people at the bottom. It’s their fault they can’t afford to eat so give them some baked beans and tell them to do one. Those attitudes permeate society through the messages that come out from the powerful and rich and in avenues where genuine people who are struggling through no fault of their own have no right of reply. Be it migrants, minorities or those on benefits, societies issues are always laid at their door and they are expected to shoulder the burden to address them.

7 Likes

I think that would be unbelievably rare. The best in the country is in the NHS. Niche equipment aside (stereotactic gamma knives etc) if I ever get seriously ill, I want to be in the NHS.

1 Like

Anybody know anything about this £400 payment we’re all getting towards energy costs this winter?

British Gas are saying they’ll pay it over 6 months by taking £66 off your direct debit each month. Question is are they getting all the money from the government to fund it up front? If so then they’ll make a fucking fortune in interest as most of the money will be sitting in their bank for months.

I was thinking more of NHS Scotland which I mostly worked with. The hospital facilities on some of the islands are pretty basic so the nearest specialist hospital and/or consultant might be private.

The NHS in general does have an odd hybrid of publicly run and privately owned / public funded facilities. Most GPs and dentists are privately run practices and most publicly owned NHS hospitals will also carry out privately funded procedures.

2 Likes

Sounds ace, car-keys in a bowl on arrival and all send out for a takeaway later on.

1 Like

Who’s building the app?

Boris and co, since they probably have their cobra meetings there…plus they can spend billions making it and creaming the taxpayers off the top to then say fuck it and carry on as normal

The monthly deductions (£66 for 3 months, then £67 for the following 3 months I think) are what the government agreed with the industry and it explained in its announcement a couple of months ago. I don’t know if the government are paying them up front for this.

This one?

“***************************”

1 Like

No I dont believe it is. Reasons are:

a) Resources are removed from the NHS to the private sector. This creates imbalance between working conditions etc.
b) Your operation cost the NHS a fee inclusive of a profit in region of about 40% I suspect.
c) Setting up that contract and administering it also costs the NHS as an additional cost - overheads.

Worth noting that it is policy that drives what is privatised. Top dogs within the NHS will look at what resources are available and what can be packaged into a nice contract that has to be set out to tender, then approved, signed and then managed. Ever wonder who writes that contract? A consultant (not of the medical variety) and they will charge a lovely fee for the privilege.

So basically your little operation has cost the tax payer the cost rate for the operation, a profit margin, a percentage of an overhead, and a percentage of a consultants fee to set up the contract.

And if your operation went a little bit wrong? Who picks up the problem?

I’m not saying that there isn’t the need for private firms working with or within the NHS. But we should approach it with great caution I feel. They have their place but I feel the UK has pushed this to such an extreme that its now a factor in driving down wages and the standard of services and living in this country. I have seen this first hand within local authorities

5 Likes