Reflections on the puddle of life

I'm sorry, Fifth. Uh, what did he do-or not do-if I may ask?

I was about to ask the same Q, qimi!!!

great minds and all that, farnoosh!

Thanks Qimi and farnoosh. I'm a bit calmer today, but more determined. A Health and Social Care Bill was passed in the House of Commons on Tuesday. Prior to the bill being passed, Cameron claimed that it had the 'support of Royal College of General Practitioners, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Nursing'. This was not really true. So a few hours later the bill was passed, and it's all very concerning. It potentially destroys the very fabric of the NHS. It's been said in UK that the NHS is the closest Britons have to a religion and it's true. It's an institution very dear to me, and the fact that this Bill has been passed with very, very little scrutiny - it's been barely reported in the press - is very concerning. And I'm a bit sick of politicians running their own agenda to the detriment of the public, particularly the poor. I'm sick of being treated like a fool. This whole thing has the feel of the Iraq war to me, and it's potentially as damaging. That's not to say the NHS wouldn't benefit from reform, any organisation that stands still stagnates. But the vast majority of health professionals are opposed to the Bill, and more concerning it withdraws the obligation from the Secretary of State to secure and provide a free and accessible health service. This is the cornerstone of the NHS. Once it's eroded, it will start to crumble. Plus the Bill opens the door to privatisation. It looks like we're being moved to a more US style system but (no offence Qimi) why would we want to move to a health system that performs worse than ours? (this is not my opinion, by the way, but the opinion of the WHO - see here: http://www.photius.com/rankings/healthranks.html )

Note also that this Bill only applies to England, not Scotland or Wales. So in essence we're already at a point where the health service is no longer 'national'. And there are so many flaws with it, I hardly know where to begin. Plus Cameron promised, prior to the election, not to 'cut' the NHS. But that's exactly what he's doing. Lies, lies and more lies. I'm so sick of politicians. Picking our pockets and treating us like fools, and it's always the poor that pay the penalty.

Heck, I'm turning into an activist. I never thought that would happen. Anyway, I'm off to adopt a peer but it sucks when you've got to turn to the unelected House for some hope. In fact, more worrying, it's made me question whether it would ever be right for us to have an elected House of Lords, given that our current elected representatives do not listen to or represent us. I wrote to my MP asking her not to vote for the Bill and haven't even received a reply. Not impressed at all.

You can read more about it, if you're interested, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14829485

and here:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...andrew-lansley

and here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...private-sector

Don't you love it when they start moving you to a new style of something without having a dialog first?

And people just go along.

That seems to be happening with our school system right now. The Republican party wants to privatize it. Education is very weird right now.

As to our health care system, it's the only one I've known, so I really have no basis for comparison. I'm not against national health care. Any concerns I have mainly have to do with my doubts that our government can handle such a system capably. I've seen the beauracracies here. Not a pretty sight.

But I am so, so sorry to hear this, Fifth. I will read the articles-my computer is unplugged at home, everything is in chaos, but hopefully in the next few days I'll get to them.

Is it just me or do politicians seem to lie more egregiously and with more impunity than they used to?

I think you're right Qimi, I think politicians have forgotten how to be honest. There is a big feeling of mistrust here, some things are not forgotten or forgiven: the banking crisis which still costs ordinary people their jobs and nothing's been done about that, and the expenses scandal which is still very raw. Politicians need to go a long way to build back trust, but they're still not going the right way about it. We have Parliament TV here and I watched some of this Health Bill being debated...well by the handful of MPs that bothered to turn up. I think that shocked me more than anything. They made it for the vote, but to actually look at and debate the 1000+ changes to the health service? No, apparently they didn't need to know about it. Grr.

As to healthcare, you're right that we only know what we've got. And the NHS could be better, that's for sure. But what's proposed here is a much more fragmented system and in a country as small as Britain, that's just neither necessary nor helpful. We benefit from economies of scale, but that's being broken down. It will lead to less access to healthcare for the poor, at a time when we need to ensure more than ever that the most disadvantaged get the same access as everyone else. No one in this current government seems to be fighting for them, just demonising them. Even the Lib Dems aren't saying anything, and that's quite scary.

It's all too big and too out of control for me.