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Scottish Independence.

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  • se9addick said:



    se9addick said:

    Granpa said:

    Nigel Farage was making sense this morning when he pointed out that you cannot claim independence if you are a part of the European Union. Have you all bought your powerful Vacuum Cleaners yet ?

    "Independence" is surely the wrong word to be using in the case of Scotland. It is a word loaded with connotations of freedom won from an occupying force. Britain gave independence to countries it had colonised in the days of the Empire; America won independence from its British overlords and so on. What would happen to the UK if the Scots vote yes is more of a separation or a "conscious uncoupling", to borrow Gwyneth Paltrow's phrase. Calling it "independence" simply gives strength to those who want to perpetuate the ridiculous image of the Scots as victims of English oppression.
    But isn't that mainly because the whole things been so amicable ? Scotland will be gaining as much independence as the nations in your analogy just without the need for some sort of rebellion movement. This independence movement is ironically British and I think that's a credit to both sides.
    It's the connotation which I find troubling. Scotland may be on the way to becoming a separate nation again. To say it is gaining independence implies that it has been in thrall to an occupying power, when it has actually been a partner in a union. I know it's not an exact analogy but if we were to leave the European Union I doubt very much that we would say that we were becoming independent; we would simply be withdrawing from the partnership. And so is Scotland (well, may be). There is a view north of the border, summarised in Trainspotting, along the lines of 'the English are just wankers but we are colonised by those wankers' (I know from working in Glasgow how anti-English sentiments in Braveheart and other films resonate with some Scots) and allowing them to declare independence gives them a fake romantic, freedom fighting aura, as if they were the nouveaux sans culottes, which neither they nor the rest of the UK, but particularly the English, deserve.
    I disagree, in the correct usage of the word Scotland would literally be gaining independence. Whether that independence lives up to the connotations you've chosen to attribute to the word isn't really possible to define.

    Independence is the outcome rather than the process that gets you there.
    Well, we shall see. 'Independence' means not just self-government but also non-subservience and some Scots have long viewed their position in the UK as a subservient one - in fact, as a de facto colonised nation. The fact that the date for the referendum was deliberately chosen to coincide with the 700th anniversary of Scotland's famous victory against the English at Bannockburn (among other factors, of course) reveals something about how some Scots want to see it. In the event of a yes victory, I would not be at all surprised to see Scots celebrate 24th March (Independence Day in 2016), not simply as the day on which Scotland left the UK, but in the same way as the French Celebrate 14th July and the Americans 4th July, as the day when liberty was prised from arrogant tyranny.
  • se9addick said:



    se9addick said:

    Granpa said:

    Nigel Farage was making sense this morning when he pointed out that you cannot claim independence if you are a part of the European Union. Have you all bought your powerful Vacuum Cleaners yet ?

    "Independence" is surely the wrong word to be using in the case of Scotland. It is a word loaded with connotations of freedom won from an occupying force. Britain gave independence to countries it had colonised in the days of the Empire; America won independence from its British overlords and so on. What would happen to the UK if the Scots vote yes is more of a separation or a "conscious uncoupling", to borrow Gwyneth Paltrow's phrase. Calling it "independence" simply gives strength to those who want to perpetuate the ridiculous image of the Scots as victims of English oppression.
    But isn't that mainly because the whole things been so amicable ? Scotland will be gaining as much independence as the nations in your analogy just without the need for some sort of rebellion movement. This independence movement is ironically British and I think that's a credit to both sides.
    It's the connotation which I find troubling. Scotland may be on the way to becoming a separate nation again. To say it is gaining independence implies that it has been in thrall to an occupying power, when it has actually been a partner in a union. I know it's not an exact analogy but if we were to leave the European Union I doubt very much that we would say that we were becoming independent; we would simply be withdrawing from the partnership. And so is Scotland (well, may be). There is a view north of the border, summarised in Trainspotting, along the lines of 'the English are just wankers but we are colonised by those wankers' (I know from working in Glasgow how anti-English sentiments in Braveheart and other films resonate with some Scots) and allowing them to declare independence gives them a fake romantic, freedom fighting aura, as if they were the nouveaux sans culottes, which neither they nor the rest of the UK, but particularly the English, deserve.
    I disagree, in the correct usage of the word Scotland would literally be gaining independence. Whether that independence lives up to the connotations you've chosen to attribute to the word isn't really possible to define.

    Independence is the outcome rather than the process that gets you there.
    Well, we shall see. 'Independence' means not just self-government but also non-subservience and some Scots have long viewed their position in the UK as a subservient one - in fact, as a de facto colonised nation. The fact that the date for the referendum was deliberately chosen to coincide with the 700th anniversary of Scotland's famous victory against the English at Bannockburn (among other factors, of course) reveals something about how some Scots want to see it. In the event of a yes victory, I would not be at all surprised to see Scots celebrate 24th March (Independence Day in 2016), not simply as the day on which Scotland left the https://www.sor.org/system/files/news_story/201408/mileage_rates_july_2014_hmrc.doc, but in the same way as the French Celebrate 14th July and the Americans 4th July, as the day when liberty was prised from arrogant tyranny.

    I wouldn't choose for them to leave but if your last sentence represents any truth then quite frankly fuck em.
  • se9addick said:



    se9addick said:

    Granpa said:

    Nigel Farage was making sense this morning when he pointed out that you cannot claim independence if you are a part of the European Union. Have you all bought your powerful Vacuum Cleaners yet ?

    "Independence" is surely the wrong word to be using in the case of Scotland. It is a word loaded with connotations of freedom won from an occupying force. Britain gave independence to countries it had colonised in the days of the Empire; America won independence from its British overlords and so on. What would happen to the UK if the Scots vote yes is more of a separation or a "conscious uncoupling", to borrow Gwyneth Paltrow's phrase. Calling it "independence" simply gives strength to those who want to perpetuate the ridiculous image of the Scots as victims of English oppression.
    But isn't that mainly because the whole things been so amicable ? Scotland will be gaining as much independence as the nations in your analogy just without the need for some sort of rebellion movement. This independence movement is ironically British and I think that's a credit to both sides.
    It's the connotation which I find troubling. Scotland may be on the way to becoming a separate nation again. To say it is gaining independence implies that it has been in thrall to an occupying power, when it has actually been a partner in a union. I know it's not an exact analogy but if we were to leave the European Union I doubt very much that we would say that we were becoming independent; we would simply be withdrawing from the partnership. And so is Scotland (well, may be). There is a view north of the border, summarised in Trainspotting, along the lines of 'the English are just wankers but we are colonised by those wankers' (I know from working in Glasgow how anti-English sentiments in Braveheart and other films resonate with some Scots) and allowing them to declare independence gives them a fake romantic, freedom fighting aura, as if they were the nouveaux sans culottes, which neither they nor the rest of the UK, but particularly the English, deserve.
    I disagree, in the correct usage of the word Scotland would literally be gaining independence. Whether that independence lives up to the connotations you've chosen to attribute to the word isn't really possible to define.

    Independence is the outcome rather than the process that gets you there.
    Well, we shall see. 'Independence' means not just self-government but also non-subservience and some Scots have long viewed their position in the UK as a subservient one - in fact, as a de facto colonised nation. The fact that the date for the referendum was deliberately chosen to coincide with the 700th anniversary of Scotland's famous victory against the English at Bannockburn (among other factors, of course) reveals something about how some Scots want to see it. In the event of a yes victory, I would not be at all surprised to see Scots celebrate 24th March (Independence Day in 2016), not simply as the day on which Scotland left the https://www.sor.org/system/files/news_story/201408/mileage_rates_july_2014_hmrc.doc, but in the same way as the French Celebrate 14th July and the Americans 4th July, as the day when liberty was prised from arrogant tyranny.

    I wouldn't choose for them to leave but if your last sentence represents any truth then quite frankly fuck em.
    It doesn't.
  • It is for this reason I wonder whether Salmond has run out of road should the no vote prevail next week. His team Scotland vs team Westminster nonsense and simplification will have succeeded in stirring up tensions in a small minority. And he will simply continue with this despite the simple fact that the majority have (hopefully) rejected his rhetoric.
    Will such large numbers of Scottish voters ever vote again for the SNP once the media have their post mortem? An open honest question but is Salmond the new Kinnock? I sincerely hope so but will keep my fingers crossed next week.
  • edited September 2014
    .
  • Can somebody summarise for me?

    As an English simpleton residing in London, what are the downsides for me for a yes vote?

    Bullet points only please. Thanks .
  • edited September 2014
    Boom said:

    Can somebody summarise for me?

    As an English simpleton residing in London, what are the downsides for me for a yes vote?

    Bullet points only please. Thanks .

    For me the biggest downside is 18 months of uncertainty in the markets whilst Scotland untangles itself from Britain. You saw over the weekend the impact of one opinion poll on the markets and although Britain's economic recovery is impressive it's still fragile and a year and half of that would be a nightmare.


    Edit - sorry, I know that's not a bullet point but I don't know how to do them on CL !
  • Alex Salmond, like a lot of politicians the World over likes power. Whilst some politicians are genuine and want whats best for their Constituents, a lot go into politics for themselves - they love power.

    The problem I can see with this vote is it may turn out to be virtually 50/50. What happens then? A split Country is not good.
  • Granpa said:

    Nigel Farage was making sense this morning when he pointed out that you cannot claim independence if you are a part of the European Union. Have you all bought your powerful Vacuum Cleaners yet ?

    Interestingly Dyson have never made a vacuum cleaner with a motor big enough to get caught by the ban. So maybe this is just the kick up the pants that the manufacturers need to forcen them to make better equipment?

    Anyway, back on topic - it all started to go wrong when the Dress Act of 1746 was repealed.
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  • Is there a minimum time till they can have another referendum if they lose this one?
  • vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    What a load of rabid drivel.............
  • vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.
  • vffvff
    edited September 2014

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.
    4 years of putting the NHS down in the Conservative press at every given opportunity. Its the same old story for every public institution that the Conservatives want to Privatise. - underfund, undermine and attack and denigrate at every opportunity then outsource / privatise. It happened to the Railways, and Royal Mail. The Conservatives are ideologically obsessed with privatisation / outsourcing of everything (including the Police). The result will not make England, a better, less stressful, safer or more stable place to live.

    The behaviour of Cameron's Conservatives / (Lib Dems) in government is one of the things that has given the Scottish Independence movement a massive boost.

    It is difficult to say which way the Scots will jump.
  • I have no say in the outcome of this event and bear no feeling of ill will towards the Scots, Scotland had its rough parts but is generally a beautiful country.

    If the Scots want independence then let them have it, if it goes wrong will the scots want to get back into bed with us, and will we want then back?
  • If Labour win a majority knowing they only have a year bef
    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    Surely if the will of the English people is to vote Conservative, it's a flagrant trespass of democracy to want a separate bloc unelected by the English to undermine their will. If the left wing have failed to make a case in England to gain a mandate then they shouldn't have a say in the way England is run. Just because the Scots are gullible enough to vote for Labour based on their lies and fearmongering doesn't mean the English have to suffer Labour's incompetence.
  • Fiiish said:

    If Labour win a majority knowing they only have a year bef

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    Surely if the will of the English people is to vote Conservative, it's a flagrant trespass of democracy to want a separate bloc unelected by the English to undermine their will. If the left wing have failed to make a case in England to gain a mandate then they shouldn't have a say in the way England is run. Just because the Scots are gullible enough to vote for Labour based on their lies and fearmongering doesn't mean the English have to suffer Labour's 4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced..
    Which would be exactly ?
  • edited September 2014

    vff said:

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.
    4 years of putting the NHS down in the Conservative press at every given opportunity. Its the same old story for every public institution that the Conservatives want to Privatise. - underfund, undermine and attack and denigrate at every opportunity then outsource / privatise. It happened to the Railways, and Royal Mail. The Conservatives are ideologically obsessed with privatisation / outsourcing of everything (including the Police). The result will not make England, a better, less stressful, safer or more stable place to live.

    The behaviour of Cameron's Conservatives / (Lib Dems) in government is one of the things that has given the Scottish Independence movement a massive boost.

    It is difficult to say which way the Scots will jump.

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.

    If you believe that then you believe anything. The NHS is being strangled. Some lying self serving politician might well stand there and tell us that the NHS is being fully funded but it's not. Trusts are being squeezed year on year. More and more services are being outsourced and the whole NHS is being streamlined for sale.

    If you can afford to have private medical cover I suggest you get it.



    nice to see some sources in your arguments rather than simple propaganda(!!) Here's a source for you, the NHS and the gubbermunt
    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285632/PSS_February_2014.pdf
    http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs

    this year spending increased by £3 BILLION, BILLION. That's really make cuts isnt it? Of course trusts will be put under pressure to not spend as much, every government department, by their very nature wastes a lot of money simply because next year they'll get similar/more funding. So if something happens that they need to blow some cash on they can. Tightening of the belt is just to counter act that. Heaven forbid a government department isn't allowed to run off with loads of money, where did that get us? Ah yes, knee deep in a global recession. Nice. Cheers labour.
    When a CT scan examination is carried out for the purposes of radiotherapy treatment planning. Little balls 3mm in diameter are placed on the skin surface to act as reference points.

    These balls are manufactured specifically for the purpose and cause little in the way of image reconstruction artefacts and are engineered to a very high tolerance. That's important.

    The NHS where I work won't pay for them. We therefore buy small bead necklaces off eBay and break them down to use. They are slightly off in engineering tolerance but hey ho let's not worry about quality of specific purpose and the slight problems that lack of quality impacts on the treatment quality. Let's go the eBay route. It's only cancer after all. The patients won't know will they.

    A member of staff leaves. Not allowed to be replaced. Work load and complexity of work increases and target driven management is relentless. Quality of work goes down and staff are stressed by the workload and in the knowledge they are not able to do the best they can.

    Two very small examples and there are millions more.

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  • Fiiish said:

    If Labour win a majority knowing they only have a year bef

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    Surely if the will of the English people is to vote Conservative, it's a flagrant trespass of democracy to want a separate bloc unelected by the English to undermine their will. If the left wing have failed to make a case in England to gain a mandate then they shouldn't have a say in the way England is run. Just because the Scots are gullible enough to vote for Labour based on their lies and fearmongering doesn't mean the English have to suffer Labour's 4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced..
    Which would be exactly ?
    Off the top of my head:

    - Labour lying about the impact of the VAT hike
    - lying about the number of new jobs created since 2010
    - labelling a benefit readjustment as a tax on the poor in order to generate fear
    - this particular Labour candidate who had to leave his seat he won due to lies and fearmongering about an opponent proven in court

    Of course there's thousands more examples from the last 4 years but I trust you know how to use Google.
  • Good post. The Tories would never stoop so low as to use scaremongering would they.

  • vff said:

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.
    4 years of putting the NHS down in the Conservative press at every given opportunity. Its the same old story for every public institution that the Conservatives want to Privatise. - underfund, undermine and attack and denigrate at every opportunity then outsource / privatise. It happened to the Railways, and Royal Mail. The Conservatives are ideologically obsessed with privatisation / outsourcing of everything (including the Police). The result will not make England, a better, less stressful, safer or more stable place to live.

    The behaviour of Cameron's Conservatives / (Lib Dems) in government is one of the things that has given the Scottish Independence movement a massive boost.

    It is difficult to say which way the Scots will jump.

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.

    If you believe that then you believe anything. The NHS is being strangled. Some lying self serving politician might well stand there and tell us that the NHS is being fully funded but it's not. Trusts are being squeezed year on year. More and more services are being outsourced and the whole NHS is being streamlined for sale.

    If you can afford to have private medical cover I suggest you get it.



    nice to see some sources in your arguments rather than simple propaganda(!!) Here's a source for you, the NHS and the gubbermunt
    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285632/PSS_February_2014.pdf
    http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs

    this year spending increased by £3 BILLION, BILLION. That's really make cuts isnt it? Of course trusts will be put under pressure to not spend as much, every government department, by their very nature wastes a lot of money simply because next year they'll get similar/more funding. So if something happens that they need to blow some cash on they can. Tightening of the belt is just to counter act that. Heaven forbid a government department isn't allowed to run off with loads of money, where did that get us? Ah yes, knee deep in a global recession. Nice. Cheers labour.
    When a CT scan examination is carried out for the purposes of radiotherapy treatment planning. Little balls 3mm in diameter are placed on the skin surface to act as reference points.

    These balls are manufactured specifically for the purpose and cause little in the way of image reconstruction artefacts and are engineered to a very high tolerance. That's important.

    The NHS where I work won't pay for them. We therefore buy small bead necklaces off eBay and break them down to use. They are slightly off in engineering tolerance but hey ho let's not worry about quality of specific purpose and the slight problems that lack of quality impacts on the treatment quality. Let's go the eBay route. It's only cancer after all. The patients won't know will they.

    A member of staff leaves. Not allowed to be replaced. Work load and complexity of work increases and target driven management is relentless. Quality of work goes down and staff are stressed by the workload and in the knowledge they are not able to do the best they can.

    Two very small examples and there are millions more.

    Sounds like a problem with the NHS trust you work for than a "da Tories did it".
  • vffvff
    edited September 2014

    vff said:

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.
    4 years of putting the NHS down in the Conservative press at every given opportunity. Its the same old story for every public institution that the Conservatives want to Privatise. - underfund, undermine and attack and denigrate at every opportunity then outsource / privatise. It happened to the Railways, and Royal Mail. The Conservatives are ideologically obsessed with privatisation / outsourcing of everything (including the Police). The result will not make England, a better, less stressful, safer or more stable place to live.

    The behaviour of Cameron's Conservatives / (Lib Dems) in government is one of the things that has given the Scottish Independence movement a massive boost.

    It is difficult to say which way the Scots will jump.

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.

    If you believe that then you believe anything. The NHS is being strangled. Some lying self serving politician might well stand there and tell us that the NHS is being fully funded but it's not. Trusts are being squeezed year on year. More and more services are being outsourced and the whole NHS is being streamlined for sale.

    If you can afford to have private medical cover I suggest you get it.



    nice to see some sources in your arguments rather than simple propaganda(!!) Here's a source for you, the NHS and the gubbermunt
    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285632/PSS_February_2014.pdf
    http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs

    this year spending increased by £3 BILLION, BILLION. That's really make cuts isnt it? Of course trusts will be put under pressure to not spend as much, every government department, by their very nature wastes a lot of money simply because next year they'll get similar/more funding. So if something happens that they need to blow some cash on they can. Tightening of the belt is just to counter act that. Heaven forbid a government department isn't allowed to run off with loads of money, where did that get us? Ah yes, knee deep in a global recession. Nice. Cheers labour.
    Labour was not responsible for the global recession. That started off in the US for sub prime mortgages and got out of control by irresponsible practice from some global businesses. The loosening of the financial controls from Thatcher and an unfettered global free market aided and abetted. It is totally false spin to suggest that Labour were responsible for the financial disaster. Conservatives will not get away with that spin at the next election.
  • vff said:

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.
    4 years of putting the NHS down in the Conservative press at every given opportunity. Its the same old story for every public institution that the Conservatives want to Privatise. - underfund, undermine and attack and denigrate at every opportunity then outsource / privatise. It happened to the Railways, and Royal Mail. The Conservatives are ideologically obsessed with privatisation / outsourcing of everything (including the Police). The result will not make England, a better, less stressful, safer or more stable place to live.

    The behaviour of Cameron's Conservatives / (Lib Dems) in government is one of the things that has given the Scottish Independence movement a massive boost.

    It is difficult to say which way the Scots will jump.

    vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    4 years of a conservative PM and NHS spending is still ring fenced. Can we admit that the Tories wanting rid of the NHS is simple scare mongering from the left?

    Salmond may well have peaked too soon. Regardless, the next week will be very interesting.

    If you believe that then you believe anything. The NHS is being strangled. Some lying self serving politician might well stand there and tell us that the NHS is being fully funded but it's not. Trusts are being squeezed year on year. More and more services are being outsourced and the whole NHS is being streamlined for sale.

    If you can afford to have private medical cover I suggest you get it.



    nice to see some sources in your arguments rather than simple propaganda(!!) Here's a source for you, the NHS and the gubbermunt
    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285632/PSS_February_2014.pdf
    http://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/key-statistics-on-the-nhs

    this year spending increased by £3 BILLION, BILLION. That's really make cuts isnt it? Of course trusts will be put under pressure to not spend as much, every government department, by their very nature wastes a lot of money simply because next year they'll get similar/more funding. So if something happens that they need to blow some cash on they can. Tightening of the belt is just to counter act that. Heaven forbid a government department isn't allowed to run off with loads of money, where did that get us? Ah yes, knee deep in a global recession. Nice. Cheers labour.
    When a CT scan examination is carried out for the purposes of radiotherapy treatment planning. Little balls 3mm in diameter are placed on the skin surface to act as reference points.

    These balls are manufactured specifically for the purpose and cause little in the way of image reconstruction artefacts and are engineered to a very high tolerance. That's important.

    The NHS where I work won't pay for them. We therefore buy small bead necklaces off eBay and break them down to use. They are slightly off in engineering tolerance but hey ho let's not worry about quality of specific purpose and the slight problems that lack of quality impacts on the treatment quality. Let's go the eBay route. It's only cancer after all. The patients won't know will they.

    A member of staff leaves. Not allowed to be replaced. Work load and complexity of work increases and target driven management is relentless. Quality of work goes down and staff are stressed by the workload and in the knowledge they are not able to do the best they can.

    Two very small examples and there are millions more.

    Sounds like a problem with the NHS trust you work for than a "da Tories did it".
    The Trust I work for are being squeezed by the government. Saving must be made. Quality suffers. It's not rocket science.

  • Any chance we can create a separate thread for the Labour/Conservative borefest over the NHS?
    Very important and all that but with sources stating facts being countered not by recognition of those facts but by anecdotes, and ''you lot do the same, so there'' responses, and in some cases just simple nuttiness, it is rather detracting from the thread titled ''Scottish Independence''
    Just a thought, like.


    PS - Good to see Thatcher finally making an appearance in a thread centered on the year 2014
  • Good post. The Tories would never stoop so low as to use scaremongering would they.

    I never said they didn't, but you asked for some examples for Labour's lying and scaremongering. I was making the point that English voters should suffer just because Scots are gullible enough to vote Labour.
  • Any chance we can create a separate thread for the Labour/Conservative borefest over the NHS?
    Very important and all that but with sources stating facts being countered not by recognition of those facts but by anecdotes, and ''you lot do the same, so there'' responses, and in some cases just simple nuttiness, it is rather detracting from the thread titled ''Scottish Independence''
    Just a thought, like.


    PS - Good to see Thatcher finally making an appearance in a thread centered on the year 2014

    Go for it.

  • vff said:

    From a purely selfish point of view, I want a no vote. Without the balance of the Scots, there is a strong risk that this country will end up in the hands of free market right wing conservatives who look like they will dismantle the NHS and any kind of a safety net. England will become a brutal place to live. Some may think thats a good idea, but not me.

    I'm not sure why this got flagged? I don't necessarily agree that if Scotland voted to leave, the balance of this country would be in jeopardy. However, I strongly believe this country is set up in such a way that the concentration of wealth will continue to placed in the hands of the few. I'm yet to read Owen Jones 'The Establishment' but he points out that there are now over 1m relying on food banks in this country, compared to something like 200,000 a few years ago. I am sure all public services, even the NHS may only have a limited time if we continue in the direction we are heading. I'm not against people making money and doing well for themselves, God knows I try every day. Obviously I've gone off thread here a bit, but I think VFF may have a point, albeit slightly generalised with a sweeping statement.
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Roland Out Forever!