Just keeps getting swept under the rug doesn't it?
This petty little election of grifters all vying for their place in the limelight and the wealth that brings, will all be a moot point pretty soon if we don't get our act together
THE FOURTH OF JULY
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This petty little election of grifters all vying for their place in the limelight and the wealth that brings, will all be a moot point pretty soon if we don't get our act together
Jameshow
Established Member
But those figures selectively hide the poor working practices of the likes of sports direct, Amazon, and many unknown firms who exploit their workers.
He's such a charlatan isnt he. Did you know that despite him being one of the main architects of brexit, when we did actually leave, he moved his investments(estimated in the tens of millions) from the UK to the EU.
Far as im concerned these scumbags have committed treason against the people of Britain. I only wish they were able to meet the same fate as the treasonous faced up until the early 19th century.
sploo
Somewhat extinguished member
That is true; except that the first past the post system (FPTP) does generally result in one party getting a majority (which in theory does allow them to "get things done").
Proportional representation would be a fairer reflection of the political preferences of the nation, but as far as I understand it, countries that use such systems rarely end up with a majority government. The end result being that the largest party then has to form coalitions with smaller parties; some of whom can be on the extreme ends of the political spectrum - meaning those minor parties can exert more influence than their share of the vote deserves (because they're critical to the largest party remaining in power).
Basically, FTFP is bad. And so are all the other systems.
Jacob
New Luddism. Awake and resist!
I agree on the whole.
This GE is particularly crazy, with a cast of scumbags and lunatics.
Maybe we should start contemplating the next one after this, it might be significant.
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
"Getting things done" appears to be the new gold standard in government.
I heard some (old) people being interviewed on the wireless the other day, and one said Thatcher was the best ever PM, because she "got things done".
Jack the ripper "got things done", Genghis Khan "got things done". It's a shame that the things themselves seem to be irrelevant now, as long as they get done.
I heard some (old) people being interviewed on the wireless the other day, and one said Thatcher was the best ever PM, because she "got things done".
Jack the ripper "got things done", Genghis Khan "got things done". It's a shame that the things themselves seem to be irrelevant now, as long as they get done.
Jameshow
Established Member
So long as things are done according to your ideals that's ok!!
Keith Cocker
Established Member
Perhaps this is more to your taste then?
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...lmed-making-racist-comments-about-rishi-sunak
.
The whole economy is based upon wealth creation and has been fueled by fossil fuels so it must take the blame for climate change but we are also driving the problem with out culture of materialism and lifestyles that some people take advantage of to promote personal wealth at our expense.
I would say that politicians as a whole are both scientifically illiterate and also lack any basic understanding of engineering, this is why they come up with these schemes that are just not feasable like everyone having heat pumps or thinking that land based wind turbines are a solution when really large wind farms at sea are much better apart from the issues of connecting to the grid which could be solved by actually having a new grid with connection points at sea with only minimal connections to the landbased grid.
Yes a totally outdated system that cannot be classed as representative of the population which is also compounded by the fact that voting is not a legal requirement so the FPTP system is even worse. I think that comparing the house of lords to a cesspit is doing a disservice to cesspits as they perform a very important function for people.
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Terry - Somerset
Established Member
I was once told that organisations with a plan perform better than those without, even if sometimes the plan is wrong. Similarly, politically one can do nothing or do something.
Doing nothing causes no stress and takes no effort. Change will be the outcome of natural evolutionary political and economic pressures which will inevitably lag the need.
The alternative is to anticipate change and initiate action to respond to changing needs. Inevitably some actions will subsequently prove wrong, and malign players may initiate malign actions.
On balance I prefer the illusion of control, rather than set sail to be driven by capricious winds over which I have no influence. The mirror image of "Getting things done" is "decay" - hardly attractive.
Jameshow
Established Member
Not at all, but we cancel views which don't accord with ours!
RobinBHM
Established Member
It is a point of principle, but given millions will vote, it would never lead to electoral reform.
Labour do have a number of policies that will help including: HoL reform, stopping advocacy of lobbying and 2nd jobs, devolve more power to regions.
That worked well with speed limits
Keith Cocker
Established Member
You don’t want safer streets for kids then?That worked well with speed limits
Yorkieguy
Established Member
The NHS in its present form is an unsustainable money pit, which the incoming Government will struggle to turn around. Healthcare spending in the UK as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) was 5.1 percent in 1990. By 2022, healthcare expenditure had risen to 11.3 percent of GDP. (Fourth highest in Europe:12.8% of GDP in Germany, 12.4% in France, 12.2% in Austria).
Much of the Financial burden is preventable with lifestyle changes, but that’s unlikely to change any time soon. Effort by governments (of any persuasion) no encourage and support people to follow healthy lifestyles often brings accusations of ‘Nanny State’.
Apart from the fact that younger people start work and paying taxes much later in life than in the past, though people are living much longer, they incur illnesses in later life which former generations didn't live long enough to incur and spend many more years in retirement and declining health.
Life expectancy in years at birth:
1939: The year I was born, Male 61.4. Female 65.6 so on average, I was not expected to live to retirement at age 65. I'm 85 today. I think I owe my longevity to living through the war years into the 1950s on a meagre but healthy diet. Food rationing didn't end until 1954, the year I started work aged 15. Sweets and chocolate was rationed to 7 ounces (200g) per week. No processed food, no 'junk food', no ready meals.
Life Expectancy:
1948: The year the NHS was created: Male 65.9 Female 70.3
So when the NHS was created, the likelihood was that on average, few would live beyond retirement age.
2000 Male 75.6 Female 80.
2022: Male 79.25 Female 83.12
The UK's population is both larger and older than a hundred years ago, but most of the difference in size is due to an increase in the older population. Between 1901 and 2010, the population under 40 increased only modestly, from 28.5m to 31.5m. But over the same period, the number of people aged 40 and older has more than trebled, from 9.7m to 30.8m. In 1901, around 5% of the population was aged 65 and older, compared with 17% in 2010. The proportion of the population in this age group is projected to rise to 23% by 2035.
But those extra years are beset with ill health, much of which is preventable.
For the three years 2020–22, although male life expectancy was 78.8 years, average healthy male life expectancy was only 62.4 years – ie, 16.4 of those years (21%) would have been spent in poor health. Female life expectancy was 82.8 years, of which 20.1 years (24%) would have been spent in poor health. Although females live an average of four years longer than males, they spend a higher proportion and more years of their lives in poor health. Similarly, disability-free life expectancy is almost two decades shorter than life expectancy, and is higher among males (61.8 years) than females (60.5 years).
Much of this ill health stems from lifestyle – obesity, poor diet, processed food, foods high in fat, sugar and salt, ‘junk food’ smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise leading to cardio-vascular disease. This places a heavy burden on the NHS. (A 330ml can of fizzy drink typically contains 35 mg of sugar – seven teaspoons full, contributing to childhood obesity).
Obesity:
Britain has one of the highest obesity rates in Europe. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and the NHS spends £6bn a year treating obesity-related ill-health. That is forecast to rise to £10bn a year by 2050.
Prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30kg/m²) in UK in 2022 is: Women: 28.3%, Men 26.94%. (For comparison: USA: Women 43.82%, Men 41.64%. France: Women 10.18%, Men, 9.82%).
https://data.worldobesity.org/tables/ranking-obesity-by-country-adults-1.pdf?
Hospital admissions directly attributable to obesity in 2023:
8,716 hospital admissions directly attributable to obesity, an increase of 13% on 2021/22, when there were 7,733 admissions.
Hospital admissions where obesity was a factor:
Just over 1.2 million (1,236 thousand) hospital admissions where obesity was a factor, an increase of 8% on 2021/22 when there were 1,142 million admissions, continuing a trend in increasing admissions seen over the past decade.
Type 2 Diabetes:
The number of people under 40 being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK has risen 39% in six years, fuelled by soaring obesity levels and cheap junk food.
Figures from Diabetes UK show cases of type 2 among under-40s have increased to almost 168,000 from 120,000 in 2016/17. Diagnoses are rising at a significantly faster pace than among over-40s, for whom the increase was 25% in six years. Many cases go undiagnosed.
Smoking is a leading cause of preventable illness and death.
In 2023, there were 408,700 hospital admissions in England attributable to smoking, 5% higher than 2021/22 when it was 389,800. 74,600 deaths in 2023 were attributable to smoking, a decrease of 3% from 2018 (77,000) and 9% from 2009 (82,000). 710,000 prescription items to help people stop smoking were dispensed, a decrease of 4% from 2018/19 (740,000) and 71% from 2009/10 (2.48 million).
The most recent figures show that women in England are amongst the most likely to smoke during pregnancy with 10% still lighting up at the time of their baby’s delivery, which doubles the risk of stillbirth, substantially increases the likelihood of miscarriage and triples the chances of sudden infant death. Across the country, there’s significant variation in the number of pregnant women who smoke, ranging from 2% in Kensington & Chelsea to over one in five in Blackpool.
Alcohol related illness:
Alcohol-related illness costs the NHS a substantial amount each year. The most recent estimates indicate that alcohol-related harm amounts to approximately £3.5 billion annually in England1. This figure has increased from around £2.7 billion in 2006/7. The impact includes expenses related to hospital admissions, emergency services, and other healthcare resources
Heart Bypass operations:
The first heart bypasses were done in the 1960s. In the UK, the first coronary angioplasty was done in 1980, followed by the first coronary stent insertion in 1988. Angioplasty is a minimally invasive method of widening a coronary artery.
It diverts blood around narrowed or clogged parts of the major arteries to improve blood flow and oxygen supply to the heart. Around 20,000 coronary artery bypass grafts are carried out in England every year. Most of these are carried out in men, and around 80% are used to treat people who are at least 60 years of age.
Hip & Knee Operations:
Knee replacement has become one of the most common major surgical procedures, with almost 35,000 operations performed each year in the United Kingdom.
In 2019 There were 93,911 knee replacement procedures and almost all patients were 50 years old or older (97.4%). Patients aged 50-69 accounted for 49.6% whereas 51.8% for those over 70 years old. 59.4% of all hip replacements were carried out on female patients 40.5% were male patients.
NHS performs over 30,000 total hip replacements each year, reducing pain and increasing mobility, at a total cost to the NHS of £140 million a year.
It behoves the incoming government to ensure that money poured into the leaking bucket of the NHS is spent more efficiently, as well as for all of us in this unfit nation to take some responsibility for our own health. Better to prevent people from getting ill, than simply getting more and more doctors, nurses, beds ad infinitum to treat self induced chronic ill health. Or so it seems to me.
Much of the Financial burden is preventable with lifestyle changes, but that’s unlikely to change any time soon. Effort by governments (of any persuasion) no encourage and support people to follow healthy lifestyles often brings accusations of ‘Nanny State’.
Apart from the fact that younger people start work and paying taxes much later in life than in the past, though people are living much longer, they incur illnesses in later life which former generations didn't live long enough to incur and spend many more years in retirement and declining health.
Life expectancy in years at birth:
1939: The year I was born, Male 61.4. Female 65.6 so on average, I was not expected to live to retirement at age 65. I'm 85 today. I think I owe my longevity to living through the war years into the 1950s on a meagre but healthy diet. Food rationing didn't end until 1954, the year I started work aged 15. Sweets and chocolate was rationed to 7 ounces (200g) per week. No processed food, no 'junk food', no ready meals.
Life Expectancy:
1948: The year the NHS was created: Male 65.9 Female 70.3
So when the NHS was created, the likelihood was that on average, few would live beyond retirement age.
2000 Male 75.6 Female 80.
2022: Male 79.25 Female 83.12
The UK's population is both larger and older than a hundred years ago, but most of the difference in size is due to an increase in the older population. Between 1901 and 2010, the population under 40 increased only modestly, from 28.5m to 31.5m. But over the same period, the number of people aged 40 and older has more than trebled, from 9.7m to 30.8m. In 1901, around 5% of the population was aged 65 and older, compared with 17% in 2010. The proportion of the population in this age group is projected to rise to 23% by 2035.
But those extra years are beset with ill health, much of which is preventable.
For the three years 2020–22, although male life expectancy was 78.8 years, average healthy male life expectancy was only 62.4 years – ie, 16.4 of those years (21%) would have been spent in poor health. Female life expectancy was 82.8 years, of which 20.1 years (24%) would have been spent in poor health. Although females live an average of four years longer than males, they spend a higher proportion and more years of their lives in poor health. Similarly, disability-free life expectancy is almost two decades shorter than life expectancy, and is higher among males (61.8 years) than females (60.5 years).
Much of this ill health stems from lifestyle – obesity, poor diet, processed food, foods high in fat, sugar and salt, ‘junk food’ smoking, alcohol, lack of exercise leading to cardio-vascular disease. This places a heavy burden on the NHS. (A 330ml can of fizzy drink typically contains 35 mg of sugar – seven teaspoons full, contributing to childhood obesity).
Obesity:
Britain has one of the highest obesity rates in Europe. Two in three adults are overweight or obese and the NHS spends £6bn a year treating obesity-related ill-health. That is forecast to rise to £10bn a year by 2050.
Prevalence of obesity (BMI ≥ 30kg/m²) in UK in 2022 is: Women: 28.3%, Men 26.94%. (For comparison: USA: Women 43.82%, Men 41.64%. France: Women 10.18%, Men, 9.82%).
https://data.worldobesity.org/tables/ranking-obesity-by-country-adults-1.pdf?
Hospital admissions directly attributable to obesity in 2023:
8,716 hospital admissions directly attributable to obesity, an increase of 13% on 2021/22, when there were 7,733 admissions.
Hospital admissions where obesity was a factor:
Just over 1.2 million (1,236 thousand) hospital admissions where obesity was a factor, an increase of 8% on 2021/22 when there were 1,142 million admissions, continuing a trend in increasing admissions seen over the past decade.
Type 2 Diabetes:
The number of people under 40 being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the UK has risen 39% in six years, fuelled by soaring obesity levels and cheap junk food.
Figures from Diabetes UK show cases of type 2 among under-40s have increased to almost 168,000 from 120,000 in 2016/17. Diagnoses are rising at a significantly faster pace than among over-40s, for whom the increase was 25% in six years. Many cases go undiagnosed.
Smoking is a leading cause of preventable illness and death.
In 2023, there were 408,700 hospital admissions in England attributable to smoking, 5% higher than 2021/22 when it was 389,800. 74,600 deaths in 2023 were attributable to smoking, a decrease of 3% from 2018 (77,000) and 9% from 2009 (82,000). 710,000 prescription items to help people stop smoking were dispensed, a decrease of 4% from 2018/19 (740,000) and 71% from 2009/10 (2.48 million).
The most recent figures show that women in England are amongst the most likely to smoke during pregnancy with 10% still lighting up at the time of their baby’s delivery, which doubles the risk of stillbirth, substantially increases the likelihood of miscarriage and triples the chances of sudden infant death. Across the country, there’s significant variation in the number of pregnant women who smoke, ranging from 2% in Kensington & Chelsea to over one in five in Blackpool.
Alcohol related illness:
Alcohol-related illness costs the NHS a substantial amount each year. The most recent estimates indicate that alcohol-related harm amounts to approximately £3.5 billion annually in England1. This figure has increased from around £2.7 billion in 2006/7. The impact includes expenses related to hospital admissions, emergency services, and other healthcare resources
Heart Bypass operations:
The first heart bypasses were done in the 1960s. In the UK, the first coronary angioplasty was done in 1980, followed by the first coronary stent insertion in 1988. Angioplasty is a minimally invasive method of widening a coronary artery.
It diverts blood around narrowed or clogged parts of the major arteries to improve blood flow and oxygen supply to the heart. Around 20,000 coronary artery bypass grafts are carried out in England every year. Most of these are carried out in men, and around 80% are used to treat people who are at least 60 years of age.
Hip & Knee Operations:
Knee replacement has become one of the most common major surgical procedures, with almost 35,000 operations performed each year in the United Kingdom.
In 2019 There were 93,911 knee replacement procedures and almost all patients were 50 years old or older (97.4%). Patients aged 50-69 accounted for 49.6% whereas 51.8% for those over 70 years old. 59.4% of all hip replacements were carried out on female patients 40.5% were male patients.
NHS performs over 30,000 total hip replacements each year, reducing pain and increasing mobility, at a total cost to the NHS of £140 million a year.
It behoves the incoming government to ensure that money poured into the leaking bucket of the NHS is spent more efficiently, as well as for all of us in this unfit nation to take some responsibility for our own health. Better to prevent people from getting ill, than simply getting more and more doctors, nurses, beds ad infinitum to treat self induced chronic ill health. Or so it seems to me.
Keith Cocker
Established Member
And?
Maybe the message is that it's not immigrants who are the problem, it's old people. So line them up in Deal.
John Brown
Freeloading Social media influenza
The mirror image of "getting things done" could just as well be "don't screw around with stuff". Especially if you don't know what you're doing.
I thought it entirely sensible and wish the same for where I live. However the majority seem to disagree. My point was the additional democracy of devolved government still manages to fall foul of what the majority want. And in this case the majority are wrong and seeing parties jump on the populist band wagon is frankly an indictment of their fitness to govern.
Jacob
New Luddism. Awake and resist!
Attlee, Aneurin Bevan, et al, got things done.
