Blair .... Good Or Bad.

[Guest Rabbit]

But has the money been put into the right areas???, no its been put into projects to cut waiting times, and to cut the time it takes us to get to a job, we worker harder than ever, i actually took a wage cut under the new agenda for change, yes i got an unsociable hours pay instead, but this is not set in stone and is always under review so could be taken away form us at any time, the money we get for new equipment has not increased that much, we are the poor relative compared to the hospitals and i know they struggle to get new equipement, the whole NHS is now awash with managers and paperwork, so the money is not really filtering down to wear its really needed. on the front line, its been tied up in buaracy(spelling)

 

Regards

JS

I agree. I know someone who until recently was the financial head of a PCT. The PCT performed poorly and was near the bottom of the league. He was not sacked, and would not resign until he had a six month salary 'handshake' negotiated by his union. The sum was tens of thousands of pounds and he bought a new car and a went on holidays and generally went on a spending spree. He is now contracted (self employed) to the NHS in another PCT earning even more!!!

Oh and dont forget the endless gardening leave on full pay for many of these incompetent over paid executives!!!!

Edited May 10, 2007 by Rabbit

[DavyR]

I know I've said this before, but when I started working for the NHS in 1971, most hospitals had a single Administrator (nobody in the NHS used the word "manager" then) and ran, AFAIR, perfectly well.

 

A certain Margaret Thatcher, in 1982, introduced the principle of "general management" as a result of the Griffiths Report (he was general manager of Sainsburys, and well, hospitals were really just like supermarkets, weren't they?). The NHS has been digging itself into a deeper and deeper hole ever since. As Jack Sparrow has said, there are now far too many chiefs and not enough indians.

[Ian FG]

I liked Margaret Thatcher and I don't mind admitting it. I do not wish her opponents rot in Hell as much as I dislike them. Why is it that left wingers automatically think they are entitled to (aggresively) seize the moral high ground? This arrogant assumption by New Labour supporters that they must always be in the right is what I find most galling.

 

Don't expect to find much support here, but I live in hope.

[corydoras]

I liked Margaret Thatcher and I don't mind admitting it. I do not wish her opponents rot in Hell as much as I dislike them. Why is it that left wingers automatically think they are entitled to (aggresively) seize the moral high ground? This arrogant assumption by New Labour supporters that they must always be in the right is what I find most galling.

 

Don't expect to find much support here, but I live in hope.

Why do you assume that because I loathe Thatcher I must be a left-winger? I have never voted for labour whether new or old in my life, and never will.

[Newt]

Why is it that left wingers automatically think they are entitled to (aggressively) seize the moral high ground?

 

They should not need to seize it. It should be automatically given to them as they are are the 'good guys'. They work tirelessly to help the downtrodden, the disadvantaged, and the oppressed and will work tirelessly to that end regardless of the consequences.

 

If the rest of us were not morally bankrupt we would applaud their efforts and support their causes.

 

Or so I was told by several of the far left folk.

[ayjay]

Why is it that left wingers automatically think they are entitled to (aggresively) seize the moral high ground? This arrogant assumption by New Labour supporters that they must always be in the right is what I find most galling.

 

With the low ground already crowded out by Maggie and her team of convicts you leave us little alternative.

[Ian FG]

The British public showing their appreciation of John Prescott in 2001

 

[DavyR]

Like Cory, I am not a Labour/New Labour supporter, but know enough history to be aware of the circumstances that brought the Labour Party into existence. Modern right-wingers mostly give the impression that there is no "moral high ground" to be occupied anymore, as everyone, right or left, accepts the same principles of justice and fair play. I don't believe them. It's human nature to crack the whip once you have the upper hand (and that's exactly what happened with managers in the NHS once they found they could dictate to doctors).

 

Being, as you know, generally cynical about most aspects of human nature, I detest in equal measure both the right-wing arrogance that assumes that poverty always equates to lack of hard work (no, I don't want to hear the story of how your disadvantaged ancestor became a millionaire, and how anybody could do the same if they worked hard enough) and the left-wing tendency towards bullying tactics when it thinks it can get away with it (I well remember the threatening manner of Wandsworth dustmen in the 1970s, calling door-to-door for their "Christmas Boxes").

 

No political system or party is going to suit everyone. Some appear to suit no-one. And moderation is just boring and "sitting on the fence", innit?

[ColinW]

One thing strikes me regarding people's experience of the NHS, like in many things, there definitely seems to be a North - South divide. I don't recognise the "Crimean" hospital wards described by southern posters. The only complaint I have about the treatment my family have had at my local hospital is how hard it is to find a parking space! It must relate to the fact that nurses and cleaners etc living close to London must be considerably less happy with their lot than those living up here on similar pay levels. If you want quality of life, forsake the filthy lucre and move north

[Ian FG]

.....the right-wing arrogance that assumes that poverty always equates to lack of hard work .

 

Davy,

 

I have every sympathy for real poverty, especially young mothers abandonded by violent husbands who dodge their financial responsibilities....personal experience there.

 

But, take a drive to The Vale of Evesham and observe the hundreds of clean, decent, well-behaved Polish workers in the fields producing fruit and vegetables for our supermarkets. You would never catch the young, able-bodied, foul-mouthed, young chavs who hang about the town centre, with their bling, fags and cider doing that, not while there's benefits to be had.