Winter fuel payment

[LenT]

57 minutes ago, GMB said:

I wonder if they will make us all pay for prescriptions

This is a possibility that has concerned me for sometime.  Between MrsT and myself, we consume a fair number of medications that have been so far effective in warding off the Grim Reaper.  But if we had to pay for each item at the going NHS rate, it would put a severe dent into our savings.

Or at least that part of our savings that remained after any proposed tax raid!

When we were “Working People” we faithfully invested in the NHS so that it could fund our care in retirement - often to the extent of not calling on its services when we could have.  It was rather like a Health Insurance Charter to cover one’s old age that augmented any pension provision.

That a purportedly socialist Government might ever seek to change that arrangement is a disgrace.  I am perfectly content that missed GP appointments should be paid for - unless there was a good reason.  But the NHS is notorious for its incompetent purchasing and often pays an inflated rate for many pharmaceuticals.  Some years ago, in Venice, I had to replace one prescription tablet and simple walked in to the first pharmacy I saw.  When I mentioned this to my GP he asked what I’d paid for it.

My reply astonished him!  It turned out to be almost a third of what the NHS charged the Practice.

 

[Malc1]

21 minutes ago, LenT said:

This is a possibility that has concerned me for sometime.  Between MrsT and myself, we consume a fair number of medications that have been so far effective in warding off the Grim Reaper.  But if we had to pay for each item at the going NHS rate, it would put a severe dent into our savings.

Or at least that part of our savings that remained after any proposed tax raid!

When we were “Working People” we faithfully invested in the NHS so that it could fund our care in retirement - often to the extent of not calling on its services when we could have.  It was rather like a Health Insurance Charter to cover one’s old age that augmented any pension provision.

That a purportedly socialist Government might ever seek to change that arrangement is a disgrace.  I am perfectly content that missed GP appointments should be paid for - unless there was a good reason.  But the NHS is notorious for its incompetent purchasing and often pays an inflated rate for many pharmaceuticals.  Some years ago, in Venice, I had to replace one prescription tablet and simple walked in to the first pharmacy I saw.  When I mentioned this to my GP he asked what I’d paid for it.

My reply astonished him!  It turned out to be almost a third of what the NHS charged the Practice.

 

Suggest you simply WORRY NOT about this until Thursday 

Chill Relax and pop another pill 😄🤞🤞🤞

Malc 

[John Adams]

37 minutes ago, LenT said:

This is a possibility that has concerned me for sometime.  Between MrsT and myself, we consume a fair number of medications that have been so far effective in warding off the Grim Reaper.  But if we had to pay for each item at the going NHS rate, it would put a severe dent into our savings.

Or at least that part of our savings that remained after any proposed tax raid!

When we were “Working People” we faithfully invested in the NHS so that it could fund our care in retirement - often to the extent of not calling on its services when we could have.  It was rather like a Health Insurance Charter to cover one’s old age that augmented any pension provision.

That a purportedly socialist Government might ever seek to change that arrangement is a disgrace.  I am perfectly content that missed GP appointments should be paid for - unless there was a good reason.  But the NHS is notorious for its incompetent purchasing and often pays an inflated rate for many pharmaceuticals.  Some years ago, in Venice, I had to replace one prescription tablet and simple walked in to the first pharmacy I saw.  When I mentioned this to my GP he asked what I’d paid for it.

My reply astonished him!  It turned out to be almost a third of what the NHS charged the Practice.

 

Len, all you would do is buy the annual subscription which is currently £114.50. Obviously this would probably go up but it would certainly work out cheaper than paying for each prescription. Certainly for what we both take each month

[Phil xxkr]

23 minutes ago, John Adams said:

Len, all you would do is buy the annual subscription which is currently £114.50. Obviously this would probably go up but it would certainly work out cheaper than paying for each prescription. Certainly for what we both take each month

Makes a lot of sense John. What is more likely is move eligibility in line with retirement age. This of course would add costs to those over sixty years old but not technically a tax, cunning eh? 

[GMB]

15 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

cunning eh? 

They think we are all barmy. Hmm? Maybe they're right.☺️

[GMB]

I don't mind paying a bit extra for a decent health service but only if it works properly. Here's a story about how good they used to be: 1960's A pal of mine fell of his Knackered Triumph Thunderbird, paid all of £10 for it as a "runner" a few weeks earlier,( hit the kerb running out of road on a bend). As the bike was a bit unreliable he always carried a spare sparkplug in his back pocket. The NHS surgeon did a fantastic job removing it ( painfully ) from his bottom. AND he didn't have to use a plug spanner.

[Lmafudd]

1 hour ago, GMB said:

I don't mind paying a bit extra for a decent health service but only if it works properly. Here's a story about how good they used to be: 1960's A pal of mine fell of his Knackered Triumph Thunderbird, paid all of £10 for it as a "runner" a few weeks earlier,( hit the kerb running out of road on a bend). As the bike was a bit unreliable he always carried a spare sparkplug in his back pocket. The NHS surgeon did a fantastic job removing it ( painfully ) from his bottom. AND he didn't have to use a plug spanner.

That old Chestnut! I have friends and family in the medical business, you'd be surprised how many people slip in the bathroom and end-up the deodorant bottle up where the Sun doesn't shine! 

[Phil xxkr]

58 minutes ago, Lmafudd said:

That old Chestnut! I have friends and family in the medical business, you'd be surprised how many people slip in the bathroom and end-up the deodorant bottle up where the Sun doesn't shine! 

Quite right! I personally know a GP who managed the oil rigs a few years ago off Scotland. Apparently the record is/was a frozen chicken 🍗🤣

[LenT]

9 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

Apparently the record is/was a frozen chicken 🍗🤣

I bet that was a thaw point!  😊

[Phil xxkr]

38 minutes ago, LenT said:

I bet that was a thaw point!  😊

I thawt that also 🤣

[GMB]

It's them long reach spark plugs that cause the biggest issues.

[Phil xxkr]

19 minutes ago, GMB said:

It's them long reach spark plugs that cause the biggest issues.

Now that's a spark plug! 

[Phil xxkr]

17 hours ago, LenT said:

This is a possibility that has concerned me for sometime.  Between MrsT and myself, we consume a fair number of medications that have been so far effective in warding off the Grim Reaper.  But if we had to pay for each item at the going NHS rate, it would put a severe dent into our savings.

Or at least that part of our savings that remained after any proposed tax raid!

When we were “Working People” we faithfully invested in the NHS so that it could fund our care in retirement - often to the extent of not calling on its services when we could have.  It was rather like a Health Insurance Charter to cover one’s old age that augmented any pension provision.

That a purportedly socialist Government might ever seek to change that arrangement is a disgrace.  I am perfectly content that missed GP appointments should be paid for - unless there was a good reason.  But the NHS is notorious for its incompetent purchasing and often pays an inflated rate for many pharmaceuticals.  Some years ago, in Venice, I had to replace one prescription tablet and simple walked in to the first pharmacy I saw.  When I mentioned this to my GP he asked what I’d paid for it.

My reply astonished him!  It turned out to be almost a third of what the NHS charged the Practice.

 

It may well be you won't need prescriptions look at this from Streeting. 

" The Health Secretary warned the additional funding set to be announced in Labour’s first Budget is unlikely to deliver major improvements and will not prevent patients dying while waiting for care this winter.

Speaking at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, yesterday, he said there is ‘no magic wand’ and warned the NHS will still face ‘real problems’ in the coming months."

So there we have it! The assessment of 4k deaths as a consequence of WFP withdrawal can be safely subsumed into overall numbers and blamed on insufficient NHS funding due to the 14 years of Tory mis management. I'm really not sure where we go from here but it's all quite depressing thinking about the future for young people and the way they will be manipulated by having no freedom of expression. 😕

[Boomer54]

4 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

It may well be you won't need prescriptions look at this from Streeting. 

" The Health Secretary warned the additional funding set to be announced in Labour’s first Budget is unlikely to deliver major improvements and will not prevent patients dying while waiting for care this winter.

Speaking at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, south London, yesterday, he said there is ‘no magic wand’ and warned the NHS will still face ‘real problems’ in the coming months."

So there we have it! The assessment of 4k deaths as a consequence of WFP withdrawal can be safely subsumed into overall numbers and blamed on insufficient NHS funding due to the 14 years of Tory mis management. I'm really not sure where we go from here but it's all quite depressing thinking about the future for young people and the way they will be manipulated by having no freedom of expression. 😕

I cannot say that I follow your argument. I doubt there has been a time when people of any age had more freedom of expression. As to the issue of what they choose to express that is a completely different question. For clarity I refer to the fact they have far more channels for expression than ever before and not to the fact choosing to express these days is fraught with difficulty.

As to Govt having the ability to confuse by obfuscation all I can say is when did they ever not do that. Any party of any persuasion. That appears to be one of those undesirable consequences of politics that is unavoidable as long as humans are doing the job.

[Malc1]

Humans doing the job brings to my mind man’s relentless inhumanity to his fellow man …….. and the Withdrawal of the WFP to many 000’s of simply desperate OAPs is simply that 

Keir Starmer Reeves and her ilk , relentless inhumanity to man withdrawing the WFP at a stroke of their pen 🥵

SHAME ON THEM 

Malc 

[Boomer54]

18 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

Humans doing the job brings to my mind man’s relentless inhumanity to his fellow man …….. and the Withdrawal of the WFP to many 000’s of simply desperate OAPs is simply that 

Keir Starmer Reeves and her ilk , relentless inhumanity to man withdrawing the WFP at a stroke of their pen 🥵

SHAME ON THEM 

Malc 

Now now. As we were talking about 'expressing" views. "Fellow man" ? Do we have to cancel you? 😀

[GMB]

22 minutes ago, Malc1 said:

SHAME ON THEM

I don't think they know the meaning of the word. The big issue is that they think they are doing the right thing. Which begs the questions: Do they really care about the vulnerable? Are they just selfish? Are they competent? Do they have a conscience? and more worrying; Do they even have a soul?

At the moment the jury's out.

[Boomer54]

3 minutes ago, Boomer54 said:

Now now. As we were talking about 'expressing" views. "Fellow man" ? Do we have to cancel you? 😀

Actually the nice thing about being this age is you know the expiration date stamped on your head is going to make any cancellation redundant! 

[Boomer54]

"Do they even have a soul?" Definitely the right question!

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=wZbzTStf7pM&si=NLNEeIHTfiELGvhs

 

 

[Kevin Williams]

[Malc1]

Let’s see what arises tomorrow 

WFA CONTINUING I’m sure 🤣😂

Wes Streeting only uses BUPA 

ANGELA’S  BUYING new Red Shoes and skating on thin ice 🥌 before upslotting to PM by Friday lunchtime 

the Markets and the BofE turn a ‘ blind eye ‘ to the Reever’nomics comic fiscalality  of the situation 

 

Who knows eh 🤔

Malc 

[Phil xxkr]

5 hours ago, Boomer54 said:

I cannot say that I follow your argument. I doubt there has been a time when people of any age had more freedom of expression. As to the issue of what they choose to express that is a completely different question. For clarity I refer to the fact they have far more channels for expression than ever before and not to the fact choosing to express these days is fraught with difficulty.

As to Govt having the ability to confuse by obfuscation all I can say is when did they ever not do that. Any party of any persuasion. That appears to be one of those undesirable consequences of politics that is unavoidable as long as humans are doing the job.

It wasn't an argument, it was a contemplation on the future for young people and free expressions. If it were not a threat then what would be the purpose of; 

>The appointment a Director of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom to the Office for Students (OfS), whom students and academics can complain to if they believe their speech rights under the Higher Education Act 2023 have been breached. This act received Royal Assent recently but has now been paused by Labour. 

>The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill gradually making its way through parliament. It gives the police powers to restrict or forbid a demonstration that “may cause” persons in the vicinity “to suffer serious unease, alarm or distress” Define that if you will. 

>Toby Young's Freedom of Speech Union very active and successfully defending free speech cases

>Mayour Tousi, YouTuber with 700,000 subscribers promoting honest open free speech.

And here are two external comments, 
"At least 83 governments worldwide have used the Covid-19 pandemic to justify violating the exercise of free speech and peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. Authorities have attacked, detained, prosecuted, and in some cases killed critics, broken up peaceful protests, closed media outlets, and enacted vague laws criminalizing speech that they claim threatens public health. The victims include journalists, activists, healthcare workers, political opposition groups, and others who have criticized government responses to the coronavirus. (Human Rights Watch) 
Quote, "For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire." (Jonathan Turley American Legal authority)

It was unthinkable just a few years ago to see people have their freedoms taken away for what they wrote said or thought but not now welcome George Orwell 
 

[Malc1]

35 minutes ago, Phil xxkr said:

but not now welcome George Orwell 
 

and the erstwhile Attorney General too maybe  .  oh yes, that's Sir Keir no less  .....  does he and his Govt have jurisdiction over Sark ...  that's maybe the place to go these days then 😇

does it even have wifi one asks 😉  ... or is Sark controlled by the Barclays'  ....  The Ritz fame ?   or am I barking up that wrong tree again ....  do they even have trees on Sark ...  oh my, I should stop rambling before i get myself into trouble ....  is one allowed to ramble on Sark even ?

 

Malc

[Boomer54]

1 hour ago, Phil xxkr said:

It wasn't an argument, it was a contemplation on the future for young people and free expressions. If it were not a threat then what would be the purpose of; 

>The appointment a Director of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom to the Office for Students (OfS), whom students and academics can complain to if they believe their speech rights under the Higher Education Act 2023 have been breached. This act received Royal Assent recently but has now been paused by Labour. 

>The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill gradually making its way through parliament. It gives the police powers to restrict or forbid a demonstration that “may cause” persons in the vicinity “to suffer serious unease, alarm or distress” Define that if you will. 

>Toby Young's Freedom of Speech Union very active and successfully defending free speech cases

>Mayour Tousi, YouTuber with 700,000 subscribers promoting honest open free speech.

And here are two external comments, 
"At least 83 governments worldwide have used the Covid-19 pandemic to justify violating the exercise of free speech and peaceful assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. Authorities have attacked, detained, prosecuted, and in some cases killed critics, broken up peaceful protests, closed media outlets, and enacted vague laws criminalizing speech that they claim threatens public health. The victims include journalists, activists, healthcare workers, political opposition groups, and others who have criticized government responses to the coronavirus. (Human Rights Watch) 
Quote, "For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests.A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire." (Jonathan Turley American Legal authority)

It was unthinkable just a few years ago to see people have their freedoms taken away for what they wrote said or thought but not now welcome George Orwell 
 

There is a lot to consider there. Perhaps the standout point in your favour is the Police etc etc Bill. That of itself is disturbing. I have of course read of some policing incidents that have given me pause to think 'is the world going mad'. Enacting that sort of policing is not something I wish to see.

On the otherside of the coin citing the Human Rights Watch on these sorts of issues is akin to asking UFO Inc whether alien life forms are amongst us. Hardly likely to get an objective insight on the issue .

Some of the other stuff that almost belongs on a pantomime stage is what I was referring to when trying to clarify my earlier reply. That is, the ability to express appears to have expanded exponentially whilst leaving behind our historic notions of decent human behaviour. That attracts an overkill response which oft is as wrong as the original behaviour itself.

I don't like many of the recent trends in people expressing themselves. By the same token I dislike the often inappropriate responses that are applied to innocuous behaviour that should offend no one who is of a sound mind.

In summary, I find more and more of today's behaviour to be beyond the pale. By the same token I also find too many people who actively seek out the role of being offended. I don't find it easy to decide which of these pillocks irritate me more, but I am in your camp if you are saying you don't want to these issues being resolved by govt intervention.

 

[Malc1]

Nor to be resolved by Musk intervention and whatever CONTROLS he can push and pull and pay his way into 🥵

Malc