Indeed. The NHS being free at the point of use is sacrosanct.

But it's mismanaged with its funds poorly allocated. Needs an overhaul but that's very hard to do politically.

I voted Labour, but this government has been in charge for 116 days.

I think you know what I mean Jack, i.e. where the responsibility lies.

The responsibility for the way the NHS uses its funds is down to the NHS Procurement teams, turning the NHS into Trusts was and still is a big issue the Trust leaders are only interested in making profit. There are departments within the NHS that are spending huge funds during Feb and Mar each year to prove their dept needs the funds and therefore receives the same level of funding the following year. Don't forget there are those in the NHS who use the 6 months full pay sick leave every year, which is a cost as they require agency to cover the positions.

Successive governments regardless of their flavour have treated the NHS with bursts of contempt. There have been increases in funds however the increase population and therefore to £'s per head is out of balance. There are many non UK nationals treated by the NHS whose respective governments should eventually pay, sadly there is a massive gap in the treatment and the cost recovery this also has an effect on the way the NHS works.

When you look at the none frontline staff, some of their salaries would make your eyes water when some on the frontline are on low salaries. Revising this area would massively help the funding issues.

The NHS is not something this or the next government can put right without returning it to a nationalised operation.

Again this Thursday we should all







the frontline staff

The NHS does try and do a lot of campaigning on prevention and healthy lifestyles and doctors lobby government for increased regulations/taxes on things like sugar, saturated fats, tobacco, alcohol.

However they come up against powerful lobby interests and media commentators who describe this as "the nanny state". Often the same type of voices who like to slag off the NHS all the time. One of the ironies which they haven't understood, in their simultaneous campaigns against the nanny state and NHS and 'red tape', is that insurance companies want deregulation of data privacy rules so they can use 'big data' to learn more about peoples lifestyles.

If they get their way on this and on private insurance replacing the NHS, then they may end up in the dystopian nightmare where every transaction they make is being monitored with an eye to setting their health premiums. Then the 25 year old teetotal vegan millennial with subscriptions to yoga classes and fitness clubs pays a lot less than the 50 year old who is a bit overweight and enjoys beer, a full English breakfast and the occasional fag. Probably not the world they were hoping for.

Sounds perfectly fair to me. By all means, enjoy your unhealthy lifestyle, just don't expect others to fund your self abuse.

We currently have a system that rewards neglect, with a free route out of it. .. that can't be right?

Couldn't agree more.but to throw another angle on it aren't we all guilty of this in some sort of way...I.e going for a few beers on a Friday having a chippy tea some smoke..when on holiday drink and eat more Christmas we do eat and drink more...not meaning to pick an argument but aren't we all guilty of this...

This is getting a bit serious but we do seem to live in an 'entitlement' and 'not my fault' society. The counter balance is some people genuine need help.

I see today Premier League footballers have come together to make a charitable donation to the NHS. Wonderful gesture.

However the NHS is not a charity and should not have to be funded by charitable donations in the midst of a crisis. A sickening indictment of 10 years of Tory rule.

Indeed if only Corbyn and Abbott had been at the helm

They couldn’t have done any worse than Johnson and his pals have during this pandemic.

This dispute / discussion take me back to my schooldays when the headmaster would drop into the class and gave his words of wisdom regarding healthy living ..he was whip thin, didn't drink or smoke and advised us to leave the dining table still feeling a little hungry....He retired at 65 and his funeral was just a few weeks later.

When it comes to the question of who would you trust with your life, Jeremy Corbyn, Diane abbot, or Boris Johnson?

You might want to take some advice from Boris Johnson’s dumped partners and abandoned children

No argument with this. However, there is a vast difference between this situation and one where some lard turns up at the GP's, with a BMI in the 30's, his blood pressure through the roof and not being able to walk 100 metres without gasping for breath.

Wasn`t Diane Abbot abandoned by a former lover:- the totally unelectable Corbyn?

Dont forget there is also a social inequality aspect to this. Poor education, poor parental guidance, limited life chances are all factors. Cheap processed food also needs to be thrown into the mix.

You tell me



Are you comparing it to the slime bag Boris, admittedly this is a bit watered down being in the Sun.



[urlhttps://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9552307/boris-johnson-wives-romance-mistresses-affairs/[/url

And that’s before we start on his children

[i[uOH, THANK YOU[/u[/i

I WAS enjoying my tea!!!!

Dianne Abbott just google her and "gaffes" there's plenty of fun there whilst we isolate over the weekend she is beyond being a complete fool and one of Jeremy's 'close allies' .....great judgement.

The real question though was not whether they would "have done any worse than Johnson and his pals", I probably think that they wouldn't despite their obvious failings, as others would have (hopefully) risen to the challenge although looking at the current state of the Labour Party it's a small pool Starmer Ashworth Nandy and being reactive is sometimes easier than forward planning .... but whether the NHS and the country would be better prepared the forward planning bit then again I'd say probably not.

In short, I don't think that the current situation is a political issue and it wouldn't have mattered who's been in charge for the previous ten years.

I know that the opposition has recently elected a new leader who doesn't seem that bad, him and his new Shadow Cabinet don't seem to be overly critical ATM or too keen to engage on the front foot. Whether that lasts remains to be seen I'm sure that once we are through it the recriminations will begin

Quote ="lefty goldblatt"[i[uOH, THANK YOU[/u[/i I WAS enjoying my tea!!!!'" Sincerely hope you have finished your tea:- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/0 ... o-impress/

Quote ="lefty goldblatt"[i[uOH, THANK YOU[/u[/i I WAS enjoying my tea!!!!'" Sincerely hope you have finished your tea:- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/0 ... o-impress/

Quote ="Boss Hog"Sincerely hope you have finished your tea:- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/0 ... o-impress/'" As Nick Ross used to say on Crime watch UK. "DON'T HAVE NIGHTMARES..... DO SLEEP WELL" Fat chance of that, now. The nation needs therapy.

Quote ="Boss Hog"Sincerely hope you have finished your tea:- https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/0 ... o-impress/'" As Nick Ross used to say on Crime watch UK. "DON'T HAVE NIGHTMARES..... DO SLEEP WELL" Fat chance of that, now. The nation needs therapy.

A Corbyn government would have likely made a shambles of this. Corbyn himself was a poor leader, indecisive, disorganised, the way he and his inner circle managed the Labour Remain campaign during the referendum and his first Shadow Cabinet (and the Parliamentary party in general) was complete chaos, mixed messages, lack of communication. The only thing Corbyn was good at was campaigning in rallies. If they had been in office now we'd have Barry Gardiner and Richard Burgon doing those daily press conferences just slagging off the last decade of Tory government.

In crisis management the premium is on competence not who is good at political campaigning or controlling the message. The recent PMs who would have been best in this situation are Gordon Brown and Theresa May. Neither were good at politics but I think either of them would have acted more quickly when this started to break, they took issues of threats and security very seriously. This would have been on their radar as a massive priority from the moment it first came about in China, they'd have been poring over every source of intelligence back in January/February, not focusing on whether Big Ben should bong for Brexit or building a bridge across the Irish sea like Boris who is naturally more carefree. Cameron was a bit like Boris too so he wouldn't have been great.

There's also a lack of talent in the current Cabinet because Boris purged the party of opponents and he just used Ministerial posts to reward his supporters in the leadership campaign. Rishi Sunak seems like a bright guy but some of the others are rabbits in the headlights.

In a crisis situation like this the kind of Ministers who would be good would be Oliver Letwin, William Hague and David Willetts from the Tories, and Hilary Benn and Andrew Adonis from Labour. They would all be good at dealing with complexity and could take the politics out of it and work with the scientific community and the food suppliers, medical equipment manufacturers to get a path forward.

Just a quick update for anybody interested in how this is riding out...

.. On day 10 now and can safely say this is now as bad as the 2 serious flu occasions I've had in my lifetime - First 3 days were a piece of cake to be honest. Apart from slight temperature, the main issue was being very fatigued, almost like jet lag.

However from day 4 until now, the fever has really kicked in - Temperature is consistently in the high 38's, with an actual high of 39.2 - Because of such a high temperature it makes actual sleep and rest very, very difficult, which in turn creates a catch 22 where the body gets very little recovery time.

Paracetamol is pretty much useless and eating and drinking is nigh on impossible because of a total lack of appetite, which obviously is causing hydration issues. (Even drinking water is a huge effort and I'm now having to resort to sucking ice cubes to both cool down and get some water on board).

The only positive so far is that while my cough is still persistent, it hasn't affected my breathing yet. Hopefully if it stays as so, then I can try to ride this out at home.

Both kids are pretty much 100 % now, though they had very mild symptoms. My wife, who's about 3 or 4 days ahead of me, is finally showing signs of coming out the other side, though 14 days in , she is far from being recovered- her appetite is pretty restricted to toast and fruit.

In summary, I think if somebody can advise how to ride out a sky high temperature, then I might just be fine with this!!

It is a political issue though. Let's be quite clear, the present government has been in power for 10+ years, not other parties. The readiness or lack of to deal with this virus is down to them and no body else. The lack of hospitals, nurses, doctors, PPE, ventilators, testing kit is down to them and no body else.

You say it would have been no different whoever had been in charge for the last 10 years but how would that be considering every policy Labour wanted to implement would've improved infrastructure and public service then yeah, of course they would have done differently, far better.

As I’ve said before I’m no Corbyn fan but it amazes me how much abuse he gets over Johnson. Mind boggling.