Tories are asset stripping the country

shreddies - I was out last night having a meal at a restaurant and it was so busy they were turning people away. Afterwards went to my local theatre and that was full as well. There are still plenty of people who have money to spend.

Privatisation isn't us paying, it's private companies which are run on a profit and loss basis delivering the service, as long as utter incompetents aren't tasked with negotiations (like PFI & Labour) then I can't see the issue.

Going from investment banking to working for the NHS 10 years ago was an utter joke. The waste and incompetence which was just shrugged off with the phrase 'but we've always done it like this', the drive to streamline and improve is always met with complaints and there are always issues as why the staff can't do it the easier, less wasteful way. They're actually listened to too which is part of the problem.

Very soon we are going to find that going on holiday abroad and buying things we used to take for granted will simply be too expensive.

Whilst I agree with the principal, I have just booked a holiday abroad for next winter. Two weeks in an all-inclusive has cost me less / about the same than a self-catering cottage in the UK - IN JANUARY!!!!! It has cost a lot less than two weeks self-catering in the UK at any time it will be possibly sunny and dry (which is what I will be getting abroad). Where people have a choice, they are going to opt for abroad, and that will simply fuel more struggles in the UK hospitality industry. The cottage that I stayed in in September, when I looked to rebook it the week I got back - had doubled in price for the same period. So I left it.

It isn't a Holy Grail its just what we have and what we pay for. Want something different ? you are going to pay more, potentially a lot more.

Lets hope if they do privatise it, it runs slightly better than the privatised social care sector ?

It is staggering how much poorer the UK has become under the Tories.

Very soon we are going to find that going on holiday abroad and buying things we used to take for granted will simply be too expensive.

I think the penny is dropping but it's going to continue to be shocking to people

They aren't. Each £ is worth less now than it was in the past, so you would expect the number of £'s to go up over time, but what that increase is worth has never kept up with devaluation / demand in any public service.

OP, Tories have always asset stripped. It is how they get rich and stay rich. Hardly a surprise. Will there be a general strike? I honest to God hope so, but I doubt it. Why do I hope so? Because like them or not, trades unions provide leadership and direction to actions. As the Labour Party did once upon a time. What I fear is that the worst desperation falls with people often not organised in any way, so I see two possibilities. That the apathy endemic in such sections of society will simply lead to more deaths and absolute poverty. Or that they will release undirected anger, and we will have blood on the streets.

I am 65 and I have never feared for the direction of this country like I do now.

the tories are scum-
however the nhs is not salvageable - it as a system cannot work regardless of money. It’s such a mess and we need to stop thinking of it as the holy grail of this country.

We're fucked.

Yes because most of the population have a spare 20% of their salary lying around. They don't need food or heat.

www.yournhsneedsyou.com/timeline/

It's already happening, boiling frog and all that. I am not overly confident in the current Labour leadership wanting to reverse it either, Labour need a massive kick up they arse because they appear to stand for absolutley nothing at the moment and their refusal to back striking workers is disgusting.

Lobbyists seem to have got their claws in both parties. Sure Labour will probably be less bad but thats not bloody good enough.

I agree but how on earth does this get organised and what would be the demands as there are so many things going to crap.

I'm not politically savvy (was raised not being talked about) but try to educate myself as much as possible

It needs to be completely rebuilt from the founding principle up. I personally favour a German model.

Me too, yes it will cost 20% of my gross salary and my employer will have to pay another 20% on top, but it will be worth it.

"how much money the public sector will raise from taxes and other sources of revenue. In 2022-23, we expect it to raise £1,005 billion, equivalent to around £36,000 per household or 40.2 per cent of national income.
how much it will spend on things like public services, state pensions and debt interest. In 2022-23, we expect it to spend £1,182 billion, equivalent to around £42,000 per household or 47.3 per cent of national income."

"In 2022-23, we expect central government departments to spend £415.5 billion on the day-to-day (’current’) running costs of public services, grants and administration. This is 35 per cent of public spending. The biggest items are health (£168.2 billion), education (£77.1 billion) and defence (£32.1 billion)."

obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances/

I don't get it either, we should be kicking up a fuss, walking the streets, but it's it that there's just so much to fight against? Is it too big of a problem to know what the solution is?

I would back some kind of fight against it but wouldn't know where to start

The OBR says the annual govt spending for 2022-23 will be 1182 billion. The NHS budget is about 150 billion.

Not true. 19% not 40+%
fullfact.org/economy/health-public-spending-forty-percent/

This is high. We need to look at population health as part of changes made.

I know posters want to keep increasing funding so it’s higher and higher but the burden will just grow. Some of these posts are just tax more and nothing else.

I have 3 nurse friends, none can strike because although they work in nhs hospitals, the actual employer is a private company. Loads of bits if the nhs are private. Not so long ago when i rang my health visitor i got 'hello, virgin healthcare health visiting' on the phone. They no longer have that contract, but the health visiting service is still a contract..

We shouldn't really be surprised. Capitalism is all about private ownership and not state run services. Just a shame it doesn't work.

In answer to the OP: couldn’t agree more. Thatcher began the process in the 1980s. We are now seeing and living with the consequences.

Jonathan Coe wrote a satirical novel about it called What a Carve Up! in the 90s sometime.

We're not far off a general strike - nurses and ambulance workers, transport, postal workers, teachers in Scotland with teachers in England having been balloted for strike action. The trouble is, you need collective action through Unions to organise a general strike and most private sector workers are not members of Unions.

The government's answer of course is to try to make striking illegal, like some sort of dictatorship.