Pondering, and while slightly more optimistic than we once were, still really quite unhappy Lefty thread

Just spoke to (German) DH. He said that he did not think that the NHS was so much better than the German service, as a basic service. One could bridge the gap with a private insurance that would still be cheaper than the German insurance payments.

The Swiss insurance is MEGA expensive. If we had to insure ourselves here, we would be looking at a bill of around 1000CHF (£600) a month. Plus CHF 300 a year for both my DH and I as a basic payment, and 10% of each bill.

@ tyv house of cards

Evening all.

Hungry and Beachcomber
Sorry to hear about your uncles.

Any news yet? DH is watching F1 at the moment (and doing the ironing so I shall not complain)

Bucharest
Seems to be fine with the friend, DD's headteacher apparently had a word with the girls on Friday.

As to the NHS, I have more experience with the German system than the Swiss tbh.

In Germany every employee pays around 15% of his/her wages to a government led insurance company. Added to this is another 15% that the employer pays. We can chose which company we wish to be insured by, but they are much of a sameness tbh. Some pay more alternative treatments than others. The insurance companies should make a profit but often don't and have to be propped up by the German government, ie from taxpayers.

A lot of people moan about the cost, but I have to say the service is fantastic. If I want to go to a specialist, then I make an appointment and go. Most people have their own gynae, paediatrician, allergy specialist etc. and you do not have to be referred by your GP (although you save 10eu if you do go to see your GP first)

When the Brits rave about the European health care, they often do not realise the cost of the fab service. The 15% is just for health care, on top of that we pay income tax, unemployment insurance, pension insurance, which brings us up to over 40% of our wages.

Thanks lefties.

Yes, good wishes to you hungy and Beachcomber.

Sorry to hear about Beach's uncle and Hungy's uncle-in-law.

Francis Urquart. There's a man who could solve this situation: "Mr Clegg, could I speak to you for a moment? The roof of the House of Commons would ensure us privacy and a marvellous view. That's right. Step a little closer now and you'll feel able to see to eternity..."

Sorry to hear your news beach, and hungry's DH's as well

all round

Thanks lefties.

Sorry to hear about your uncle, Beach

Tweet from 'FrancisUrquhart': We should offer the LibDems all the stuff we don't want, such as coffee Revels, sprouts and George Osborne.

Beachcomber- hoping its not me with the birth , that'll make it October Although if they have a reelection then it would be good timing for watching whilst I'm stuck in bed/on the settee!

Thank you - he was very ill and in pain and ready to go I think. Am for my cousin who is pregnant and so wanted him to meet his grandchild.

Best wishes to your DH hungrysaving.

Does put it all in perspective slightly.

On a lighter note I see the French health service has come up. As people say it is very good but very expensive - French people don't mind paying for it because they are hypochondriacs very health concious.

Beachcomber so sorry. DH's uncle died this morning, the man who brought him up , so DH has gone off to see his family and won't be back for a couple of days. Makes the politics games going on less important somehow (even though they're not).

Been out all day, what have I missed? Have they made their minds up yet?

Hello lefties - am still following things but also being made to do things like feed the children and make a living, very intrusive!

Since this thread started;

My uncle has died
I have decided to rejoin the Labour party (left over war)
Bought a new (old) car
Had DD1's asthma diagnosis confirmed (bollocks and thanks to SGM for link to asthma support thread)
Learnt a lot from all the posters here
Watched Sky News for the first time
Got very little work done.

Good luck to all the students, new crawlers, newly snipped, and so on.

Do you think we will get a live birth or something on a leftie thread if we keep going long enough?

Right off to catch up now......

So since this thread started

I have decided (I think) to join the green party
DD2 has started crawling
DH and I have gone on a (we don't call it a diet) diet
DD1 has had a confloption and deliberately peed on the stairs...

And still we wait...

Thanks Proles, MN and election are a bad combo. I might ask them to ban me next year! Hope you manage to catch up.

I would have found your neighbour incredibly frustrating too, I have no time for ignorance and silly misconceptions when it comes to politics. It's really important and people should make an effort to be informed, and not just from the rags that pass as newspapers.

Just got in

tried to put the news on - lasted 2 mins

now it's bloody cbeebies again

GB can't resign immediately, why don't people get this? It's incredibly frustrating and not a difficult concept to grasp.

I am revising today hence my brief and infrequent posts have an exam on political transformations tomorrow - eek! If only it was on the 2010 GE I would ace it bad timetabling for politics students really.

I agree with whoever said how nice it is on MN when you only come here though... could quite happily hide everything else!

Party at soft play aargh - tick
Make lunch - tick
Gardening - tick
Scooby Doo - tick
Rebuild Scalextric - delegated DH
Political update - help please