To think we should all just pay 1-2% income tax to help fix the nhs

[Ieatcake]

Lots of health professionals are saying it's like a third world country. We need more beds and more money for socialcare. Not many would even notice a tiny tax rise and it would help fix it ASAP.

It needs to be fully private. People will look after their own health and appreciate the health service only if they’re paying .

@shhhfastasleep Controversial view here but I'm coming round to the idea that anyone not receiving benefit or over 18 should pay e.g £15 to access GP . Maternity care should still be free.

Hmm. What about "...anyone not receiving benefit or over 18 should pay e.g £15 to access GP . Bariatric and related care should still be free."

Your arbitrary choice of maternity replaced with my arbitrary choice of bariatric. Why is one more deserving than t'other? Both "voluntary" conditions after all.

And logically, one has fewer subsequent costs to the NHS (i.e. there is only one patient, not one + however many new babies entering the system). And we know there is an overpopulation problem on earth too.

This is why it is such an impossible hot potato. Everyone thinks their cause should get top priority.

It's called a free market, make!

It's called a free market, make

Is a market free if it requires bailouts when it fails?

how many bailouts have google and Starbuckshad?

how many bailouts have google and Starbuckshad?

None

hope they are happy with the NHS as run by virgin care in a few years

I for one would think it couldn't be worse than what we have at the moment.

As for spending money on prevention rather than cure.
Novel idea... How about diagnosing people on symptoms rather than treating one symptom at a time and hoping the patient gets bored of going to the gp every fortnight or dies

Also if it was privately run then they might be a bit more responsible at keeping records so if something does go wrong then when you come to sue them they can provide the records rather than the answer nowadays of We have no record of you. We have lost your notes.

how many bailouts have google and Starbuckshad?

Again not free market. Roads. Infrastructure. Courts. Police. Educated work force. Military.

The free market is a fairy tale.

Mmm. So you're saying that huge companies like that can't just upsticks and trade from wherever they like, if somewhere is made too unattractive or even unprofitable for them? Ok then.

It's your best mate Jezza who tells the fairytales!

Huge companies will up-sticks. In the 70's pop-stars left the country because of the Labour Party tax hikes. I am getting rather tired of people who point to the foreign aid (which I do agree with in part) and the likes of Google and Starbucks paying large tax bills because it suits us to point to them. Rather like assuming that the 'rich' pay more tax to fund the NHS for the rest of us.

What is 'rich'? Someone who earns over £100k, over £50k or less?

I have private healthcare through my company so don't use the NHS very much. I am a higher rate tax payer and so is my DH. We both work full time. I work extensively with the public sector and have done over the last 30 years. They are shocking, truly shocking. Give them more money without any goverence and they will blow it.

Also, we have to take some of the blame for the state of the NHS. We make appointments and don't turn up. We demand more and more and certainly don't want to pay anything for it.

At present we are looking to stop plastic usage and perhaps giving people a few pence if they return a bottle. I strongly suspect this will bring in a large amount of revenue and change people's view of throwing something away when its free. Look at plastic bag usage. It hasn't taken long.

Lets have charging for appointments. Lets allow people to think before using something which at present is free and therefore valueless and is open to abuse.

Labour have no real idea where they will get the money from. The Starbucks of this world will go to another country. The mega rich will leave the UK or keep their money offshore (not illegal).

The rest of us will be a sitting target and because Labour have over promised to a vast range of people they will target people in work on less and less salary.

The Starbucks of this world will go to another country.

Well, I imagine they are exploring many places in the world where they can make a profit. I would think that their UK operations are doing well.

Is anyone suggesting they would shut down their retail operations if there was a change in the tax regime?

Is anyone suggesting they would shut down their retail operations if there was a change in the tax regime?

Why not? Other multinationals have either shut down their UK branches or just chosen never to come to the UK in the first place. Some High Street brands have disappeared from the UK High Street but are still operating in other countries.

If the numbers don't stack up, of course they'll close - they need to make a certain amount to make it viable, and if higher profits taxes, together with higher VAT, together with higher national insurance, together with higher other taxes & levies mean that the business doesn't generate enough income, then they'll shut.

If the numbers don't stack up, of course they'll close

Yes. And if they do "stack up" they are likely to continue operations.

Is Starbucks walking a fine line now?

Stop being disingenuous. They don't need to close anything down. They can (and will) just move Head Office or finance centers to more tax friendly locations. Does Philip Green's wife live in Monaco because she likes the scenery or because it enables them to live virtually tax-free?

Those locations are always actively scouting for the top 1% and big business too.

Tale as old as time.

I think the NHS has had its day. Having family in Germany I’d much prefer their system.
I’d not be happy paying any more in than I do already, I don’t think it would work regardless if how much is pumped in-the system is broken.
Might not be a popuar view, but I have family in the NHS and they agree. It has gone beyond needing money.

They can (and will) just move Head Office or finance centers to more tax friendly locations

Starbucks is indeed based out of Switzerland.

Of course they're not walking the line at the moment. Because successive governments have let them do what they are happy with - morally you can judge them, but it's legal.

What is beyond naive and daft is to bury your head in the sand and think that rich people and big businesses will invest and live here if it becomes unattractive. There will be a line for them. And McDonnell? That line "is a dot" to him!

There is a line for everyone. My DH and I are higher rate tax payers. There will be a line whereby if the government make it uneconomical for us to stay we will go.

There is a line for everyone. My DH and I are higher rate tax payers. There will be a line whereby if the government make it uneconomical for us to stay we will go.

For us that happened in 2014. A combination of high costs, high taxes, crap prospects, and government interfering in our lives.

There is a line for everyone

Indeed. When we see so much being done to the poor and sick and elderly. Brutal ideological cuts, then the line has been crossed.

When that line is crossed, we pull together don't we? Together. Not separate.

When that line is crossed, we pull together don't we? Together. Not separate.

Depends on if you think it’s worth saving.

Everyone's line is different.

Corbyn and McDonnell would cross it for me, we'd be off! A happier medium and we'd stay.

Jesus anyone else watching channel 4 news? People calling 999 for sprained wrists, bad coughs.

People dying on gurneys in corridors. 12 hours to be admitted, if at all. Whatever the crunch point is, we're at it.

Stay well everyone... 😔