Tories are asset stripping the country

[Letshaveablackcelebration22]

I don’t remember things ever being as bad as they are now in the U.K. and I am 50 this year. The NHS is collapsing/ has collapsed (depending where you live), we have the most expensive energy costs of any country in Europe, public transport is shit, housing is dreadful & unaffordable for many, we have the most expensive water in the world etc etc.

The tories made a fortune through their dodgy dealings in covid- many work on the sly for private companies lobbying while in power. The want the NHS to fail so it’s easier to privatise (exactly what they did with trains, water, power companies etc). The country is being pillaged for the wealthy & is in a right state.

We should be on the streets but people are struggling so much at the moment, it’s hard to have the energy to do it.

Is a general strike the answer?

Is free at the point of need the problem?

or is it resourcing?

The European countries doing better generally have better resources and (govt) funded Heath service.

We’ve had hosp and services closing for the past 13 years, some services are already private (quite a bit of mental for example) and they are still broken.

I don’t see how moving the private costs currently met by govt, to the public will solve resourcing?

Great post. Sorry my reply is so long…
it all feels very doom and gloom at the moment but change is possible if we choose to work together and things can improve.
I think the first step to changing the situation is education. By education I mean learning the genuine reasons behind current political, economic, social events. That starts with individuals getting involved and engaging in discussions like this one so it’s great that you’ve started it. Casual discourse can help us and others understand WHAT is happening and how others are feeling about it but will only take us so far.
The next steps are to start to help ourselves understand more deeply WHY these things are happening, so that we can find the best way forward to start to change things in a way that will give us the desired result. This often requires deeper learning by reading and listening to what economists, historians, philosophers and especially social scientists have to say. (Not so much mainstream media) .
Our situation follows the U.S in some ways due to Neoliberalism becoming a dominant ideology in politics around the mid 70s then taking over entirely from the 80s onward with Thatcher and Reagan. The drive of proponents of Neoliberalism is to ensure wealth (and so power/control) is funnelled into very few pockets of already wealthy ‘elites’ by using deregulated capitalism to manipulate markets and society. Asset stripping the public is a great way to do it.
The conservatives know that if they are honest with the public about any of this they will likely get voted out (lose power /control) and so they tell half truths or just lie.
I don’t believe all conservatives necessarily want to replace the NHS but by being apart of and toeing the ‘party line’ of a predominantly neoliberal party they are enabling the few at the top to make policy that rewards the top 1% over the best interests of the many (public). This includes underfunding (in real terms) and back door privatisation of the NHS.
In my opinion, Labour are nearly as much to blame as the Conservatives as they gave up on previously held ideals and sold out by buying into neoliberalism to win back power under Blair in the 90s. With the conservatives moving further right and labour sitting on that side of the political spectrum it has normalised certain ideals that would have been considered extreme in previous years.
Corbyn would have brought a fundamental change and showed there are those in the Labour Party that still have different ideals to the current establishment. But the press and current establishment butchered him.
With a lot of mainstream media owned by wealthy elites and backing the neoliberal agenda the social narrative can also be run by the few that are benefitting from the current situation. This has allowed our societies most vulnerable people (the economically and educationally poor, benefit claimants, migrants, ethnic minorities) to be used as a scape goat by blaming them for all the countries ills and keeping the social discourse away from those that are really causing the problems… this has worked tremendously well.
The NHS will never function well when those running the political system do not believe in it or do not believe in creating a political frame work that allows it to function properly.
There is also another aspect to the struggles the NHS faces… Our society in many ways, but especially in healthcare, is reactionary and not preventative. This means that we wait for people to become ill (mentally or physically) before then trying to resolve the situation. Changing the way we look at care by promoting a healthier lifestyle so we can prevent many illnesses would relieve the NHS of so much burden. But that is an uphill struggle when in a consumer society like ours. We have constant adverts and input encouraging us to buy and how many of us daily consume things that are massively detrimental to our mental and physical health and pay for the pleasure of it? And who are we giving our money to? Who is providing this plethora of junk that we consume? Very very few people that make a very very large amount out of us and have enough money not to need the NHS.
I believe one part of the solution is to try to take your self out of this consuming situation, whether that is trying to buy less or buy more local food or from independent traders or reusing things or buying second hand or sharing more.
I also think strike action and people power are an enormously important part of forcing change and discourse and an effective way to protest. This fundamental ‘working together’ to create a better existence for the majority of us is exactly what society needs now, not more rampant individualism that keeps us apart and blaming each other so we can be used. Your right to down tools and cooperate with each other to better your situation is one of the most fundamental rights of a free people. This is why it is very dangerous and scary when the conservatives talk about putting laws in place to ban certain types of strike action or protest or telling us when it’s appropriate or not.

Although our voting system and democracy are becoming weaker by the year I believe voting is also a key part of forcing change. That to me means voting for someone that will try to wrestle back power and control from markets and wealthy individuals and hand it back to the public by increasing regulation on the markets, increasing tax on wealth or wealthy individuals and multinational corporations, invest in public services and crucially for me… change the way our voting system works away from first past the post to help break the monopoly on politics the two main parties have so people have more say, more sway and feel more engaged.
There is hope

Agree. Not will it solve workforce shortages

You are absolutely correct. Everybody needs to pay their mortgage ASAP. Instead of having savings in the bank, the idea I presume of raising interest rates is to make one more attractive than others, and then they can utilise your savings to borrow more and fuck you even harder. Don’t allow it

And the working class who desperately need the assets they are stripping are the ones who voted them in. Country of fucking idiots.

Turkeys voting for Christmas.

It helps with resourcing because some percentage of people will put more in than they currently pay through tax if they get more in return. I lived abroad and pretty average office workers for example were paying for the bells-and-whistles full comp whereas others less worried or less bothered paid into cheaper schemes. It works well when the government is heavily involved in regulating premiums. There were also special deals to be had if, for example, you suffer catastrophic injuries and need life long care and medicines. Or if you earned too little healthcare would be free. By contrast private healthcare in the UK is extremely expensive.

But there is a shortfall in the present time because of under investment for so long. If we as a country have kept voting in parties that don't care for the NHS, then it strikes me that we get the NHS we deserve.

We spend more (% of gdp per capita) on the nhs than the French do on their health service yet they have the best in the world (according to the WHO). The NHS is in total free fall due to years and years of mismanagement and over spending on areas that should NOT be a priority. The buck stops with every Health Secretary in recent history. You’d think, given the Tories like to be thought of as having decent business acumen and experience they’d have been able to turn it around in the last however many years they’ve been in power. But they’re just as shit as the rest. We need BETTER ALTERNATIVES. We need people with relevant experience but at the moment our treatment of anyone sticking their heads above the parapet and the intrusion into their private lives puts anyone decent off.

Personally, I think people are so battered and drained after Covid, the lockdowns and financial impact, they have neither the energy nor the enthusiasm to make a fuss. I also think it desensitised a lot of people to what is "normal" and what we should accept or not accept

All this - and especially the bolded bit - is what some of us warned against at the time, but many didn't want to hear it so now we're stuck with the results of the manic experiment in what government could get away with

The NHS is a separate issue and IMO can't be saved in its current mode no matter what's spent on it, but that won't stop politicians of all stripes jostling for a place at the trough while there's still anything left to gain

We spend more (% of gdp per capita) on the nhs than the French do on their health service

No we don’t, we spend marginally less. Astonishingly the US spends the biggest proportion of GDP on healthcare.

This again and again and again.

Has WC life expectancy reduced now? They/we are most affected by Tory governing.

Always reminds me of the question time woman who having voted Tory to stop benefit scrounging was distraught to find they’d removed her WTC…

Yes they are. NHS England are rolling out new community models ie Urgent care response teams & virtual wards. I know because I work in one and have just landed a post in another area. Brand new service aimed to create 2500 virtual beds by December this year.

How many staff do you have to look after the people in these virtual wards ?

This thread has scared the shit out of me! I had no idea that Virgin Healthcare existed (now rebranded after been acquired by another company apparently), neither that the NHS has been using them! I am not fond of the company at all, that is one of the last flipping companies I want to take care of my health. They are useless, they charge a fortune for nothing...
The online reviews are not good either.

In my county we are creating 249 virtual beds by December this year. This will be staffed by 15 nurses - Ten band 6s and five 8as so over a million pounds a year just in staff wages just in my county. Investment is there but it won't be adequate, I know this from working in the role I currently have.

If your 50 you should have at least heard about the 70's

Because they're grabbing that money as well