AIBU to not be remotely bothered that Rishi has private healthcare

[MXVIT]

I'm really not - it's an absolutely ridiculous thing for us to be getting worked up about.

He's the prime minister - of course he has private healthcare. Leaders of the country need to be fit and well and therefore need the best healthcare money can buy - we can all agree the NHS is not that - and thats a separate conversation.

By that logic lets ban all childless babysitters, all dogless dogwalkers.

Honestly as a country I feel we're that addicted to getting ourselves into a frenzy over everything that we're focussing on the wrong things.

The narrative of "the poorest of society don't have this - so NO ONE CAN" is getting more and more common lately.

Can you not understand that if Sunak and Starmer are asked the same question and one of them answers it and the other one equivocates and avoids it, the politician who answers it will be seen as more credible and trustworthy?

Exactly. People are very odd about this. Of course medics should deal with any stuff efficiently so he can do the actual job.

People want a press release from a local surgery (didn’t some guy pretend a train was full once and do a whole press stunt). I’d prefer they skipped the theatrics for the crowd and didn’t waste time.

Can you not understand that if Sunak and Starmer are asked the same question and one of them answers it and the other one equivocates and avoids it, the politician who answers it will be seen as more credible and trustworthy?

I just don't care. I prefer to judge politicians on their actions, not their soundbites and press reactions.

YANBU. Wasn't it the same about how Diane Abott was a hypocrite for sending her kids to a private school despite being publicly against private schools politically?

That was the same type of media crap diverting attention from the real issues.

I'd wish the media and opposing politicians just concentrate on things that really matter rather than all the childish point scoring.

So you think it does not matter if our Prime Minister and his family never ever use any NHS hospitals or services at all?
So he has no real idea of the NHS?

The not knowing how to pay for petrol with a card incident shows he is out of touch.

Maybe you do not mind having a Prime Minister who is out of touch with how ordinary people live?

Weird fucking take this. Lots of Muslim families are low income, just like any other group.
Also Rishi is not a Muslim so who knows what you're on about here ... care to elaborate?

I would say that a government minister's decision not to use public services says a lot about their lack of confidence in those public services and the people who run them. Who runs those public services? The aforementioned government ministers. How can we have confidence in their abilities if they don't have confidence?

That’s quite a leap there, that they’ve never used the NHS.

The media have done well to create this story for you.

By all means vote wrt policies but at least separate the media churn and pointless headlines.

@tirednewmumm It is pure racism. A brown man has to be a Muslim and all "foreigners" are rich.
Mumsnet is awash with racism.

Most people really don't care about the ridiculous theatrics in the HOC and other media. It's ALL staged. If people take it seriously, they're deluded.

That's the problem really, some voters are so stupid that they base their vote on Milliband or Osborne eating a bacon bun or cornish pasty, where artificial stage managed media stunts back-fired. Or like Rishi not knowing how to use a contactless credit card or Brown's "bigoted woman" remark. All that is just irrelevant background noise

We really need to ignore all the crap and concentrate on their real work not media stunts. I sometimes watch the BBC Parliament channel where they televise the committees - that's where the REAL parliamentary work is done and where you'll see the dedicated and knowledgeable politicians who are constantly working behind the scenes and not getting distracted by the publicity stunts.

@MarshaBradyo A leap? He is richer than the Queen. Of course he does not use the NHS.

So who does Rishi represent as a leader?

People like him.

That's the problem.

This. I’m glad others feel the same. It’s frustrating to see politics constantly run at this level.

I completely agree with you. Im of the opinion that anyone who can afford private healthcare should use it then those that cant will have less waiting and there will be less pressure on the NHS

I want a Prime Minister who knows how ordinary life works. Who knows how to pay for petrol, who knows what using an NHS hospital is like.

Rishi Sunak is richer than the King. He is very removed from every day life and has zero understanding of how people live. How the hell can he make meaningful policy?

Ed Milliband's bacon sandwich fiasco showed he was out of touch with ordinary people too! In fact, there's a constant stream of senior politicians from all parties who get "caught" being out of touch with ordinary people. It's no surprise, they're NOT ordinary people, regardless of political colour!

Does it matter? No, of course not, because the "figurehead" politicians are merely puppets. The real parliamentary work is done by the committees and the civil service mandarins who ARE the ones who should be doing the research, exploring options, etc.

The Ministers don't think up policies themselves - they're "fed" options by their departmental mandarins. Do you really think George Osborne woke up one morning and randomly decided to charge VAT on cornish pasties? Of course not. His departmental mandarins presented that idea to him along with potentially dozens of other ideas as a kind of "tick box" option list for that Budget - he ticked a few boxes and announced the changes, based on what he was being told.

Does Keir Starmer's answer have exactly the same implications for him as Rishi would have got from saying yes? Was Keir Starmer equally likely to suffer adverse consequences, opening himself up to further political attacks, by supplying this personal information?

Every bit of personal information a politician gives out can be used by half the country as an excuse to hate them. They're entitled to draw a line somewhere. Obviously a non-answer will be interepreted as yes, but it has the offseting benefit of highlighting that the journalist is being a dick.

@Badbadbunny The bacon sandwich thing was anti semitism. It was about Milliband being Jewish. The press were reminding the public of that.

I don't care about him having private healthcare. I do care if it means he doesn't think it's important for the rest of us to have decent healthcare.

There should be reasonable minimum standards for all public services. If anyone wants to pay more for even better levels of services, that's fine by me. For instance, I was lucky enough to have private schooling for my children. It doesn't mean I am satisfied with awful state education. Everyone suffers in the long run if we downgrade our services.

Do people really think that a few politicians using private health care is going to take the strain off the NHS? I want them to have to use it, so they understand the fear the rest of us go through when we, or our loved ones are sick. Like my mum spending 2 days in A&E with a suspected stroke

Why should they get to opt out of this, when they are the ones running the NHS and running it into the ground

Since you brought up policy did you receive the £900 direct payment and the next lot due soon?

Even if not, look to the policies not the story line the media are creating for you.

I judge them on their actions too.

One answered the question. One avoided it. I know whose party I'm voting for.

But surely it's our fault for voting for them if they're that out of touch. I've seen people from ordinary backgrounds saying Jacob Rees Mogg would be a good PM. Fucking JRM. We get what we vote for.

Most of us didn't vote for this.

I agree.
But I also just want him to understand how the NHS works on the ground. For example ideas of charging for missed appointments with zero experience that cutting admin staff has led to major issues with people being informed about appointments.

If you never use a service even once, you do not really understand how it operates.
It is like a supermarket boss never going into a supermarket. He can have all the company policies he wants, but he would not truly understand what he is managing.

I work in the private sector and in my company we would never have a boss managing services and being so remote from how they actually operate.