The NHS is captured and I can't see a way out

[Triotriotrio]

My local ambulance service have just posted up their Pride ambulances. The managers have also given anyone who wants them rainbow epaulettes (despite this being against the uniform policy). It is such a scandalous waste of money. One brave staff member queried if this was really what they should be investing in given it's political links etc and has basically been called a bigot.

It makes me so cross.

The government will need to deal with this as part of the need for financial efficiency. They should appoint a Waste Czar (whatever a czar actually is). That person should have power of veto over any decisions reported confidentially by staff.

I feel like the line from the news articles on the Julie Jarman affair should be shared here. That the presence of pride flags is enough for women to know that their boundaries are at risk.

I feel unsafe, concerned and reticent to confide when I see the pride/trans flags now.

But I expect I don't matter.

Same. I see a Pride flag and I think ‘misogyny’, and feel fear and regret.

That's how I feel. These people don't respect my boundaries.

I think this would be a great idea. I can only imagine how much this has cost.

It looks like a clown party wagon. I wouldn’t necessarily even recognise it as an ambulance - hope it doesn’t mean drivers hesitate giving way in an emergency.

Is that an actual ambulance? It looks like a carnival float.

Ridiculous waste of taxpayer money.

I too think it looks like a child’s party bus. If one of them turned up to take away me or a relative I wouldn’t believe it was real!

Who THE FUCK signed off on that absolutely scandalous waste of money?? I am fucking outraged. That's a poor management issue, right there. Someone spent their budget on that, when there's precious little to go round. You are fucking kidding me.

It must cost a few thousand to do that. Money that could be spent on front-line services. Disgusting.

I wouldn’t necessarily even recognise it as an ambulance - hope it doesn’t mean drivers hesitate giving way in an emergency.

This reminds me of the rainbow crossings. The reason why crossings are black and white are the same reason why police cars, and ambulances, and fire engines look like they do. So we know what they are and we respond appropriately.

My worry about rainbow crossings is that kids would dash out into the road because all they see is a lovely rainbow, and get hit by a car. Or drivers don't understand what's ahead and lose concentration, and have an accident.

Same with this. If you see that in your rear view mirror, you're going to be unnecessarily distracted and either not let it pass, or have an accident while you figure out what it is.

Probably no action will be taken until someone is killed and the coroner says "this was totally avoidable" and then people will wring their hands behind nameless press releases.

Same old same old.

I agree, it looks like one of those soft play buses. Dangerous.

They need to stop pissing taxpayers' money up the wall to virtue signal their capture by lobby groups.

Imagine a serious RTA and that thing pulls up to take away the seriously injured and dying. What are these people thinking?

If I saw that coming, I would think it was some sort of fun bus for children, not an ambulance.

My worry about rainbow crossings is that kids would dash out into the road because all they see is a lovely rainbow, and get hit by a car. Or drivers don't understand what's ahead and lose concentration, and have an accident

Guide /assistance dogs and police horses dont recognise the rainbow stripes. But its inclusive apparently 🙄

It's not just the links to gender ideology either, IMO.

There are all kinds of people living in the UK, it is a pluralistic society. They may or may not agree with what Pride stands for. Basic services like the health service are still meant to work for those people. And while this may be controversial I don't think they should be throwing it in their face that they are out of line with the dominant political ideology when they are serving them.

This obsession with branding totally non-contextually is increasingly weird. Pride being the #1 brand, but it's not alone - one of the main streets in my city has Black Lives Matter written in huge letters down the street. It's meant to be seen from the fort above, as you can't read it when you are driving, but the first time I drove down the street after it was painted I was trying to figure out what these new, weird road indicators were supposed to mean. We also now get a variety of slogans on the buses. A giant Ukrainian flag hanging off the bridge.

At some point we went from some banners hung seasonally on the bridge for different causes that were kind of nice, mostly sponsored financially by various organizations, to now the city itself finances all kinds of different cause of the moment stuff.

It reminds me of when my kids were home educated, the math book I had was from a Christian publisher in the US. It was a nice book, but one weird thing was that at the bottom of every page was a Bible quote, totally unrelated to the math topic. It was so they could market it as a Christian math program. But really, it was very unconnected, and didn't do much if anything to make the kids better Christians or better at math than they would be without the quotes.

Just another official line the NHS is incorrect about. I try to avoid the NHS on the whole, they were captured a long time ago, their advice is not evidence-based, it's money-based.

It might just be a PTS vehicle so doesn't respond to blue light emergencies.

I do think this is worrying due to the fact that the colour of ambulances is something that was created due to psychology of drivers and it’s important as pp said. I wouldn’t recognise that in the mirror now.

It is such a scandalous waste of money

Every time that someone whinges about cuts in the public sector, this sort of thing reminds me that there's clearly money going spare somewhere.

How much did it cost to employ a graphic designer, then print and apply these vinyls?

There is money, but everything has to have a business case made for it.

Die in a Pride Ambulance outside A&E waiting for staff to finish their TikTok dances?

Presumably the business case for this is in the same filing cabinet as the Equalities Impact Assessments for the rainbow crossings.

There are all kinds of people living in the UK, it is a pluralistic society. They may or may not agree with what Pride stands for. Basic services like the health service are still meant to work for those people. And while this may be controversial I don't think they should be throwing it in their face that they are out of line with the dominant political ideology when they are serving them.

I agree.