Credit were tis due, doesn’t half get some mileage out of recycling plastic.:rolleyes:

Who was it said “if you want peace, prepare for war”?

Simply put if you are prepared to repel an attacker the odds are much higher that said attacker will try elsewhere.

As Creaking Door says:

“It is a bit like private education; those that send their children to private schools still pay their taxes and the state school system has fewer children to teach. The private schools all pay their taxes too.”

And you could say that they pay their taxes to educate the teachers, nurses, doctors, police officers, firefighters, refuse collectors and street sweepers (not educated privately) that we all need to make society operate.

Tom

Wakey, wakey have a quick check on the number of “private” schools which do recieve funding from the state, just look at how many are registered as charities, supposedly non-profit making, while we’re at it lets look at how many privately funded teacher training colleges there are.

I went to a grammar school which did have a number of private pupils within the school, all private pupils were boarders, but educationally received exactly the same lessons as the rest of us, but of course they did get extra schooling in evening and weekends in subjects that they struggled with, and of course board and lodging was a factor, BUT the school received the same funding for ALL pupils, which part was privately funded then?

Must add this was not recently.:D

Apparently so! 😀

But how does a Public Sector job ‘contribute to the exchequer’?

Let’s stick with the NHS and employ an extra nurse (as an example); the nurse is paid by the NHS, the NHS is paid by the exchequer and any money the nurse spends incurs taxes which eventually end up in the exchequer also but some money goes elsewhere and this has a stimulating effect on the economy.

However the net result is that the exchequer loses money; plus, because the country is in debt, the exchequer has had to borrow the money to pay the nurse in the first place so the exchequer has to pay interest on top of this.

I understand that the state needs to provide health, education, defence and all the rest but I think it is too easy to think that by ‘creating’ these jobs (or creating too many of them) a government is actually ‘contributing to the exchequer’?

You possibly didn’t notice I didn’t mention public sector jobs,quite deliberately, I agree that there is far too much empire building bureaucracy within the public sector, essentially too many chiefs and not enough Indians, I am referring to the way that companies ostensibly British, who wish to sell and/or operate within the country are permitted to export jobs, who bring in casual non-contract labour from wherever, very often illegal or bordering on illegal, who flout all manner of laws in order to increase their profits which are then hastily moved to “head office” in some tax haven.

As far as essential services are concerned, Tories over the years have an abysmal record, they have consistently handed over essential services to private companies which are now mainly in the hands of foreign investors and/or companies who are free to charge whatever they please, simply because (as it says on the tin) they have control of supplying services which the population need.

The NHS obviously come into this category, while it is true that the Con-Dems are not trying to sell off the NHS, what they are doing is allowing private companies in by the back door, allowing private companies to take over facilities supplied and funded by the tax payer, permitting them to compete for certain procedures, ie cherry pick. When private medical providers can give a full service available to all, for less cost than the NHS I will support the move until then they can keep out.

I have no problem with private medical care or those who use it, BUT, private medical care must provide their own facilities, train their own people, run their own infra-structure there is no place for them as parasites leaching onto the NHS.

The idea of handing control to GP led consortium sounds pretty good on the surface, but think it through, GPs whatever their thoughts and feelings will be bound even more by budgets and funding, will need to employ admin staff far in excess of the present levels, in other words probably everyone displaced from the NHS, plus of course the hospitals will still need admin staff of their own, I genuinely feel that the whole thing will actually increase bureaucracy rather than reduce it, plus of course at the moment a GP will work vigorously to secure what he/she feels is the correct treatment for a patient, with the new order the GP will be faced with making a very personal judgement as to either treating a patient according to need or to budget.

That was never the aim or reason for the NHS, is a total contradiction of everything the NHS stands for.

It is very easy to get into a party political slanging match, to keep things open and honest I feel that many politicians need a good coat of watching, but I admit to an almost total distrust of Tory politicians.

We have a bad financial situation, it is blindingly obvious to the majority of normal thinking people, that we as a country must increase our income whilst controlling our expenses.

Our present government seems determined to cut the legs from under any and every development irrespective of it’s value or need, we must get people working, earning, providing for themselves and also contributing to the exchequer.

Slashing jobs, throwing people out of work and onto benefits is a backward step, any “savings” are destroyed before they can take effect, I personally feel that our present government is taking most action on ideological lines rather financial necessity, in other words they are making a bad situation worse merely to serve their own ends.

Top Tories don’t know and quite frankly don’t care about ordinary people as long as the top companies, the banks and financial institutions, are showing profit then everything in the garden is lovely. It matters not that these companies export jobs, buy goods in from anywhere, move money out of the country to avoid taxes etc.

From Tory lovers we get the the whine that the British work force is uncompetitive, unskilled, doesn’t want to work, very strange that our vehicle production mainly for export is growing and profitable, sadly under foreign ownership and management, but staffed by these same “useless” British workers, possibly it is management of many of our companies that need chopping rather than the jobs of those who actually do the work.

I could carry on all night but leave it at that for now.

Sorry to sound like the good old days, but the West Lancs area many moons ago was great, much testing of Canberras and particularly a very fast,noisy swept wing thingy that didn’t exist, turned out to be the P1 eventually Lightning.

For some reason at that time the area was a designated test area running out to the Irish Sea for high speed testing.

Still do see Typhoons on test,but not as frequent as used to be.

Born and lived in rural West Lancs, now live in Southport which according to some is Merseyside, but to the best of my knowledge has never actually moved, on that basis still in West Lancs.

Sad lack of military airfields around.

There was no fuel-crisis until the tanker-drivers threatened to strike.

Government advice since the panic-buying started has been wholeheartedly not to panic-buy, they stated (quite clearly) on the same day that Maude gave his infamous advice that the union would have to give seven days notice of any strike action, they have assured people that supplies are not limited, they have removed restrictions to the tanker-drivers working hours, even the tanker-drivers have now said there will not be any strike until after the Easter break…

…but still some panic-buying goes on.

Do you know why the drivers took a vote to hold if necessary a strike,do you realise that they have been trying to talk to employers about changes to working conditions for months, but of course while we have a Tory led government the employers are taking the line that workers will do as they’re told right or wrong.

The employers are trying to operate an on time delivery service with the caveat that drivers will be penalised if late. For me I certainly don’t want a driver trying to run to time with a 27 ton bomb on board.

Then of course we have brain dead politicians who have ramped up the situation, gets Gormless George and his pathetic budget out of the headlines, distracts the cash for access questions.

Between dogmatic, bullying employers and a useless parody of an elected government are you surprised when workers shout enough.

Incidentally just who do you think is working the extra hours and extra shifts to keep fuel stations supplied, yes you got it those same tanker drivers not employers or idiot MPs.