On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 10:28:02 +0000, Matt
wrote:

Andy Hall wrote:

I paid for private primary and secondary education out of income at
highest marginal rate because state education has become woefully
inadequate. I received nothing back from the local authority for
that.

Nor should you.

There should be something at least as a tax break or as a contribution
from the local authority for education. I'm perfectly happy to pay
into the pot for those who wish to use the state system, but I do
think that the state should at least recompense the equivalent amount
spent in the state system to educate a child to those wishing to
choose an alternative.

Just because you choose to not take up the offer of free state
education does not mean that the costs of state provision can be
totally ignored or just "transferred".

Why not?

A state provided
classroom/teacher lying idle or half full because a number of
similarly misguided parents sent their little Jane's and Johnny's to a
private school still carries costs. In the extreme this could lead to
closure of the state school and bussing of pupils considerable
distances to alternatives. Closure of a school can have a huge impact
on life in a small village (and elsewhere)

Our LEA doesn't give a monkeys about the kids/parents in my village.

We had a beautiful stone built primary school (on "School Street") in
our village. They closed the school on School Street and sold the land
for housing, built another school on a greenfield site outside the
village, and then told the kids/parents living in the new houses on
School Street they were outside the catchement area of the new school,
and they'd have to go to an inner city school 2 miles away (by road)
across a railway line, (so can't walk) that surprise - surprise has
empty places!

You couldn't make it up !


Healthcare is even worse. The same bad principles apply, the state
service is a mess and should have been shut down years ago. All of
the above taxes apply, plus additional ones if an employer provides
health insurance as a benefit.

If you are stupid or greedy or selfish enough to consider private
healthcare then your choice must be for everything and that includes
accident and emergency services.

Tonight's Yorkshire Evening Post, front page story:

http://www.leedstoday.net/ViewArticl...icleID=1246994

TINY Harley Ansbro's head is misshapen, his skull slopes to one side
and his ears are in different positions.
His worried mum says the condition – positional plagiocephaly – is
also affecting his balance and he cannot sit without falling to one
side.

But health bosses say the condition is "cosmetic" and have refused to
treat Harley on the NHS.

They will, however, pay for procedures such as breast enlargement, a
nose job or tattoo removal.

*** Extract Ends ***


Two of our local hospitals have just been awarded *zero* stars.

from www.leedstoday.net

"Leeds is not the only trust failing to make the grade

LEEDS is not the only city to have fared badly in the hospital league
tables.
Bosses at the crisis-hit Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust - which runs services
in Wakefield, Pontefract and Dewsbury - also scored zero stars.

The rating was the latest in a long line of troubles for the trust,
which fell into a desperate financial situation earlier this year and
had to rescued with £30m of Government money."

(DG) I've seen better organised slime moulds.

Again from www.leedstoday.net :

Cockroaches shut hospital kitchens

KITCHENS at St James's Hospital in Leeds have been shut down - because
they are infested with cockroaches.

Again from www.leedstoday.net :

Midwives close ‘filthy’ baby unit
Midwives forced the closure of a ‘refurbished’ maternity unit claiming
there was blood on the floors, exposed wires, soiled sheets, dirty
carpets and broken furniture.

Again from www.leedstoday.net :

It's time to come clean on hygiene
....There is no excuse for dirty hospitals now. As a result Britain now
officially has the dirtiest hospitals in Europe which is the shameful
reality faced by a country still deluding itself.

No piggy backing AT ALL on the state
system. If you sustain an injury and there is evidence that you are
in a private healthcare scheme then there should be measures put in
place so you have to wait until the private ambulance turns up.

Indeed there are private health schemes that will provide for that.

I daresay they are expensive but I'd be better equipped to pay their
charges if I wasn't paying an obscene amount into the NHS which
doesn't deliver.

Last time I looked there were more private intensive care beds than
NHS ones around Leeds.

If
you die in the meantime then tough, you made an "informed choice" and
the brochure looked good.

A private room with Sky TV, gourmet food and a nymphomaniac nurse?

My wife got the benefit of all that at BUPA when she had a gall
bladder operation earlier this year. She couldn't eat *any* food,
despite steak and kidney pud on the (Gourmet ???) menu, and was out
after 2 nights. The cost was about £5k but she got seen and treated
and she survived, which is more than her father did in St James's.

There isn't an NHS hospital in Leeds she'd contemplate using.

My secretary is also waiting for an operation, has been waiting since
April, and has been through the "Waiting list to get on a waiting
list" rigmarole. She won't pay to go private although they have the
money, but she's simply dreading going into "Jimmy's". This sentiment
is just normal around here.

BTW. The concept of a nymphomaniac 55 yo Yorkshirewoman as a nurse
stretches the imagination too much.


........... or proper state healthcare for all with the best
facilities and best treatment regardless of the ability of the
individual to pay?

That you will get "Only under communism" :-))


Private education stinks and so does private healthcare. The sooner
they were *totally* eliminated from British society the better.

I depend on the state run NHS to provide me with a health service,
payment for which is not voluntary. What level of service do I get?
Just look at it. "Dirtiest Hospitals in Europe" , "Filthy Maternity
Unit" "Infested with cockroaches".

It's not private healthcare that stinks.

Father in law died of MRSA in St James's Leeds. He was supposed to
have been "Barrier Nursed" but they kept his door open and the ward
mop and bucket in the room with him ! Outside his window was a 1st
floor quadrangle (no public access) that was littered with disposable
urine bottles and used hypodermic syringes.

The dirty *******s.

DG