Anything Political

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

Since pharmacies started charging for deliveries, I have been collecting medication for a number of elderly friends who cannot get to the chemist themselves.  Most of the prescriptions are 'shipping orders' as it were. There have been no problems whatsoever in supplying what they require.

[radfordred 6,284]

The same people who sell panic, sell the pills.

[AfferGorritt 868]

Hmmm! My son told me I ought to get some aspirin in last week. An acquaintance of his in pharmaceuticals had told him there would be a shortage due to the Indian situation. Never thought anymore about it, but when I asked in the Sainsbury pharmacy earlier today, they hadn’t got any.

[loppylugs 8,429]

Politicians of all stripes are full of lying promises.  It's been my observation over too many years that whichever side gets elected the situation for Joe Average gets worse.  Not just in the UK either.  It seems to be an international problem.  Bribed with our own money.

[DJ360 6,730]

I take Aspirin 75mg EC (Enteric Coated) on prescription, to help thin my blood and help with my heart condition. Otherwise I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole as it has a vicious effect on the stomach.  When used this way Aspirin is part of a long term 'cardio protective' regime and I doubt I'd drop dead after missing a few doses.. at least not from Heart problems.

 

A couple of years ago, a mercifully very infrequent issue with Hemorrhoids afflicted me.  The usual prescription.. for 'Ultraproct' products was unavailable and after waiting for more than a week I was prescribed something broadly similar.. which worked.

 

A couple of years ago one of my regular cardiac meds , an A2 inhibitor called 'Valsartan', suddenly became subject to 'production issues'.  I and everyone else I know with similar requirements, have been on Losartan since.

[AfferGorritt 868]

Me too, DJ360. Part of the drug “survival pack” they prescribed for me after my triple bypass nearly 16 years ago. I’ve got my platelets together and given them a pep talk. Told them that in the event of an aspirin shortage they’d have to stick together!!

[Brew 5,420]

17 hours ago, DJ360 said:

So, our delightful Govt... reassuringly.. is willing to spend 'whatever is necessary', to give the NHS 'Whatever it needs'.. to get us through Coronavirus.

 

And so it should

 

17 hours ago, DJ360 said:

. Much of what is needed would not be needed if they had not crippled the NHS through a decade of cuts.

 

Irrelvant - what's done is done and crying over spilt milk doesn't help. We must play with the hand as dealt.

 

17 hours ago, DJ360 said:

 

2. 50000 Nurses and thousands of critical care beds cannot just be purchased 'off the shelf'.. at any price... quickly enough to deal with CV.

 

The figure given varies but 30000 is what I read is claimed as needed but not just to the meet the demands of Covid-19.

We will meet the demand of Covid with what we have by prioritising resources of that there is no doubt, just as there is no doubt some will blame and curse the blessed Boris and some will praise and salute his visionary actions...  

Just as they did when Gordon Brown saved the world!

 

17 hours ago, DJ360 said:

Suddenly, they like the idea that borrowing is cheap.  It's been cheap for a decade.

 

One has to be careful when comparing Labour financial strategy with that of the Tories. I'm thinking back to the golden days of Blair and Brown and the wonderful, wonderful scheme known as the PFI. They stole the idea from the Tories and made it their own.

The the chairman of RBS recently said the Labour version of PFI was a "Fraud of the people", others called it a great heist.

 

 The repayments are still rising and projected to peak 2029/30 at almost £3000,000,000 a year. 

 

The biggest borrower, by far, is the Health Dept; e.g Barts Health Trust borrowed  £.1,100 ,000 ,000  - by the time it's paid off it will have cost over £7,000,000,000'

 

Wrap borrowing in a fancy wrapper if you will but at the end of the day you have to pay it back, something Corbyn and his ilk seems to blithely ignore. You can argue till the cows come home but debt is debt and I seriously doubt you can get out from under by borrowing more...

 

Somehow I find Labour less than attractive when it comes to financial management.

[catfan 14,793]

I watched as a woman in Tesco today was refused two trays of tinned tomatoes at the checkout..

Panic buyers causing most of the problems.

Had a text from my pharmacy to collect my fourteen prescription items including 75mg aspirin.

You could always quarter a regular 500mg aspirin.Not 75mg I know but it won't do any harm, if used for blood thinning purposes.

[Brew 5,420]

I can think of a few things I'd rather not be without, (Yorkshire teabags for one) but tinned tomatoes??

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

Good supply of Sheba Sauce Lover, Gourmet Gold tins and pouches in the Kitty Cupboard. The Moggies are well catered for  Not noticed any shortages.

[Stuart.C 491]

The trays of tinned tomatoes will be for the hundreds of bags of pasta she's already stockpiled.

[Beekay 5,152]

Lady behind me in the check out queue had an armful of pizza boxes, "they're  for me son !" she said.

[Rob.L 1,090]

Can’t go wrong with having plenty of tins of tomatoes. Useful for serving with pasta, or in a chilli, or with meatballs.

 

Or, if you’re really English, on slightly burnt toast.

[DJ360 6,730]

6 hours ago, Brew said:

And so it should

 

We shall see.

 

6 hours ago, Brew said:

Irrelvant - what's done is done and crying over spilt milk doesn't help. We must play with the hand as dealt.

 

Obviously it doesn't change the situation now.. but it's a bloody good point to score and some might learn from it.

 

6 hours ago, Brew said:

One has to be careful when comparing Labour financial strategy with that of the Tories. I'm thinking back to the golden days of Blair and Brown and the wonderful, wonderful scheme known as the PFI.

 

Irrelevant - what's done is done and crying over spilt milk doesn't help. We must play with the hand as dealt.

 

More seriously, I'm no fan of PFI and I very much doubt Corbyn or anyone else in Labour is now.

 

6 hours ago, Brew said:

Wrap borrowing in a fancy wrapper if you will but at the end of the day you have to pay it back, something Corbyn and his ilk seems to blithely ignore.

 

Nobody disputes that.  Also note that borrowing under Tory Govts is historically often higher than under Lab.  But it is just wrong to equate Public borrowing with the likes of household debt.. principally because Public borrowing is mostly raised internally via the 'Bond' markets...and being 'internal' it does not put the Govt, or the country, in 'hock' to external forces in the ame way that household does say, a family.

6 hours ago, Brew said:

Somehow I find Labour less than attractive when it comes to financial management.

 

1. You can financially manage an economy very successfully whilst excluding the bulk of the population from the benefits. This was managed very successfully throughout most of history and to grotesque levels during the 18th and 19th Cs.

2. Check your facts.

[Brew 5,420]

5 hours ago, DJ360 said:

Nobody disputes that.  Also note that borrowing under Tory Govts is historically often higher than under Lab.  But it is just wrong to equate Public borrowing with the likes of household debt.. principally because Public borrowing is mostly raised internally via the 'Bond' markets...and being 'internal' it does not put the Govt, or the country, in 'hock' to external forces in the ame way that household does say, a family.

 

It matters not one jot where you get the money from. Mrs Jones can borrow from the Pru, the tally man, the bank or internally from family with a promissory note, it is debt and has to be repaid - something that has escaped monetary theorists who seem to lack old fashioned common sense. You can juggle the books all you like but at the end of the day it will bite you unless you are careful and forced to keep borrowing more and more to service ever mounting repayments.

 

At present there is a grave danger of another global recession and on closer inspection CV is not the cause despite reports it is. Once again it is governments and big corporations manipulating economics and getting their greedy fingers burnt. 

 

I have not made any claims about the economy of 200 hundred years ago, why would I?

 

Which facts would you like me to check?

[DJ360 6,730]

4 hours ago, Brew said:

It matters not one jot where you get the money from. (et. seq.)

 

That's partly true, in that it does have to be repaid.  However, all depends on why you borrow and what you do with the money you borrow. If it's used for decent infrastructure etc., it's justifiable... especially when interest rates are low.  There's also a 'fiscal stimulus' type effect to be considered which can increase productivity, the 'tax take' etc..

What is certain is that , to return to the 'household' model.. failure to maintain the roof, will eventually lead to water ingress, which will lead to  rot etc., and eventual collapse. Prudent borrowing to maintain the house can pay off and will certainly pay off more than doing nothing.

 

4 hours ago, Brew said:

At present there is a grave danger of another global recession and on closer inspection CV is not the cause despite reports it is. Once again it is governments and big corporations manipulating economics and getting their greedy fingers burnt. 

 

Yes, there's talk of recession and I have no special view on the cause.  I'm certain though that if it hits.. and more to the point if anybody notices amid the CV crisis, then a Tory Govt. will take steps to defend the rich and ensure that the poor pay for them...

Which brings me to..

 

4 hours ago, Brew said:

I have not made any claims about the economy of 200 hundred years ago, why would I?

 

You haven't directly.  But you seem oblivious to the fact that there are forces at work who want to return to that former 'status quo'. Labour was in the vanguard of altering the relationship between rich and poor from the late 19thC.  This really did lead to improvements in the lot of millions, which were resisted tooth and nail by 'capital' and 'the establishment'.

The very wealthy, the forces of international capital and high finance, the 'neo con' movement, the far right media, etc., etc., are all complicit in a clear attempt to regain the control they had in earlier times and basically 'sod the rest'.  You know full well that the UK  political right (and those in other countries) are determined to dismantle welfare, shrink 'the state', etc., etc.. all in an effort to regain control. They continually trot out the same old rubbish about 'trickle down' 'working yourself out of poverty' and so on.  This simply is not an answer for the majority. So, we have allowed  Zero Hours contracts, 'the 'gig economy' etc..which  are all just modern day equivalents of the sort of precarious wage slavery or worse which kept the majority 'down' in the past.

 

What we are witnessing now, and for the last ten years (at least) is a determined 'push back' by the forces of capital and the political right.  Even the latest budget, with all of its flowery rhetoric about 'Getting CV Done' and giving the NHS 'whatever it needs'.. is patent rubbish because it is far too late to repair ten years damage quickly.  It was also patently obvious that the Govt's first and almost only thought was to look after business, and there was zero mention of Local Govt., Social Welfare etc.

 

5 hours ago, Brew said:

Which facts would you like me to check?

 

Apologies.  It was a little harsh.  But basically I think you are too hard on Labour's economic record.  It needs to be balanced against a permanently hostile press/media and financial institutions and the achievements of the left over 100+ years need to be remembered and acknowledged.  One massive example is how well the UK economy was doing prior to the 2008 crash. (Please.. let's not drag up the Gold again...) Generally, things were booming and it wasn't Labour who caused the World recession, or the pointless and counter productive Austerity which has followed.. and still not gone away.

[Brew 5,420]

I wondered when investment in infrastructure and the consequent tax revenje would raise it's pretty little bonnet. It is a nice rosy theory that has a lot of subscribers. Pity it doesn't work. If it did we would still have a steel industry, a ship building industry and not have to buy overpriced military hardware from the US.

You think me oblivious because I do not agree with the "rich are grinding the face of the prolateriate  into the dirt". I don't think so.

You mentioned before that the Tories fought tooth and nail against the welfare state. History shows not to be true and they actually supported it wholeheartedly.

You can't bring up the Brown boom and not mention his selling of the gold reserve or the raid on pensions but it's old hat now, let's move on.

I'm too hard on the govsrnments that have the well deserved reputation for boom and bust? I think not.

The Bond market you seem to favour now holds more debt than there is money in the entire global economy. 100Trillion of debt against 79 Trillion in the pot. Economists, governments etc. are not plotting to take over the world they're drowning in debt that can never be paid back.

 

This typyed on my phone while waiting at the airport..... WHAT A PAIN IN THE ARSE!

[DJ360 6,730]

Have a good flight.. don't breathe in and keep washing your hands..

[radfordred 6,284]

I did not vote or want Boris in charge, but not once have I thought “ I wish Corbyn was in charge” he’d be holding vigils in town squares or trying to negotiate a better virus by now    Well done Boris 

 

 

[LizzieM 9,510]

And would have no doubt given Dianne Abbott the Health Minister job! But that would have been less dangerous than Chancellor of the Exchequer .......

[radfordred 6,284]

With her two left shoes, God help us 

[Rob.L 1,090]

Instead, we have Dominic Cummings in charge.

 

“herd immunity, protect the economy, and if that means some pensioners die, too bad.”

[Brew 5,420]

I fully expected him (Boris) to declare a state of emergency during tonight's broadcast but he stopped just short. Not too sure of the legal ramifications of disobeying unless they can use the public order act. The exceptions he's named for those that can go out seem a bit wooly and ill defined.

 

 

[radfordred 6,284]

He did not actually say lockdown, it was something like “stay @ home unless you need to go out, or for exercise, or to help a friend, or you know whatever, but then straight home & if your mates want to go out say NO. Yes say No”

 

 

[DJ360 6,730]

3 hours ago, Brew said:

 The exceptions he's named for those that can go out seem a bit wooly and ill defined.

 

Boris?  Woolly and ill-defined?  Surely not!!??