Vote: What /Who will you be Voting for Election ?

[natty01295]

Vote: Who/what will you be voting for ?

[Earl Aelfheah]

Labour.

[titch juicy]

The softest brexit possible.

[red devil]

I've always voted Labour, but they need a good kicking in order to get rid of Corbyn, and even then he might not go. So I'll be voting LibDem, happy in the knowledge that they are anti-Hard Brexit...

[JohnL]

I'll be voting tactically

[????]

Lib Dem probably but 'anyone but Corbyn' could lead me to the Tories in our constituency, but I'd like a strong remain vote, a revival in the LDs fortune, and still not sure if i could put an X next to a Conservative as a small drudge of lefty Tribalism still remains in my soul.

[Jeremy]

I tend to alternate between LibDem and "moderate" Labour. Corbyn is a joke, so LibDem this time for me.

Saying that, nobody but Labour has any hope in the C&P constituency.

[alice]

Labour. I vote for the politics not personality

[Alan Medic]

Lib Dem I expect. I liked Helen Hayes though when she knocked on the door a couple of months ago.

[teddyboy23]

I'm voting for the party that always tells the truth.doesnt fiddle expenses always give a direct answer to any Question.and who's MPs are all for us .?

[steveo]

Conservative voters, of which there will be many on this forum, rarely poke their heads above the parapet here or elsewhere these days, despite the fact their party will probably sweep all before it this June.

It's just not worth the lorry load of opprobrium that would inevitably be tipped on their heads by those who think that a vote for the Tories = the end of the NHS and the imminent introduction of conscription.

There will also be UKIP'ers among us but they live in the shadows

[Jeremy]

I've never voted Tory, but for all their considerable faults, I would probably rather have the Cameron govt back than either May or Corbyn.

[????]

Personally, I always liked the Coalition - near impossible situation did the best they could

[maxxi]

I'm sick of voting for one thing only to prevent another rather than because I believe in it but I'm going to try and suspend my desire to mock and base my vote on what each manifesto says.

I know, naive innit?

[JoeLeg]

steveo Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Conservative voters, of which there will be many

> on this forum, rarely poke their heads above the

> parapet here or elsewhere these days, despite the

> fact their party will probably sweep all before it

> this June.

>

> It's just not worth the lorry load of opprobrium

> that would inevitably be tipped on their heads by

> those who think that a vote for the Tories = the

> end of the NHS and the imminent introduction of

> conscription.

>

> There will also be UKIP'ers among us but they live

> in the shadows

Mate, Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt are busily planning the sneak privatisation of the NHS.

Mr Hunt has been forming disturbingly close relations with Kaiser Permanante, which should concern us all.

The NHS - you'll miss it when it's gone...

Back on topic, I'm not sure. Jim Dowd was my MP, and he's retiring. If his replacement is a parachuted Momentum tosser then I may have to go LD.

[steveo]

Whatever happens, it won't be 'gone' Joe (mate)

[DulwichFox]

I think back to a time when Voting mattered and may even of made a difference.

Perhaps we should all vote 1 candidate out in a series of rounds until only one candidate remained.

DulwichFox.

[JoeLeg]

steveo Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Whatever happens, it won't be 'gone' Joe (mate)

So what do you think the NHS will look like in future years? Right now there's no requirement to buy insurance, and it's free at the point of delivery.

It's also totally unsustainable in its current form, and I firmly believe this is part of a long term plan to bring in privatisation by other means, by the back door. When the Health Secretary is spending time with big US healthcare providers I get very worried.

Do you honestly believe that the NHS is safe? It needs reform, it needs proper investment, it needs to be respected for what it is. It's being undermined by the very people supposed to protect it.

[JohnL]

More and more employers offering private insurance (it's taxed as a benefit though)

Surely that leaves those without that offer on "basic" NHS.

Anyway I didn't take up my employers BUPA offer and was in general ward when I was in Kings

[Alan Medic]

DulwichFox Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I think back to a time when Voting mattered and

> may even of made a difference.

>

> Perhaps we should all vote 1 candidate out in a

> series of rounds until only one candidate

> remained.

>

> DulwichFox.

Proportional representation you mean. Fairer system I think.

[Siduhe]

It's a dilemma for me - either Helen Hayes (who I like, is a responsible local MP and stuck to her guns and voted against triggering Article 50 in line with the majority referendum result in my constituency but is Labour, so a vote for a Corbyn government which is the last thing I want), or Lib Dem (pro-Europe, but not a fan of Tim Farron's voting record on women's issues or the Lib Dem decision to break election pledges last time they were in government).

[????]

JoeLeg Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> steveo Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Whatever happens, it won't be 'gone' Joe (mate)

>

>

> So what do you think the NHS will look like in

> future years? Right now there's no requirement to

> buy insurance, and it's free at the point of

> delivery.

>

> It's also totally unsustainable in its current

> form, and I firmly believe this is part of a long

> term plan to bring in privatisation by other

> means, by the back door. When the Health Secretary

> is spending time with big US healthcare providers

> I get very worried.

>

> Do you honestly believe that the NHS is safe? It

> needs reform, it needs proper investment, it needs

> to be respected for what it is. It's being

> undermined by the very people supposed to protect

> it.

It needs reform but why should it be respected for what it is? some of us think it's grossly overbloated and inefficient and reluctant to face any reform. Real spend has increased every year since the Tories came to power as it happens; private companies play a significant role in far more efficient and better results health services elsewhere. It's not the Binary choice of NHS or America that those who like inertia claim.

...i know that challenging it is meant to be heresy but it's a growing opinion. If it's the envy of the world how come literally no-one else in the world has a similar system? The Labour party is widely overestimating how effective the NHS is as an attack weapon on the Tories for this reason.

[JoeLeg]

Alright, fair point. "Respected for what it is" was a poor choice of words on my part.

I'm not blind to the failings of the NHS. However, I believe strongly that a 'free at the point of delivery' healthcare system is something a nation like ours should have. If you're in dire medical need you shouldn't be having to worry about paying for it, and no one should be forced to keep working into old age to keep healthcare benefits.

I guess I feel that one of the most basic functions of government is the protection of its citizens, and that (to me) includes making sure healthcare is as effective and efficient as it can be. My personal experience of the NHS has been that it saved my wife's life once and my mothers twice, but I know it can make appalling errors too hat result in needless death. It needs reform, it needs more money, but we also owe it to ourselves to fight for healthcare as a basic right.

I do not beieve privatisation has any place in critical or intensive healthcare (I accept, reluctantly, that in other areas there is more scope for argument). It runs anathema to the stated aims when profit becomes a motive. For the record I think the same about a number of other areas, including defence. Despite being something of a lefty I'm not a woolly thinker. Private enterprise can do great things for us in their right areas. Stuff that is focused on keeping people alive is not one of them.

(This is not to say that I do not believe private healthcare should exist at all. Much like private education everyone has the right to spend their money how they see fit, but there must exist a basic level of care which everyone has access to and which is properly funded and run and will care for you in a serious emergency without turfing you out as soon as you meet a minimum criteria for survival.)

[steveo]

NHS: 'It can't go on as it is and throwing more money at it is not the answer...' is a mantra we hear a lot these days and it presages a change that only a thumping majority for the Tories would allow them to attempt.

We all have anecdotes about the wonderful/shocking - usually wonderful - treatment we've received at the hands of the NHS but I've heard some corkers recently (from practitioners) about appalling waste and their paranoid fear of being sued that leads to arse covering, over prescribing, doling out unnecessary antibiotics etc, and about undeserving, demanding, insulting, violent 'patients' that lead me to think the mantra is right.

It can't go on.

Anyway, my original point was about the routine, rabid demonisation of the Tories, which apart from being a huge YAWN, is pretty irrational IMO.

[alice]

'free at the point of delivery' becomes meaningless when the wait for that point is interminable.