It probably came about when people stopped treating the house they didn't own like, well, the house they didn't own. All the hold housing estates in the area are either no go zones or have been bulldozed. The crappy end of town had millions thrown at it, all the smackheads got lovely new front doors, sash windows and general building makeovers, less than 5 years later and it's returned to its original state.

Snobbishness, NIMBYism and downright racism have meant we don't want massive estates being built anymore. Take travellers, the ultimate in social housing, but if they set up camp anywhere near "your" house and there's uproar.

Prescription charges were introduced in 1952 [sizeBY THE CHURCHILL (ie[/size

Later to be abolished by the Wilson government in 1965, although they were reintroduced by the same administration in 1968

Bevan resigned for a number of reasons, one of which was a PROPOSAL to introduce conscription charges to pay for rearming. Still doesn't alter the fact that it was a tory administration that introduced prescription charges

Proposal? It was announced in the 1951 budget, dentures and glasses, no longer free. Gaitskell. Labour.

No government is tied to proposed legislation from the previous administration

Your view of British social history is incredibly warped, no doubt by your complete lack of anything approaching a social conscience.

In short, a classic tory

So just to summarise,

Council estates are no go zones and full of smackheads who wreck properties.
Council house building stopped because of gypsies.


And yet tens, probably hundreds of thousands have bought their council houses on the same estates ?

Indeed, a classic Tory in the same mould as someone who voted to privatise the NHS.

Did I say all? Or are you being wilfully obtuse?

Forgive me if I misquoted you, what you actually said was "All the hold housing estates in the area..." which is quite difficult to understand, I guessed that it meant "old", so "All the old housing estates in the area..." but I could be miles off the mark.

But yes, you did say "all", assuming that "all" wasn't a random word inserted into the sentence as well.

It's clarts like you lot slinging mud at each other and stereotyping who prevent any real progress in the debate in this country.

In relation to the original topic - of sorts - I am currently in the US and have been ill over the past week resulting in an emergency hospital visit. I'm yet to see the bill for the hospital visit but I have to say I did get the feeling they were pushing me towards certain treatments because they would have been able to bill me (my insurance) for them. It's not pleasant and I can only imagine what they get away with with for patients who are either unconscious or unable to really understand what choices they are being offered in these cases. Conversely though I would say that I found it quite positive that the doctor who treated me expected me to have a much better understanding of my prior health situation than I did, in terms of prescriptions I've had in the past. I've always felt with an NHS GP that treatment was quite maternal rather than participatory - "don't worry what it is, just trust us and take it".

I found the cost of my antiobiotics to be quite a surprise - $125. Whether this is an inflated private market price because they are branded or something, or the same as what they'd cost in the UK I have no idea.

Cost of private health insurance (basic cover with claim limits applied) for me is £85 to £97 a month depending on how desperate they are for the business (they quote me unprompted every quarter), for those who maintain that we should be able to opt out of NIS contributions and find our own pension and health cover then bear that in mind, if you're a family of four then where would you find three to four hundred pounds a month for limited health insurance ?

And where will you find the money when unemployed or retired, there's no cradle to grave cover when you have no NHS.



One other thing - I find that when insurance companies get into a market for provisioning services then the cost of those services increases dramatically, which is exactly the opposite of what you'd expect when one large commissioner of services enters any market, usually bulk buying gets you big discounts, not the other way around. Just as a "for example", have you ever taken a car into a car body workshop for some dents to be removed or a respray job and what is the first question they ask you "Is it an insurance job ?" Now why do you think they ask that question ?

Just for information, have a read of this article on how much it costs to be ill in the USA and how the system is cash driven in a constant upward spiral of increasing costs. rlhttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/tim-bradley/cherish-the-nhs_b_7007368.htmlrl

Not only that when you get towards retirement cover will cost about 10 times what you said. Not only that it would not necessarily cover big ticket items / emergencies.