cook_pass_babtridge

It's good they're giving the EA some extra funding and powers, but we really need to nationalise this. Water privatisation has been a disaster, and the longer we keep it going the more money they'll be able to syphon out.

They're great! Best way to get around London imo. I cycle a lot but being able to leave it at your destination without needing locks etc is great. My only issue is the price - it's often more expensive than a cab for the equivalent journey (especially if there are two of you). Hopefully it gets cheaper, and they work with councils to sort out parking and avoid them being dumped on the street.

If Andrew Tate was a Persona character his dungeon would be something else.

OG Xbox

Oh how I long to be in Belarus right now...

Experience of having a massive fucking head.

Sounds like they're hiding something there and they really don't want us to go...

Again, it's a difference of opinion about how it's delivered, not whether it's delivered. Can you find me a single example of someone saying they don't want the NHS at all unless it's 100% publicly delivered? Because that's the imaginary person you and Wes Streeting are arguing against.

My point is that it's not only middle-class people using private healthcare who think this. And Wes Streeting knows that. He just doesn't want to argue for his market-based approach (because it's really unpopular) so he just mischaracterises the opposition to it.

Nobody's asking for worse outcomes - it's a difference of opinion of what will actually work. Saying people want everyone to suffer so they can have their way is just being disingenuous.

Every election has a new party to essentially do what the BNP does.

2010: BNP

2015: UKIP

2017: UKIP

2019: Brexit Party

2024: Reform UK

2029: Tea Party UK?

The far-right voter base moves between these, and each of these parties tries to paint themselves as something refreshing and new. Remember when Nick Griffin went on Question Time and said his Holocaust denial was "mainly just about the numbers"? They've learned a bit more about dogwhistling since then.

Wanting the NHS to remain in public hands isn't a middle-class opinion, it's a left-wing one. The reason he uses the word "middle-class" is to characterise that argument as one that can only be made by someone in an ivory tower, insulated from the real problems of the world where we have to use private providers. And I disagree with that characterisation: I think that our use of private providers to fill gaps in the NHS has massively increased the cost and only served to enrich the private medical industry. But making that point makes me a middle-class luvvy who doesn't know the real world, unlike Wes Streeting who has worked in student politics, think tanks and political parties his entire life (apart from that time he was at PwC as a public sector consultant, helping these companies get more of those lucrative contracts).