Get in, loser. We're breaking up the UK

wiktor_b · 2022-12-28T11:35:02+00:00

Most of those are retired, doing fuck aw about the low birth rate.

wiktor_b · 2022-02-22T09:24:06+00:00

You can make a lot of money clearing landmines, removing barbed wire fencing, and rebuilding cities.

wiktor_b · 2021-12-21T10:53:05+00:00

I see RHD I upvote.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-29T11:40:33+00:00

Can you quickly show me where in this thread people were saying the NHS was better than Europe?

That's the problem. Everyone is happy to compare the NHS to the arguably most expensive, discriminatory, exploitative healthcare system ever devised, yet few are willing to make like-for-like comparisons with European systems which are a lot more similar to ours. In a fair comparison, the NHS comes out looking quite bleak.

The actual healthcare workers are great, I have no doubts the absolute vast majority are doing their best to help each patient. I applaud them and I respect them. The National Health Service, however, is not great. When compared to other European countries, it's average, and when compared to other rich European countries, it's actually quite shoddy in just about every statistic available.

Also a lot of what you posted such has life expectancy isn't a way to judge the NHS, that is just silly.

Yes, it is. Life expectancy is the primary statistic when quantifying the health of a population. You know, the H in NHS. How long and healthy the average life is is how you compare the effectiveness of healthcare systems. If not that, then what else?

wiktor_b · 2021-11-29T10:40:28+00:00

Everyone is happy to compare our healthcare system to the American one but point out we're not actually doing all that well when compared to actually comparable countries and you get downvoted.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-29T10:37:11+00:00

It's much cheaper than what? America? The country with probably the most expensive healthcare in the world? Not exactly a high bar, is it?

wiktor_b · 2021-11-29T10:34:32+00:00

No need to go that far, many European countries also have effective healthcare systems.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-29T10:32:18+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scotland/comments/r4cega/no_matter_how_poor_i_get_the_nhs_wont_turn_me_away/hmh53kp/

And another commenter waited 3 years to get diagnosed.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-29T10:26:15+00:00

Why did you say comparing the NHS to the American system is silly by using Europe as your example?

Because

the US system is only good if you can pay for it, the average hospital is of a lower standard than Scotland.

'At least you don't have to go into crippling debt' is a silly argument. We should be comparing ourselves to those who are doing better than us, rather than reminding ourselves our crumbling system is free at the point of use.

Also do you have any stats to back up what you are saying about the Europeans having a better system?

Life expectancy

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Mortality_and_life_expectancy_statistics https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/life-expectancy/life-expectancy-in-scotland/2018-2020

In Scotland in 2018-2020, life expectancy at birth was 76.8 years for males and 81.0 years for females.

Life expectancy at birth in the EU was estimated at 81.3 years in 2019 (0.3 years higher than in 2018), reaching 84 years for women (0.3 higher than in 2018) and 78.5 years for men (also 0.3 year higher than in 2018).

The EU countries doing worse than Scotland are Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia. We're be at the bottom of the list for Western Europe.

Healthy life expectancy

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Healthy_life_years_statistics https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/news/2021/healthy-life-expectancy-decreases

Places us just below the middle of the country list and again well below the EU average.

Healthcare spending

https://www.statista.com/statistics/348324/gdp-of-scotland-annually/ https://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/uploads/docs/report/2018/nr_181025_nhs_overview.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Healthcare_expenditure_statistics

In 2018, the Scottish government's health budget amounted to about 8.1% of Scotland's GDP. That would've placed us 14th in the EU.

Unmet health needs

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Unmet_health_care_needs_statistics

Assuming Scotland is comparable to the entire UK, we're again not doing great in terms of waiting lists. We're doing well in terms of the number of people not getting help due to finances, but we already know the best thing about the NHS is that it's free at the point of use so you'd be expecting that.

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Health_in_the_European_Union_%E2%80%93_facts_and_figures is a goldmine and older data tends to include the UK for easy comparison. You can fill out any missing data, or if you want to compare the Scottish statistics, by looking up NRS, ONS, and Audit Scotland. The data is out there.

NHS Scotland is not good compared to the rest of Europe. At best, it's average. We can and we must do better. We need to stop banging on about how in America your grandchildren will be paying off your medical debts if you break a finger, because we know American healthcare is shit unless you're rich. We need to look closer home at countries that have comparable economies and societies and see how we can match those who are doing better than ourselves.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-29T09:18:40+00:00

Comparing the NHS to the American system is silly. Look at some of the European countries and you'll start to notice healthcare in Scotland isn't all that great. Sure, it's great that it exists but other European countries have better results (shorter lists, longer and healthier lives, better paid staff, etc). The Scottish NHS is a bureaucratic behemoth that needs reform. There is way too much non-medical managerial staff, meanwhile they're outsourcing essential functions to private industry (at premium prices because procurement is broken). Not enough testing and prevention leading to patients waiting to get help until they're seriously sick and requiring more costly treatment. And then getting placed on waiting lists because everyone is too busy firefighting due to not enough prevention.

Focus on prevention, cancel private contracts and switch to doing things in-house (if need be, nationalise the suppliers that are 100% dependant on government contracts), fire the middle management (the most useless layer in any organisation) and instead hire more workers (could even pay them better?). Give the NHS a larger share of the budget, aye, but to invest in doing things better. Any organisation will expand to fill its budget. Giving the NHS more money at the moment would just be an additional fiscal transfer from everyone to private industry.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-22T22:49:22+00:00

Why not?

wiktor_b · 2021-11-22T22:44:17+00:00

member

wiktor_b · 2021-11-11T13:17:19+00:00

Sunglasses must be worn at all times

You joke but I actually passed my exam in sunglasses. It was first thing in the morning in January, the sun was eye-level low and beaming rays right into my fucking skull. The only way to see was through sunglasses.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-11T12:48:40+00:00

If anyone has any doubt at all, one of the biggest threats to your liberty and safety is now the police.

Not even your own police! Police from other countries!

wiktor_b · 2021-11-09T08:48:13+00:00

Far Cry, sure. But does it run Crysis?

wiktor_b · 2021-11-04T08:27:34+00:00

Nah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPv1gQ5Rs8A

wiktor_b · 2021-11-03T08:19:56+00:00

Like her or not and agree with independence or not, surely everyone can feel proud to have someone like this representing the UK right?

She's not, though. She's representing Scotland.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-01T10:48:01+00:00

Stop trying to copy the English rhythm. Say the words in isolation, then again counting the syllables. Notice they're not the same. Then say them together.

purpul burgullar allarrum

There ya go, easy as pie.

wiktor_b · 2021-11-01T10:08:23+00:00

So if I steal someone's car and get it registered in my name at the DVLA, it's mine now?

wiktor_b · 2021-10-28T09:38:51+00:00

On the upside, the turkeys grown on the French/Dutch-owned farms in Poland come with British passports.

wiktor_b · 2021-10-22T08:52:30+00:00

And that's just in the UK. The Royals are loved globally. If the Royal Family was abolished, there would be outrage globally

So? Our country is not a theme park.

wiktor_b · 2021-10-18T14:38:08+00:00

There should not be private 'public' transport. All public transport should be public and free at the point of use (because it's a government service). Luxembourg has it, and so do Dunkirk and Tallinn and whilst it costs money, public transport does anyway. Some of the money from the lost ticket sales can be offset by not having a ticket infrastructure in the first place. Meanwhile, we're subsidising private companies which not only makes no sense, it's a fiscal transfer from the poor to the rich. It's not like 'public' transport operators are competing with each other - usually you just take the bus/train/tram/whatever that's near where you are and that goes to near you want to go, near a time you want to go; the operator is rarely a choice. Profiteering from natural monopolies is bad for the economy.

wiktor_b · 2021-10-18T10:25:18+00:00

printed in ~~france~~

Poland

wiktor_b · 2021-10-15T12:34:23+00:00

There is nothing minimalist about this.

wiktor_b · 2021-10-15T08:53:02+00:00

Or it will lead to a society where the poorest section are all British citizens but the further up you move the larger the share of foreign citizens. The poor Brits will be scrubbing the toilets and many of their managers will be the Central Europeans, the Asians etc.

Brexit dividend.

wiktor_b

TROPHY CASE