Exactly, because agricultural land has become a tax loophole, pushing up the price.You don't need a large farm for it to be valued at more than a million pounds. of course the return on the money if you had to buy it would be risible.
Having had the experience of living through WW2 and the consequent rationing and shortages, I have always had large reserves of stored food at home. I've also got plenty of emergency lighting, cooking and heating equipment.Did you know that the Nordic nations (Sweden and Norway) are sending out civil defence pamphlets warning the population to lay in a month's supply of necessities?
I have kept a month's worth of food in house since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and also a longer term food store of 30 kilos of wheat and a hand grinder. In the current instability - especially since permission to use ATACAMs on Russian territory, I suspect that most people in the UK have NO IDEA how vulnerable the just in time food delivery system is. Can you recall how the supermarkets emptied at the beginning of covid?
If things got a bit awkward with the Russians - the shelves would be empty in two days.
Another right wing yt channel that pushed brexit, which has cost the UK £100 billion in lost income.
You ought to know that the much vaunted NHS is one of the worst performing health service in Europe - FAR below others which receive broadly similar proportions of the GDP of their nations in funding. The NHS has more money than it has ever had and is almost at the highest level of GDP it has ever had in funding - only bettered during the covid pandemic. Yet in spite of the vast sums of money - about £180 Billion, a great many people can not see a GP and will be fobbed off with a nurse or a pharmacist instead.I dont understand why people listen to these thieves, after all they couldnt give a rats about the common man, or the smaller farmer for that matter. Their allegiance is to their own ilk and their own pocket.
Farage,Tice Mogg and others want all social security to be gone, for the nhs to be private, because it would save them 2% or 3% off their tax bill
Why Is it only US funded think tanks (with sponsors that want to cash in on breaking up the NHS) and their tame "journalists" at the telegraph and spectator that compare health systems as proportion of GDP , I wonder ? It's conflating 2 things, why is our GDP so poor and how is our health service doing against international comparisons.proportions of the GDP of their nations in funding
It isn't even true that 'only' US funded sources criticise the performance of the NHS and its gargantuan structure?Peter.Bridge said:Why Is it only US funded think tanks (with sponsors that want to cash in on breaking up the NHS) and their tame "journalists" at the telegraph and spectator that compare health systems as proportion of GDP , I wonder ?
Mr Clarkson told The Sun: “I will be there, despite having letters from doctors telling me not to go on the march and saying I must avoid stress.” The Cotswolds farm owner added: “We have got two coaches of farmers from around here who are leaving from Diddly Squat. It is a hugely important issue.”Clarkson? What's he got to do with it?
Trouble with a healthy lifestyle is that one just gets older before getting the same major problems. I lived a very healthy lifestyle until 2007 almost entirely free of health problems, but then had a heart attack at 70 due to an inherited condition from my mother.I reckon we're already incentivised to adopt a healthier lifestyle. The next step is for the NHS to introduce co-payments.
Of course, Clarkeson's mother paid for his private education by making the Paddington Bear toys that you may remember. My memory tells me she started out making them at the kitchen table by hand, and when they caught on, she had them made in a factory. They were so successful that the family made millions.Mr Clarkson told The Sun: “I will be there, despite having letters from doctors telling me not to go on the march and saying I must avoid stress.” The Cotswolds farm owner added: “We have got two coaches of farmers from around here who are leaving from Diddly Squat. It is a hugely important issue.”
Over a decade ago Mr Clarkson said there were "many sensible reasons" for why he bought a farm, including that the "government doesn’t get any of my money when I die".
So why shouldn't a large farm be considered like any other family business? What special about it? It's not like the heirs could not sell the farm and cash in tax free if they don't like farming.
Look at how inequality persists through generations. If like Trump, your mum and dad gave you private schooling, then left you a few hundreds millions. Unlike other entrepreneurs, you could start right away playing a long game and enjoy statistically a much better chance of success.
Inheritance tax is one of the only few tools governments have left to reduce inequality.
Ireland spends more than the UK per capitaIt isn't even true that 'only' US funded sources criticise the performance of the NHS and its gargantuan structure?
Is Wes Streeting a US agent, or Prof Sir John Bell. These are but two voices saying that the problem is not money.
Why not address the criticisms and suggestions rather than dismissing sources out of hand. You suggest that journalists who are right of centre have no business commenting, or at least ought not to be taken seriously. This is not what I would expect of someone who wanted to know what is happening. I am certainly right of centre, but I read and think about perspectives expressed in the Guardian almost every day.
Below is a table showing the health expenditure of European countries, and as I said, the UK spend is bang in the middle of the field. YOUR table only dealt with some of the nations, and had picked them, perhaps to make a point so that the UK was not in the middle - only because some data was left out.... That's a rather dodgy way to handle data - smacks of an attitude of 'Lets make the UK look bad. We can leave out a chunk of countries to make the UK look like it under spends on health. I know you are not responsible for the design of the chart, but you did post it.
The UK is not at the top. I didn't say it was. I said it was in the middle.
This graph shows the average GDP per capita spending on health between 2010 and 2019 so it is a little out of date. The UK's spending is now much higher standing at 10.9% in 2023 - so bear that in mind. Current spending is a full 2.6% higher than this chart shows. I don't know how the otehr nations's spending may have changed.
Even so - UK health spend 2010 to 2019 is about the European average.
View attachment 60898
Now lets look at outcomes.
Ireland in that period spent a smaller percentage of its GDP on health than the UK. It has a co pay system. You pay to see the GP and you pay to turn up at the equivalent of Accident and Emergency. From memory, I think Irish people are charged about 25 Euros for a GP consutation and 100 Euros for one at A&E. Ireland is six places to thee right of the UK on the chart above, spending only 6.8% of GDP on health against the UK's 8.3%. (or in 2023 10.9%). However, Ireland's service has far better outcomes than the NHS. Irish people live longer and are much more likely to survive serious illness.
Irish people have twice the number of MRI scanners or CT scanner per million people than the UK does, in spite of spending a lot less as a percentage of GDP.
The UK has fewer doctors per capita than Ireland, 3 per thousand UK, 3.5 per thousand Ireleand.
View attachment 60901
The UK has greater avoidable mortality than many nations, driven by lower survival rates for many cancers.
As a man with a eye for detail, you will notice that countries who spend similar GDP on health are doing much better than we are in cancer survival rates, Spain for example and Italy.
View attachment 60900
You are concerned at the use of GDP per capita as a measure of spending, but most of the data available uses that measure because it shows what the country can afford to spend, I suppose. And something which jumps out at me by the by is that the USA which spends vastly more than we do on every measure does VERY much worse than all of the European systems - probably because of the rates of obesity, diabetes and inactivity in the population. That's a wild guess, but perhaps not too far from the mark.
You also mention the question of why the UK's GDP per capita is so low, but that though an interesting question is not really a health one, is it?
I suppose having about 21.9% of the working age population sitting at home (while recruiters say there is a shortage of labour) may be the key factor there. How do we sort that one out? I'd say make sure you don't hand out free money to the idle and unambitious, but others may not agree.
Im not sure the data can be taken as an absolute, given the last 14 years of under investment, but overall it is still a good service, and with proper investment can do betterYou ought to know that the much vaunted NHS is one of the worst performing health service in Europe - FAR below others which receive broadly similar proportions of the GDP of their nations in funding. The NHS has more money than it has ever had and is almost at the highest level of GDP it has ever had in funding - only bettered during the covid pandemic. Yet in spite of the vast sums of money - about £180 Billion, a great many people can not see a GP and will be fobbed off with a nurse or a pharmacist instead.
The cost of the NHS has increased 500% in real terms (accounting for inflation) over the last 50 years.
Waiting lists are longer than ever before. It isn't the money - it is the service and the organisation.
Just ask Flecc about his experience.
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We are bang in the middle of the European average for funding as a proportion of GDP and down with the dregs like Montenegro and Bosnia in the outcomes table.
We have stupidly sanctified the bloody thing and the left go bonkers at any idea of change. It is noticeable that Streeting has said it isn't the money and it needs to change. The eminent medical professor, Sir John Bell has said so too, and blames the medical profession.
Oxford leading scientists calls for urgent shake-up of healthcare system
The British Medical Association (BMA) has come under fire from Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Professor Sir John Bell.www.oxfordmail.co.uk
In Europe the most successful medical systems are part insurance funded and part state funded and they work extremely efficiently and deliver great outcomes. Any time the subject is brought up among left minded people here - such as yourself - they usually start jumping around like gibbons and shouting about the hideous American system. THAT IS NOT IN ANY WAY TYPICAL of insurance based European systems.
Look how far down the rankings in Europe our health care system is:
Health index of countries in Europe in 2023 | Statista
In 2023, Norway ranked first with a health index score of 83, followed by Iceland and Sweden.www.statista.com
the UK does better than comparable countries in some areas, and worse in others. There is little evidence that one individual country or model of health care system performs better than another across the board. Countries improve health care for their populations mainly by reforming their existing model of health care rather than adopting an alternative. Rather than unwinding the NHS, we should seek to improve it, and there is a lot to learn from other countries when doing so.
Just to emphasise the difference between Clarkson's family background and the likes of Trump.Mr Clarkson told The Sun: “I will be there, despite having letters from doctors telling me not to go on the march and saying I must avoid stress.” The Cotswolds farm owner added: “We have got two coaches of farmers from around here who are leaving from Diddly Squat. It is a hugely important issue.”
Over a decade ago Mr Clarkson said there were "many sensible reasons" for why he bought a farm, including that the "government doesn’t get any of my money when I die".
If like Trump, your mum and dad gave you private schooling, then left you a few hundreds millions. Unlike other entrepreneurs, you could start right away playing a long game and enjoy statistically a much better chance of success.
Inheritance tax is one of the only few tools governments have left to reduce inequality.