Re: Any economists out there?

It would make sense to have free prescriptions in England too. For a start there is the administrative burden of dealing with these charges and secondly there is the fact that those who have the most prescribing do not have to pay anyway. There's no consistency too because if you go to a hospital you get free medication. Then you have whole teams working on prescription fraud. Then there are all the systems necessary to collect the data and their maintenance etc.

Re: Any economists out there?

As for student loans don't even start me on that. There is a massive hole of irrecoverable debt that is bubbling up more and more each year. Who is going to pay this? Future generations of course.

Re: Any economists out there?

Britain was broken by Thatcher long before Blair came on the scene.

What is wrong with that? some of our states get a bigger share of the GST(VAT) than others because some states are wealthier than others or have vaster areas with smaller populations. Its all part of trying to make a fairer society (which Thatcher abolished) No one begrudges them the difference.

Again to Pyxells point - different states (and I count Scotland as a state) have different priorities, some focus on health, some on economic growth, some on education. It is these different priorities that make for these differences.

Britain might be all the better for becoming a commonwealth of states.

Re: Any economists out there?

Bruce, have you ever lived in the UK?

Re: Any economists out there?

For over 20 years.

Cheltenham, Borough Green, Folkestone, Finsbury Park, Brixton.

Re: Any economists out there?

Then if you lived in the UK during the years prior to the Thatcher government took office you might have seen how the Labour administrations in conjunction with highly politicised unions and week Tory governments had not taken Britain to the brink of economic collapse but in some cases where essential imports were concerned pushed it over.

Lame Duck industries, coal that cost more to produce than it could be "sold" for to the domestic energy sector, massive inflation rates that we're adding fuel to the fire escape result of union brute force, car manufacturers turning out crap cars that cost more to produce etc. Spanish Practices, and so very much more.

Thatcher dealt with this as an oncologist might deal with a malignant tumor. A combination of surgery by getting shot of Dead Ducks and chemotherapy by breaking the power of the unions.

For the patient (the UK) the surgery hurt and bits had to be excised. The chemotherapy affected the way of life that had become accepted but was killing the patient, and the UK was leaner but very much fitter afterwards.

It is a crying shame that so many people forgot the years immediately before the Thatcher government came into office and believed the clap-trap that the silver tongued Blair trotted out.

It is also a crying shame that the powers that be in the Conservative Central Office decided to put up a seemingly soft cuddley in the form of Cameron as leader who promptly brought Clegg into play and Clegg promptly obstructed the steps that Cameron should have got going from day #1.

And there is communicated more.

If only we had a Margaret Thatcher clone to come to the aid of the UK today because Theresa the spear carrier May certainly comes nowhere near what we need.

Re: Any economists out there?

I was in the UK during Heath's 3 day week and the 1975 Common Market referendum (I voted NO). I also remember the mob of useless leaders like Eden, Macmillan, Alec Douglas Hume, Heath who shouldn't have been trusted in charge of a soup kitchen never mind a country, an English tradition continued to the present day.

The interesting thing is to compare Australia and UK during the Thatcher years. In Australia instead of battling the unions and throwing the country into chaos The Hawke/ Keating Government introduced "The Accord" with unions to keep down industrial strife, stop runaway wage claims while offering in return other benefits. Part of this was a complete reform of the industrial conciliation and arbitration system as well as massive economic reform. Since those reforms in the 1980s Australia has not had a recession.

It could be argued that the Accord did more to reduce the power and membership of the unions than any Thatcher union bashing ever did (Union membership in Australia is currently 18% of the workforce)

The comparison between Thatcher and the Hawke/Keating government is stark. The latter made the country wealthier and recession free, the former left a broken country from which it has never recovered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prices_and_Incomes_Accord

Re: Any economists out there?

The Heath three day week was actually the communist unions three day week. "Coming out in sympathy" was in reality cooperative blackmail.

For a government to establish an accord with the unions as they had become would have been to hand the country to the USSR which was funding a great deal of union activity in the UK at that time.

As for Maggie leaving the country broken, certainly she broke the Socialist controlled UK and left us with a free market free enterprise country in its stead.

I remember well the way that her absolutely correct assertion that there was "no such thing as Society" was taken out of context.

It's just a shame that so many people still don't understand just how right she was and that some continue to behave as if there was and continually try to create such a thing.

Oh Maggie, if ever there was a need for someone who could even close to fill your shoes it's now.