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Anna B

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Anna B last won the day on December 18 2023

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About Anna B

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  1. I hope you're right, but I'm not holding my breath. If the rich paid all their tax at 30% like the rest of us all our financial problems would be solved. But of course they won't. They prefer the system as it is, where they can exploit the many tax loopholes and avoid most of the tax they owe alltogether.
  2. 'Gesture eggs' seems to me to be another departure from reality, and is another foray into the wierd and wonderful shallow world of the internet. It's crazy, avoid at all costs.
  3. Not a lot. Tony 'we're all middle class now' Blair and his New Labour party, was the start of the demise of socialist Labour and representation for the working class. He did nothing to counter Thatcher's policies and embraced the Capitalist extremism of the Tory party. He was however a young charismatic Leader, and popular with the public and the party. He was a 'winner' and so allowed to discard the old values of the Labour party which he deemed to be old fashioned and unnecessary. He ploughed ahead with Free Market Economics, and privatisation thinly disguised with spin and obfuscatio, such as PFI and investment bank funding for major projects, both of which have come back to bite us. He also joined Bush in his expensive proxy war against Sadam Hussein. We are now seeing the results of 40+ uninterupted years of Thatcherism and the decline of true democracy. We now virtually have a one party system with little to differentiate between Tory and Labour parties. Free Market Economics has morphed into Neoliberalism from which there is no way back, and unfortunately we are no longer on the winning team. Hence our general decline and fall into extremism with the small number of super rich and powerful controlling vast sums of money at one end, and the encroaching poverty creeping up the social scale at the other.
  4. People seem to be in a terrible hurry to ban things these days... I could count the number of times I have been heldup behind horses on one hand. \are they really such a menace? Yes they require extra care to pass, and yes the riders can sometimes be oblivious to the rules or selfish, but doesn't that apply to every type of road user? They have to use roads to get to places where they can graze their horses or exercise them satisfactorily, so banning them using roads full stop would cause all sorts of problems. Think on.
  5. That was the figure for care in the person's own home. I'm not sure there are many independent carers who don't find work through an aggency, most do. Even at minimum wage of £11 an hour employing a full time carer would cost you £7,392 a month. That would cover 3 carers working 8 hour shifts. Are you thinking of paying less than minimum wage? Is that legal? The only other way to save money is to do one shift yourself, which would pobably involve giving up paid employment in exchange for carers allowance, which ironicly pays a meagre £76.00 a week .
  6. I recently had a flyer from age UK, saying to expect carers to charge an hourly rate (or part of an hour) of between £23 and £30 an hour. Do the maths for yourself. 7 x 24 = 168 hours x £27 (average) = £4,536 per week or £18,144 per month for 1 to 1 care For someone who needs lifting or other specialist care (they often charge more) 2 carers are mandatory due to health and safety. The carers, incidently,Even are usually on minimum wage, the extra expense goes to the agency that supplies them. Even minimum wage of £11 an hour will cost £7,392 per month. plus various insurances. 1 to 1 24 hour care is considered necessary for several conditions, including during the night when choking, falling out of bed etc is quite common. People have no idea unless they have been through it. My relative had early onset Huntingdons disease, deteriorating rapidly from the age of 18. Towards the end of this totally debilitatiing illness he had to be fed via a PEG (tube,) as he couldn't swallow properly and was in constant danger of choking, was doubly incontinent, had dementia, couldn't walk or talk, lived strapped in a wheelchair or in a bed, in other words had very obvious needs. This state persisted for 5 years in a care home, yet he had to reapply for funding every year which involved a huge amount of form filling (38 page booklets,) plus gathering evidence from doctors and other professionals, plus numerous calls to DWP whose job seems to be to get people off benefits by hook or by crook. Funding was withdrawn twice as a matter of course which resulted in months of delays and debts and more frantic form filling. Even then, the family had to stump up part of the costs. He died in his sleep at the age of 43. If that wasn't bad enough, following his death, the DWP insisted we still owed them more money, (we didn't) so in the midst of mourning and dealing with the business of the end of a life, that was piled on top, causing no end of heartache and anxiety. Like I said, people have no idea unless they have been through it...
  7. Carers allowance is a scandal. Anybody who saw tonights 'Kate Garraway: Derek's story' (9.0pm ITV1) will be aware that she is now heavily in debt having had to pay out £16,000 a month for help with Derek's 24 /7 care. Compare and contrast that with carers allowance... Our NHS is running away from us, and is now controlled by privatised companies who run a cartel and can charge whatever they like for their services. We shovel silly amounts of money into the NHS and it's going straight into the back pockets of companies such as these. It has to stop.
  8. I was told by a doctor that care for a relative in a specialist neurological unit would cost £16,000 per month. I asked how this amount could possibly be justified and was told they were over a barrel and didn't have any other choice but to pay it. It was because they required one to on,e 24 hour care. I was expecting some amazing care for that sort of money, but it was appalling. The one to one didn't happen, and neither did the 'specialist care'. I can't go into further details because it is subject to a legal complaint. It is a racket, pure and simple. It needs a public enquiry. The NHS has lost control of these outsourced pivatised 'services' and are being exploited by ruthless and greedy care companies. It's a scandal. The extortionate amounts of tax payers money being fed into the NHS is going straight into the pockets of these companies, which is why we never see the money making any discernible difference. They care nothing for the wellbeing of their 'clients.' They only care about a fast profit. ,,,Tory privatisation at its finest...
  9. I'm an ex teacher, and even I think fining parents for wanting an affordable family holiday is unfair (except during exam time of course.) As long as any missed work is made up in their own time, I don't see it does much harm. Travel broadens the mind and quality family time is important for all sorts of reasons.
  10. Yes, anybody can go to a council meeting and sit up in the balcony to watch the proceedings. Very interesting, (and illuminating...) But if you want to ask a question, you have to put it in writing and then get chosen by whoever is in charge |(?) There's only time for a couple, and the answers are typical political obfuscation and waffle so IMO not satisfactorily addressed. Think 'Question Time' without Fiona Bruce...
  11. What's 5D Irene? I've not heard of that before.
  12. Councillors and MPs should all hold surgeries in their constituences but don't. I think some of them think themselves too grand to bother with the problems of the 'little people...'
  13. I agree with that, but it means we have to train the workers, and that hasn't been happening for a long while so we have a shortage. Firms don't like taking on apprentices any more and government apprenticeships are pretty dire. We prefer to pinch trained doctors and nurses from other countries where they are also sorely needed., but coming to Britain to work in our NHS is no longer the dream ticket it once was... It costs money to train doctors etc which the government says it can't afford. They prefer to spend our money on providing bombs for the Ukraine.
  14. I've contacted both Councillors and MPs and not had any reply at all. I've also had the bog standard reply 'We thank you for your enquiry' letter, which is worse than useless.
  15. Is it though? Do you trust the statistics / information? If it is correct there could be a number of reasons.
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