The Yes/No Game

Yes, only sometimes. Maybe once a month. Not everyday. Only one Coca-Cola
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Do you like sourdough bread? 🍞
 
Yes but not overnight or anything. I got locked in the banking office for half hour because of those timer locks on the door. Ofc there was no signal.

Do you think the elderly are rude?
 
Mostly no but there are some exceptions that think age gives them some sort of uber entitlement

Do you think young people are rude?
 
In considering my reply to this question, I’m going to quote a very wise person: Mostly no but there are some exceptions that think age gives them some sort of uber entitlement

Do you use Uber?
 
Uber Eats occasionally but it's pricey. Uber taxis I think I used once.

Do you think pensioners deserve to lose their winter fuel payment?
 
No I think they should have taken additional taxes from the very rich, the oil and energy companies and banks to maintain it.

They deserve to get shite for that move.

Do you agree with it?
 
To a point yes.

I know of a fair few pensioners who are comfortable financially, don’t need it, and use it for things other than fuel. There are two couples I know that use it towards Turkey & Tinsel in Torquay every Christmas, another one uses it to take their family out for a meal, and another stashes it in the bank with various other money they get and then have a week in Spain.

I’m sure there’d be less of an uproar about it being taken away if it was a credit directly against fuel bills rather than free cash in hand.

I’m not against helping those that really need it but when I’m getting taxed as much as I am to pay for some pensioners to go on their jollies, I think it really does need to be means tested.

Would you like to be Chancellor of the Exchequer?
 
No. I'm not an economist although I sometimes think anyone could do better than some of the chancellors the UK has had. Besides, I'm a Scottish Nationalist by political inclination and can't wait to see the back of Westminster.

Would you?
 
No. I think anyone that takes that job is either a few bob short of a quid or needs a huge brain and copious amounts of booze.

Did you know Starmer has won the vote on the pensioners?
 
Yes I read it online. Over 50 Labour abstentions (i.e they lacked the balls to actually stand up for their principles) and one good Labour MP that voted against. They still should have raised the funds from fossil fuel companies, energy supplier an non-national water companies.

Do you think the government is tough enough against that general sector?
 
No. I think it's a tough balancing act though, particularly in a globalised world.

If the private sector is taxed too much, the only people that suffer are the consumer unless you have State intervention on pricing but then too much intervention leads the way to everything being State controlled then you end up in the 1970s.

Wealthy people are similar. If the State taxes the wealthy too much, they bugger off to other countries where they're taxed less and I think the only way to solve that is to have similar tax regimes across the globe but that's never going to happen because countries will always compete to have the wealthiest people living there. If they don't leave the country, they use tools to reduce their tax burden. Even those that aren't wealthy get in on it - an example being a pension appearing on a payslip as a salary sacrifice rather than a pension contribution. Perfectly legitimate way of doing it and it reduces the tax burden on the tax payer but cuts the tax take from the Revenue.

Do you ever think life is too complicated?
 
Yes based on past performance. If the Government could control the unions and if utilities were delivered at cost price, I’d be for it. This country’s record of state owned companies/industries has been pretty poor. They can’t even run local councils without going bankrupt.

Are you a capitalist?
 
No if the definition is based on continuous growth but yes if it’s based on freedom and free markets

Are you a socialist?
 
I lean towards the left. I think that the gap between rich and poor needs to be addressed and very soon. It's an obscenity that the richest 10% hold 85% of global wealth. That has to change and the quickest way I can think of dealing with this is to limit the inheritance of relatives to a set sum, liquidise the remainder and invest it in universal health care and good social welfare programs globally. Let the relatives run the businesses that remain and make sure they treat all employees fairly by paying a decent living wage. Freedom of the individual is important and to a much lesser extent, freedom of markets.

Are you a socialist?
 
No. I used to say I was but I'm somewhere in the centre now. maybe slightly right of centre.

Do you think people should be allowed to stay on State benefits/welfare for a long time when they're physically capable of working?
 
Yes because physically able doesn't always mean able to work. If people worried less about the welfare system and more about the tax avoiding rich scum then we might get somewhere with funding for agencies and systems.

Do you think tax avoidance loopholes should be welded shut?
 
Yes completely but for as long as there are rules there will be legal ways of avoiding them. There’d have to be a review that would close all the loopholes. You’d then have to decide how often to review and close the new loopholes, and how much money you want to spend on reviewing them and balance that against what the return would be.

It need a holistic approach. Even if the tax avoidance loopholes are closed, my taxes are unlikely to go down but I still won’t get value for money for my contributions.

Do you think that people take for granted a lot of what the State provides that they didn’t in the not so distant past?
 
The return would be globally huge and it would send a clear message to the exploiters. Regular reviews wouldn't be onerous, tax authorities already do this and don't forget that the people and organisations you'd be chasing are huge, wealthy, and pay virtually nothing. The tax burden on lower income bands should fall as the outstanding dues are collected and fed into the system.

No. That's the wrong way to view it IMO. We should be providing good support for those that need it and while a few may need to learn to take more responsibility for themselves, they only represent a burden because of gross underfunding of those services. Claw back taxes and fund them. It'll take a few years to acquire and train the specialists needed but it's an investment in the country.

Would you privatise the NHS?
 
No, absolutely not. Having seen private healthcare though I can completely see why people think privatisation is the solution.

Would you ever use private healthcare over the NHS?
 
No. It shouldn't be allowed. It's the same NHS specialists that do the private stuff and they even use NHS resources for their private practice in some cases. That's stopping an NHS patient from receiving treatment in favour of a private paying patient and it's utterly disgusting. To be clear here, I understand why patients feel they need to opt for private and I sympathise but they'd get their appointments much faster if the specialists were told no.

Would you?
 
Yes. I think telling medical professionals they can only work for the NHS would drive a lot of them away and remember that many of our medics aren’t from this country. There would be much more attractive places for them to go if we told them they could only work for the State. Using NHS resources for non NHS work is a huge no-no though.

I needed a diagnostic. My GP referred me to the local hospital but I paid £250 at a private hospital, had the diagnostic done 2 days after I was told I needed it and the doctor told me there and then what the result was. On the NHS I’d have had to wait over a month during which time my mental health would have gone massively downhill and then after attending the hospital I’d have had to book an appointment for the results which would have been two weeks later (and knowing what my local NHS is like, they’d have probably lost the results in transit)

Would you pay privately for a family member to receive medical care if it shortened the amount of time they’d be in physical pain or mental distress - or if it was likely to save their life?
 
Inkandtatts said:
Yes. I think telling medical professionals they can only work for the NHS would drive a lot of them away and remember that many of our medics aren’t from this country. There would be much more attractive places for them to go if we told them they could only work for the State. Using NHS resources for non NHS work is a huge no-no though.

I needed a diagnostic. My GP referred me to the local hospital but I paid £250 at a private hospital, had the diagnostic done 2 days after I was told I needed it and the doctor told me there and then what the result was. On the NHS I’d have had to wait over a month during which time my mental health would have gone massively downhill and then after attending the hospital I’d have had to book an appointment for the results which would have been two weeks later (and knowing what my local NHS is like, they’d have probably lost the results in transit)

Would you pay privately for a family member to receive medical care if it shortened the amount of time they’d be in physical pain or mental distress - or if it was likely to save their life?
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No and I wouldn't want them to pay for me either. It's morally wrong on so many levels although as I said, I totally understand why people do it.

The Tories screwed up our access to competent medical personnel and resources when that moral coward Cameron called a referendum on EU membership. Then his Tory chums lied and cheated their way out of the EU. I should add here that Scotland was solid on the NO vote. We were dragged out of the EU and my generation denied easy access to European countries because they saw an opportunity to make money and in some cases to drag the country back into the 19th century. They've consistently underfunded the service at the point that it matters and yet somehow managed to bloat the management tiers. I want Scottish Independence as soon as we can achieve it.

Would you restructure the NHS to remove management positions and increase practitioner and support positions?
 
Restructure yes but there has to be some kind of leadership/management/operations structure. I’d look at what that is, strip it down as much as possible, put people in there that are capable of running a huge organisation properly, cut out the red tape, and let the practitioners do what they’re best at. I’d also want to cut down on waste and refuse to pay what some of the suppliers charge the NHS just because they can. I’d also make it independent of Government too (still state owned but not politically controlled) so that it can’t be used as a political football, similar to the way the Bank of England was made independent, preventing politicians from controlling interest rates often for political reasons.

I agree the referendum was wrong but the NHS had problems way before 2016. Medical jobs are on the shortage occupation list so there isn’t much preventing medics from coming here from the EU or anywhere

Do you like fruit pastilles?
 
Yes management is needed but it should be practitioner led at all levels where possible. Some things like legal and financial will obviously be specialised. Independent of government is a brilliant idea by the way 🙂

NHS Scotland was doing well up to the pandemic and Brexit. Scotland was a place of choice for good quality European practitioners and we had a well staffed organisation. We had good NHS dentist services, good physiotherapy services and good specialist clinical services. Appointment times were pretty good too. Then the blonde buffoon and his cronies messed everything up and now we're in the same situation that the English NHS were pre pandemic. We still get free prescriptions though.

Yes I like fruit pastilles 🙂

Do you like Kit Kats?
 
emileh said:
Yes management is needed but it should be practitioner led at all levels where possible.
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I’m breaking the game to reply to this point but I really don’t think practitioners should be leading management. I’d rather they be treating patients than having their time taken up by management or giving them the extra stress of it. I think for most people, the medical profession is a vocation and for the majority their personality type is suited to serving patients and not necessarily managing an organisation.


Kitkats. Yes! Especially a kitkat chunky

Do you like talking about political things?
 
Inkandtatts said:
I’m breaking the game to reply to this point but I really don’t think practitioners should be leading management. I’d rather they be treating patients than having their time taken up by management or giving them the extra stress of it. I think for most people, the medical profession is a vocation and for the majority their personality type is suited to serving patients and not necessarily managing an organisation.
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For the majority, yes. But there will be practitioners that would be interested in managing the service and they'd have a much better and much more balanced view of the needs. Practitioners also give up practice for various reasons or simply retire from it.

Inkandtatts said:
Kitkats. Yes! Especially a kitkat chunky

Do you like talking about political things?
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Had you noticed that yes, I do? I've been interested in Scottish politics for a while partly driven by the fact that people my age can vote in Scottish elections and partly from a desire to be able to discuss things that matter to me politically from an informed standpoint.

Do you like discussing politics?
 
Yes. Partly because I love hearing other people’s views

Do you believe that all services that work for the State should be excluded from working in private practice?
 
Inkandtatts said:
Yes. Partly because I love hearing other people’s views

Do you believe that all services that work for the State should be excluded from working in private practice?
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I'm pretty sure that all state owned services aren't allowed to work in the private sector if only because that would be unfair competition. How the NHS is allowed to let its facilities be used for private practice is beyond me. Tax payers paying for greedy consultants to make money from the NHS? Needs to stop.

Do you think state owned services should be allowed to compete in the private sector?
 
emileh said:
I'm pretty sure that all state owned services aren't allowed to work in the private sector if only because that would be unfair competition. How the NHS is allowed to let its facilities be used for private practice is beyond me. Tax payers paying for greedy consultants to make money from the NHS? Needs to stop.
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I was thinking more along the lines of, when you said consultants that work for the NHS shouldn't be allowed to work in private practice. I saw a similarity to lawyers that get paid by the State in Legal Aid, companies that repair roads, or even aviation back in the day.

I wasn't sure when I responded yesterday but I checked and NHS can only allow its facilities to be used when NHS patients won't be impacted, and they charge for any facilities used by consultants to treat patients privately. A lot of the consultants apparently do the work either while on annual leave or outside their contracted hours and over weekends etc, so it's not like they're shirking their obligations to the NHS and the patients are being charged for the use of NHS facilities.

emileh said:
Do you think state owned services should be allowed to compete in the private sector?
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I'm trying to think of which State owned services we have now other than the NHS but I couldn't think of any. I g00gled and Scottish airports came up.

I'd have to say yes. Using the airport example, I can't see a compelling reason for why Prestwick couldn't be allowed to compete with Glasgow or Edinburgh.
 
Inkandtatts said:
I was thinking more along the lines of, when you said consultants that work for the NHS shouldn't be allowed to work in private practice. I saw a similarity to lawyers that get paid by the State in Legal Aid, companies that repair roads, or even aviation back in the day.

I wasn't sure when I responded yesterday but I checked and NHS can only allow its facilities to be used when NHS patients won't be impacted, and they charge for any facilities used by consultants to treat patients privately. A lot of the consultants apparently do the work either while on annual leave or outside their contracted hours and over weekends etc, so it's not like they're shirking their obligations to the NHS and the patients are being charged for the use of NHS facilities.
Click to expand...

Still morally wrong though.

Inkandtatts said:
I'm trying to think of which State owned services we have now other than the NHS but I couldn't think of any. I g00gled and Scottish airports came up.

I'd have to say yes. Using the airport example, I can't see a compelling reason for why Prestwick couldn't be allowed to compete with Glasgow or Edinburgh.
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Airports are privately run and owned. They're regulated but that's an entirely different thing.
 
emileh said:
Airports are privately run and owned. They're regulated but that's an entirely different thing.
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I'm relying on G00gle but it says that Prestwick has been owned by the Scottish Government since 2013

emileh said:
Still morally wrong though.
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Why though?

Isn't it right to allow them the freedom to work for their contracted ours in the NHS and do what they want outside of those hours (while maintaining the obligations relating to conflict of interest etc, ofc)?
 
Inkandtatts said:
I'm relying on G00gle but it says that Prestwick has been owned by the Scottish Government since 2013
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It's an exception. They tried to find a buyer but failed and are committed to finding one as soon as they can.

Inkandtatts said:
Why though?

Isn't it right to allow them the freedom to work for their contracted ours in the NHS and do what they want outside of those hours (while maintaining the obligations relating to conflict of interest etc, ofc)?
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Outside of working hours it's between them, their conscience, and the tax man. They should not be allowed to use facilities bought and paid for by taxpayer money to run their private business though. Let them go to one of the private hospitals and buy services there instead.
 
No

Do you get annoyed with people who say they have allergies and make out that they’re going to die if they come anywhere near a tiny bit of gluten but then it turns out it’s only a mild intolerance and they stuff their faces with Yorkshire puddings?
 
It's usually not even that. "I'm allergic to" is usually synonymous with "I don't like". It's annoying because it devalues the meaning for people that are truly, life threateningly allergic.

Does it annoy you as much as it annoys me lol
 
Oh yes! Partially because people with real allergies are put at risk because of the idiots that pretend they have them

Do you like vegan dairy alternatives?
 
No, they mostly taste like shite.

Do you think that vegans should eat grass instead of eating something that’s manufactured to taste like the cow that eats the grass?
 
Yes, I do like Ginger Ale. If I have a stomach ache I'll have some Ginger Ale from time to time. I am actually drinking some Ginger Ale right now. It's good to me. So very sorry it tastes soapy for you.


Do you watch Big Brother a T.V. show?
 
No. I don't watch a lot of tv and that programme is one I'd never watch. It's prurient rubbish IMO.

Do you watch reality tv?
 
Yes, but only a few.

Do you watch American football as in College football 🏈 or Pro NFL? 🏈
 
I'm not a huge sports fan tbh. I watch some motorcycle racing especially the Isle of Man TT and I watch climbing videos mainly to pick up ideas.

Do you watch a lot of tv?
 
Nope, just a few of my favorite T.V. Shows and some football games. 🏈 I'm way too busy in real life to watch a lot of T.V.

Do you watch a lot of T.V. and movies?
 
Yes! The BBC dramatisation with Colin Firth is sublime. Even though Jennifer Ehle's continual simpering expression is irritation af.

Have you read any other Jane Austen books?
 
I don’t think so. P+P was the 3rd/4th year course so it kinda wasn’t optional for us. Prefer to watch films and then books but this is rare (interview with the vampire an exception)

would you consider yourself a touristy tourist?
 
Nooooooo. I like getting to know people and places. Slobbing around swimming pools/beach is anathema to me as are organised tours and the like.

Do you act like a typical tourist?
 
I don’t think so. I like to venture as and when nothing organised (unless it’s me and who I’m with). Food would be a nightmare if scheduled I tread easily when trying foods because I don’t like disrespecting if I don’t like it. Anyway!

Do you always tip after a meal out?
 
Yes unless it was a particularly shite experience caused by very poor service.

Have you ever complained about poor food quality and refused to pay?
 
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