I was saddened to learn yesterday that adults in residential care receive benefit of just £22 per week for all their other needs - entertainment, treats, clothes, etc, etc. That's year in year out for mayve 60 or 70 years. OK they get food, shelter and care but the care homes have to try to get second hand clothes, etc for them. I think it's really sad that such a rich country couldn't find the cash to help the most vulnerable have a little more in life, when there is such enormous waste of public funds, eg they keep spending money on our railway station and making it worse. They have put in barriers - which make life more inconvenient for users, they now pay two blokes to stand watching people go through and after about 7pm they are left open anyway. What a waste - serves absoluetely no purpose - certainly not an improvement for customers and certainly not justified by an perceived protection of revenue. They built an identikit, hideous glass extension to the villagey station building to house the barriers (when the actual building has a plaque commerorating its award for sympathetic architectural revedelopment. Network Rail and First Capital Connect are a joke, they waste billions and can't run a half decent railway. Yet people in need are treated so badly. We live in a sick society that needs to get its priorities right. These rail people get bonuses too and some are amazingly well paid - why? 150 years of trying and the railways are worse than ever. Reward for failure seems the thing in modern Britain.

Quote Dally="Dally"I was saddened to learn yesterday that adults in residential care receive benefit of just £22 per week for all their other needs - entertainment, treats, clothes, etc, etc. That's year in year out for mayve 60 or 70 years. OK they get food, shelter and care but the care homes have to try to get second hand clothes, etc for them. I think it's really sad that such a rich country couldn't find the cash to help the most vulnerable have a little more in life, when there is such enormous waste of public funds, eg they keep spending money on our railway station and making it worse. They have put in barriers - which make life more inconvenient for users, they now pay two blokes to stand watching people go through and after about 7pm they are left open anyway. What a waste - serves absoluetely no purpose - certainly not an improvement for customers and certainly not justified by an perceived protection of revenue. They built an identikit, hideous glass extension to the villagey station building to house the barriers (when the actual building has a plaque commerorating its award for sympathetic architectural revedelopment. Network Rail and First Capital Connect are a joke, they waste billions and can't run a half decent railway. Yet people in need are treated so badly. We live in a sick society that needs to get its priorities right. These rail people get bonuses too and some are amazingly well paid - why? 150 years of trying and the railways are worse than ever. Reward for failure seems the thing in modern Britain.'" Also, to add to that, this government voted for the removal of the mobility component of DLA for adults in residential care even though they were fully entitled to it. They ended up having to do a complete U turn (like most other things they are proposing nowadays). Utterly dispicable. www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepu ... just-start

Quote Dally="Dally"I was saddened to learn yesterday that adults in residential care receive benefit of just £22 per week for all their other needs - entertainment, treats, clothes, etc, etc. That's year in year out for mayve 60 or 70 years. OK they get food, shelter and care but the care homes have to try to get second hand clothes, etc for them. I think it's really sad that such a rich country couldn't find the cash to help the most vulnerable have a little more in life, when there is such enormous waste of public funds, eg they keep spending money on our railway station and making it worse. They have put in barriers - which make life more inconvenient for users, they now pay two blokes to stand watching people go through and after about 7pm they are left open anyway. What a waste - serves absoluetely no purpose - certainly not an improvement for customers and certainly not justified by an perceived protection of revenue. They built an identikit, hideous glass extension to the villagey station building to house the barriers (when the actual building has a plaque commerorating its award for sympathetic architectural revedelopment. Network Rail and First Capital Connect are a joke, they waste billions and can't run a half decent railway. Yet people in need are treated so badly. We live in a sick society that needs to get its priorities right. These rail people get bonuses too and some are amazingly well paid - why? 150 years of trying and the railways are worse than ever. Reward for failure seems the thing in modern Britain.'" Also, to add to that, this government voted for the removal of the mobility component of DLA for adults in residential care even though they were fully entitled to it. They ended up having to do a complete U turn (like most other things they are proposing nowadays). Utterly dispicable. www.guardian.co.uk/society/joepu ... just-start

Aplogies for the link, I blame Caroline Lucas for it was she who sent it.

[url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099940/NHS-health-reforms-Extent-McKinsey--Companys-role-Andrew-Lansleys-proposals.htmlMackinsey appear to have an unduly active role in the planning of the NHS Bill[/url

Former McKinsey execs also seem to abound in the top echelons of Monitor, the NHS Regulator. McKinsey’s involvement in the Bill is so great that its executives attend the meetings of the ‘Extraordinary NHS Management Board’ convened to implement it. Sometimes McKinsey even hosts these meetings at its UK headquarters in Jermyn Street, Central London.

And while we're on about it, from the same rag:

[url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099914/NHS-reforms-David-Cameron-lashes-Cabinet-stabbers-support-Andrew-Lansley.htmlWe shed blood on our NHS reforms: Table-thumping Cameron lashes out at Cabinet back-stabbers and vows there won't be a U-turn[/url

Shed blood? Not nearly as much as the electorate will be shedding once these proposals go through. And then there's the haemorrhaging of taxpayers' dosh into the coffers of cn[iu[/its lilke McKinsey.

Don't know if this has been mentioned already... news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16168815

Don't know if this has been mentioned already... news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16168815

Quote V6Chuk="V6Chuk"Don't know if this has been mentioned already... news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16168815'" No. But it's a damned important statement.

Quote V6Chuk="V6Chuk"Don't know if this has been mentioned already... news.sky.com/home/politics/article/16168815'" No. But it's a damned important statement.

Interesting on productivity how nobody questions whether the Armed Forces productivity ever falls.

Where is the accountability on them? How does the taxpayer know they get value for money?

All we ever get told is "the best in the world". By what standings?

Should productivity perhaps be calculated by reference to how many "enemy" they take out? If so, I reckon they're not as good as they used to be!

The USA certainly don't think our army is the best in the world. In fact, quite the opposite judging by Afghanistan.

Maybe it goes on how much we spend per kill in comparison to other armies and relative to the amount spent by opposing armies, which is obviously intrinsically linked. I am sure some has worked out an equation for it.

Hmmm and plenty of Brits serving in Afghanistan think the US Army is technologically amazing but staffed by overly aggressive idiotic gun-toting maniacs and that the US Army should spend more time on avoiding blowing up innocent civilians and allied soldiers and less time slagging off another nations armed forces.

That just made me laugh, nod and applaud all at the same time. Which is some example of multi-tasking.

Another Little Englander speaks.

If Labour don't keep up the pressure on this pig's ear of a piece of legislation, they don't deserve anyone's vote