@ Sarah in the Desert. Local authorities have nothing to do with

Comment on General Election 2010 Poll Results by Helen.

@ Sarah in the Desert. Local authorities have nothing to do with the DSS policies you have referred to in the 1997. The DSS is run by the civil service which has a national mandate with no scope for local authority input.

“People have short memories and tend to vote for the party that they believe will make their own lives better.” Is that not what you are doing? The Tories would make my own personal finances better but I’d never vote for them in a million years.

“Bupa cover isn’t cut out for everyone and the NHS should be very thankful that people like us have it and don’t drain the service..” but what you fail to realise is that BUPA consultants are also NHS consultants. Every time your insurance company profited from your own misfortune in being ill, the NHS also lost that consultant’s time to the private sector. British medical students are unable to train and be licensed in the UK without training through the NHS. So effectively, the NHS produces the UK trained clinicians which you pay for (minus the huge chunk your insurance company gobbles up).

Your NHS ideas don’t include “…those with hereditary or long-term illnesses that are through no fault.”. It would be interesting to see how you would legislate for this if you have time to summarise?

“You think it’s in your interests for Labour to stay in power as they are the source of your income and you believe they will stay true to the NHS.” How can the Labour party be the source of my income? If by that you mean the NHS, then they may well be my source of income but may not be, but the private option for work can be far more lucrative so this is not really an issue of my own personal finances. However, on the contrary, the Tories would make me a lot better off financially but they still, as an organisation and as an ideology, make me want to hurl.

There was nothing wishy washy about my post on me not caring about the EU as much as you and other posters. I simply stated that for me the improved NHS is a massive issue (life and death), much bigger relatively than the press driven hysteria about the EU. You brush vastly improved NHS waiting lists off as if it’s hardly worth a mention, which perhaps to relates to your private healthcare status and lack of residence in the UK. For me, years of waiting on the NHS for surgery was the most scandalous thing about the UK in the late 90s, bar none. And that epitomises the mess I was referring to. And now, it’s far far better.

You can educate yourself, take opportunities, make sacrifices, work really hard and still see the bigger picture, in that there are always people at the bottom of every pile, many of whom will be hard working themselves but without the opportunities you have had.

Yes there are people who don’t aspire to do anything, they are lazy, they are not contributing to society. That is a given in every country on this planet, so it shouldn’t be a reason to withdraw help from people who need it and deserve it.