I just got a text message from my GP warning me that A&Es near me are busy and to avoid going but call 111 if I am unwell. And they want us to do austerity again. They want us to die, and fight each other, and stamp on anyone who is different. They want to horde more wealth, forever. - ThreadSky

zoejardiniere.bsky.social • 44 days ago

I just got a text message from my GP warning me that A&Es near me are busy and to avoid going but call 111 if I am unwell.

And they want us to do austerity again.

They want us to die, and fight each other, and stamp on anyone who is different. They want to horde more wealth, forever.

Reposted from Zoe Gardner

I literally can’t believe that we’re hearing the case being made for austerity again.

After it destroyed growth, destroyed communities, trashed public services & gave us all this far right backlash to deal with.

These smug rich men still saying Reeves should make the case for more cuts🤦‍♀️ #r4today

Comments

kath400blue.bsky.social•44 days ago

WEALTH TAX NOW.

manxinwales.bsky.social•44 days ago

Irony being that the reason A&Es end up so busy is the lack of GP appointments encouraging people with non-emergency conditions (that require attention within less than 3 weeks) to attend A&E for help...

ver-bat-man.bsky.social•43 days ago

Please confirm who "They" are.
Is it the "They" who drove the NHS into the ground over the last 14 years, or the "They" who have been expected to save the NHS, education, public services, the armed forces and the economy in 6 MONTHS?

shinyshep.bsky.social•43 days ago

I’m guessing it’s more broadly the incredibly wealthy, rather than about what colour tie “They” like to wear.

ver-bat-man.bsky.social•43 days ago

Unlikely.

heyyouguys.bsky.social•44 days ago

Saw a post that in the US, if the wealth was equally distributed then every family would be making $700,000 a year. I don't know what the UK equivalent would be but probably better than "if you're sick, just die"

motosunburn.bsky.social•44 days ago

It takes a long time to replace healthcare resources that have been run down over 15 years, but at least they're trying to start the process. Getting the backlog down will eventually free up beds but until then a winter peak of admissions due to flu will always be problematic.

andye1878.bsky.social•44 days ago

Their process amounts to an extension of the privatisation of the NHS with private sector cherry picking of the most lucrative services for further profiteering.

motosunburn.bsky.social•44 days ago

I'm not fond of the private sector either, but when it takes 10 years to train a doctor or build a hospital, and we have a private sector with the capacity to address the backlog now, what's your better idea?

andye1878.bsky.social•44 days ago

Spare capacity in the private sector is a myth and the private sector relies almost entirely on senior doctors who already work in the NHS
https://keepournhspublic.com/myth-of-spare-capacity-in-private-health-care-sector-straining-to-help-the-nhs/

motosunburn.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yes, one of the reasons I don't like the private sector is its parasitic effect on NHS staffing. But capacity is real. I had a cataract done in a private clinic paid by the NHS, total waiting time from GP consult to op 2 weeks.

arnthor.bsky.social•44 days ago

If we shut down the private clinics and fund the NHS with the money saved, we can pay the doctors there more and the private staff will return to add capacity where it’s most effectively used. Put a bit simply, but it would work.

andye1878.bsky.social•44 days ago

I'm pleased that you had that done so quickly Des but that's exactly the type of procedure that the private sector is cherry picking. The waiting lists for more complicated issues will continue to grow as will A&E issues. There is no extra capacity, it's the same doctors, just more profit for some.

stevebrooks341.bsky.social•44 days ago

Who wants us to do austerity again?

zoejardiniere.bsky.social•44 days ago

This was a conversation on #r4today between Robinson and Sir John Gieve (sp?) ex-deputy director for something o rother and BoE.

themardycockney.bsky.social•44 days ago

Sometimes I want to give them what they want. For their “others” to disappear (for an extended holiday). See how long they last without the people they hate taking care of people and infrastructure. Because other rich people aren’t going to deliver your groceries for starters.

zoejardiniere.bsky.social•44 days ago

But that's the problem isn't it. The others dont disappear, they're just ground down, to more insecure work, to more debt collectors, to more food banks, to more blame for being society's "scroungers". They'll always be there, to do the work with less and less to go on. It's nightmarish.

themardycockney.bsky.social•44 days ago

I completely agree. Just sometimes wonder what they’d do if they got their way but not in the way they want (workhouses, economic slavery). If all the “others” left would they then understand their value? Probably not.

elliottsmithblesky.bsky.social•44 days ago

When trans, Muslims, immigrants, gays etc. have all been exhausted as bete noires, it’ll be back to base misogyny. That’s the terminal result of the rolling-back of rights, protections, and sanity.

That’s not an experiment we want to run.

drvandermast.bsky.social•44 days ago

(*hoard.)

arnthor.bsky.social•44 days ago

At this rate we’re going to get more austerity, a sudden and saw-it-coming-a-mile-away lurch to fascism and then we’re truly toast. I mean, we’re already toast but then we’ll be pure carbon.

hollybrigstocke.bsky.social•44 days ago

Labour seem addicted to neoliberalism and the petty cruelty which flows from arrogance and lack of empathy.

They also seem to think private equity is off the books "free money" and will magically create "growth". No, and no.

Austerity is "Amritsar massacre" by another name.

mrcuriouscity.bsky.social•44 days ago

Yep got that message the other day too

Austerity just creates scarcity and hardship for those without wealth, whilst those with are fine

All those films that show wealthy people living it up whilst the poor are fighting and scavenging to stay alive...we are living those films, we are in that world

alicemerray.bsky.social•44 days ago

🎵Some of you are going to die
Martyrs, of course to the freedom that I shall provide🎵

angelmsattya.bsky.social•44 days ago

wm899.bsky.social•43 days ago

The BoE is to blame.

aaandrelax.bsky.social•44 days ago

Austerity never ended. Austerity ends when everything gets re-funded, and returns to pre-austerity levels of service.
It never ended.

jamessteel2008.bsky.social•44 days ago

The legacy of the last 14 years has brought the NHS to its knees, Labour has a mess to sort it out. However Austerity cannot continue, higher taxes for the very well off can improve public services that benefit the majority.

nigel-hewlett.bsky.social•44 days ago

I never really saw the point where austerity ended.

When the chips are down, you invest.

If you don't, you just get more austerity.

robe87.bsky.social•44 days ago

Tax the ultra rich jesus people its really quite fucking simple

magnificocleary.bsky.social•44 days ago

One of those solutions so fucking obvious that you need to be really expensively educated to decide that it wouldn’t work because the rich would leave Earth and live alone on a floating airship colony of robot slaves Or something

mattrobb.bsky.social•44 days ago

Or just 'educated'

magnificocleary.bsky.social•44 days ago

ding ding ding!

wrexblog.bsky.social•44 days ago

It is not that simple. No country wants to implement progressive tax systems because the rich would go to Tax Havens and take what little they do contribute out of the national economy, which would have a massive knock on effect. There is no quick fix.

katrinabryce.bsky.social•43 days ago

The thing is, the actual wealth isn't in the tax havens. The only thing in the tax haven is a shell company sitting between them and the actual assets.

arnthor.bsky.social•44 days ago

Let them leave! Good riddance. Just force them to leave behind any assets they haven’t already shifted out to tax havens. The parasites are not needed to make the country go round.

paddymendez.bsky.social•43 days ago

Design a tax system that doesn't allow that - the rich can be taxed - they take money from us - it can be intercepted - it's not impossible there is just no political will among the billionaire funded political class.

timsimonh.bsky.social•43 days ago

This is one of the fallacies promoted by the rich. In reality rich people appart from having far too much money are just like everyone else. They have kids in school, elderly parents, friends and a social scene. Ergo they don't want to move. Most would pay more tax to keep their lives the same.

mattrobb.bsky.social•44 days ago

Every country has progressive tax systems, but they are also addicted to complicating tax which means wealthy people can use that complication to avoid it.

bartles.bsky.social•44 days ago

Let them go - they're not serving anybody's interests other than their own as they sit and watch social cohesion dissolve. Let's have 20 people content to be quite rich for each one of them that's stinking rich.

robe87.bsky.social•44 days ago

Exactly

mattrobb.bsky.social•44 days ago

You're not really understanding this, are you?

carl0salbert0.bsky.social•44 days ago

Legalizing Marijuana is another that could generate money.

mattrobb.bsky.social•44 days ago

LOL.

aberboy.bsky.social•44 days ago

Who are the ultra rich Jesus people? The Pope ?

paddymendez.bsky.social•43 days ago

They publish lists of them regularly - how do you not know that?

aberboy.bsky.social•43 days ago

I don't follow Rich Jesus people monthly.

paddymendez.bsky.social•43 days ago

But you know it exists. Were you making a point or what? What's your problem with taxing the rich?

aberboy.bsky.social•43 days ago

Jesus Christ with no punctuation can not see a joke ? I nearly left the ? Mark off for a laugh.

gcarty80.bsky.social•44 days ago

Rob needed some punctuation I think!

andreww66.bsky.social•44 days ago

There is a lot of money sloshing around in this country. Sadly it's not going where it's needed.

fastcarspete.bsky.social•44 days ago

Labour decided to continue with Brexit. Kinda adopted it as their own.

With Brexit comes eternal austerity.

timsimonh.bsky.social•43 days ago

Austerity predates Brexit by 10 years. Brexit was a mistake but it didn't cause austerity and we don't have to continue with Austerity just because we are not in the EU.

timsimonh.bsky.social•43 days ago

Arguing that Brexit condemns us to permanent austerity fundamentally misundstands economics. Austerity isn't a response to economic conditions. It is an ideology. If anything Brexit means that Austerity makes even less economic sense. Not that it ever made any sense.

strappedforcash.bsky.social•43 days ago

It's one of three main tenets of neoliberalism: privatisation deregulation, and austerity

The Labour government ticks all three boxes

fastcarspete.bsky.social•43 days ago

You're missing the simple fact that the UK will always be skint while Brexit exists.

george-terrace.bsky.social•43 days ago

As others on this thread have tried to explain, Britain was doomed when Thatcher ended the postwar consensus and introduced a new policy model. Britain has been dragged back to prewar levels of wealth inequality by a bipartisan consensus on neoliberalism.

timsimonh.bsky.social•43 days ago

If an economy is in recession or not growing then governments should spend more not less i.e the opposite of austerity. So if Brexit makes the UK poorer then the Government should spend more not cut. Austerity is an ideological choice not a response to economic situation.

andrewhesselden.bsky.social•44 days ago

When you call 111 undoubtedly they will tell you to go to A&E.

duncanpoundcake.bsky.social•44 days ago

Reeves has hemmed herself in wth her own supid fiscal rules, which are complelety irrational and inappropiate for the dire state we are in as a nation.

This is all about choice and her brittle ego won't allow her to make the right ones.

ddigitalmedia.bsky.social•44 days ago

Anybody that maxes out a parliamentary credit card and gets it taken away should be nowhere near the treasury

duncanpoundcake.bsky.social•44 days ago

Well it was a massive red flag that again was quietly swept unddr the carpet. Like her fantasy CV and fantasy economist jobs and love for the AS, Nancy Astor and her Chair of thr LfI. Imagine if that was Corbyn...

magnumificent.bsky.social•44 days ago

😕
Morning

jacklondonbluesky.bsky.social•44 days ago

Who are "They"? Is your GP one of them?

AFAIK there is a big flu epidemic this winter - in part because apparently the strains included in the annual flu jab did not include the exact strain that is driving the epidemic

This isn't down to current govt - 6 months could not help NHS much

hellopalendrome.bsky.social•44 days ago

When did the austerity end? No seriously. Councils are bankruptcy, NHS no longer functioning, no dentists, wages bot going up. When?

elliottsmithblesky.bsky.social•44 days ago

When you say ‘they,’ are you referring to the actual current government?

hutchandsons.bsky.social•44 days ago

It really is enough to give one a severe case of the mubble-fubbles!

Current prognosis = incurable.

https://bsky.app/profile/susiedent.com/post/3lezffe2m3s2k

ldw1.bsky.social•43 days ago

Here’s the issue.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/long-reads/nhs-hospital-bed-numbers

bowleskov.bsky.social•44 days ago

Austerity is the only answer in the mind of the PPE Graduate from Oxford University. Nick Robinson and Rachel Reeves have that in common. As do Hunt, Sunak, Truss, Stride, Balls, Cooper, Miliband etc.

Austerity is an Oxford Death Cult.

amhoward.bsky.social•44 days ago

I've never not been told to go to A&E by 111. I don't think it works.

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