UK: What our Army needs is a defence policy

The Times ^ | 9/3/2007 | William Rees-Mogg

[quadrant]

What about the argument that the defense of the country is an essential and national health insurance is a frill do you not understand?

[Rikstir]

listen pal you have a bee in your bonnet about the NHS, and have a misguided idea about what it means, reflectively, when placed alongside the UK.

“What about the argument that the defense of the country is an essential and national health insurance is a frill”

Essential- food, water, heat, shelter. These are true life or death criteria. But if we take your angle then the essentials revolve around the ability of the nation state to defend its interests. So you have weapons, army, defenders of the realm shall we say? Cars for the population aren’t essential, but you have them. A favourite beer, and you have one. A favourite sport, you have one. Family and friends, you have them. But they aren’t ESSENTIAL to the defence of the realm. What they do is make living in the realm a little more comfortable, enjoyable.

[quadrant]

You should read more about the shortcomings of the NHS, Pal.
Blair and company have poured millions more into the system and its still isn’t any better.

Food, water, heat, shelter are essentials - for an individual.
For the overwhelming majority of the people, cars in this economy are essential. Try living without one, if you live in a suburb or a rural area.
As for beer and sport, they are the choice of the individual and not the responsibility of the government.

[edsheppa]

And the Brit general blames Rumsfeld?

I thought that was the new UK defense policy.

[quadrant]

In less than a minute, I located a couple of web articles on the British NHS that you should read.
British Bomb Plot and Michael More-style Health Care bu Mark Steyn in the Orange County Register of July 8.
Also, Google search to Articles on British Health Care, posted on 8/26

[Rikstir]

you still have an axe to grind regarding the NHS. you’re a stuck record man, no doubt its the first thing to come out of your gob when talking about the UK! Well, that and verbal vomit...

Think I might go and get a FREE check up tomorrow. Then a FREE bandage or leg cast. Then a FREE go on the operating table. Then a FREE rehabilitation and physio, but not before kneeling infront of a mural of Marx, Engels and Lenin and praising them to the high heavens. Onwards Comrade!!!!

If you even had a clue what barf you speak. The NHS is free, AT THE POINT OF ENTRY, we all pay for it through our lives with compulsory contributions from our wages. Its a healthcare system that offers equality for one and all, thats not saying the care is always good, but its the same for everyone, that much is certain. And this system of payment means that when a loved one crashes a bike, all i had to worry about it their rehabilitation and not a ******* bill for services rendered. Since when should a healthcare system have as its primary purpose, profit making? The hospitals duty is to the patient, not to the shareholder.

I know you dont agree, and I’m glad. That would mean I was a little like you, which would have been too much to bar

[Rikstir]

talking to yourself is a sign of insanity...

just thought you should know...

[RobbyS]

The occupation strategy was the idea of the state department. Blame it on the CIA and State that we didn’t not have an Iraqi exile government in the wings to take over after we overthrew Saddam.

[JasonC]

It is little use criticising the Americans since the Americans are the only ones doing anything useful. It is just as silly to criticise the treasury and call it "the real enemy". The real enemy is a militant ideology out there in the bush with millions of adherents merrily murdering away. Attempting to face anything *less* is an evasion and will never settle anything.

[quadrant]

Nothing is free, especially health care. You may delude yourself into believing otherwise, but then humans have the capacity to believe all sorts of silly notions. On a theoretical level, please consider: What does equality have to do with health care?
Why should an abstract concept such as equality be linked to the concrete actions of providing health care?
By what flight of fancy do you believe that you have a right to health care?
Why shouldn’t health care be operated for profit?
What makes health care any different from any other business?
You may be foolish enough to believe that hospitals in the NHS operate only for the best interests of the patients but I suspect that many in Britain have a different idea.
In fact, as is known by anyone with a little life experience, institutions seek to protect their own interests.

[quadrant]

Liberals (and the Left) display a lamentable tendency toward puerility. The tragic thing about it is that they don't even know it. Most people retain a bit of the child, but for the Liberal/Left this habit dominates their entire personality. Whenever, I debate with a representative of the Liberal/Left, I suggest they undergo psychological counseling with the goal of ridding themselves of this affliction. Since you have such an affection for the NHS, perhaps you could avail yourself of its service in this area.

[Rikstir]

“Nothing is free, especially health care. You may delude yourself into believing otherwise”

Damn. Yanks and sarcasm dont mix, they just misconstrue it. Read my post again, and again. Free at the point of entry. Free at the point of Entry. Free at the point of entry.

This means, its free. At the point...of entry. We pay for it through compulsory contributions from our wages each and every month. How is this hard to understand? Or is it because I’m not speaking Amurican?

You got your opinion about Healthcare and I got mine. Lets leave it there. I aint liberal, or conservative. I go beyond mere party politics.

[Rikstir]

whenever i debate with a moron, I feel sorry for them. As I do now...for you...

;)

[Rikstir]

[alarm rider]

Good points. I suggest they close the Department of Redundancy Department.

[quadrant]

Your post is confusing and lacks unity of organization.
Of course, health care isn’t “free”, but many (especially in this country) delude themselves into believing that if they do not pay at the point of service - that is, they pay through taxation, employer contributions, or payroll deductions - they are receiving “free” care.
You pay through compulsory contributions for services over which you have little control. You are, in effect, a servant of the NHS.
You may believe that you have gone beyond mere party politics, but once the Labour Party instituted NHS, health care and politics were inextricably intertwined.
I am attempting to avoid that miserable situation in the US.

[quadrant]

One way the Left demonstrates its puerile nature is a resort to name calling, which as you know is characteristic of a child.