The British public have always treated its politicians with disdain and the latest flat refurbishment scandal by Prime Minster Boris Johnson has caused a huge amount of public and media outcry.
Accusations of political donations monies used, the inappropriate timing and maybe even an illegal process are all swirling around Boris’ head.
His very clear answer is NO!
Excuse me for being cynical or even critical at all. I find it astounding that the U.K. government can find billions for a HUGE infrastructure project (HS2 = High Speed Rail 2), with promises of fortunes for who? The mega rich of course, told you I was being cynical. I also heard on the news today that the U.K. have 300,000 homeless people. That’s a ⅓ of a million people and nearly 0.5% of the whole of the U.K. population.
Those billions would build an awful lot of houses for many homeless and the best we can get are a ‘housing first’ trial. If we were really serious about creating infrastructure projects, building houses would not only create more jobs throughout the whole supply chain, it would solve one of the largest social issues we are experiencing in the 21st century, Homelessness.
I guarantee you that in about 20/25 years when HS2 is due to be complete, we will still have a homeless problem in the U.K.
We mistake, economic prosperity for the rich with a moral duty to enrich every person in society, including the homeless.
U.K., get your priorities right!
There’s a group of 5 MP’s who are in the UK government and are plotting against the Brexit withdrawal agreement. They have been given the name ‘Pizza Plotters’, which is such a great title. Presumably, because they get together plotting their plans whilst eating Pizza. It conjured up this image in my head of a man standing on Regent Street, London, dressed as a Pizza and promoting a discount Pizza. Michael Gove has the best face for such a Pizza man!
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I overheard on the radio that in the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) has just 100,000 beds.
Between 1987/8 and 2016/17, the total number of NHS hospital beds fell by approximately 52.4 per cent — from 299,364 to 142,568. Within this total number, there are different categories of bed across which the scale of change has varied considerably. See image.
The number of overnight general and acute beds has fallen by 43.4 per cent between 1987/8 and 2016/17 — from around 180,889 to 102,269. However, within this category beds for the long-term care of older people fell more substantially. Between 1987/8 and 2009/10 — when beds for older people were recorded separately — numbers fell 60.8 per cent, from more than 53,000 to slightly less than 20,900.
The largest percentage falls have occurred in overnight mental health and learning disability beds, which fell by 72.1 and 96.4 per cent respectively between 1987/8 and 2016/17. This was underpinned by a policy shift to providing care for people with mental health problems and learning disabilities in the community rather than in institutional settings.
Data from: https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/nhs-hospital-bed-numbers
Considering that Mental Health will be a growing problem in years to come and that there is a time bomb in connection with a growth in older age people, I will leave it to you to decide whether the current UK government have done a good job or not when it comes to looking after the nation’s health?