David 🦣

I support Free/Libre Software. I also enjoy music, reading, motorsport (mainly endurance sportscars such as #ELMS #WEC and #IMSA), coding/hacking, and writing.

Location: United Kingdom
FSF: http://www.fsf.org
FSFE: http://www.fsfe.org

Last Notes

2025-10-01 07:23:55 UTC

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Yes. But of course VAT on private schools is oh so recent; we have never traditionally taxed necessities such as health and education (food, books etc.) I think my developing view is that VAT on private health could be fair, but only if there was a viable state option. If a plumber said he could service your gas boiler, but not for 18 months, you would be justified in concluding that meant he could not do the job and you would have to find somebody else.

2025-10-01 07:11:45 UTC

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I have more sympathy with the VAT point in terms of taxing private businesses. But businesses that produce food are mostly zero rated for tax, as are businesses who print and sell books and newspapers, and businesses that sell children's shoes and clothes are zero rated for tax. We don't choose to charge VAT on everything that is sold by private businesses for profit.

2025-10-01 06:25:34 UTC

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It's a good point, but on my early morning pre-coffee calculations, using total NHS spend of £188.5bn, the additional money would represent an increase of around 1.06% This is my main concern. I just can't believe that a broken system would be in any way seriously improved by a 1% funding increase.

2025-09-30 20:44:56 UTC

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Of course it should, but it's not. The NHS was an amazing idea but we just can't get it to work. In sticking to a "it just needs more money" argument I worry that we are delaying the inevitable massive reform that will ultimately come once we decide we can't put off slaughtering the sacred cow any longer. How many will suffer between now and then? How much pain? How many tears? Which politician will be brave enough? It hasn't worked for at least the last 45 of its almost 80 years.

2025-09-30 20:30:49 UTC

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It's sad to read these comments. We've been so brainwashed by the Religion of the NHS that we would rather see everybody wait 18 months for procedures they need than let others choose to spend money they've often worked hard for on having a procedure within two weeks. If you had the choice between your loved one waiting 12 months in pain, or being seen in 2 weeks, what would you honestly choose? Not everybody who chooses to pay is a mega rich fat cat. They just put care over dogma.

2025-09-29 12:43:21 UTC

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The Management Traininig Programme is alive and well. https://graduates.nhs.uk/ The challenge is keeping people in the system asking them to manage increasingly impossible to deliver services. It doesn't matter how competent you are as a manager really if you are being asked to manage a system that doesn't work. It just creates the same kind of stress and strain that medics and nurses and others are under.