Quote of the Day

"Our National Health Service is one of this country’s greatest assets.

And it’s right that when people come here legitimately they should be able to use it.

But we should be clear that what we have is a free National Health Service…

…not a free International Health Service."


David Cameron

Comments

Jim said…
We most certainly do not have a free National health service. Granted it does not cost you anything to use it at the time or place of use, that may well be true, but it most certainly is not Free It is paid for by the British taxpayer, it is very inefficient, and very expensive.

Internationals (i.e. non british taxpayers) are about the only onces who could argue that it's free to them.

Its due to people perceiving the NHS as a free service that its so often abused, missed appointments etc. People think oh well it does not cost anything and I feel a bit better so I won't go. Of course this costs all of us, and it costs us all a lot more than small change.
9:27 am
Jim said…
We most certainly do not have a free National health service. Granted it does not cost you anything to use it at the time or place of use, that may well be true, but it most certainly is not Free It is paid for by the British taxpayer, it is very inefficient, and very expensive.

Internationals (i.e. non british taxpayers) are about the only onces who could argue that it's free to them.

Its due to people perceiving the NHS as a free service that its so often abused, missed appointments etc. People think oh well it does not cost anything and I feel a bit better so I won't go. Of course this costs all of us, and it costs us all a lot more than small change.

If you remember nothing else, then remember that nothing, absolutely nothing, that involves government at any stage is free/
5:23 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
In the Milton Friedman sense that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" you are of course right that we pay for the NHS through our taxes.

Cameron was right in the sense that it is free at the point of delivery and that is why the measures in his speech are necessary.
9:50 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more