LEAVE the Conservative Party and save your country!

rick_chasey

All this talk of doctors not being treated like humans, poor pay, poor conditions, inefficiencies etc.

You wonder when the penny is going to drop in the UK that maybe the socialist model is not the utopia it promised to be, just like in every other part of the economy?

monkimark

Is the American model cheaper and more efficient?
I suspect that it is nicer but famously much more expensive (for those who can afford to pay for it), we could also make our system nicer and more expensive.

rick_chasey

monkimark said:

Is the American model cheaper and more efficient?
I suspect that it is nicer but famously much more expensive (for those who can afford to pay for it), we could also make our system nicer and more expensive.

There are more models available than the US or the UK models.

monkimark

Yes, there are many countries.
Last time I checked, the UK spends comparatively little per capita on health care, we could spend more and get more without needing to change the entire system.

Are there places that spend less and get better service? I have (thankfully) little experience of the NHS and zero experience of any other country's health care.

Dorset_Boy

The French system seem a decent compromise, but I have no idea of the cost.

There is huge waste in the NHS, and overall it has too few front line staff and way too many in the background.

TheBigBean

Dorset_Boy said:

The French system seem a decent compromise, but I have no idea of the cost.

There is huge waste in the NHS, and overall it has too few front line staff and way too many in the background.

I think the problem is the opposite. Far too few people who are good at admin. E.g. when a friend was in the maternity ward, one of the patients there spent an extra night in hospital, because no one had told her she had been discharged.

Jezyboy

Yea I wonder what the "wastage" is like compared to other large organizations.

rick_chasey

Yikes those UK inflation numbers are grizly.

focuszing723

rick_chasey said:

Yikes those UK inflation numbers are grizly.

Macroeconomics, the economy, inflation etc. *likely to be very dull*

briantrumpet

rick_chasey said:

Yikes those UK inflation numbers are grizly.

I guess stuff like this hasn't aged too well.



https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/falling-inflation-marks-another-nail-in-the-coffin-for-project-fear/

Who'd have thought that making importing stuff harder could possibly have made prices go up?

rick_chasey

TBF, it's being increasingly driven by food prices, and they are rising even higher on the continent (especially Germany) so I don't think Brexit is the main driver.

From the BBC:

When asked whether we might see double digit inflation sustained at least for another month with food prices continuing as they are, Grant Fitzner, chief economist for the Office for National Statistics said: "We're at 19.1% so it's possible. Germany saw their food prices up 22.3% and there's quite a number of European countries who've seen higher rises than the UK, so it is certainly within the realm of possibility but we don't forecast this."

wallace_and_gromit

Per economic chatter in the MSM, the two main drivers of UK inflation being materially higher than in the EU are:
- higher reliance on imported energy; and
- labour shortages driven by early retirements (partially reversing) and long term sickness

rick_chasey

wallace_and_gromit said:

Per economic chatter in the MSM, the two main drivers of UK inflation being materially higher than in the EU are:
- higher reliance on imported energy; and
- labour shortages driven by early retirements (partially reversing) and long term sickness

I don't think the second is right, else we'd be seeing wages leading inflation > quite the opposite.

I think the second is harming *growth* but it's not a major part of inflation right now.

rick_chasey

rick_chasey said:

TBF, it's being increasingly driven by food prices, and they are rising even higher on the continent (especially Germany) so I don't think Brexit is the main driver.

From the BBC:

When asked whether we might see double digit inflation sustained at least for another month with food prices continuing as they are, Grant Fitzner, chief economist for the Office for National Statistics said: "We're at 19.1% so it's possible. Germany saw their food prices up 22.3% and there's quite a number of European countries who've seen higher rises than the UK, so it is certainly within the realm of possibility but we don't forecast this."

Though having said that

https://twitter.com/BruceReuters/status/1648573090471845888?s=20

kingstongraham

April and October last year were months with big jumps in inflation, so expect a bit lower next month's annual figure.

Dorset_Boy

Whilst we have a higher reliance on imported energy, wholesale gas prices have fallen massively over the last year and are back to pre-pandemic levels.

The food inflation is / should be a big concern.

rick_chasey

Dorset_Boy said:

The food inflation is / should be a big concern.

Maybe some posters on the weight forum will get their wish when they complain that food is too cheap.

pblakeney

rick_chasey said:

Dorset_Boy said:

The food inflation is / should be a big concern.

Maybe some posters on the weight forum will get their wish when they complain that food is too cheap.

rick_chasey said:

wakemalcolm said:

Agree about historical diets not being as healthy. A recent trip to my octogenarian parents left me shocked at how beige their diet is. They eat less ultraprocessed food than most though.

I think we forget how much smaller servings (and plates) were back then and also how much more food cost as a proportion of family income. Gluttony had as much of a financial impact as a health one. Fat people were often referred to as looking 'prosperous'.

I think this is probably right.

Portion size has definitely changed and food is a lot cheaper now.

😉

rick_chasey

But I've never said cheap food was a bad thing

Pross

rick_chasey said:

Dorset_Boy said:

The food inflation is / should be a big concern.

Maybe some posters on the weight forum will get their wish when they complain that food is too cheap.

The cost of food has generally risen by less than CPI over the last 10 years (and has seen deflation over quite a bit of that time). This feels like a bit of a correction.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/articles/risingcostofpastabreadandothereverydayfoodsleavesmostvulnerabletheworstoff/2022-12-22

This isn't a very extensive list and is before the recent rises but I couldn't find anything better showing long term trends and know how you like to compare costs against how things were for the Boomers.

https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/heres-how-our-food-prices-compare-to-30-years-ago-and-you-might-be-surprised-aBqFY5C7lgai

If the obesity crisis is due to people over-eating and food is getting more expensive then surely the simplest solution to both is buy less food?

Cheap healthy food is good, cheap processed shit isn't

kingstongraham

Price of food has now risen by more than cpi since 2015.

A year ago, it was 10% lower than cpi since 2015.

Call it a correction if you like, but that's horrible.

TheBigBean

Dorset_Boy said:

Whilst we have a higher reliance on imported energy, wholesale gas prices have fallen massively over the last year and are back to pre-pandemic levels.

The food inflation is / should be a big concern.

They're still around 100p/therm, so more than pre-pandemic levels.

TheBigBean

kingstongraham said:

April and October last year were months with big jumps in inflation, so expect a bit lower next month's annual figure.

Inflation reporting has always struggled with this. Next month inflation will drop to less than 8% and people will start to worry about deflation.

rick_chasey

I don't think anyone is worrying about deflation?! We can all see the price rises with our own eyes?!

TheBigBean

rick_chasey said:

rick_chasey said:

TBF, it's being increasingly driven by food prices, and they are rising even higher on the continent (especially Germany) so I don't think Brexit is the main driver.

From the BBC:

When asked whether we might see double digit inflation sustained at least for another month with food prices continuing as they are, Grant Fitzner, chief economist for the Office for National Statistics said: "We're at 19.1% so it's possible. Germany saw their food prices up 22.3% and there's quite a number of European countries who've seen higher rises than the UK, so it is certainly within the realm of possibility but we don't forecast this."

Though having said that

https://twitter.com/BruceReuters/status/1648573090471845888?s=20

For example, in Sweden:

The CPI 12-month inflation rate was 10.6 percent in March 2023, down from 12.0 percent in February. On a monthly basis, the inflation rate according to the CPI increased by 0.6 percent from February to March. The CPIF (Consumer price Index with fixed interest rate) 12-month inflation rate was 8.0 in March.

Person on twitter trying to make a point takes 8% for Sweden and not 10.6%. It is possible that he has considered both indexes and thinks one is more directly comparable to CPI than the other, but I suspect he hasn't.

First.Aspect

There's supposed to be a cold snap next week.

Really worried we are entering the next ice age.

Stevo_666

First.Aspect said:

There's supposed to be a cold snap next week.

Really worried we are entering the next ice age.

I'm waiting for the next thread about something we should apparently s**t our pants about but then turns out to be not a big deal. Remember the energy thread predicting widespread blackouts?

Pross

First.Aspect said:

There's supposed to be a cold snap next week.

Really worried we are entering the next ice age.

14 day forecast in these parts is low double figures with a mixture of dry days and showers which seems like fiarly typical weather for the time of year.

First.Aspect

Pross said:

First.Aspect said:

There's supposed to be a cold snap next week.

Really worried we are entering the next ice age.

14 day forecast in these parts is low double figures with a mixture of dry days and showers which seems like fiarly typical weather for the time of year.

But thst will include the coldest April day for over a year.

pblakeney

First.Aspect said:

Pross said:

First.Aspect said:

There's supposed to be a cold snap next week.

Really worried we are entering the next ice age.

14 day forecast in these parts is low double figures with a mixture of dry days and showers which seems like fiarly typical weather for the time of year.

But thst will include the coldest April day for over a year.

Has the Express had a headline about the oncoming snowmaggedon/big freeze, whatever? They are usually first. And wrong.