Yes, very expensive health insurance. However, everyone in Switzerland has to get health insurance. I'm literally abiding by the same rules as everyone else. I don't think the government in the UK would ever make people buy health insurance. The NHS is an article of faith, even though the Swiss healthcare system is leagues better.
Do their insurers have a different approach to ours? It often strikes me that the main aim of the insurers here is not to insure but to duck out of their commitments.
If we had more faith in insurers coughing up when needed, maybe it would work better.
Good evening, everyone.
I've had contact with the Swiss healthcare system a few times and I've never had any issues with them paying up. My fiancé has slightly cheaper insurance and she uses it a bit more because of women's stuff and she never has any problems either.
I think there is a difference in attitude as well, there is almost no insurance fraud in Switzerland. When someone makes a claim on their insurance it is because they have a need (health, home, car etc...). The whiplash injury scam would never happen in Switzerland.
That may well be true. But some might well have asked: why shouldn't British citizens get preferential treatment in their own country? I.e. why shouldn't a country say to foreigners coming here that they need to contribute through taxes for a period of time before becoming eligible for benefits/welfare but say that its own citizens do not have to jump through the same hoops?
Of course that raises the whole issue of treating all citizens of EU states in the same way - which is the concept which Maastricht made explicit. But I think that some in this country objected to this on principle - in short, enough people in Britain felt that British people should be treated differently (better) than non-British citizens (including EU citizens) in their own home country for your suggestion to be a non-starter. Certainly not without the sort of intensive debate needed before you start turning a non-contributory welfare system into a contributory one and apply it to your own citizens. I just don't see how any politician in this country could do it
Any attempt to change the welfare system is seen as toxic. So because of the failure to do this, we have ended up with a decision to exclude ourselves from the EU in order to deal with the consequences of the combination of a non-contributory welfare system combined with FoM.
I didn't say I supported the change because it would help us exclude migrants from our benefits system. I support a contributory welfare system because it promotes work and punishes those who choose not to work.
When it comes to welfare and education, we can learn a lot from Switzerland.
I see the Lords have defeated the Government yet again on U.K. membership of the charter of fundamental rights.
I now expect the Government to lose virtually every single amendment there.
Time for an election? "Who governs?"
It might come down to that.
I think the Lords might be unbiddable on this.
We already had a “Who governs?” election. May didn’t win.
Nor can she flood the HoL. I think it would be deemed a democratic outrage and would have the effect of strengthening the resolve of opponents. Like it or lump it, the HoL are doing the job our constitution asks them to do.
Given the technical detail involved in Brexiting, it’s hard to figure out exactly what the public want. But the locus of opinion seems to be an EFTA style deal.
That’s not currently on the table due to May’s red lines, but perhaps it should be. What other option unites me, Tyndall and Nabavi?
EFTA/EEA has always been the sensible option, but Theresa has stupidly ruled it out. It gives us a lot of room to breathe in terms of fixing our own overseas trading arrangements and long term relationship with the EU.
Not a lot we can do about it tbh.
It would be interesting to do a PB poll on this. My pref is of course to Remain, but the least worst Brexit for me is EFTA/EEA and I could grudgingly live with it.
Perhaps others feel the same way.
Plenty of PB leavers were/are on the soft brexit train.
Plenty of PB leavers were/are on the soft brexit train.
Yes PB is atypical in that many Leavers here, maybe even most, would be happy with EFTA, as was said repeatedly after Cameron's not-so-hot renegotiation.
Such an option would have probably easily have won a referendum.
The last Prince James who was the younger son of a reigning sovereign isn't the happiest of precedents, though.
I would have thought Phillip or Edward or even Michael are more likely.
There's already a Prince James, although he doesn't use the title, bad form to create a second one. Can rule it out on that basis alone I'd have thought
The last Prince James who was the younger son of a reigning sovereign isn't the happiest of precedents, though.
I would have thought Phillip or Edward or even Michael are more likely.
"James" is possible: it's the name of Kate's brother. Bear in mind that Charlotte was called "Charlotte" because it's Pippa's middle name. However I agree on "Phillip": given the state of health of the Duke of Edinburgh and the fact that Pippa's actual name is "Phillipa", it seems like a good bet.
The last Prince James who was the younger son of a reigning sovereign isn't the happiest of precedents, though.
I would have thought Phillip or Edward or even Michael are more likely.
"James" is possible: it's the name of Kate's brother. Bear in mind that Charlotte was called "Charlotte" because it's Pippa's middle name. However I agree on "Phillip": given the state of health of the Duke of Edinburgh and the fact that Pippa's actual name is "Phillipa", it seems like a good bet.
I myself am advocating "Tarkin"...
James II was of course overthrown by his daughter and her husband turning in Vader.
The last Prince James who was the younger son of a reigning sovereign isn't the happiest of precedents, though.
I would have thought Phillip or Edward or even Michael are more likely.
"James" is possible: it's the name of Kate's brother. Bear in mind that Charlotte was called "Charlotte" because it's Pippa's middle name. However I agree on "Phillip": given the state of health of the Duke of Edinburgh and the fact that Pippa's actual name is "Phillipa", it seems like a good bet.
I myself am advocating "Tarkin"...
I had a wee bet on Frederick, I know that is the name of Prince Michael's son, but its in keeping with the era of William, George and Charlotte in the Royal family. Also, it can be shortened to Freddie like Prince Harry. Fitaloon was advocating Prince Dod, you can take the boy out of Aberdeen, but not Aberdeen out of the boy...
The last Prince James who was the younger son of a reigning sovereign isn't the happiest of precedents, though.
I would have thought Phillip or Edward or even Michael are more likely.
"James" is possible: it's the name of Kate's brother. Bear in mind that Charlotte was called "Charlotte" because it's Pippa's middle name. However I agree on "Phillip": given the state of health of the Duke of Edinburgh and the fact that Pippa's actual name is "Phillipa", it seems like a good bet.
I myself am advocating "Tarkin"...
James II was of course overthrown by his daughter and her husband turning in Vader.
With that, my coat. Good night.
King William Palpatine and Queen Annakin executed Order 66. Suddenly it all makes sense!
I see the Lords have defeated the Government yet again on U.K. membership of the charter of fundamental rights.
I now expect the Government to lose virtually every single amendment there.
Time for an election? "Who governs?"
It might come down to that.
I think the Lords might be unbiddable on this.
We already had a “Who governs?” election. May didn’t win.
Nor can she flood the HoL. I think it would be deemed a democratic outrage and would have the effect of strengthening the resolve of opponents. Like it or lump it, the HoL are doing the job our constitution asks them to do.
Given the technical detail involved in Brexiting, it’s hard to figure out exactly what the public want. But the locus of opinion seems to be an EFTA style deal.
That’s not currently on the table due to May’s red lines, but perhaps it should be. What other option unites me, Tyndall and Nabavi?
EFTA/EEA has always been the sensible option, but Theresa has stupidly ruled it out. It gives us a lot of room to breathe in terms of fixing our own overseas trading arrangements and long term relationship with the EU.
Not a lot we can do about it tbh.
It would be interesting to do a PB poll on this. My pref is of course to Remain, but the least worst Brexit for me is EFTA/EEA and I could grudgingly live with it.
Perhaps others feel the same way.
Plenty of PB leavers were/are on the soft brexit train.
I have been on the EFTA train since about 1998.I was a Leaver long before it was unfashionable. I would hard Brexit before I would hard Remain though. Mu reading of EU elections was always that we were being offered more Europe (LD), the same amount of Europe (Lab), less Europe (Con) or no Europe at all (UKIP). LD and Lab always underperformed at European elections, because what they were offering wasn't popular. But I always thought as an electorate we would have compromised, bar the oitliers on either side, with less Europe. If only we had been offered a referendum on Lisbon, none of this need have happened. Or, if DC had actually come home with a decent renegotiation and then offered a three way choice of full integration, renegotiated halfway house, or leave, he would have won a plurailty, been able to present it as the sensible middle choice, and put the issue to bed for a generation. Still, we are where we are.
Yes, very expensive health insurance. However, everyone in Switzerland has to get health insurance. I'm literally abiding by the same rules as everyone else. I don't think the government in the UK would ever make people buy health insurance. The NHS is an article of faith, even though the Swiss healthcare system is leagues better.
Do their insurers have a different approach to ours? It often strikes me that the main aim of the insurers here is not to insure but to duck out of their commitments.
If we had more faith in insurers coughing up when needed, maybe it would work better.
Good evening, everyone.
I've had contact with the Swiss healthcare system a few times and I've never had any issues with them paying up. My fiancé has slightly cheaper insurance and she uses it a bit more because of women's stuff and she never has any problems either.
I think there is a difference in attitude as well, there is almost no insurance fraud in Switzerland. When someone makes a claim on their insurance it is because they have a need (health, home, car etc...). The whiplash injury scam would never happen in Switzerland.
Which presumably relieves thw Swiss of the PITA of unsolicited calls 'about your recent accident'!
Just found out that Mandy Richards was Labour candidate for the West Central seat on the Great London Authority in 2016, polling 53,211 votes to the Conservatives' 67,775.
Thanks for the welcome, mr Meeks. I remember you posting as Antifrank. I am not sure what the issue is, but I have had problems with safari (cannot refresh (or even login!?!) via iPhone/iPad), but am now logging in via another app, which seems to work. It is still a bit shit, if I am honest, and if all other posters go through the same horrid process, then I salute your dedication.
I still can't login with Safari. Using Firefox instead.
Ah, the rare quadruple barrelled surname, a true classic. As I often comment though, I just love a many named person, like my favourite peer, Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy du Blicquy Galbraith.
I see wiki says a chap actually took the name Tarquin et al for a by-election. At the same one it links to a chap by the name of Bill Boaks, who it says has the record for the lowest number of votes in a by-election, at 5 votes.
Just listened to Martin Lewis talk about the scam ads using his image. The scammers are exploiting the strength of Facebook targeting. By being able to micro target and also run 10s, 100s (or I believe in the case of trump POTUS campaign 100,000s) of different ads that only a few 1000 people see one of, it makes it impossible to a) discover them and b) complain to have every single one taken down.
Can confirm Control_Freaks's problem. The last two or three weeks both pb.com and vanilla have been all over the place -- comments appear and disappear. Also a Safari user (both desktop and ios).
[Five-year plus lurker; arguing about politics bad for my blood pressure]
Can confirm Control_Freaks's problem. The last two or three weeks both pb.com and vanilla have been all over the place -- comments appear and disappear. Also a Safari user (both desktop and ios).
[Five-year plus lurker; arguing about politics bad for my blood pressure]
Are you usng a VPN ? I find with certain VPN settings I can’t post and I see posts only up to an hour previous.
Can confirm Control_Freaks's problem. The last two or three weeks both pb.com and vanilla have been all over the place -- comments appear and disappear. Also a Safari user (both desktop and ios).
[Five-year plus lurker; arguing about politics bad for my blood pressure]
I've had similar problems. Mobile seems more predictable than desktop. Chrome on IOS on both...
Can confirm Control_Freaks's problem. The last two or three weeks both pb.com and vanilla have been all over the place -- comments appear and disappear. Also a Safari user (both desktop and ios).
[Five-year plus lurker; arguing about politics bad for my blood pressure]
Are you usng a VPN ? I find with certain VPN settings I can’t post and I see posts only up to an hour previous.
Ah, the rare quadruple barrelled surname, a true classic. As I often comment though, I just love a many named person, like my favourite peer, Thomas Galloway Dunlop du Roy du Blicquy Galbraith.
I see wiki says a chap actually took the name Tarquin et al for a by-election. At the same one it links to a chap by the name of Bill Boaks, who it says has the record for the lowest number of votes in a by-election, at 5 votes.
...[Five-year plus lurker; arguing about politics bad for my blood pressure]
Yes, but where do you stand on pineapple on pizza?
How long do we reckon this joke is going to run for?
I was thinking of taking a sample of similar memes, noting the decay curve, and using the latter to predict the time to "pineapple-on-pizza" meme failure. Then I thought that might be overthinking it...
The implied threat to put the government’s survival in the balance has receded but the underlying tension isn’t going away. The parliamentary timetable resembles a densely embroiled chess game. It is one of those brain-aching situations where multiple pieces are all threatening and protecting each other – pawns on knights on bishops on more pawns on rooks. No one in Westminster can see enough moves ahead to know where the advantage will lie in the endgame, after the frenzy of capture and counter-capture has thinned out the board.
May is no grandmaster. The customs union trap was not hard to spot. To the EU she promised an invisible Irish border, and to Tory backbenchers she pledged freedom to diverge from European regulation. Those two things contradict one another.
Finland to end basic income trial after two years ... The Finnish finance minister, Petteri Orpo, told Hufvudstadsbladet he was looking into trialling alternative welfare schemes, including a universal credit system similar to that being introduced in the UK, when the basic income pilot ends.
Finland to end basic income trial after two years ... The Finnish finance minister, Petteri Orpo, told Hufvudstadsbladet he was looking into trialling alternative welfare schemes, including a universal credit system similar to that being introduced in the UK, when the basic income pilot ends.
Finland to end basic income trial after two years ... The Finnish finance minister, Petteri Orpo, told Hufvudstadsbladet he was looking into trialling alternative welfare schemes, including a universal credit system similar to that being introduced in the UK, when the basic income pilot ends.
It wouldn't surprise me. I'm convinced that Kate Middleton planned the death of Princess Diana.
The law which now prevents younger brothers from leap-frogging older sisters in order of succession to the throne: I want it to be applied retrospectively to all of the Queen's descendants. I want Princess Anne to go ahead of Andrew & Edward, so that Hunky Peter Phillips gets closer to being King than Beatrice & Eugenie would.
It wouldn't surprise me. I'm convinced that Kate Middleton planned the death of Princess Diana.
The law which now prevents younger brothers from leap-frogging older sisters in order of succession to the throne: I want it to be applied retrospectively to all of the Queen's descendants. I want Princess Anne to go ahead of Andrew & Edward, so that Hunky Peter Phillips gets closer to being King than Beatrice & Eugenie would.
Careful, if they make it too retroactive we could end up with a completely different royal family!
Finland to end basic income trial after two years ... The Finnish finance minister, Petteri Orpo, told Hufvudstadsbladet he was looking into trialling alternative welfare schemes, including a universal credit system similar to that being introduced in the UK, when the basic income pilot ends.
It just seems wrong to me to pay people to sit around all day doing nothing, which is undoubtedly what some people would choose to do.
The core economic idea: no benefits for any reason, everybody gets (say) $1,000/month, and all additional income is taxed at 30% is pretty sound - provided that people can't benefit shop, of course.
It makes surprisingly little difference to what you earn at each point on the curve, but has a completely consistent marginal tax rate, and very low collection costs.
The authorities will know of 10,000 people who are on the spectrum from "once posted in a Jihadi newsroom" to "went to study at a terrorist connected Madrassa in Pakistan". The problem is identifying which of the 10,000 is likely to go renting a van.
Comments
When it comes to welfare and education, we can learn a lot from Switzerland.
I would have thought Phillip or Edward or even Michael are more likely.
Such an option would have probably easily have won a referendum.
Pause.
I missed something here, didn't I... ?
I myself am advocating "Tarkin"...
He's 22.
With that, my coat. Good night.
(becomes unbearably smug)
Or Lee.
I would hard Brexit before I would hard Remain though.
Mu reading of EU elections was always that we were being offered more Europe (LD), the same amount of Europe (Lab), less Europe (Con) or no Europe at all (UKIP). LD and Lab always underperformed at European elections, because what they were offering wasn't popular. But I always thought as an electorate we would have compromised, bar the oitliers on either side, with less Europe. If only we had been offered a referendum on Lisbon, none of this need have happened. Or, if DC had actually come home with a decent renegotiation and then offered a three way choice of full integration, renegotiated halfway house, or leave, he would have won a plurailty, been able to present it as the sensible middle choice, and put the issue to bed for a generation. Still, we are where we are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvnYmWpD_T8
Philip would be nice, though.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Central_(London_Assembly_constituency)
http://www.sadiq.london/mandy_richards_west_central
I see wiki says a chap actually took the name Tarquin et al for a by-election. At the same one it links to a chap by the name of Bill Boaks, who it says has the record for the lowest number of votes in a by-election, at 5 votes.
[Five-year plus lurker; arguing about politics bad for my blood pressure]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Boaks
https://vimeo.com/47984626
(Think about it)
https://heavy.com/news/2018/04/alek-minassian-driver-van-hit-pedestrians-toronto-canada/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VNXCzlODSM
* to political punters
The implied threat to put the government’s survival in the balance has receded but the underlying tension isn’t going away. The parliamentary timetable resembles a densely embroiled chess game. It is one of those brain-aching situations where multiple pieces are all threatening and protecting each other – pawns on knights on bishops on more pawns on rooks. No one in Westminster can see enough moves ahead to know where the advantage will lie in the endgame, after the frenzy of capture and counter-capture has thinned out the board.
May is no grandmaster. The customs union trap was not hard to spot. To the EU she promised an invisible Irish border, and to Tory backbenchers she pledged freedom to diverge from European regulation. Those two things contradict one another.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/23/theresa-may-fantasists-brexit-compromise
Finland to end basic income trial after two years
...
The Finnish finance minister, Petteri Orpo, told Hufvudstadsbladet he was looking into trialling alternative welfare schemes, including a universal credit system similar to that being introduced in the UK, when the basic income pilot ends.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/23/finland-to-end-basic-income-trial-after-two-years
twitter.com/Mandy4Labour/status/851079439454752768
twitter.com/Mandy4Labour/status/867438384008097798
twitter.com/Mandy4Labour/status/868800197798834176
It makes surprisingly little difference to what you earn at each point on the curve, but has a completely consistent marginal tax rate, and very low collection costs.