Budget 2009

Really2

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

yes I know what Quasi Autonomus Non Governmental Organisation stands for. The other terms that can be used is a Next Steps agency - they are the next step after policy is set by government. All of these bodies are QUANGOs because they are executive agencies of government departments - owned by and responsible to departments but not directly managed by them. Thats the Quasi Autonomus bit btw.

As I said earlier, blanket statements like "lets get rid of Quangos" suggests that the speaker has no idea what one is.

I thought the quangos were things like ofcom, oftel, and other reulatory bodies.

These are a waste of money(IMHO) as the only thing there fines do is help them run. What is the actual benefit to the consumer? they never get anything back they just pay to set them up and help them run.

lostinrates

Really2 wrote: »

Depends on the trust I belive. I did feel my wifes maternity care and after care was very poor. Also in the last 10 years hospital infections have been higher than in the past.

The point is I was making do we actualy feel the services are better or are we just being told they are.

10 years ago hospitals did not have departments making the figures did they? Most state funded things now seem to have spin departments for stats

OK, I agree, my perception is they are worse. Even for increased budgets. Pretty much all of them. I don't know why that should be but it is.

Re maternity. My mother had a child in UK and a child elsewhere...I was here thirty years ago. She would say it couldn't be worse now:D. She was shocked at the UK treatment. I was at the birth of my neice and to be honest I thought it was pretty good for facilities etc.

I find, even now they are cleaner, hospitals just feel not clean compared to some other countries/..its not the tattiness, and infact some are very, very smart.

tomterm8

My opinion of the NHS comes from a pretty bad base, which is my mothers gallbladder operation ten years ago, where she was on a ward next door to a gangrene patient whose wounds and bedding weren't changed for 36 hours. The ward she was on latter turned up on a documentary, and a couple of years latter there was a massive outbreak of MRSA which killed dozens of people in the same hospital.

And it has improved since then... but it's not at the right standard, even so.

(As for the police, I have no faith in them, and never had any faith in them. I'm sorry, but they have never caught anyone involved in a crime I've reported. They seem useless)

Rochdale_Pioneers

Really2 wrote: »

Depends on the trust I belive. I did feel my wifes maternity care and after care was very poor. Also in the last 10 years hospital infections have been higher than in the past.

Maternity care seems to be a mixed bag. Our hospital's Labour ward was fantastic. The maternity ward for the two days afterwards was awful and one Paediatritian in particular was bawled out by a midwife as he was following outdated guidelines. Other friends had much better experiences at different hospitals - you can't use anecdotal stories as hard facts.

As for hospital infections how do we know that they were higher these last 10 years than the previous 10 years? One thing that came out when MRSA became a news story a few years ago was that hospitals hadn't bothered to record cases at all prior to the late 90s.

What we do know is that cleaning remains a problem. I have seen wards with a strict hygene regime, I've seen them really mucky. And it seems to have no relation to in house or contracted out cleaning - its all down to individual hospital management and how focused on it they are.

lostinrates

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

you can't use anecdotal stories as hard facts..

I disagree about the importance of anecdotal stories. I agree you can't make broad decisions on policy and economic planning based on what Sue's cousin Betty heard from her Mother's Careworker last thursday, but anecdotals are purely (elaborated or edited) our experiences. In the same way we are advised to seek personal recommendation for builders etc, anecdotals are just the evidence of our personl experience and perception. On a big scale bad, on a small scale, realting to us, very important.

BigBouncyBall

what on earth are you all twittering on about?

Sir_Humphrey

Rochdale_Pioneers wrote: »

yes I know what Quasi Autonomus Non Governmental Organisation stands for. The other terms that can be used is a Next Steps agency - they are the next step after policy is set by government. All of these bodies are QUANGOs because they are executive agencies of government departments - owned by and responsible to departments but not directly managed by them. Thats the Quasi Autonomus bit btw.

As I said earlier, blanket statements like "lets get rid of Quangos" suggests that the speaker has no idea what one is.

To be strict, QUANGOes are bodies such as the London Docklands Development Corporation (I think now defunct). The key thing is that they are not staffed by civil servants, and are answerable only to the Secretary of State. They were first created by the Thatcher government.

Govt agencies such as Ofsted, Jobcentre Plus or the Highways Agency are staffed by civil servants and are offshoots of certain ministerial Departments, (DCSF, DWP and DfT respectively). They are also answerable to Parliament. I think the term is NSIA or somesuch.

The two often get confused, and the difference is quite technical.

They are useful for politicians of any party as they are good "blame-mops". Both parties claim to like to cut them, then create more of them. For instance, the proposal from Cameron to create a Fiscal Authority sounds an awful lot like another QUANGO to me.

mewbie_2

I thought it was an excellent budget, full of inventive ideas to move the country forward while not sacrificing the principles behind good and prudent government. Most people will be directly better off, as will businesses, and the feel good factor introduced by the charismatic Mr. Darling certainly made me feel better about things.

To be able to tackle the debt mountain caused by the global problems started in America, maintain our high quality public services and make a real difference to hard pressed consumers and businesses alike was a masterful piece of work - and how lucky we are to have two chancellors working on it.

Hmmm? What? Oh well - it would have been nice wouldn't it? All I can say is that if the economy were powered on horse !!!!!! we'd be forging ahead.

baby_boomer

Very amusing, mewbie.

It's an election damage limitation budget, rather than one that reflects the reality of what we will have to pay back over the next decade(s).

They're hitting the rich not because New Labour has believed in it, but because they needed a fig-leaf to cover their embarrassment when they go back to face their party members after defeat in 2010.

Spark

I would like to know what's happening to the 10p tax rate. Is it abolished now? Will I pay more tax from now on?