Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
#1
With the failure of Southern Cross and them walking away from their responsibilties provides evidence that Privatisation in the care of our vulnerable and sick population is unacceptable and must not be permitted.
Government,local or national,control of these services may not be perfect but they never walk away from their responsibilities and are constantly there to take care of us.
Perhaps consideration should soon be given to our other basic needs Water Energy,Transport,Food supplies etc.
Big business can hold us to ransom on prices eg. Recent Gas price hike.What percentage of hike is profit which never seems to suffer.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#2
This Southern Cross situation shoots a hole in the Cameron 'privatisation of everything' policy. Just what happens when privatisation goes titzup!? What happens then? Who picks up the pieces! All the people in these homes are now left high and dry. The only solution will have to be found somewhere in state intervention.
The role of the state is still vital in all core areas and the day we privatised all the utilies has been a negative case in point. Huge profits for the companies concerned and rapid rising prices for the customer. As Reg suggests there...the profit margins never seem to go down.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#3
Care homes should in my opinion neither be run by big business nor by government. They belong logically in the not-for-profit sector and I bet that the profits distributed to shareholders and management in dividends and bonuses by Southern Cross over the years would be enough to extract the company from its difficulties.
Another opportunity for a Big Society approach perhaps.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#4
the frail and elderly ones must be terrified at what is happening, the last thing they need is uncertainty about the future.
#5
In principle I agree with the thought that some items in society are beyond price , BUT in reality it is local government ie KCC who set the rate that care homes receive for residents , and this rate for care is incorporated into the council tax paid by each household .
I used to have the figures but I believe that to care for a person in a nursing home for a week wich includeds 24 hour nursing input ,all meals , heating, lighting, hot water ,activities, and care from care assistants for £3.74 p an hour . ( I think this is based on 2009 figures )
It is the people we elect and the ammount we as individuals are prepared to pay into the sysytem that need to be reasessed .
Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
#6
I was expecting a thread about prams, Silver Cross?
Audere est facere.
#7
#3 hits the nail on the head just about exactly.
#8
Absolutley Bern
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#9
PaulB you need to be cajoled out of your binary mindset which makes you think that if big business has buggered something up, only the state can make it better.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
#10
I like post 3 myself as it has the whiff of socialism about it.. has it not. Not for profit organisations running the vital organs in society is good. How about applying that principle to say British Gas. Would work better for all of us. No need for huge director salaries, no need for £500,000,00 million profit margins per quarter, all shuffling into the pockets of shareholders..make profits but not for shareholders, plough them back in so that people who use the system benefit most. This would keep prices razor sharp at the cutting edge and most of all... low.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#11
It's working well with Welsh Water which is one of the models we looked at when we put together the Peoples Port structure.
I think the Big Society penny might have dropped......
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
#12
The Big Society relies on Volunteers.
Anybody involved with Community work will tell you that when the call goes out for volunteers for a paticular cause the same people turn up time after time.
The people that turn up are mostly elderly,retired,free of work committments people and they are generally physically and emotionally fatigued.
Town and Parish councils are full of volunteers.
National and local governments, which consist of paid employees,are divesting themselves of their responibilities to volunteers.
The Big Society relies on unpaid general public to carry out the work of Professional teams.
If you invest £100 with these groups you will receive £500 value in return.
The Volunteers will always be there but not on the scale being expected for the Big Society.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#13
Reg that is absolutely not true. That is the main lie which opponents of the Big Society are peddling.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#14
i think that reg summed up the situation perfectly.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,948
#15
I to have to go along with REG just look at british gas, 18%rise in prices, a continued upward trend in prices, privatisation gone mad.
water companies being much the same
Running a club myself as a volunteer and being involved in other clubs, i'm aware voluntereers are already overstretched, and whilst the big society is a good idea, in reality we need to look at how best it could work.
At the moment its just replace everything with volunteers, expecting them to take up the shortfall, when they are already overstretched..
I have quoted on other threads where instead of being an obstacle they could do more to help.
but reg is correct on this one, whilst a few posters will support the private sector, reg quotes many reasons why privatisation is not the answer, and at the end of the day, becomes costly to you and me
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
#16
The Big Society idea is nothing to do with privatisation and does not rely on volunteers to do the work.
Unfortunately neither those wedded to big business nor those in the nanny state camp seem able to get their heads round it. Why?
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#17
Possibly because they do not like change of any kind.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#18
more like they want things to be made clear, "big society" is still seen as an empty slogan.
#19
Clarity would be good, people like to be able to repeat some kind of monosyllabic summary of whatever they are tagging on to.
Big Society is a new name for an old and very valuable concept that has been over-ridden and buried by recent televisual and soundbite governments of all shades. Let's welcome it back with a Hurrah!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#20
peddlers of the idea keep claiming that others are not "getting it", i prefer to think they are not falling for it.