Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected Dictatorship
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You will
notice that, since New Labour came to power, not a single
leading Cabinet member or party 'heavy hitter' has appeared
on the programme (BBC's Question Time). Spin, not face-to-face
confrontations with the voters, is the Government's chosen
method of communication. Ordinary
people are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question
which throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member
might reveal himself or herself to be a human being like
us, and not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she
might tell the truth.
Ann Leslie - Daily Mail, September
16, 2004
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The
following letter to the Editor of the Daily Mail from Dr Donald
F. MacKenzie, of Solent House Dental Centre, Lymington, Hants,
was published on May 27, 2004.
Sir,
Having
been a dentist for 30 years, I've watched, with mixed emotions,
the slide of NHS dentistry into its current parlous state.
Most
dentists hate the current NHS system, not because they're greedy
but because the fees have been an insult for 20 years. Nothing
short of private practice being made illegal will ever get them
back on to the treadmill of 40 to 50 NHS patients a day for a
pittance.
But
none of us wants the current situation where millions of people
can't get any treatment. The proposals from NICE and the new Primary
Care Trust-based systems are not the way forward. They are a crude
attempt at rationing with a view to kicking dentistry into the
long grass of 'local' responsibility.
If
the Government presses on with its hare-brained scheme to force
each of the the almost 400 PCT's to invent its own dental system,
the current drift of dentists from the NHS will turn into a flood.
Dr
Donald F. MacKenzie, Solent House Dental Centre, Lymington, Hants
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