Silent Majority Speaks
|
Blair wants to leave his mark on
history - looks more like a stain to me.
Peter Thorndyke, Diss, Norfolk
- Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
I know I'm me - why do I need an
ID card?
"Sorry, officers, I don't have
an ID card. I never applied for one. It seemed a bit steep
at 300 quid. I do have my free passport, my driving licence
and my London freedom travel pass, each with my photograph.
I have my NHS medical card, with its lengthy number, given
me at birth, my RAF service book with my Armed Forces number,
and a chit authorising me to wear a few gongs -including
a General Service Medal with Malaya bar, for fighting communist
terrorists on behalf of my country, or so they told me.
"I've also got various credit cards and
store cards, all with my signature on the back, generally
good for buying the everyday requrements for life as well
as the odd luxury. If you decide to arrest me, I suppose
I'll have to be photographed and given another number, besides
my PINs.
"I'm afraid I haven't got a pension book;
it was taken away."
"By thieves, sir?"
"No ... well, not exactly. By the Government.
By the way, may I see your warrant cards please, gentlemen?"
Oh dear, they've disappeared. E. Harry Gumer,
Romford, ESSEX - Daily Mail, June 1, 2005
NO means NO
When does NO mean MAYBE?
When it's not the answer the EU wants. With the courageous French
NON resounding in their ears, shabby, undemocratic self-interested
leaders of Europe propose ignoring the part of their precious
constitution that requires ratification by all members and
continuing without one of the biggest founder members to
prevent derailing the gravy train.
As in Ireland, they refuse
to accept any NO votes, ignoring the will of the people,
and re-stage votes until they can engineer the 'correct'
answer. Sadly, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dances to their
tune like a puppet on a string. With tactics such as these,
how can anyone really believe the EU has our interests at
heart. Letter from Steve Penny, Kingsnorth, Kent - Daily Mail, June1,
2005
Surely the French
result makes the £1million the EU recently spent on
a treaty signing ceremony seem a trifle premature and extravagant.
Letter from Keith Wiseman, Bury, Lancs. - Daily Mail, June1,
2005
|
Britain has traditionally
been one of the biggest net contributors to the EU because
we do not get as much money back from Brussels in farm
and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According to Treasury
figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average contribution
taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The French - the biggest
recipient of farm subsidies - contributed £1billion
a year or £16.08 per head of their population.
|
|
Tony
Blair should know that respect comes by example - from the
top. If a country's leader has no respect for the rule of
international law and no respect for the truth, how can
he expect anyone to have respect. Letter
from P.J.Atkinson, Ashford, Kent - Daily Mail, January 12,
2006
The
Chancellor's single greatest act of vandalism in almost
nine years in office has been his wanton destruction of
Britain's private retirement industry. By slapping a massive
tax on pension funds, now worth
£7.3billion a year, he has helped to turn
the best private retirement industry in Europe into a basket-case
in perpetual crisis. Together with the adoption of European
accounting rules - which make it much riskier to operate
a company pension scheme - hundreds of firms have shut their
final salary plans to new employees and slashed benefits
to existing staff. From
Allister Heath: "I've seen the future and its grey"
in THE SPECTATOR - April 15, 2006
Nine
years ago the British people were sold a fantasy of clean
and competent government of principle and honesty. Its shiny
wrappings stripped away, the product now reveals its true
nature: Personal greed, arrogance, incompetence, shamelessness,
rash warmongering and an inability to accept - as is clear
to almost everyone else - that it is time to go. Editorial
- The Mail on Sunday, May 28, 2006
|
This
site has had 
visitors
1
in 3 children are not seeing an NHS dentist
By
Daniel Martin - Political reporter - Daily Mail, Thursday, November
29, 2007
Almost
one in three children are not seeing an NHS dentist, it was revealed
yesterday. In all, a quarter of a million fewer patients were
seen in the year following the botched introduction of a controversial
new health service contract.
The
number of children - those under 18 - seeing an NHS dentist within
the past two years fell by 19,000 on the 2006 figure, even though
guidelines say youngsters should be seen once a year.
And
only half of all adults have seen a dentist in the last two years.
The new contract, which came into force in April last year, was
designed to increase the number of dentists seeing NHS patients.
In fact, it led to 500 dentists leaving the health service and
hundreds more closing their doors to new NHS patients.
The
shortage has had a huge effect on patients, with a nationwide
survey last month finding that some were even being forced to
pull out their own teeth.
Liberal
Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "The reform of
the dental contract has been a remarkable failure for this Government.
It has achieved precisely the opposite of what they intended -
and what patients need. People still cannot find an NHS dentist
in many parts of the country and in many cases the new system
doesn't provide enough money for dentists to treat NHS patients
towards the end of the financial year. When will the Government
accept the reform isn't working and act to reverse the decline
of access to NHS dentistry?"
Tory
Health spokesman Mike Penning said: "Labour have shamefully
mismanaged NHS dentistry. When they came to power, they promised
everyone would have access to an NHS dentist, but the situation
has only got worse. We warned the Government of the consequences
of their poorly-costed and poorly-planned new contract, but they
ploughed on regardless."
Yesterday's
figures were from the Information Centre for Health and Social
Care. It said that in June 2007, 27.9million people had seen a
dentist within the past two years, down from 28.1million in the
two years to March 2006 - a reduction of 266,000.
Now
only 54.9% of people have seen a dentist in the past two years.
Among adults, the number fell by 247,000 to just 50.5%.
Peter
Ward, chief executive of the British Dental Association, said:
"This contract has failed to improve access for patients
and failed to allow dentists to deliver the kind of modern, preventive
care they believe their patients deserve. It's time that the Government
started listening to what dentists and patients are telling them
and recognise that urgent action is required to address these
problems."
The
Government's chef dental officer, Dr Barry Cockcroft, said: "Changes
on this scale were always going to be challenging for the NHS
and for dentists and will inevitably take time to bed down. Given
that some 4% of previous services had to be replaced during the
year, it is to the credit of the NHS and dentists that access
has remained broadly stable during this transitional period. As
more and more new services get up and running, we expect to see
increasing numbers of patients accessing services."
If you have suggestions
for additional subjects, or material to include in the pages linked
to the subjects listed, please contact the webmaster.
|
