Let's Get Political!

[Moss]

We currently spend £180bn per year on the Health Service. Is it underfunded?

Shit loads of it wasted - I work in the NHS and the waste and duplication is absolutely unbelievable. There are literally thousands of people on £50k plus salaries collecting data that nobody even looks at, or is totally inaccurate. It is a complete cluster fuck. The clinicians delivering patient care are mostly brilliant - but there also lots of Dr's being shit managers.

Drs also want to deliver the best care to their patients. Delivering a Rolls Royce service to the lucky person who gets it when we want a ford mondo for everyone that needs it.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Scotland and Wales get free prescriptions love to know how they make that work!

[Nemo]

Scotland and Wales get free prescriptions love to know how they make that work!

I pay a penny more on income tax in Scotland. Not the only reason but it certainly contributes.

[RobertT]

https://www.oecd.org/unitedkingdom/health-at-a-glance-UK-EN.pdf

Never under estimate the sheer brilliance of the NHS - despite the many opportunities that exist to run it more efficiently and effectively, and invest in the right places (the report attached shows two key areas of weakness - number of front line providers of care and beds).

The UK spends around the average on a per capita basis, which is around half of what the USA pay per capita, even including Private Healthcare add-ons in the UK.  Anyone wondering if Covid was "real" - it's pretty much the first time in generations that life expectancy fell.

Other than Bread and some people, the NHS is one of the main things I do miss - on a personal level, my current insurance is pretty damned good, but it's entirely linked to my employment and could all go sideways pretty quickly if I find myself out of a job and having to find my own Healthcare plan.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

I pay a penny more on income tax in Scotland. Not the only reason but it certainly contributes.

Cheers Nemo never seen it explained before how those two country's make it work.

[Qunk]

As I type, there’s a military coup happening in Russia. I win the Swindon internet

[dalumpimunki]

As I type, there’s a military coup happening in Russia. I win the Swindon internet

You can't win the internet unless you call someone a Nazi. Jesus do you people know nothing!

[Barry Scott]

The tories out cunting themselves again. They really are absolute scum.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66132158

[tans]

Another highlight was Boris Johnson ranting about ULEZ when it was his idea in the first place.

Fat thick cunt.

[Posh Red]

Another highlight was Boris Johnson ranting about ULEZ when it was his idea in the first place.

Fat thick cunt.

Yes, but it hasn’t been implemented properly.
All the money collected was supposed to go into his bank account

[Nemo]

So at the risk of trying to have an sensible conversation in the politics thread, I want to ask the hive mind about inheritance tax. It's in the news today as the Tories are talking about scrapping it (I'm sure they did this a few months ago already, but let's go with it).

It's one thing that I've never really understood, inheritance tax. It seems to be massively, massively unpopular - more so than say, income tax, despite the fact that most people will never pay it and - from my perspective at least - the absolutely ideal time to pay tax would be when I die and not before. It's a tax on the wealthiest, and generally those seem to be quite popular - until it's inheritance tax. It's particularly unpopular with those who will absolutely never pay it - the working classes - which is especially baffling. The threshold today is an estate of £325k - you pay inheritance tax at 40% on anything above that, unless you have a good accountant.

Is it just because people only encounter it at the very worst times in their lives, when someone close to them has passed that it's so hated? Would people feel the same way about a wealth tax on the living?

Relatively thoughtful answers that don't just lean on people being stupid/brainwashed by the media would be appreciated.

[Batch]

it's tax on already taxed stuff. £325k isn't that much when you take a house into account.

but yes, it will benefit the family of the rich most.

it at least has to be raised

[Nemo]

it's tax on already taxed stuff. £325k isn't that much when you take a house into account.

I get that, but so is like, any sales tax like VAT right? Anything post-income tax is already taxed.

Hard to get good numbers, but £325k seems to be roughly about the average estate size, so thumb in the air about 50% of people have to pay something (although that's assuming it's a median average not a mean one, which it might well not be) - but as it's on value over that if you have a £400k estate you're paying £30k/7.5%. I guess the issue is that getting 7.5% of a house (or 10 or 15 or whatever) involves re-mortgaging it or selling it, right?

[Batch]

but everyone wants to feel they are leaving somethig behind to better their family.

I guess it's as much as emotional feeling than one of financial fairness compared to other tax. it is for me.

I do feel a similar way about (e.g.) petrol!

in all honesty though, I don't know how much inheritance tax makes for the treasury. I'd be more inclined to accept it if it was running fenced for elderly social care.

to be honest I think that's where most of my cash will go before I die anyway- some home or other

[swindonmaniac]

it's tax on already taxed stuff. £325k isn't that much when you take a house into account.

but yes, it will benefit the family of the rich most.

it at least has to be raised

Think you’ll find that if you’re married and the deceased leaves everything to the other one then when the remaining spouse dies you receive double the inheritance tax free (ie around 650k) or at least that’s how a solicitor explained it to me