We've known for years why the NHS has no money and it's nowt to do with this government.

Criminal waste and incompetence on the NHS part.

Each trust buying medical equipment separately with huge differences between prices paid rather than buying stuff in bulk collectively to drive down cost.

Some Trusts not bothering to collect what they are owed by treating overseas patients and billing the countries responsible, others not chasing up outstanding demands for payment. Very few are any good at this... because it is not their money - you wouldn't run a commercial organisation this way, giving away freebies!

Drunken oafs turning up to A&E at the weekend with alcohol related injuries expecting to be treated for nothing when they have brought injuries upon themselves. People not turning up for appointments or not bothering to do physio to aid recovery.

The elderly blocking beds when they could go home, but no one is there to care for them.

Allowing young kids to get obese and them getting type 2 Diabetes and needing Insulin/Metformin for the rest of their lives.

Allowing Scotland and Wales to have free prescriptions.

Not training up enough nurses to cover shifts and then paying more than twice the normal going rate for agency staff to cover.

Paying CEO's and senior staff ridiculous salaries and benefits packages and then compound this with even more generous redundancy packages when they try to get rid of them for incompetence.

This list could go on.........

What has this got to do with the fact that Governments are now making deals with Ford and Nissan to bribe them to produce in the UK when before June they wee happy to do so without such bribes.

Most of things you describe are undoubtedly true to some extent but are at the margins of what it takes to fund the NHS. In terms of waste and incompetence it would be foolish to argue that no such waste exists but it is over decades governments of both hues have talked about savings in back office functions and at some point you exhaust most of the ways that they can be achieved.

Regarding Scotland and Wales I think you will find they are paying for free prescriptions out of the grant they get for services devolved to them. If you believe in devolving services then you also need to devolve the funds to carry out these services and that involves differing choices. Free prescriptions is one such choice. The alternative is abolishing the separate parliaments.

Govt can't trigger Article 50 without majority vote in favour in parliament.

[Link]

Very interesting development indeed considering something like 75% of MPs were in favour of Remain.

Edited by Kermit8 (03 Nov 2016 10.37am)