It's the Tory party conference in Manchester at the moment so we are getting "news" articles in most news bulletins. In the past two days we have learnt that the Tories wish to make long term unemployed work for their benefits. Which might seem fair on the surface, but IF there are jobs for them to do, why aren't there paid jobs for them to apply for?
And today's little gem. They propose that doctors, your town/village GP work a 12 hour day for 7 days a week. This in itself again sounds fair, but...hold on! Why should doctors have to do this, I know we do not have enough GPS and that in most areas they have far more patients than they can cope with, but surely the answer to this is not make the doctors work longer hours, but make sure we have more doctors wishing to be GPs. They are under a lot of pressure as it is without piling on the pressure by asking them to work longer hours.
The GP surgery where I go already offers appointments most days between 7.30 in the morning and 7.30 at night Monday to Friday. But so many of these appointments are wasted. You sit in the waiting room, and there is usually a notice saying how many appointments were broken in a previous week. It is usually around the 200 mark, at 10 minutes approximately for each appointment that adds up to a lot of time. (Around 33 and half hours.) If this figure is standard for most GP surgeries, that is a lot of lost time, that other patients could have used. And I don't know if this is widespread, but I had an appointment one day, and it was dreadful weather, raining hard, strong wind and the waiting room was empty. I commented on this to the receptionist, and she said that people don't turn up in bad weather. Surely if they are ill and need to see a doctor, they should either turn up, or cancel, not just not bother?
Anyway, I worry about what the majority part of our government is hoping to achieve. Will they stop when we are back to a social system like there was in Victorian times? As the gaps between the higher and lower paid are widening quite alarmingly.
If you are on a high wage a wage freeze might mean holidaying somewhere a little cheaper, but at the lower end of the scale a wage freeze can mean skimping on things that are essential.
As usual when I have a moan about this "wonderful" government of ours, I have gone off at tangents. I don't have the answers, except that I think anyone who can vote, should vote in the next General Election. The current government was elected by default as many voters stayed at home on election day, and I don't think it should happen again
Showing posts with label vote. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vote. Show all posts
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Sunday, 2 May 2010
Election Day
It can't have escaped many people's notice that on Thursday of this week there is going to be a general election in the UK.
I know there are many people who choose not to vote for one reason or another. But...people should remember this....It took a long hard fight from some very gutsy people to obtain the vote for every man, it took the Suffragettes to extremes in the early 20th Century, and as late as some point in the late 1950s, early1960s, for people between 18 and 21 to have the vote.
Figures suggest that sometimes as little of 35% vote during elections. This means 65% abstain from voting.
My point is..if everyone registered to vote did go to the polling station this Thursday, the result could be very different than the usual 2 horse race between Labour and the Conservatives. We owe it to ourselves and the people who campaigned for the vote to use our votes.
After all, if you don't cast your vote, you really have no grounds for complaining when the elected government does things you don't agree with.
Sorry to ramble on, but it is something I feel quite strongly about, even though I would say that I am not over concerned with politics.
A couple of centuries back the government was elected by a select few people who were on the whole landowners, the ordinary citizen did not have a say. We were judged not to be capable of deciding our own destinies, if we don't vote we are equating ourselves with the ordinary people of the past.
I know there are many people who choose not to vote for one reason or another. But...people should remember this....It took a long hard fight from some very gutsy people to obtain the vote for every man, it took the Suffragettes to extremes in the early 20th Century, and as late as some point in the late 1950s, early1960s, for people between 18 and 21 to have the vote.
Figures suggest that sometimes as little of 35% vote during elections. This means 65% abstain from voting.
My point is..if everyone registered to vote did go to the polling station this Thursday, the result could be very different than the usual 2 horse race between Labour and the Conservatives. We owe it to ourselves and the people who campaigned for the vote to use our votes.
After all, if you don't cast your vote, you really have no grounds for complaining when the elected government does things you don't agree with.
Sorry to ramble on, but it is something I feel quite strongly about, even though I would say that I am not over concerned with politics.
A couple of centuries back the government was elected by a select few people who were on the whole landowners, the ordinary citizen did not have a say. We were judged not to be capable of deciding our own destinies, if we don't vote we are equating ourselves with the ordinary people of the past.
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