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Norwich and WBA are the danger teams for me. So Norwich drawing was good for us and we’ve got a nice buffer now and really should finish above them. You can’t rest on your laurels, but we really should be looking at catching up to 4th place. A win v Derby and Sunderland could close the gap to...

It’s probably closer to £100 and the cost to me is the income tax in that value. In reality, it’s probably £20 a month, if that when I account for pre-tax deductions. Now, is that a good trade? Absolutely. On my last NHS appointment, the doctor apologised because I was lost in the system...

GB Energy was always a bad idea and it took less than a year for the Government to cotton on.

It’s not the same thing, but Germany’s mixed system does collect 7% of employee’s pre-tax salary and that’s matched by employers. One of Germany’s systems issue is ironically an oversupply of staff, equipment and so on. Particularly in Europe, there’s a mix of public, non-profit and private...

Our taxes aren’t low, the tax burden is growing and is near war-time levels despite us being in peace-time. Onto the NHS, the health outcomes are objectively worse, the pay and working conditions is poor. Even so, if what you say is true, the logical conclusion is to expand the private sector...

You’re quite right on that point, hence I suggested tax breaks for providing it. The government has got to think creatively on how to make meaningful supply-side reforms to get as many people off NHS backlogs as possible. The natural monopolies point I don’t particularly disagree on, I don’t...

In fairness, I had their time at Coventry specifically on my mind rather than what they’ve gone on to do. Even so, Maatsen started more often than Bidwell when he was on loan with us.

You know how markets work, generally, the best providers and/or products win in an open market. If you can only compete for a contract every ‘x’ years, it’s not a free market and it’s the worst of both worlds, an expensive and poor service. This probably applies to the NHS as well as the...

You keep fixating on this point. I’m not advocating the NHS franchising its services to private providers. To make a clear delineation, I’m supportive of incentivising people/businesses to get PHI and they go to private hospitals/healthcare providers that is completely independent and outside...

Ostigard wasn’t great at passing for us. He could’ve developed that facet of the game for us but we’ve got to remember our defence that season wasn’t great.

Out of curiosity have you ever experienced private healthcare? Most large companies do offer PHI has a benefit in kind precisely because it reduces absenteeism. The PHI only covers ‘new illness/diseases’ so doesn’t include pre-existing health conditions. The most successful healthcare systems...

First and foremost, really happy that yours and Mrs BSB’s experience with the NHS during the pregnancy has been excellent. Hoping it all goes well for the remaining journey! At least how my PHI works is that it’s paid upfront by my employer and the value of it is a benefit in kind for the...

No it’s not, because the money spent by insurers on treatments/medication isn’t offset by tax breaks, only the costs of the policies. We are giving more and the service isn’t getting better. That’s only politically viable for so long before the public’s trust in the NHS is eroded and people...

Selfishly, I’m hoping for a Friday nighttime KO because I have a flight to catch on Saturday so I’ll be missing that game.

It’s not introducing the private sector into the NHS, let’s be clear on what I’m arguing for here. My argument is that it’s desirable to have a buoyant private sector to support the NHS indirectly. The vehicles for this is abolishing VAT on private healthcare and giving employers generous tax...

Well, that’s a naive notion. Profit motives drive innovation and leads to advancements in medicines, equipment, technologies that support healthcare systems. Applying the logic to hospitals, they will tend to have the best; ‘customer service’, equipment and staff. The lack of choice we have in...

Which, by the way, is more or less the norm in Europe and Australia. They also have a significantly larger private sector. You reference 2010, the reason for New Labour NHS reforms were basically down to sustainability. For example, PFI is overall a failure, but was down to offset the larger...

I never said anything about being cheaper. My argument was simply that the government should make private healthcare more accessible by introducing tax breaks. My employer pays for private healthcare insurance, it is a sound idea if we encourage businesses to offer this to their workers. The...

Resorting to the US system as the example is why the country cannot have a sensible topic on the NHS. The US system is the polar opposite and has equally bad health outcomes. Hypothetically, if a universal insurance-based system lead to better health outcomes, higher pay and better working...

These NHS has pretty much always underperformed in health outcomes compared to similar countries. The UK is not the only universal healthcare system and many others use universal insurance based systems which produce better health outcomes. A sensible approach for the government would be to...