It's interesting to read your perspectives on the NHS in the UK.
While there may be some issues, it seems to be so much better than what we have in the US. I'm lucky as we get good insurance with my work and we can afford to pay for it, but there are many people in the US who don't have this option.

If you don't have insurance you don't get regular preventative care. When you do end up sick you are worse because no preventative care. People then end up going to the hospital emergency room where thety can't throw you out anymore and get shit, short term care for accute problems but nothing for chronic issues. Then huge bills.

Private insurance companies are generally slime too. My wife has a family member with serious intestinal issues. Even though she has been with one insurance company for over ten years and always paid her premiums on time, they are tryinh to throw her off of the insurance. Great, you pay them hoping they will pay when you get sick and then when you need them,l they try to throw you out. You calso can't just change insurance companies because they cover any "pre-existing" conditions.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:25, 53 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

Yep, your system is utterly shit
with no redeeming features.

You do have good dentists, but I assume they cost a lot too.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:27, Reply)

blah blah
blah blah blah

BLAH BLAH BLAH blahblah blah
( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:29, Reply)

I'm sorry, I read that as
My vagina is huge, gigantic even, small parties of hikers have been known to get lost in here for days, months in one particularly bad case, they survived by scraping moss off the walls and steaming it over one of the hot vents.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:32, Reply)

I'm afraid that the grammar in your post needs a bit of work.

(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:55, Reply)

The NHS has its faults, yes.
But its greatest asset is its existence.

Obama's detractors would do well to try being unemployed and without healthcare insurance for a while.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:40, Reply)

My father and his wife
pay something like $20,000 a year between them for medical insurance because she's had serious problems in the past and he is, quite frankly, rather old.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:43, Reply)

He should just be taken out the back with a baseball bat
given a nice bone, and then put out of his misery.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:48, Reply)

bone blowjob
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:51, Reply)

Last time I gave him 'a nice bone', as you put it,
I ended up inside for three years. Never again.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:03, Reply)

The NHS is great.
It doesn't always provide the best possible treatment, but it does provide good enough treatment the vast majority of the time; and it frequently provides treatment that's far more than simply good enough. And it's free. Fucking FREE. To EVERYONE, irrespective of how much they pay in tax or NI. If that's not something to which any minimally decent society ought to aspire, I don't know what is.

A nice point was made on the radio this weekend: in the US, David Cameron, whom we all thing right-wing, would be seen as a socialist becasue even he supports the principle of a publicly-funded health service*; in the UK - and in Europe - socialised medicine is something supported by just about everyone on all points of the political spectrum. Those who don't support it are fringe characters.

You're right. The NHS isn't perfect - but to expect perfection is unreasonable. And a system with the odd fault is much better than no system at all. It's the one thing about which the Brits can be genuinely smug.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:50, Reply)

That ^
and the BBC.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:51, Reply)

Aw man! I totally love the BBC.

( girlinthehole, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:52, Reply)

I just saw some DVD's of the UK original version of the tv show "The Office".
It's great!
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:56, Reply)

Yes. Yes it is.
You should also get some CDs of BBC radio comedy. For starters, I recommend The Cowards, Bleak Expectations, I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, Just a Minute, Vent, That Mitchell and Webb Sound, Goodness Gracious Me, The Mary Whitehouse Experience...

Anyone got any other suggestions?

EDIT: Hell, even Little Britain was funny when it was on the radio.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:59, Reply)

They play a number of the old BBC radio shows on the VT public radio station on the seekend.
A friend has been trying to get me to listen to them. I should give it a try.
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:06, Reply)

Jam
The Goon Show
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:09, Reply)

Oooh - yeah. Jam was ace.
One of those rare instances in which the transfer to TV didn't mean a diminution of quality.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:14, Reply)

It was Blue Jam on the radio wasn't it?
Also, Lee and Herrings Fist of Fun, if you can get it.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:17, Reply)

You can download everything Lee and Herring did on the radio here
www.fistoffun.net/downloads.htm
(Bazongaloid, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:21, Reply)

Fist of fun
was the first time I heard the word Twat broadcast. I was happy.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:22, Reply)

It becomes less great when you realise that Ricky Gervais is actually that much of an annoying useless cunt
and it's not just a character
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:02, Reply)

Oh, yes.
The BBC, obviously. Another great institution.

Here's a question, though: given that I don't own a TV, I don't currently pay for a TV licence. However, I do listen to a lot of BBC radio, and I think that the TV licence is a very good thing - much better than commercial funding. So, even though BBC radio is much cheaper than TV, should I buy a TV licence?
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 12:57, Reply)

You and your damned morals.

( girlinthehole, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:02, Reply)

It's an odd one
I suppose the thinking is that virtually everyone has a television so they don't bother with a radio licence any more. So legally you don't require a licence to use the BBC's non-televisual services. However, morally, I suppose you do.

I'll let you ponder that one though, as your philosophical reasoning is more advanced than mine!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:03, Reply)

I didn't know this piece of info from the olden days
www.radiolicence.org.uk/resources/Car+Licence+poster.jpg
( Peej, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:08, Reply)

The clue is in the name "TV Licence".
Don't be so flippin' stupid.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:08, Reply)

But the TV licence also pays for the radio.
That seems more important than what it's called.

EDIT: Moreover, the TV licence pays not just for the programmes but for the opportunity to watch the programmes, and that's what I have. Actually seeing them is a mere detail (which is why I don't think that "But I only watch ITV" is a good reason not to pay the licence).
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:09, Reply)

Aye but if they wanted your money for that reason
they'd call it "BBC licence" or the suchlike.
I worry how you'd cope if you ever faced an actual, valid and large moral decision in your life.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:13, Reply)

Eh?

( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:15, Reply)

You faff so much about the utterly trivial.

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:18, Reply)

I think it's one of his most charming qualities.
But then again I rarely have to experience it.
( girlinthehole, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:21, Reply)

I'm not wholly sold on the idea that it's trivial.
But I'm much more confident on where I stand on the life-and-death stuff, just because I've spent so much time on it in abstracto.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:22, Reply)

Without all those pesky human emotions getting in the way?
Christ, I wish there was an "unlike" button - I've managed to hit "I like this" twice when trying to reply as the buttons are too near each other on my phone.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:34, Reply)

You need a bigger phone
Then your clumsy fingers won't just mash the first button they come to!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:36, Reply)

Damn capacative touch screens and their amazingly good responsiveness.

( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:42, Reply)

Pretty much, yep...
:)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:55, Reply)

It used to be called a broadcast receiving licence
and you could get one that excluded TV but they stopped the radio only ones in 1971
( Peej, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:19, Reply)

"But I only watch ITV"
Do these people really exist? I fear for society if they do!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:29, Reply)

So what happens if you have a TV and don't get a license?
Also, if you have an internal "Rabbit Ear" antenna, how does anyone know you don't have a license?
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:09, Reply)

You get fined.
Someone more knowledgable than me will tell you how their tracking system works.
( girlinthehole, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:12, Reply)

Technically, you're liable to a fine.
Quite a hefty one, too, IIRC.

Enforceability is a different matter entirely; I'm not sure how many people actually are prosecuted.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:13, Reply)

These days you have to fill in a form when you by TV receiving equipment
as they turned off the Analogue signal in most places already they know who has TV sets and send you a warning letter, if you ignore it like I did because I was living with my aunt and she had a licence they send another letter. If you ignore that they send someone round, you then tell them to fuck off and wave a licence in their face.
( Peej, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:16, Reply)

TV detector vans
Can pick up the signal from the IF oscillator in a television receiver, and (in the case of analogue broadcasting) can even tell which channel you're tuned to. Digital television makes this a bit harder, but it's still possible if you're watching via Freeview (through the same aerial that is used for analogue) and the big satellite dish on the side of the building makes it pretty obvious if you've only got a Sky subscription.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:32, Reply)

If you really felt that badly
You could buy a black and white TV licence.
(Concrete Cow, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 15:12, Reply)

In the last 6 years I have had
2 ops on right knee including major reconstruction
2 ops on left knee
Tonsils taken out
and a pilodianal sinus cut out

All under general and all 100% free. Two of them I even got bumped up to private to shorten the waiting list. I love the NHS. Oh and I only let my Daughter watch BBC channels because commercials make me physically sick. My niece already wants fucking everything she sees on TV.
( Peej, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:05, Reply)

pilodi HAHA you've have bottom surgery, you massive shirter.
(Bazongaloid, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:06, Reply)

Yes
and believe me they are so painful that being anally violated by a surgeons laser scalpel was preferable to leaving it there. I presume that you were joking due to my misspelling of Pilonidal but it actually was bottom surgery so the jokes on us both.
( Peej, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:12, Reply)

I do hope
that a laser scalpel is something like a lightsabre.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:28, Reply)

No, they just burn it out
and then leave it open to heal from the bottom up
( Peej, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:30, Reply)

Fnar Fnar
"Bottom Up" Pfft.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:37, Reply)

It's just a powerful laser,
the light from which is passed down a suitable conduit (fibre optics, presumably) to the business end of the device.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:33, Reply)

Unf Guffaw
"Business End". Hur Hur.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:37, Reply)

I'm disappointed by that.

( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Mon 15 Mar 2010, 13:56, Reply)