Park Life

Our lot are living in fear of the IMF and the ratings agencies. What we really needed was massive Govt intervention (policy and financial) to kickstart the economy. Austerity measures have never ever worked anywhere ever and I challenge anybody on here to give me an example of it working. This is purely ideological rightwingery. UK bonds have always been one of the safest on the planet and we should have taken advantage of that to borrow and invest in the UK. Fuck me even Obama is talking about saving the middle class and has given 97 different pieces of legislation to create employment.

Taxi driver stylee.

Vorm.

The shamen is always someone kicked out from his village to join another village.

Good stuff Brockstien.

There's no will to do anything meaningful.

It's got ridiculous over the last decade.

Just in time for the return of Blair.

Finland looks cushty: "I moved here last year from Finland and am originally from the Netherlands. In finland, health insurance is really simple: you pay what amounted to 60 euros per month for me and you get a so-called kela card that you use to identify yourself with in hospitals and health care centers. That's it. 60 euro. Full coverage against the basics. The annual cost for health insurance in the Netherlands is around 1200 euro for the so called base insurance, which as the name suggests covers the essentials. When I joined here in Germany I was in for a shock. First I had to choose between private and public, a system that was abandoned a few years ago in the Netherlands. Secondly, my health insurance bills are about 9 times as high, with no obvious advantages in terms of coverage. I suspect a mix of inefficiency and the pharmaceutical industry milking the government through price fixing and other practices. 9 times as high: somebody is getting rich here without working for it." Yes Chez I'm gonna cut and paste you to death.

A recent article in Stern magazine exposed the massive temptations doctors come under to over-treat private patients. Mike, a 33-year-old privately insured Berliner hurt his knee while playing squash. “I said ‘privat versichert’ and it was of course no problem getting an appointment with a ‘booked out’ orthopedic specialist pretty much right away. The problem was escaping his over-zealous care. First he prescribed me expensive knee braces, custom shoe inserts, then physiotherapy. Soon, it was surgery – which he would be performing himself at a private clinic…” A second doctor said the operation was unnecessary. Mike resumed his weekly squash game. His knee got better, “by itself.”

"Chronically expensive... Inefficiency is as big a problem as injustice. Keeping Germany healthy is chronically expensive: this country has the fourth highest health expenses in the world and the compulsory individual fees, be they state or private, carry on rising faster than inflation. The average state health insurance contribution is €500 a month, which is split between employee and employer – while the self-employed pay everything themselves, unless they’re lucky enough to be in the Künstlersozialkasse for freelancers in creative professions But both state and private health insurance companies have increased their premiums in recent months as rising unemployment has put more pressure on the welfare state." Yet however much the contributions grow, they never seem to be enough for Germany’s ravenous healthcare system. It demands vast sacrifices, and in the past few years, the government has been forced to inject more and more tax money into the system: from 2008 to 2009, its contribution to the newly devised Gesundheitsfond (“health fund”) – a centralized pot into which everyone’s healthcare contributions are paid – doubled from €1.5 billion a year to €3 billion. The idea that healthcare should be at least partially funded by tax money is a central plank of more left-minded policy – the notion that everyone contributes and everyone gets basic healthcare, and that competitive capitalist model isn’t necessarily the most effective way to keep people alive. In Europe, Britain’s National Health Service, for all its flaws, is still the model example of an entirely tax-financed system. The last round of German reforms, brought about during the SPD-CDU coalition government in 2007, was a gesture in this direction. Even Rösler’s new plan requires a significant tax contribution, as low earners would receive an extra health allowance which would have to be financed by tax money. But Bormann is not convinced such a system would work in Germany.

Your self-employed high risk group you'd be paying about 400e a month here. Would that be alright?

Yes we passed on the details and were reimbursed. I was trying to show what happens if you're not covered in Germany ie You get a massive bill (this was just a couple of grazed knees ffs!) I'm not an expert on the topic and am well aware you have in-depth knowledge, but my gut instinct (and incidentally talking to Germans) they'd rather not stump up the 250e a month (employer part payment) or self-empolyed/own business 400-500euro a month. I won't accept that the 4th and 5th richest countries in the world can't have free healthcare at source. And like the debacle of water and rail privatisation I'd rather not see another area which we have prided ourselves on with regard to fair play handed over to the for profit vultures. Mrs P loves the NHS even though care here is faster and probably better quality wise.

Liepzig are doing it and it is mooted going to happen on the Ubahn in Berlin. As you say we're rarely checked anyway. Not only is it a weapon against congestion, it would fall in line with all the green bugbears.

At policy level there is very little difference to these two imposters as you well know. Both are lickspitles of big business and corporate interests (thank Tony Blair for that). We need more local Govt. which is historically more immune to national policy ravages and has the interests of the community at heart....

They're best mates now. Anyway I'm the wrong person to get into this as I think all public transport should be free as well. ALL OF IT.

Totally agree. It's the holy grail for the insurance companies who are queing up to make a killing like here in Germany. The moment you enter the system here they hit you with a battery of wildly expensive tests and any add ons they can bill...Most of it completely unnecessary. ParkyJnr had an accident in the park when out with other children and with thier guardians so didn't have her card with her as me and mum weren't there. She was taken to hospital in an ambulance and taken care of. We thought nothing of it. Two weeks later they sent us a bill for 380 euros! it's a joke here. Compare that to the care parkyjnr and Mrs P received in the past when we were in England...All free no questions asked just a little red sticker on the forms we signed. End of.

One of the best things about the UK. Germans are gobsmakced when I tell them how it works (most paying 300-400 month for healthcare).

I said in another thread it looked like Lille dug in for more add ons and wouldn't budge from 6.3 minimum and iirc our last offer was 5.5. Perhaps we were relying on Debuchy digging his heels in further but it looks like for whatever reason he didn't. We'll find out in a few months either way.

He's made one goal and scored two in three games. I know what you're saying about a breaking midfield but we aren't set up to play like that and under Pards (rightly or wrongly) we never will be. I do like that he has encouraged Hatem to roam.

Not sure why you didn't DL it.

Santon runs down the left and Hatem IS the most creative player in the league.

HF with the 12 Monkeys counter strike. "It's 1990 when does plague hit?1998. It's 1996 right? No 1996 is the future,we're in 1990...I'm supposed to be in 1996!!

This is a tricky one. I can honestly see both sides. Noted we'd actually made a bid for Ince (4m) in the last window as well and in the chronicle they quote the budget for the last window at £14m, so there will be money in Jan if that is anything to go by.