Mike Tribe

My money was initially on Adolf Hitler, but I suppose that's quite close... I wonder where Tailgunner Joe would have stood on the Health Care Issue?

OTFOI, this seems a persuasive theory. Certainly, a lot of potential clients have been flushed out... Reading these threads would seem to be a rich source of income for mental health professionals.

How about this http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/200...parents-control, also from the Guardian?

I have thought for quite a while that the forum would provide a rich field for any researcher into abnormal psychology... There's a PhD in there somewhere...

And in any case, should Andy be denied a drug under the NICE regulations, he is free to "go private" and consult a non-NHS doctor. He obviously couldn't do this if he were poor, but then he wouldn't have this option over in the United States, either, would he?

Let's see if I've got this right. If you make disparaging comments about someone's father in an attempt to devalue the son's views, that's fair comment. If someone casts doubt on the sanity of the drivel to post on the forum, that's "just insult and unproven assertions"... Is that right?

I'm afraid she's right, John. The article, which is truncated in the version she uses, did appear on the BBC new website and refers to a letter printed in the Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters...g-patients.html. I don't see what it has to do with the lunatic views she put forward in the first post, however. It seems to refer to a debate within the medical profession with regard to the correct form of palliative care for terminal patients. Presumably, "Barking University" refers to the Barking campus of the University of East London.

Here's another interesting article from The Onion...

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/congr...ked_over_how_to

The truth will out!

I took my nine-year old grandson to see his first West Ham home match in the pre-season friendly. Afterwards, we went for a curry outside the ground. All part of his education.

Cor, you've gone and done it now John Let's hope your Grand-son has one or 2 trophies to celebrate along the journey.

To answer your question I think the FA will stop short of throwing us out of the competition. There's bound to be some kind of fine and maybe a 'Castilla' game behind closed doors (if we get a home tie in the next round).

I was at the game between Castilla (Real Madrid's B team at the time which had won the Spanish Cup) and West Ham many, many years ago. I must admit that the behavior of the West Ham fans was terrible. At one point, they were peeing over the balcony onto the Spanish supporters below. The Spanish police responded in the way they knew best, lashing out viciously with their long batons... but there was very little outcry here about "police brutality" since most of the Spanish public I spoke to thought the fans got no more than they deserved...

For many, many years, I was a soccer coach here at my school in Madrid. I used to take 10-12 year-old kids in groups of 5-6 along to watch Atletico Madrid games -- I couldn't afford the prices at Real Madrid!. The last time I went, we were walking out of the stadium quietly, minding our own business, when a couple of Atletico fans walked up to us and punched one of the 12-year-olds in the mouth. No provocation, no fan-based clothing, nothing. That was the last time I took kids to a game. It just wasn't worth the risk... So, it's not just an English problem...

John, I couldn't have put it better myself. The wild accusations being flung about by American conservatives during the "debate" regarding health care reform would be laughable were it not for the fact that some of the more gullible members of the American public appear to have been taken in by them. Obama's popularity is, apparently, shrinking, and he seems to be backtracking on some aspects of his promised health care program

I agree with a lot of what you say, John, but would also add "fear" as a motivator. If you do something no-one's tried before and it's successful, you're a real hero, but if it fails, you could get the blame for recklessness. The safe course is the unadventurous one. I've seen this a lot during a l-o-n-g career in education. Educational administrators are generally very, very wary of new ideas. If you DO something, some parent may not like it and complain. So, the safest option is to do nothing at all so that no one is upset by it!

Over recent years, we have taken fewer and fewer trips out of school, because if we're out of school "something might go wrong", so it's obviously much "better" to keep all the students sat at their desks in the classroom....

However, how is this a "conspiracy" rather than institutional cowardice?

I don't know the figures, John, but I seem to remember debates about the dumbing down on A Levels having been going on for a lot longer than that. I certainly feel that the exam papers my wife prepares her A level students for are rather less demanding than the IB exams our kids take...

Anthony Seldon and David James writing in The Independent on July 14th this year observed that this was the 26th year in succession in which the pass rate had increased. So I think their Conservative predecesors must at least share some of the blame with New Labour, don't you?

There are some illustrations of this trend here. http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/education/rese...s/exams2005.pdf

I don't know the figures, John, but I seem to remember debates about the dumbing down on A Levels having been going on for a lot longer than that. I certainly feel that the exam papers my wife prepares her A level students for are rather less demanding than the IB exams our kids take...

The video is clearly a fake and was, in fact, taken in a disused warehouse in Cheetham. This is a conspiracy by MI6 and the CIA to discredit a Scottish nationalist hero. There is oil off the coast of Scotland. George Bush was involved in the oil business. Need I say more? You and other disinformation agents should be ashamed of yourselves.

What choices do you, as a health care consumer, have under the NHS system?

What do you do if you don't like your doctor or if he or she is incompetent?

What kind of parameters does NHS give you to work within in making health care decisions?

Are your choices limited if you are old and/or infirm?

How are health care professionals and other providers compensated?

Who sets their compensation and who pays it?

Does GB have limits on the amounts that a patient can recover for malpractice?

These are questions about your system, not challenges to it.

I haven't lived in the UK for 35 years, so I can't answer your questions about the NHS. However, we also have "socialized medicine" here in Spain and these answers relate to our system:

1.The question of choice is a strange one. No one FORCES me to go to the social security doctor. If I wish, I'm free to go as a private patient, and some companies offer private health care plans to their employees. Anyone who can afford it COULD take out private health insurance and many do. The huge advantage of the system is that everyone is guaranteed good quality healthcare, regardless of his or her economic situation. No one is obliged to sell his or her home in order to pay medical bills.

2. If we don't like our doctor, we have the right to change to another.

3. I don't understand the question. Could you explain what you mean?

4. No.

5. They're paid by the government out of general taxation and from the social security payroll tax.

6. Spanish judges do no generally award huge damages for malpractice, but that's not as a result of legislation. It's just the norm for Europe.

Health care reform would be nice. But we can't afford it right now. I guess this will come as a revelation to some people. America is hopelessly in debt. Obama and the Democrats have spent trillions in a few months. And no one to this point has a clue as to how this reform is going to be paid for. There are even rumblings that Obama is going to break his "read my lips, no new taxes on the middle class" pledge. Maybe that's why some people are mad.

When you can't afford something, you should abstain for now. This is basic living.

Someone should tell Obama the old joke about the Eisenhower doll: You wind it up and it doesn't do anything for eight years. Obama should just try doing nothing for a while. I know it's hard, but let some common sense come into play. This would even shut up Republicans.

When the Labour Government introduced the National Health System in 1947 they were heavily in debt (the cost of the Second World War). When they promised to do this in the 1945 general election they were described as Nazis (Churchill) and communists (they admitted to being socialists). However, the Conservative governments that followed, did not dare remove it because it was the most popular thing ever done by a British government. A recent survey showed that the NHS is the most popular aspect of British society. If Obama does bring in "socialised medicine", it will never be removed. That is why the far-right in America is spending so much money and energy on attacking the idea.

John-

How many people work for GB's national health care program?

I read that it was 1,400,000.

Is that true?

Also, does it ration care based on age, health, etc.?

Thanks.

Chris

Hi Chris, I don't know the exact number, I will try and find out, but its nothing like 1,400,000, There is, up to date, no rationing based on your catogories, everybody is entitled, by right, to the best health care that can be afforded. its far from perfect, standards of care can be a bit patchy between diferent health authorities, but the Brits love their "Socialised" health care, and as John says, no Government would dare try and remove it, there would be riots on the streets.

It is about 1.4 million. The corresponding number for the United States is 15 million. The population of the UK is about 61 million and the population of the USA is about 300 million...

I think you made my point. All the posts/topics are on various conspiracy theories of doubtful interest to educators but absorbingly attractive to a small minority. Then anyone who suggests that this might, perhaps, be unhealthy for an "education" forum, he or she is the subject of infantile attacks such as yours...

John, take a quick look at the current topics. Around half of them seem to be started by people who believe that the American government blew up the World Trade Center, or that, alternatively, it was hit by an Unidentified Flying Object. Almost every topic relates to some conspiracy theory or another. Some of the posters seem to have only the flimsiest grasp of reality. One of even said he was surprised that there weren't even more topics posted on the "9/11 Conspiracy". As Cigdem said, only a very small minority of "educators" have any interest in these bizarre backwaters which really seem to have little or no relation to any "educational" area unless it's abnormal psychology. There used to be a lot of teachers who visited the forum regularly and there were lively discussions, especially on history. I used to recommend the forum to my colleagues and to my students, but I haven't for some time since there would be nothing here to interest them...

I'm gonna look into what he meant with ''November Revolution"". The Russian and Western Calendars did not coincide so if he refers to the October Revolution which led to the ascendancy of the Bolchevics....

_________

"The World War and the criminal November Revolution prevented that."

This was part of the Nazi historical myth regarding the First World War. They believed that far from having been bested militarily on the Western Front, Germany was, in fact winning when all of a sudden, the brave front-line soldiers were "stabbed in the back" by the "November criminals" who overthrew the Imperial government and negotiated the Armistice. This was one of the reasons that the Allies were determined to accept only "unconditional surrender" from the Axis powers during the Second World War.

John, you're right that it's nice to something unconnected with either JFK or 9/11 on the forum for a change...

random ponderings :

edit:typo

Thanks, Andy. It's a bit advanced for them, but I'm going to try it on some of my yr 10 kids... Gosh, something educational on the education forum! Now there's something...

He who sups with the Devil should have a long spoon...

He failed to impress me at Real Madrid as well. A bit of a powder puff....

PS: I took me four attempts to post this. Does that mean I've been secretly banned by the Evil Twins (Evan and Andy)?

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/British_National...st%2C_2007-2008

This is, of course, an unpardonable breach of the BNP members' inalienable rights to privacy which no one could possibly condone.