This is the first in a multi-part series about the issues in the British elections, for those of you who are interested in the issues and outcomes...

The British election follows many of the same patterns we're used to here in the US. Sniping, oneupsmanship, and disagreements on any number of issues. Like the elections we held last fall, Britain's general elections are also thought to be an unofficial referendum on the Iraq war. At least the Tories hope so.

Beyond Iraq, the main issue is Britain's faltering National Healthcare System (NHS), which has been plagued for many years by inadequate staffing and resources, costs exceeding receipts (from government) and long wait times for diagnosis and treatment. Things that are absolutely unthinkable in the US, at least, if you have health insurance. Each side has a different plan to solve the problem. Labour wants to continue to pour money into the system, to improve infrastructure and allow patients more choice with less wait time. The Tories want to scale back NHS in favor of a growing private medical sector, and give patients incentives to choose private doctors over NHS if they have personal health insurance. Think of it as a kind of school voucher program for hospitals. Neither is a great plan, honestly, but perhaps I feel that way because I am absolutely appalled by some of the conditions that British citizens put up with today in the NHS.
-Wait times for cancer patients to receive treatment from an oncologist vary from 2 weeks to 14 weeks.
--patients can wait 6 months to get an appointment with an NHS dentist
--under the current system (somethign labour is trying to change) patients must see a nearby doctor even if the wait time to see a doctor in a neighboring district is less (sometimes by several weeks)

Obviously the system must change. And you were wondering why we didn't hear much from the Universal Health Care moonbats in the last election? Well, it's not just that they were too busy war protesting, they were afraid we'd bring up the sad state of health care in the UK. Sure, countries like Sweden have thriving, useful, state-provided healthcare systems, but Britain's is on its last legs.

Posted by: caltechgirl at 05:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 386 words, total size 2 kb.

In today's electon coverage, the BBC features a story on the impact of blogging on the political scene in the UK, and how the "democratization" of the media is changing business as usual for Britain's political parties.

Video features gratuitous shots of Karl Rove talking on his cell phone and a snippet of an interview with former Tory leader Ian Duncan Smith, discussing his article on blogging (which I covered here).

More on the British elections later.... A piece on the non-issue in this year's election...

Posted by: caltechgirl at 12:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 96 words, total size 1 kb.

An article from BBC News today discusses a minor blow to Tony Blair's bid for re-election. Seems one Derek Cattell, a member of the Labour party's executive board in Sedgefield, which is Mr. Blair's home constituency, has resigned from the Labour party in protest ove the war in Iraq (now??? why not 2 years ago??-ed.) Mr. Cattell has announced that he is now supporting Reg Keys, the father of an Iraq casualty, who is running independently for Mr Blair's seat. An explanation of why Mr. Blair must run again is below the fold...

But what's rather funny about all of this are the names and party affiliations of some of the other candidates up against Mr. Blair:

Jonathan Cockburn, Blair Must Go Party
Fiona Luckhurst-Matthews, Veritas
Baroney Maroney Staniforth, Monster Raving Loony Party

Heh. The joys of a multi-party system.

More Brit election analysis as we get closer to the big day (May 5), I just had to share my amusement at the candidate list...

Kudos to the Beeb (who rarely ever get my praise) for a wonderfully comprehensive webpage listing all of the issues and all of the party platforms (or manifestos as they call them in th UK) here and especially here.

more...

Posted by: caltechgirl at 11:14 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 362 words, total size 2 kb.