Although I've always voted Labour in the past this governments policy of throwing money at the NHS in the vain hope that it will just sort itself out just aint working. Todays revelation that doctors pay has doubled over the last 4 years while they are actually working on average 7 hours less is a shocking example of how our money is being wasted.

I don't think I'll vote again, they're all fecking useless

Just out of interest; what reasons led you to vote Labour?

Call me naive if you like, but I did once think that they were the closest thing we had to socialism...I'm a fool i know.

I seriously wasn't being critical, just interested. It just seems to be something handed down from Father to Son in Hartlepool.

Yes, you're right, that is the case. I, like most other people (particulary male I would say) my age in Hartlepool, do vote Labour because we regard ourselves as part of a working-class labour movement which believes in a fair share for everyone, and this belief was passed down from the previous generation.

The differences between the classes are now a lot more blurred than they used to be and also the political parties are all now pretty much the same with less focus on underlying beliefs. Hence Labours majority in Hartlepool is gradually being cut, although it is still one of the last bastions of blind Labour loyalty.

I've said it over and over again. Socialism is a sham. If equality is your tenet then it has to be equality for everyone. Socialists don't do that. They draw an outline on the map (or take one that's already drawn) and say right, we're going to take care of everyone inside that boundary, the rest of you can foook off.

If the whole world was equal the whole world would live in poverty.

But "socialism" does provide an electioneering platform, and boy does it work (on the gullible, which means most people).
We'd be far better off if we only had altruistic MPs, whatever their handedness (dream, dream, dream...).

We'd be far better off if we shot every last one of the bastards INCLUDING all the wanky local councillors and went republic. If they fook up then they get voted out every two years.

AND there'd be none of this 'party line' cack. Anyone guilty of forming a political party should have nails driven through their genitals.

I would have fewer issues with doctors' pay if the service they provided was effective in a canny few more areas that it is at present. Despite the warning lights from all corners of the globe, the NHS still chooses to put its faith predominantly in pharmaceutical based treatments. So we hear news that a fifth of hospital deaths in the States are caused by medication, that most arthritis drugs have side effects including death, that Ritalin (a brain altering chemical used to 'treat' ADD) is being given to thousands of children despite the fact that no trials into its safety for children have been run, that Prozac, the wonder drug for depression and anxiety (and which, what a shame but never mind, also causes suicide in users), isn't actually effective at all for mild to moderate depression. And so on and on and on.
This is the 'evidence-based' medicine that conventional medicine boasts about to holistic practitioners.
If there weren't so many vested interests, and health were being put first, the Government would be looking at whioh treatments were safest and worked best, whether those treatments were conventional or 'alternative'

Basically we could get a computer to do what most doctors do these days. You give them your symptoms and they dispense the drug. In fact, I've seen it happen - I told him my symptoms and he typed them into his computer and then wrote the prescription - I could have cut out the middle man and done that myself!

I had the misfortune to work in the pharmaceutical industry for a few years and it stinks to high heaven.

A very significant proportion of NHS money goes straight into the pockets of pharma company shareholders, due to revenue from the increasing amount of prescriptions.

Incentives, inducements, and downright bribery are common tactics pharma companies use to get doctors to write more and more prescriptions, even if they are not strictly necessary.

The worst thing pharma does is try to 'medicalise' a condition. For example, prescribing treatment for 'depression' is completely different to how it was even five years ago, thanks mainly to pressure from the manufacturers of Seroxat and the like to hoy tablets down everyone's throat.