The United Kingdom’s National Health Service, which celebrated its 70th anniversary on July 5, is imploding

U.K.'s Healthcare Horror Stories Ought To Curb Dems' Enthusiasm for Single-Payer

Sally PipesContributor

Policy

I cover health policy as President of the Pacific Research Institute

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First time!

SYRIA:

In a humiliating defeat for the British leader likely to damage Cameron's hopes of being re-elected in 2015 and set back traditionally strong U.S.-UK relations, parliament defied Cameron by 285 to 272 votes.

Commentators said it was the first time a British prime minister had lost a vote on war since 1782, when parliament effectively conceded American independence by voting against further fighting to crush the colony's rebellion.

Speaking immediately after the vote, Cameron told lawmakers he would not seek to go against parliament's will.

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Not to mention how embarrassing this is for Obama:

WASHINGTON — With a few exceptions in the past half-century, there has been a simple rule of thumb when it comes to international conflict: America does not use force without Britain at its side.

So when Prime Minister David Cameron was unable to muster the votes in Parliament for support for a strike in Syria — even one limited to stopping the future use of chemical weapons — shock could be heard in the voices of senior White House officials who never saw the British rejection coming.

“Bungled by Cameron,” said one.

“Embarrassing,” said another. “For Cameron, and for us.”

Now Mr. Obama is left to cope with miscalculations on both sides of the Atlantic. If he goes ahead with the strike — which seems all but inevitable, based on the statements of senior administration officials who say the president is determined to restore “international norms” against the use of chemical weapons — he will look more isolated than any president in recent memory entering a conflict.

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You'll pay for it, but who'll actually get it?

Doctor's orders: guard borders

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is right when he says: “It is a national health service not an international health service.”

But Hunt is dead wrong when he expects NHS doctors and nurses to crack down on health tourists.

Nobody wants the Mickey taken out of the NHS. Many will applaud Hunt’s proposal to charge non-EU foreigners for access to the NHS.

But doctors are not border guards. And nurses are not i­mmigration staff. There is not one A&E department, GP’s surgery or maternity ward in the land where they would turn someone away because of their immigration status.

We don’t live in that kind of country. Will a midwife demand to see the passport of a woman who just went into labour? Will a doctor refuse to treat a sick child because he doesn’t have the correct visa?

Politicians have clearly thrown away all control of our borders.

It should not be NHS staff who are asked to wrest it back.

Britain: Where pensioners are selling homes to pay for healthcare

And, in Germany, the country's elderly and sick being sent abroad due to rising care costs.

The New Beatles?

You be the judge!

Chancellor Osborne: “The British Government has run out of money because all the money was spent in the good years”

Uh oh

They should have listened to Margaret Thatcher when they had the chance:

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend]."

What these emails confirm is that the great man-made global warming scare is not about science but about political activism...

Uh oh, global warming loons: here comes Climategate II!

UK Mayhem Leaves Disarmed Citizens at the Mercy of Criminals

Friday, August 12, 2011

By now you have seen the headlines and images of destruction: the rioting, looting, violent assaults, and arson. London and other UK cities look like war zones and their citizens are afraid to venture out, because the danger is very real. It's a view of the temporary breakdown of society. It is gut check time; a time when the concept of being able to defend oneself gives way to the stark reality that few viable options to do so exist.

Gun laws in the UK are among the most restrictive in the world. In March of 1996, a deranged man walked into a school in Dunblane, Scotland and killed 16 children and one teacher. In the aftermath of this tragedy, British politicians sought to reduce violent crime by enacting a ban on all handguns. Handgun owners were given a February 1998 deadline to turn in their firearms--and they did. The UK was supposed to become a much safer place--but dramatic increases in crime following the gun ban proved it didn't.

A July 3, 2009, Daily Mail article reported that "Britain's violent crime record is worse than any other country in the European Union, it has been revealed. Official crime figures show the U.K. also has a worse rate for all types of violence than the U.S. and even South Africa."

And the current bedlam has proved it further. Restrictive laws concerning long-guns, combined with the outright ban on handguns, leave the country's citizens largely defenseless (it was reported this week that sales of one type of aluminum baseball bats on Amazon UK rose 6,541 percent). In many places, it was reported that police were unable to stop the mayhem. As a result, panicked, defenseless law-abiding citizens were forced to flee their homes, while others watched as their businesses were destroyed. Compare this to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when armed citizens were able to protect their lives, families, and property from looters and violent mobs.

An August 11 Herald Sun article reported one resident as saying, "its absolute bedlam on the street. People have been openly looting for an hour, two hours, and the police have been ineffectual. They've done nothing." Another victim, who was trapped in her hair salon in Clapham Junction while a mob smashed its way in and trashed it, said, "They were mocking us, [saying] 'look, look, they look scared'. Where is the police? I want protection. This is what they're here for . . . I'm not secure at my workplace. I'm not secure at my home place. Will they be there to protect us tonight? They weren't here to protect us last night."

The Telegraph.com.au reported on Tuesday that mobs were forcing hapless victims to strip off their clothes while being robbed, and described a shocking video that shows a bleeding, already-pummeled teenager being robbed in broad daylight by lawless thugs who pretend to help him to his feet, and then steal the contents of his backpack while he can barely remain standing, much less defend himself.

This is what a disarmed country looks like. This is how little is left when free men and women surrender their right to own a firearm.

One has to wonder how differently this all would be playing out if the law-abiding were allowed to arm themselves. How different would the reports be if violent, opportunistic, amoral thugs were confronted with armed resistance from their intended victims?

It has been said that, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." In this case, good men and women have been stripped of their ability to do something, and evil has certainly triumphed.

Ironically, the UK is an outspoken proponent of the United Nations' efforts to negotiate an Arms Trade Treaty. Presumably the UK's goal in supporting an ATT is to spread the "safety and sanctity" they imagine their country as having to the rest of the world. Perhaps the recent calamities will cause the British to rethink their position; we certainly hope so. It's time for the British government to drop its draconian gun-control laws and restore the right of self-defense to its law-abiding citizens.

It's time to face the facts. When law-abiding citizens are disarmed, is their society a safer one? Do gun bans reduce violent crime? Will the police always be there to protect you? England's current plight is just the latest example to show us, yet again, that the answer to these questions is an emphatic "No."

Copyright 2011, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.
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www.nraila.org/Legislation/Federal/Read.aspx?id=7025

Elderly women are being denied life-saving breast cancer surgery that is routinely given to younger patients, alarming research reveals.

Some doctors look at a patient’s age in their notes – and decide on a treatment plan before they have even met them, experts warn.

Their study, which provides evidence of ageism in the Health Service, found that 90 per cent of breast cancer patients aged 30-50 are offered surgery to remove tumours, compared with 70 per cent of those in their seventies.

The breast cancer patients TOO OLD to save: Thousands are being denied surgery by 'ageist' doctors

HAT TIP: HotAir.com

THE INVASION OF "THE HUM"

It is a mysterious sound on the very edge of perception that has driven thousands of people around the world to distraction.

Like toast?

Under the radar:

Spain is toast. That's the solid opinion of a billionaire global investor I know with whom I met privately in Paris last weekend. The only European countries left standing financially when Spain and thus the EU-Euro enterprise goes under are Germany, Denmark, and Holland - plus non-eurozone countries like Norway and of course Switzerland. There's a chance Italy might barely squeak through, but likely not the UK, and France is broke.

We'll always have Paris, and Europe too - but the EU-Euro game is soon to be over.

Oh - and my billionaire friend (whose $20B private equity fund is averaging 68% returns, so he knows what he's doing) won't touch investing in China with a 20-foot pole...

Swallowed by the tsunami: Horrifying new footage shows life and death race to outrun giant wave

UK Daily Mail: The sheer panic of people trying to flee the Japanese tsunami has been captured in a newly-released video that shows the life and death race to outrun the wave...

Japan's apocalypse now

UK DAILY MAIL: Rescuers pick their way through a wasteland of bodies, wreckage and people washing in rivers

Libyan diplomat: “The three Western states (US/UK/France) have landed their special forces troops in Cyrinacia (eastern coastal region of Libya) and are now setting up their bases and training centres..."

Read more: PAKISTAN OBSERVER

Never forget: We don't survive without oil, period.

UPDATE: So...are we really there and would it be "disastrous"?

UPDATE #2:

The U.S. ordered two warships and 400 Marines to the waters off Libya on Tuesday, but a top Obama administration official stopped short of saying the forces would intervene in the country's growing civil war.

U.S. Orders Ships to Libya as Battle Lines Harden

Dying cancer patients have been refused costly life-extending drugs on cost grounds despite a Government promise to end the "scandal" forever...

OBAMACARE WILL MAKE US JUST LIKE U.K. VERY SOON NOW

President Backstabber

UK TELEGRAPH: WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain's nuclear secrets

The unseemly rush to blame Sarah Palin, the Tea Party and Republicans for murder in Arizona

UK TELEGRAPH:

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, by all accounts an outstanding public servant and person, is battling for her life in hospital after being shot by a 22-year-old man at close range at a “Congress On Your Corner” event in her home district. Six people are dead, including a judge and a girl of nine, and a dozen others are being treated for their wounds.

It is, as President Barack Obama said, an “unspeakable tragedy”. It is also, as he added, “a senseless and terrible act of violence has no place in a free society”. That much we know and the President wisely did not seek to make political capital out of the carnage or jump to conclusions about the motivations of the gunman, named as Jared Loughner.

That, of course, hasn’t stopped some on the Left clamouring to blame Sarah Palin, the Tea Party or Republicans in general for what happened.

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Better wake up America: UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First

Statists everywhere are drooling:

The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

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In the attempt to debunk the Obama birth-certificate controversy, the State Department author confirmed Obama was a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S. from 1961 to 1963 and a dual citizen of Kenya and the U.S. from 1963 to 1982, because his father was a Kenyan citizen when Obama was born in 1961.

State Dept. confirms Obama dual citizen

Top ten conspiracy theories

Are the British strange, or what? Here are Times Online's top ten conspiracy theories...