kraftiekortie wrote:
I don’t like guns myself.
Politically, I lean strongly towards a European style “social democracy.”
I am also into a NHS-type scheme in theory,
Yes, I’m aware of the ways in which being born in Western Europe with our “mixed economies” is a privilege...
I’ve only ever seen guns a few times in my life: airports and major railway stations in the hands of the armed police units, and farmers out hunting vermin/edible wildlife.
We do have a lot of serious crime involving knives, but one person being shot in a little village is national front-page news.
Result is I don’t have an opinion on guns: I have the luxury of not needing one. (Tougher restrictions on knife sales however...)
I’m fully on board with our national religion (the NHS): my life has been saved twice through its operations, and I’ve had both therapy and minor treatments through it. Did have some private dentistry done once, but it was so expensive (and poor quality) that it put me off the whole concept of private healthcare!
The NHS does tend to be permanently undergoing reform: improving any aspect of it is a big theoretical career boost for any politician, so they all have a go (with mixed results).
This can result in strikes and other industrial action on a national level (so, no CAT scans in a particular week because the health secretary has annoyed the relevant union, that sort of thing: luckily most HS’s back down & compromise before it comes to that)
But it is genuinely and truly “ours” there without charge as a legal right: even among conservatives here hostility to the NHS is considered a bit weird and extreme.
(Grassroots conservatives that is, can’t vouch for the private school lot)
Thought I’d be replying earlier, but dinner preparation time came to pass