@Ghost-of-a-Duke saidGhost, this is embarrassing. I will keep it between you and me. Real downer, though.
Just come back from the dentist as it happens. Made the appointment yesterday, no problem.
It's true that it can be a challenge to access NHS (free) dental care, but then that's the same in the US isn't it?
“”Yes — the NHS is genuinely under severe financial and capacity pressure, but the statement that “the UK can only afford 1,100 prostate operations a year” is almost certainly misleading or missing important context.
The NHS is having a very serious capacity problem. In England, the waiting list was still about 7.29 million patients at the beginning of 2026, despite the NHS delivering a record 18.4 million treatments and operations during 2025. “
I pay 334/month (not costing my neighbors or marauder or ayone ) for coverage you would not believe. Everything.
@moonbus saidTrue, it is baloney but people accept it as an article of faith. We'll protect your business from outside competition so that you can thrive, except it will make you complacent and uncompetitive so in the long run you will lose ground and find it harder to stay profitable as your market shrinks. The protection will feel good in the short term but your foreign competitors will eventually grow big enough through volume to beat your protected prices and in the end the will run you out of business.
The economic, 'protectionist', argument is baloney; it isolates, rather than protecting. As you point out, it reduces export opportunities. America could and should have changed over in the 19th c. when it would have been relatively easy.
The historic reason why England did not go metric is Napoleon; the English refused to do anything Napoleon mandated. Why the Americans ...[text shortened]... not go metric then is a mystery, given that the French materially assisted the colonists to revolt.