Hi Al.

i wasn't being overtly political, just pointing out that at her time, and through her policies, charities became service providers and the many volunteers, many elderly, found themselves elbowed out of the picture as the charities had to employ lots of professionals in service delivery.

When I first got involved with NSF through their Sutton in Ashfield office, the place was stuffed with volunteers. When I stopped being involved, just about everybody I spoke with was employed.

Kind of fits in this thread...


The '80s were, as Al says, a time of huge advances and lowering mortality outlier rates. (Mortality rates are by definition 100%, so outliers is the way to look at improvements.) But whilst we are attributing Prime Ministers, let us not forget that although Bliar may go down as a warmonger, he, through his Minister Patricia Hewitt, (Postcode Pat) introduced what will in later years be seen as the largest public health advance in England in modern times when smoking in public places was banned. Let us not forget that she was forced to vote against her own legislation because of the weird ways manifestos and whips work, it was the only way to get it through.