Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Good Morning A-hole!
A bit stiff finger to the taxi driver in 04 D 3912 who tried to run me into the back of another car at the end of the bus lane on Georges Street, Dublin, Ireland going north at 09.35 GMT. Just made you famous sucker! I doubt the use of reporting officially to the Carriage Office - but let me tell the world at large -- anyone who under takes you from behind and rams on the brakes when they get in front of you because you hooted and then spends the best part of a minute abusing you while obstructing the road doesnt deserve to hold a Public Service Vehicle licence ... there rant over
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Magic clamper dust
I've held off on this one for a year, to see if anything changed ...observe the picture: this is a section of street (Cambridge Road) in Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland. All the surrounding area is pay or get clamped parking, except this little stretch, which must have been cursed by the little people. Or something.
Market forces - me ear!
So BUPA Ireland have lost their High-Court challenge to risk equalisation for the VHI.
For those of you living under or a rock or outside Ireland, BUPA is the national British private health insurance company, and VHI is the national Irish private health insurance company, which just happens to be owned by the government of the Republic of Ireland and ah... makes up for the deficiencies of the Irish national public health system, which is also, what do you know, owned by the government of the Republic of Ireland. The bureacracy of the Irish Department of Health apparenlty employs nearly as many people as all the rest of the government departments put together, which probably explains why the Health budget is reassuringly huge but with so many mouths to feed, not an awful lot of money gets spent on things like hospitals. I personally would nt go near any of them public or private unless I was in dire straits.
Any how-- the point is -- the government of the Republic of Ireland professes to be big into Market Forces economics, but always arranged that the VHI would have a monopoly -- the arrival of BUPA under European Union open market type auspices seemed to be good news, but it seems that due to the loyalty of older insurance customers, BUPA started to build up a much younger and it is being assumed healthier client base and therefore were making 'unfair' profits. Now I hate insurance companies in general, so hearing any of them talking about their social role and fairness makes my blood boil ... If BUPA had accidentally scooped up all the old fogies then I'm sure VHI and the minister for Unhealthy over-weightness would both be arguing for market forces to rule and an end to pernicioius talk about the social aspects of health insurance provision. And yes, I am a slighly younger BUPA customer...
For those of you living under or a rock or outside Ireland, BUPA is the national British private health insurance company, and VHI is the national Irish private health insurance company, which just happens to be owned by the government of the Republic of Ireland and ah... makes up for the deficiencies of the Irish national public health system, which is also, what do you know, owned by the government of the Republic of Ireland. The bureacracy of the Irish Department of Health apparenlty employs nearly as many people as all the rest of the government departments put together, which probably explains why the Health budget is reassuringly huge but with so many mouths to feed, not an awful lot of money gets spent on things like hospitals. I personally would nt go near any of them public or private unless I was in dire straits.
Any how-- the point is -- the government of the Republic of Ireland professes to be big into Market Forces economics, but always arranged that the VHI would have a monopoly -- the arrival of BUPA under European Union open market type auspices seemed to be good news, but it seems that due to the loyalty of older insurance customers, BUPA started to build up a much younger and it is being assumed healthier client base and therefore were making 'unfair' profits. Now I hate insurance companies in general, so hearing any of them talking about their social role and fairness makes my blood boil ... If BUPA had accidentally scooped up all the old fogies then I'm sure VHI and the minister for Unhealthy over-weightness would both be arguing for market forces to rule and an end to pernicioius talk about the social aspects of health insurance provision. And yes, I am a slighly younger BUPA customer...
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