Now for the rest of those Trade unionists.
I awoke to the glorious news that the Competition Authority is to launch a full enquiry into the UK’s vets, and about bloody time. Having just been charged over £1,000 because our beloved Barney had a sore claw, I welcome this move.
What the authorities really need to do is to visit France, because having taken my dog to a vets in France I can tell you that the charges are about 1/10th of those here, literally.
We thought Barney might have eaten some grapes on a recent visit to France, he was given an emetic, put on a drip, kept in overnight and then had a kidney test for just over €100. That would have cost well over £1,000 in the UK, I know because our previous dog had to stay in our local vets for part of the day on a drip and that was £1,500.
Drugs which you can get online for under a tenner are charged at many multiplies of that and the last time we took Barney abroad, the rabies certificate was £220, an increase of 10% on the previous year. Since as the vet herself told me the £220 was for her to photocopy the previous year’s form and sign it, this was, I think, little more than profiteering on the back of a new bit of compulsory red tape. Heaven knows what vets at the new border inspection facilities are charging, per day.
It is not just vets though, everything is more expensive here, from lawyers and medicine to auditing and accountancy and don’t get me going on surveyors. I used to think that the difference was down to the huge cost of property in the UK and therefore the high base costs of such firms. But this is obviously far more than that.
The best trade unions in the country have always been the middle class ones, accountancy, auditing, the law, medicine and vets, amongst many others. No Tory government ever says they are holding ordinary working people to ransom, or destroying growth or undermining the economy. No one has ever dared to take them on.
But they charge what they want because they can and they have been getting away with it for as long as I can remember.
Time for a change methinks: more competition, an end to closed shops, new entrants to the market, set charges for conveyancing, rabies jabs and tax returns. The savings for millions would be huge, companies and individuals could prosper as the dead weight of the “professions” is lifted from their shoulders.
What’s not to like? The working classes have had their wages and terms and conditions squeezed for decades because companies can now get away with it. The result is the gig economy.
Time for the bourgeoisie to feel some pain, for the national good that is and for Barney’s too.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
Its not quite so simple as that though? So until recently there had been no rise in legal aid rates since the 1990's with huge cuts in scope, lesding to its near collapse, disnfranchising ordinary people from legal advice and representation. Many junior crime barristers have been working for less than the equivalent minimum wage (they are self employed). Junior doctors are fleeing the country because of terrible pay and conditions. So it would be more accurate to say that where professionals serve the general public, they are being stuffed like everyone else. On the other hand if you are a middle class professional with spare money, as is generally the case where people have dogs and holiday in France, then you are the pot from which other middle class professionals working privately make their money and are charged accordingly.