Hi Christoph,
With reference to our recent discussion about open forums and my example of
the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE). They decided on
Wednesday to disclose their appraisals of drugs so that patients and
members of the public can take part in subsequent discussion about their
availability.
As I mentioned before, this is but one example of the continuing drift in
modern society towards more open discussion of complex (and governmental)
matters.
Another interesting example has just reared its head in the UK, althogh
this will undoubtedly take a long time to resolve. This is that the
government should adopt internationally agreed accountancy standards in
presenting governmental budgets and spending plans. At the present time,
the Treasury department and the Chancellor get up to all sorts of tricks to
disguise public spending under all sorts of spurious headings so no-one
really knows what is the true state of affairs except in very general terms.
Gradually the public are becoming very annoyed about this obscurantism. In
the last few years, taking into account all the income and expenditure of
the average taxpayer, it has become plain that the total tax paid has been
steadily rising. Yet, if we are to believe the Chancellor's public
statements, the taxbill has been going down! Really, it is subterfuge
amounting to widescale theft.
Keith
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Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus, www.calus.org
6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727;
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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