"The workings of the national budget have just been revamped; a new law requires government ministries to justify every item of their spending.
The French are some five years behind Britain and Sweden with such measures, but they hope to learn from others' mistakes."

If the UK government started to spend an additional sum of 6 bn Euros p.a. on their decrepit National Health Service and sustained this effort for 25 years their patients would enjoy in 2031 the same services as do their European counterparts on the continent in 2006.

It would not yet be comparable to what people can expect today in Germany and France, but it would at l(e)ast meet the AVERAGE conditions of the EU Member States.

Mind you that in 25 years time the European AVERAGE will be higher as it is now and Germany, Austria, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and the Scandinavian countries' NHS systems will have further progressed, too.

"The USA appears destined by fate to plague America with misery in the name of liberty." Simon Bolivar, Caracas, 1819