What Price Medical Care?

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Earlier this week the Shadow Health Secretary, Andy Burnham, warned that 12,000 nurses will be lost to the NHS over the next two years if redundancies and lay-offs continue at the current rate. It could well be political speak of course, and politicians regularly distort the facts to suit their argument, but what if his warning is based on truth? Can our overstretched and overburdened health service cope with these losses to its front line staff?

We all know what a clumsy and ungainly beast the NHS is and how inefficiently it is run but my personal  experiences have convinced me at least that we still have doctors and nurses of the highest standard. I really don’t believe that many countries can boast a better quality of medical care than the UK but I cannot say the same for the management of the NHS.
Recent scandals involving NHS Trusts have clearly demonstrated that many hospitals are badly run with far too many inefficient and incompetent bureaucrats clogging up the system. It is surely upon those people that the Government’s axe of austerity needs to fall and not the poor nurses who seem to me to be performing heroically under the most intense pressure. We cannot afford to lose any more of them.
One last thought. It has often been reported that some top professional footballers earn as much as £200,000 per week together with endorsements. The average nurse earns around £20,000 per year. That means that some footballers earn as much in a year (£10.4 million) as 520 nurses combined. That probably tells you all you need to know about our society and its values.

OJ Revisited?

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The Oscar Pistorius story has all the ingredients of a Shakespearean tragedy, complete with sub-plots. The lead actor, a man struck down by a terrible handicap, yet blessed with the courage, determination and skill of a Greek hero, picks himself up, challenges the world and wins. His reward is universal fame and adoration, untold wealth and power and a beautiful girlfriend to match. Then, it all goes horribly wrong. His girlfriend is murdered, seemingly by his own hand. He is hauled before the courts like a common criminal, his reputation in tatters, his world turned inside out.

The initial facts of the case, as presented in newspapers across the world,  seem totally convincing and damning. Pistorius, the owner of a hand gun, fires that gun four times at his girlfriend who had apparently locked herself in the bathroom in the early hours of St Valentine’s Day. Neighbours report hearing the sounds of a violent argument prior to the shooting. Nobody else was present even though Pistorious maintains that he thought he was shooting at an intruder – through a locked door. On those facts you’d be forgiven for thinking that a conviction is a mere formality. I wonder.
Oscar Pistorious has money, lots of it and he will use it all should it be required to keep him out of prison. Already (and we are only in the preliminary stages of this case)his expensively hired lawyers, the best that money can buy, have made significant progress on behalf of their client and have secured for him an unlikely bail. Even so, surely  justice will be done and a conviction will follow? I wouldn’t bet on it, money talks and the more you have the louder it talks.
 Remember that famous, wealthy American sportsman, who a few years back, seemed to have been caught  bang to rights for the murder of his wife? Well, he was acquitted after a brilliant performance by his lawyers, who managed to convince a, no doubt, star-struck and impressionable jury of his innocence. The Oscar Pistorious case could well turn out to be O.J. Simpson revisited.

More European Madness

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The workings, if you can call it that, of the European Union continue to astound. No sooner has the EU decided to abandon the immoral practice of fishing quotas, whereby millions of tons of fish are discarded each year because they are the wrong type of fish, than they commit themselves and therefore all of us taxpayers to another piece of lunacy.

It is, of course, the official policy of the EU, and all its member states including the UK, to discourage smoking and to ban it wherever possible. Indeed, the Union has spent millions of euros on advertising campaigns all over the continent describing to us in great detail the damage we cause to ourselves and those around us by smoking tobacco. That’s fine in itself and surely, only a fool would argue that smoking is good for your health.
However, it now transpires that the European Parliament Agricultural Committee (see the latest Open Europe bulletin) recently voted in favour of directly subsidising tobacco farmers, in effect encouraging them to grow tobacco! It really is almost beyond belief and  I say almost because nobody can be surprised any longer by EU policy making. At best, these policy makers are grossly  incompetent and at worst corrupt. with most probably falling somewhere between the two.
Politicians speak of reforming the EU but I suspect it’s going to take a lot of effort to reform and transform this asylum and remove the lunatics who control it. Maybe it’s too late and it’s beyond repair. If so, a referendum on our continued membership cannot come soon enough. 

The Cupboard is Bare

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Last week the Prime Minister announced that the Government plans to restrict the handing out of welfare benefits to migrants (particularly those with no connection to the UK) and to make sure that this country is no longer seen as a “soft touch”. About time too you may say, haven’t we been demanding this for years?

Of course, there will be those who feel that this is discriminatory and that the UK should extend a warm welcome, free housing, free education, free medical treatment and cash to all comers. Fortunately, these dreamers now appear to be in the minority and even the most politically correct and altruistic realise that this country is deep in the mire and that, after all, there isn’t quite enough to go round.

For nearly five years this country (along with most of the world) has been in the grip of a recession, depression more like, that is showing no sign of abating. Austerity is the buzz word these days and newspapers are full of announcements of further cuts being made to public services, whether to the NHS, education, transport or law and order.

Of course, in an ideal world, it would be nice to extend a charitable welcome to all, but this is not an ideal world. Charity begins at home and the cupboard is bare. We cannot give what we haven’t got. Our resources are stretched to breaking point and the sooner that message is delivered to the rest of the world the better for all of us. That is not discriminatory and nor is it reactionary or racist. It is the truth.

Peanuts for Monkeys

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So, the horse for beef scandal continues to grow apace as more and more questions are asked about how and where our food is sourced. Our national supermarkets, in their continuing quest for ever greater profits, have done everything they can to ensure that they dominate the market. Their avaricious buyers have long screwed suppliers into the ground and decent, hard-working farmers up and down the country have been driven to the wall because they cannot sell at the prices demanded by the supermarket giants.

Those buyers have searched home and abroad for even cheaper sources and in their eagerness and greed appear to have either ignored or failed to take into account the quality of the foods they have been buying. The news that supermarkets have been dealing with sellers even more unscrupulous than themselves and have been buying horse (and goodness knows what else) instead of beef should come as a surprise to no one.

However, they say it’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good and the dreadful publicity for the big chains has evidently resulted in a huge upturn in business for local high street butchers. Good, how satisfying it is to see the underdog prosper for a change.

Turning now to the consumer, can anybody purchasing a ready-made Lasagne meal for two for £1.50 really be surprised that the meat is dodgy? What did they expect, fillet steak? You get what you pay for and, to quote another wise saying, if you pay peanuts you get monkeys…………. Oh dear, I hope I haven’t just written the next news headline. Chimp and ale pie anybody?

In all seriousness though, I have a feeling that there are quite a few more nasty surprises in store before this sorry tale dies a death.

It Was Fifty Years Ago Today……!

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Today is the anniversary of an important and significant event in the history of music,  although I doubt it will be marked in the national press. Way back in 1963, fifty years ago to the  very day, on Monday February 11th, The Beatles completed the recording of their first ever album (or LP as it was called then), “Please Please Me” at the Abbey Road Studios in London. So what, you might say, plenty of musicians have made successful albums, why is this one so special?
Well, it’s special on a number of levels but first and foremost was the sheer speed of the recording, eleven songs performed and recorded in one day. Ten of those songs were included on the new album in addition to the four songs taken from their first two singles and the eleventh was kept back for their second album. The Beatles’ second single, also called “Please Please Me”, had recently become their first ever number one single in virtually every chart other than the Record Retailer chart (which was topped by the band’s next single, “From Me To You” a couple of months later) and the band’s producer, George Martin, naturally wanted to quickly capitalise on that success.
To record ten songs in a single day was a rarity then and is unheard of these days in spite of the enormous leaps in technology . The album went to the top of the album charts, as in fact did all bar one of their subsequent albums, and for the next seven years, until their 1970 demise, The Beatles led the way with their pioneering music. The Beatles instigated a musical and social revolution the like of which this country and indeed the world had never seen before.
Their music helped to shape and define the 1960s and the four members of the band became the unofficial spokesmen of their generation. People now well into middle age recount their memories with reference to Beatles songs. The Beatles were that important and that influential.
Music historians have often analysed their immense talent and critics have said, well so and so had a better voice than either Paul McCartney or John Lennon, so and so could play lead guitar better than George Harrison and so and so was a better drummer than Ringo Starr. All that may be true but the fact of the matter is that, aside from the obvious song writing genius of Lennon and McCartney, The Beatles were a band whose whole was greater than the sum of their individual parts. Together they were truly insuperable.
In truth, when trying to find the words to describe The Beatles one runs out of superlatives. Quite simply The Beatles were a phenomenon, totally unique and without peer, and those of us lucky enough to be around when they were can say without exaggeration that they wrote the soundtrack to our lives. That is some accolade.

A Wicked King?

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This week’s news, that the skeleton discovered underneath a Leicester car park is almost certainly that of King Richard III is nothing short of remarkable. It is remarkable for two reasons. Firstly, that the body of the king, who died over 500 years ago and with no recorded grave, could have been found at all. Secondly, that modern science, in the form of DNA testing,  can prove virtually beyond reasonable doubt that the body is that of Richard III.

The story has resonated around the world and interest in one of England’s most infamous kings has been awakened once more (although the existence of the Richard III Society, dedicated to clearing his name would seem to indicate that, for some at least, no reawakening was necessary!). King Richard’s brief reign (just over two years in length) came to a bloody end at the Battle of Bosworth Field in August 1485 and with his death came the end of the thirty year long War of the Roses.

The victor of that battle, Henry Tudor (shortly to become King Henry VII) had less of a legal claim to the throne than the defeated Richard and so it was in his interests to paint his dead rival in as bad a light as possible to make his own position safer. The War of the Roses was a time of great treachery, betrayal, double-dealing  and brutality and the last battle, at Bosworth, illustrated that perfectly with one of Richard’s leading generals (Lord Stanley) defecting, with his small army, to Henry’s side once he saw which way the wind of battle was blowing and another general (the Earl of Northumberland) taking no part whatever.

Not only does the victor take the spoils, he writes the history books and, aided by William Shakespeare some one hundred years later, Henry and his advisors made Richard III appear one of the cruellest and most evil of kings ever to wear the crown of England. Most historians concede that he was indeed ruthless and devious but probably no more so than many of his contemporaries. In truth, a kind and gentle soul would hardly be capable of seizing and hanging on to the crown of 15th century England. In short, Richard was most likely a mere product of his times.

The discovery of his remains has provoked much debate both as to where Richard should now be interred (the cathedrals of Leicester, York and Westminster all lay claim) and also as to how fairly history has represented him. At least one myth has now been exploded since the skeleton shows that he did not have a withered arm and although his spine was deformed he was not the hunchback portrayed by Shakespeare. That makes sense at any rate, for nearly all the contemporary reports show him to have been a fierce warrior who distinguished himself time and again in battle and who met his death whilst attempting to engage his opponent, Henry Tudor, in single combat.

Whatever one’s take on the history of Richard and his bloody times this story has clearly demonstrated yet again that our country has a history and heritage second to none. Even 500 years after his death the tale of Richard III proves that the story of England still has the power to interest, enthral and capture the attention of the world.

March of the Machines

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I tried to speak to my building society the other day but after five minutes of instructions to press one of  keys 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 and then a further choice of numbers, followed by some tinny 70s pop music and a voice repeatedly assuring me that a representative would be with me shortly because they value my call (oh, really?) I hung up. Call me impatient but I just didn’t see the point.

I considered my next move and, trying the the clever modern option, I pressed the “contact us” section at the top of their website’s home page but instead of giving me an email address so that I could (possibly) correspond with a human being I was presented with a drop-down option where I had the choice of about thirty questions and answers. At that point I gave up completely.

Since the Industrial Revolution, which began in 18th century England, mankind has come a long way and many of the advances made in science and technology are quite simply mind-blowing. However, progress has a price and that price is a loss of human input, from the cotton spinning machine doing the work of thirty manual workers to the computer making a whole company accounts department redundant.

Maybe the 19th century Luddites were right in opposing the take-over by machines because we now have large parts of the population who are unlikely ever to find work because, quite simply, there isn’t any; technology has taken over. Governments wonder at the social unrest, upheaval  and disenchantment in modern society. Well, they don’t have to look too far for the cause. Progress? Undoubtedly, but at what cost to humanity?

The Lost Art of Conversation

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One of the latest emails ping-ponging its way across the world is a quotation, attributed to Albert Einstein,  stating the author’s fear of the day that technology overtakes humanity and we produce  a generation of idiots. The realization of that fear is illustrated by a series of photographs of young folk enjoying everyday activities, such as, dining out, visiting a museum, playing on the beach and going to a sports stadium. In every picture all the people concerned are staring intently at their smart-phones completely avoiding any interaction with one another.

The quotation may or may not have come from Einstein – and a brief look at some of his most famous and penetrating statements would seem to indicate that it has not – but it certainly fits! Just walk down the street and see how many young people are on their telephones texting away. Visit your local café or pub, go to a restaurant and see couples sat down ready to enjoy an expensive meal but instead of looking at or speaking to one another they are pressing away on their mobiles. Why waste money on the meal, why not take food tablets like astronauts, or have intravenous drips fitted instead!

What on Earth is wrong with us, have we forgotten how to communicate other than by keyboard and text? Have we really lost the joy of conversation and the wonderful intricacies and nuances of language? Technology is all well and good and much of it has certainly enhanced and improved our lives beyond recognition but, there is clearly a serious downside to all this progress.

The last word goes to Albert Einstein, who definitely did say (about 50 years before the mobile phone was invented!) –   “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity”

A Sense of Perspective

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There are many things that irritate us during our mainly hum-drum lives, the car won’t start, the combi  boiler has packed in yet again and somebody’s just spilt a glass of red wine on our brand new beige lounge carpet. We grimace, we curse and we rage against the cruel injustice of it all. For a short while we really do feel that sometimes life is just a wicked conspiracy against us. Then something puts it all into perspective.

Last night, BBC television screened a programme about a Jewish lady called Henia Bryer who lived through the Holocaust.  This lady, now well into her 80s and living with her family in South Africa, told the incredible and harrowing story of how she survived internment in four concentration camps, lost her father, her brother and her sister and witnessed the cruel torture and extermination of countless victims of Nazi oppression in the 1940s. She endured a time of such horror that few can imagine in spite of the now familiar black and white film footage of death camps like Auschwitz and Belsen.

The pain must live with the poor lady every waking moment yet, throughout the interview, her courage, strength, humility and dignity shone through like a beacon. No viewer could fail to have been deeply moved by what they saw. To say that it was humbling would be a gross understatement. Maybe sometimes we need to see something like this to make us realise just how unbelievably lucky most of us really are.