Hello and Farewell!

Two names, two ladies, two very different ways-of-life, one political belief; and one very different outcome.

Sue Nye, who began her career as a typist for James Callaghan, the late former prime minister. Sue Nye has been Gordon Brown’s diary secretary, his firm friend and a long-serving target for much of his reputed but well-disguised ill-temper! For several years she has been Mr Brown’s gatekeeper while Chancellor, and continued to be the same at No 10. It is the right-hand woman role once performed by Anji Hunter for Tony Blair, in charge of everything from the diary to judging whether his hair needs a comb or a wash. It is perhaps significant that the road to Rochdale began at a hairdresser’s salon, followed by what seemed to most to be a perfectly ordinary conversation between a life-long Labour supporter, and ended in what could turn out to be the most significant sixty seconds in the history of this Nation!

Gillian Duffy is ordinary, but what a dynamite version of that once prosaic term. A native daughter of Rochdale, a widow, an ex-employee of the local Council, who used to look after disabled kids. She was going to the shops to buy a loaf of bread, saw all the police and asked, “Is Gordon Brown there?” When told that the Prime Minister was indeed viewing an offenders’ rehabilitation scheme, she decided to go and see if she could have words with this rarely seen ‘Great Man’. Standing on the outskirts of the crowd, she began to state what her opinions were, and a couple of t.v. reporters began filming her, because apparently a lot of what she said made sense.

Sue Nye spotted the doughty Gillian, and brought her forwards to speak with Gordon, because that was the new ‘theme’ of Labour, to get contact with ordinary voters! What followed was, and this is perhaps the most perplexing thing about the passage of words between the Labour Prime Minister and this truly remarkable ‘ordinary’ woman, a sane and remarkably staid conversation. They touched upon the fact that she is taxed upon her husband’s pension as it is bundled together with her own; she worked with children, and Brown muttered a platitude about his policies; they talked about crime, and how people are being let off, and Brown muttered some more platitudes. Then came the ‘magic moment, when Mrs. Gillian Duffy probably changed history. She asked, “How are you going to get us out of debt, Gordon?” He replied in political-speak ( which is a language only spoken by those in Westminster and the BBC) “We have a deficit reduction plan to cut debt by half over the four years.” Gillian then stated “You can’t say anything about immigrants. All these Eastern Europeans what are coming in, where are they flocking from?” The conversation went on for perhaps another two minutes before Gordon left after patronising his companion before getting into his Jaguar limousine.

His ‘open-microphone’ comments about a lady who had been, after all, a life-long Labour supporter, are reproduced in detail here, but the significance of those few angry words, trying to make out that Gillian was some spawn of Satan, a ‘bigot’, are best pictured and reported without any words, but by a simple photo of a widow finally realising that her Prime Minister not only doesn’t like her, he thinks she is a sort of bigoted woman that said she used to be Labour, says volumes with those eyes pictured showing the hurt!

This small extract from an online poll gives some idea of the impact of calling someone a ‘bigot’, especially when that someone does not deserve it.

Only within New Labour’s paradise!

Insert wedge, then tap base gently!

You should have received a nice, quiet little data bombshell through your letter-box from the NHS.

Its not a spectacular letter, but it is yet another insidious attempt to place more and more of our personal information into a massive searchable database. It’s title is ‘NHS summary Care Record’.

If you don’t want your personal, private medical data to be available for scrutiny by every NHS-employed cleaner or porter, you should visit this website, and download the opt-out letter, and then visit this one, which should prevent your personal, private medical information from being uploaded on to the NHS spine.

Some may state that they have no problems with their data being available to all and sundry, but have you ever asked ‘Why’ these bureaucrats are so keen to discover everything about you? This man had a look at Gordon’s data, and anyone with access can look at yours!

Just take note of this link, which shows how it took the House of Lords to make the Government drop yet another attempt to authorise ‘Information-sharing orders‘, which would allow any Department to fish around for info from another Department.

…Nor the Years Condemn.

As many in our Nation have done over the past days, I went to an election meeting last week, and as some may remember, I posted on it at length.

It was, as I stated earlier, run along the lines of many things in Britain, orderly, calm and considered. But an interjection from the floor at the very end of the meeting highlighted the missing element, because as the speaker stood, he mentioned the very thing which had been ignored; he said we were at war, and no-one had even mentioned it! He spoke of one of the few places where the war has had an impact on a public basis; that of the town of Wootton Bassett, where the military corteges pass by the lowered flags of the British Legion. The flag-bearers, men of my age saluting the fallen of today, coming slowly back from a war where no-one knows even what they are fighting ‘for’, never mind ‘against’.

I heard the measured tones of Major Richard Streatfield as he called out the nicknames of his A Company, 4 Rifles Regiment’s soldiers in a salute to both the living and the dead on the Today Programme, and I have yet to hear a more telling indictment of the stupidity of those politicians who state, with platitudes oozing from their lips, of ‘helping to keep the streets of Britain safe by bringing safety to the dusty deserts and mountains of Afghanistan’.

As I sat this morning, listening to that soldier as he spoke, I remembered the man who spoke against the flow, and realised it should have been me that spoke, but I was too busy getting my thoughts ready to ask why we did not have the BNP candidate at the platform table!

He said the words, which should have spurred a fresh debate, but, no, sorry; the meeting has been declared closed, and you didn’t get your question down on the roster of the questions submitted, and besides, we are British, and we have to obey the rules, Y’Know!

Our Game…..Our rules!

I went to a meeting yesterday evening. Now that announcement in itself should not evince any surprise, people attend meetings all the time. But this meeting was super-special, because it was an Election Hustings meeting, where we were supposed to hear and judge the people who were asking for our votes! Once every five years, the political elite of this country of ours are forced to ask for our votes. They truly do hate it, but it is the law! Many laws have been altered, many have been dismissed, and even more have been created, but the one immutable fact is that THEY have to ask US!

As many may know, I live in Durham City, which, despite it’s title is a small-to-compact market town in the North East of England. Because of small but significant chance happenings earlier in our history, of the emergence of industrial geniuses such as Armstrong and Stephenson, the North-East has been a powerhouse in our industrial heritage. Because of that reliance on heavy industry, the political beliefs of a majority of the people living in this area have leant, rightly or wrongly, towards a socialist ethos. As my fellow writer Andrew McCann has written in an earlier post “It’s t’ Party of the working man”, and it is indeed a difficult task to try and alter the mindset of someone who clings to a particular belief, that they have been wrong all their lives, and another party has a better slant upon events.

So as I stated, I went to the ‘Hustings’, comfortable that while many view our electoral process as a seal of the way things are done, of a silent river of opinion flowing towards a just conclusion, I at least know that should a maverick show up, this would be the place to spot such an event.

There were four chairs set out for four candidates, one each for the three main parties represented, and the fourth occupied by a candidate from UKIP. The meeting progressed in a typically British way, with all four candidates placing their positions and allowing the audience of Durham city voters to either make their minds up, or else be confirmed in their beliefs or prejudices. The Lib-Dem candidate came across as possibly a well-meaning person, but no firm ideas of leadership or plan. The Conservative man gave it a good go, and I thought he was quite impressive, but his cause foundered upon the rocks of recent history, when the events after the miners strike were discussed, as he was accused of decimating the coal industry single-handedly. As he hadn’t even been born when Scargill led the National Union of Mineworkers into oblivion, I thought that perhaps unfair, but the shadow of Margaret Thatcher casts a long thrall over the closed minds of a Labour-minded population, and he doesn’t have a great chance of overturning the incumbent. She, the Labour party candidate, unfortunately comes over as competent. I say unfortunately because it would take a fair movement within the mass consciousness of the voters to move away from Labour, and from supporting her candidacy! The last chair was occupied by the UKIP candidate, and whilst I have nothing personally against the man, never having clapped eyes upon him before yesterday evening, the only impression I received was one where he was wondering what on earth he was doing in that place! Utterly clueless!

However, there should have been six chairs set out at that meeting in Durham, one chair for the Independent candidateI wrote of earlier, and another seat for the unmentionable candidacy; the BNP. No sign of any accommodation for those people who would have liked to see the man who dared to place his name in contention while supporting a ‘Right-Wing’ viewpoint. There was no chair, no microphone, no sign that there was another viewpoint in contention, and he was not represented in thought or intention!

I approached the chairman of the meeting after it was closed, and asked him if all the candidates for the City of Durham had been invited to attend. The Dean of Durham Cathedral, for that was his title, smiled thinly and stated that only the four main party candidates had been invited to attend the Durham Church Together ‘Hustings’ meeting. When I asked why the BNP candidate had not received an invitation, and had therefore been excluded from the proceedings, I was rewarded with an even thinner smile, and the answer, “It wasn’t considered appropriate.”.

Now I always thought that Democracy meant that everyone should have a chance to examine the policies and plans of all who were thinking of standing for election, and that no-one should block any candidacy because of any particular viewpoint or proposal, unpleasant though that proposal may be. But there we were, restricted from at least hearing what the man from the BNP had to say, and to question his beliefs and Party policies by the deliberate actions of a senior cleric and his small team of ‘believers’. Don’t know about you, but I feel slightly short-changed by this arrogant Anglican upstart!

X-posted from A Tangled Web

And the average age of those who died was …….

Just tell me why our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan!

Just tell me that their deaths serve a purpose!

Is it to keep the streets of Belfast or Blackburn safe?

Is it to destroy people who are plotting terror right now against our Nation?

Or is it because the Government knows something we don’t?

Not many questions on this particular aspect of politics!

Diver rescued!

An article in the Education sector of the Sunday Times caught my eye, dealing as it did with the subject of ‘bullying’. The young man under discussion was a swimmer and diving champion named Tom Daley, and after his return from the Beijing Olympics, he was subjected to an ever-increasing regime of physical threats and mental harassment.  His parents’ solution, after several interviews with Katrina Borowski, the Eggbucklands principal brought no relief, was to remove their talented son from this hell-hole, and sign him up to a private school, Plymouth college. Result, his studies have blossomed to the extent he has achieved 6 GCE’s all starred, as well as becoming world 10-metre platform diving champion.

The Eggbucklands principal was also quoted as stating ‘Tom’s extremely high profile led to a minority of pupils behaving in an immature way towards him!’ This last statement is of course in line with the pathetic ‘anti-bullying’ stance of the crap-ridden clowns who inhabit our Department for Children Schools and Families. If anyone reads even the headings of the web-page, they have even broken it down into neatly-labelled sectors, such as Cyberbullying: Supporting pupils,Homophobic bullying, Racist bullying, Bullying of children with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities, Sexist, sexual and transphobic bullying, and of course ending with the all-encompassing Anti-bullying Charter.

As I have not ventured any further than the headings, as I don’t wish to tread waist-deep in diversity clap-trap, I can only predict what help or guidance is on offer, but I would lay good money on a complete absence of the only known cure for bullies, which is physical punishment! A short sharp beating makes for instant recognition that any further behaviour will ensure a repeat performance, and as it is a well-known fact that all bullies are also cowards, their behaviour will instantly modify!

When my eldest son was in his first year of Secondary Education in South Africa, he was subjected to considerable bullying by a small clique of clowns, but fortunately he told me of his problems. I visited the school the very next day, and informed the Deputy Head that if this problem was not immediately addressed to my satisfaction, I would sue the school, governors and staff, as well as the parents of the young clowns who were targeting my son. His actions were swift and certain, as three of the main culprits were hauled up at the next morning assembly, and each given six of the best with a cane! All bullying of my son ceased immediately, and he blossomed as a pupil at that school for the rest of his time!

Sky falls in, few notice!

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I heard a political first this morning on the BBC today Programme, with the famously dripping-wet journalist Evan Davies, who used to be a BBC economics editor, interviewing Nick Griffin of BNP fame, and shock, horror, race wasn’t even mentioned!

Griffin was quizzed on the economics of tariff protection against cheap imports from China, and whilst he made a fair job of replying to Davies’ questions, I was stuck by the very surreality of a really liberally-inclined BBC Journalist asking a BNP Leader about anything else besides immigration, race and the political slant which for so long the BNP has been tarred with.

Has the BBC been told to back off the stridency after the Question time debacle, where a significant vote of sympathy was rendered to the BNP after the avalanche of hysteria and hatred rained down on Nick Griffin’s shoulders? Have the BBC staffers accepted that the BNP have two M.E.P.s, have a significant following in many areas, and therefore deserve treatment like civilised people, instead of a national Polecat?

Old Holborn has a good aroma!

This man, I kinda’ like, and wish him well in his lawful endeavours!

Only in Africa!!!

I have often expressed my belief that having lived in Africa for many years, I have seen and heard it all; but once more  I have been proved wrong.

Man in court for ‘concealing’ ex-wife’s private parts

CHILEKA, MALAWI – Chileka Police in Malawi are keeping in custody a 53-year-old man for concealing his ex-wife’s private parts through magic in an effort to bar her and her current husband from having sex.

Chileka Police spokesperson Stella Nkandala yesterday said the suspect, Samuel Mayinga of Malunga Village, Traditional Authority Machinjiri, Blantyre , was arrested on Wednesday last week and has been charged with conduct likely to cause breach of peace

“Mayinga and his wife divorced in 1997 and the woman got married again. Mayinga has of late been pleading with the woman to take him back but she has been refusing. Then Mayinga approached a witchdoctor who gave him a concoction that made it impossible for the woman and her [new] husband to ‘sleep’ together,” said Nkandala.

She said “whenever the two wanted to have sex, the woman’s private parts would go missing. This went on for a month, prompting the woman to report the matter to Police, who cautioned Mayinga to reverse his concoction. But nothing changed, so Police arrested Mayinga who on Friday pleaded guilty in court. He said he did that because he was jealous. He also said the witchdoctor who made him the concoction has since died,” said Nkandala.

She said on Saturday, Mayinga, in the company of the Police, went to a bush near his village where he cut roots of almost six trees which, he said, his ex-wife should put in water and drink for three days to reverse her situation. The Police gave the herbs to the woman who is today expected to report back on the outcome of the medicine. The Nation (Malawi)

Typical, all you want to do is go to sleep, and the entire neighbourhood is kept awake because one clown cannot get his end away, so she blames the witchdoctor!

BBC Enquiry Discovers Nothing Wrong!

This morning, the ‘fearless reporter’ who is of course John Humphries, visited a London Hospital, which he described as the recipient of many millions of the cash donated by the taxpayer to the N.H.S., courtesy of the Labour Government. This tour is but one of a series undertaken by the BBC’s Today Programme to elicit, well, what has been achieved after all those billions have been thrown at the National Health Service. He spoke with a patient who had just been issued with a ‘tablet’. So what is amazing about that, you may well ask? Well, it isn’t anything like the millions of other medicinal tablets issued every week throughout British hospitals, it is an solid-state Electronic Diary kept mainly by the patient to record their appreciation of the services given them during their stay, but also to record medication prescribed, any areas which the patient feels are badly performed, unnecessary bureaucracy, lack of cleanliness, things such as that.

Now what is bad about that, you may ask? I would state that the very existence of such devices is but another effect of the target-driven management culture so prevalent in our hospitals today. The ‘Tablets’ will be downloaded to a central computer, shovelled onto spreadsheets which all will then be filed away on yet further hard drives, and then forgotten about. But if there is a query about patient care, or responses are required which have to state statistics on patient care, or if there is a check-up on say, the acceptability of the food served to patients, these facts, or ticks on a box, can then be easily drawn down from their server hiding places, and rolled out to reassure the enquirer or inspector, that in certain weeks, years or days, everything was lovely in the paradise of the NHS. Not many queries from Mr. Humphries on the cost of these tablets, which will possibly turn out to be state-of-the-art P.D.A.’s specially formulated to show all areas of patient satisfaction at a cost of MILLIONS over the hospitals so equipped. What happened to the old-time clipboards, pens and paper? What happened to our god-given ability to open our mouths up and start shouting if something is wrong?

So John Humphries wandered on through the hospital, talking to the new Chief Executive, who strangely enough, in these days of managers and specialist business executives, is a medical man. This C.E.O. rhapsodised on about how the ‘customers’, yes ‘customers’, as he would like to call us bloody patients, are receiving state-of-the-art care throughout our stay in his hospital. How everything was so clean, and updated, and how grateful the N.H.S. was to be able to provide such care to us, the poor bloody clowns who are lying in his beds! The whole tone of this interview was one of ‘everything is okay now, so just relax, and we’ll do the worrying’.

As the rhapsodies chimed on, and I really did feel slightly sick myself, I wondered why Mr. Humphries had not visited Stafford Hospital, and discovered another side to the gleaming ‘Tablet’ vista laid out before him in London. He maybe could have talked to the survivors of a time when over TWELVE HUNDRED people died while the hospital sought and achieved Foundation status with the accompanying millions of pounds which that status ensured! He could maybe have interviewed the families of the patients who lived in their own filth until their friends and families cleaned then up. He might have spoken to the patients who were forced to drink water from flower vases, because the ‘Nurses’ were too busy! He could have interviewed the Trust Board Members who were in office at the time, none of whom have been disciplined or called to account. He might have interviewed all the senior managers and staff who have since moved onwards and upwards, those who presided over this turgid array of filth, disgrace and criminal negligence, and wondered whyNOBODY has been charged, disciplined, paraded before a court or even sacked!

Now that would have been a series of interviews that I would have paid close attention to!

X-posted from A Tangled Web

Illuminating a volcano

Little bit hotter than normal?

Courtesy of N.A.S.A. ON http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

A Slight Breath Of Fresh Air

I once considered running for Parliament, and after the Expenses Saga honestly thought about asking the electors of the City of Durham if they would give me a hearing; but in the end decided not to. This decision was partly made because of my knowledge of the people who would, or would not, vote in any election; of their tribal loyalties even towards an MP and a Party which has literally spat in their collective faces. I also accept that my writing takes a fair slice of my time, as well as certain personal and private family considerations which I am unable and unwilling to slough away.

I have the utmost admiration for those such as David and his TUV Party, who are willing to fight for a cause which they hold dear, to place their collective lives on hold, and run against an entrenched and well-funded bunch who have surrendered any sense of loyalty themselves in order to grab any power on offer!

I received a flyer through the door from an Independent Candidate for parliament in my constituency, and it is at once so novel as to demand a hearing; honest because he admits that he has virtually no chance, and illuminating of the way politics is perceived by those who are forced to watch. The last of the points is the one which I would highlight, as he states in his Election Leaflet the following statement:-

“Please note that this campaign is solely my own and I am not seeking any contributions, financial or otherwise, towards it – nor any awards or honours: I’ll buy some of those when I feel like treating myself.”

Nice guys don’t always finish last!

As many readers will know, these days I have virtually no interest in, or knowledge of Sport. I made a post on ATW blog regarding a sector of Olympic endeavour which rang very badly with many who do know about this particular sector, and I was more than happy to remove the post, and thus take the pressure off the owner, who was getting a lot of stick for something I had written. So when I do write about a sport, I have to be more than careful in what I say!

Having laid the ground, I would like to state that, of possibly all so-called sporting activities, the one I least understand or have sympathy for, is golf. Not for nothing is it described as a long walk spoiled by a few sticks and a ball. But it has its’ addicts, its’ fans and of course, it has its’ stars.

I met a golfing genius when I spoke to Gary Player many years ago, and I was amazed that this unassuming little man could blast a small ball down the fairway the way he did, seemingly without any effort at all. His often-quoted saying, ‘The harder I practice, the luckier I get’ has gone down into golfing lore. He was a thoroughly nice man to meet, and he has never let any of his multitude of fans down over his long playing lifetime.

Similarly, when Phil Mickelson lashed his ball out of a pile of pine needles, between two trees, on to the green on the 13^th at Augusta, he made the ending, where he shrugged on the winner’s Green Jacket, almost an anti-climax.

He walked forward after his triumph and hugged a small blonde lady as though she was made of both glass and of stainless steel. This same lady, his wife Amy, has been battling breast cancer, and got to the course on the final day seemingly by will power alone. Mickelson has proved that he is not only a great golfer, but a nice guy who deserves all the adulation and applause he garners as he effortlessly shows his mastery of the game; unlike another, who also came to Augusta, but for very different reasons.

Memories, all alone in the moonlight!

When the expenses saga first erupted, few of us realised how much the thieves and clowns in Westminster despised us, looked down upon us and sneered at us.

Because that is what they did when they ‘flipped’ their second homes, and spent thousands on refurbishment, on furniture, on fancy kitchens, and on all the foolishness which became the headlines.

We are just the ‘voting cattle’, the providers of the fuel to help slide them down the road to the plush green seats of Westminster. We are the sheep, and they don’t even consider themselves to be the shepherds, because that is an honourable occupation; they must think of themselves, whether Labour, Tory or Lib-Dem., as the owners of the abattoir that we are all destined to feed.

I would point to just one, as an example; and that is my own ex-MP, Roberta Blackman-Woods. She claims to be queaky clean as regards Expensess! I repeat, Squeaky Clean!

It is indeed strange that, when she was putting herself forward to the City of Durham electors, that she did not explain that she expected us to pay either £300.00 or £400.00 pounds every month for her food. She did not explain, whilst on the campaign trail, that she expected us to pay £9,000.00-odd for Stamp duty and a further £7,500-odd for Mortgage interest and Rent! I would have thought that some £64,000.00 per year was enough, but obviously I am thinking like a sheep, and not one of the wolves.

Am I alone in my distaste and disgust for the whole bunch? Am I alone in my detestation for the whole tribe of thieving losers and cheats? I hope not!

And All Shall Be The Same…..

So you lie in your hospital bed before your operation, and you are introduced to the senior staff who shall be doing your invasive surgery operation.

You query why one person in the group is wearing a top with wrist-length sleeves, as opposed to the rest of the team who are all wearing tops with elbow-length sleeves; in conformance to requirements that push the need for scrupulous cleanliness.

You are advised that there is no need to worry, as that person is a Muslim, has problems with their MODESTY being compromised by allowing their arms to be revealed during work. Presumably, the muslim god shall also protect you against any bacteria or virus transmission which may result from that particular person’s aversion to washing their hands and arms in the manner prescribed within the NHS code of practice for surgery and medical care!

Hi ho Silver!

Surfing as one does, you really find the best ones out of the blue!

Aim, fire!`

I read that the Army has placed some new targets on a firing range which have upset the local rag-heads.

Seems like the targets are all shaped like mosques.

As we are all supposed to be saving money in this cash-strapped country of ours, why bother to put the targets up, when we have these to fire at already?

Who’s for more censorship?

In these frenetic days, before the promises are broken once more after the election, I tend to look for the oddball story, the unsung hero, the actions of unelected QUANGO morons as they stifle free speech and comment; that sort of thing.

So why am I posting on a truly shocking clip which is the advert for the Motor Neurone disease Association, when they attempt to bring to a wider audience by showing this information film on what is a truly terrible, incurable disease?

It is simply this; that, as the nice, unassuming victim of this terrible affliction points out in her interview with the Telegraph; you can switch off your t.v., or you can change channels if you are ‘Offended’, but you cannot alter the fact that the MND sufferers will die a truly savage early death? A death from which there is no surcease! So why block access to the television screens, as the Clearcast Clowns are is doing? Why stop the flow of information on the symptoms and outcomes of this affliction? What gives them the right to state that the wider public, who do not have access to the Internet, should not see this short film?

Is it because the producers exaggerate? Is the lady, pinned in her wheelchair at the end of the sequence, lying? Is the disease not terminal in just about all cases so far diagnosed? Is it because the Clearcast people flinch from the truth, or is it simply because they daren’t upset their masters, OfCom, who really do rule the waves?

Why not send an e-mail to Niamh.McGuinness@clearcast.co.uk, and voice your own objections?

X-posted from A Tangled Web

Bangalore of Bloy strikes again

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The BBC news headline reads…..Mandelson attacks Barclays Head!

s’Funny, I always thought the mincing old queen would go for another area of the human anatomy!

Publish and be damned!

I read that ‘senior’ BBC journalists and executives are ‘furious’ after a decision by the BBC to fall in line with ‘compliance’ rules by giving time to Parties such as the BNP immediately after the debates by the Prime Ministerial candidates.

Now apart from the fact that the B.N.P. is a legal Political Party, operating within the laws for such entities, despite an attempt by the Equal Hate Commission to have them disqualified from the human race, wouldn’t you think that, if they are so evil, a breath of fresh air amongst their leaders would be of benefit to Democracy. If it can be shown that they are bereft of ideas, so much the better. If the BNP spokesmen are shown as incompetent, or lacking in any one of two dozen areas of political activity, so much the better.

But we are told that ““The idea of having to interview the Ukip leader Nigel Farage – let alone Nick Griffin – is turning people’s stomachs.”. So personal preferences should rule what is or is not broadcast on the BBC airwaves?

Could it be that, instead of the published views and stances, which are those of, ‘These people are beyond the pale, and have no place in civilized society’; ordinary people, who are just as street-smart and up-to-date as any ‘politically-aware’ clown should be given access to alternative viewpoints of how our Nation should be governed.

Perhaps people’s stomachs should be given the chance to ‘turn’ if they are told exactly what the Green Party, or the B.N.P. propose in any area of domestic or international politics! Or are the ‘senior BBC journalists’ just a little bit scared of what might happen if such views are widely distributed?

Deja Whatever!

Some time ago, on another blog which I authored, I posted the following:-

Read the Healthcare Commission survey results on cleanliness standards in NHS hospitals, and fastened on the quotation “I wouldn’t want to go to one of these worst hospitals.”
“The bottom line is walking into an organisation and your feet sticking to the floor because it hasn’t been cleaned adequately, smelling the toilets some way before you can see them, urinals encrusted with limescale and urine is really pretty horrible.”

Now if there was a similar situation in the Private sector, from a giant Corporation to a five-man band in a start-up cabin on an Industrial Park, the speed with which the various people would be prosecuted would not amaze anyone, as it should rightly. So why haven’t these findings produced anything apart from a little flurry of small headlines and a comment on the Today programme?

Simple, it’s because no-one can or will accept responsibility in a Committee-run outfit, the N.H.S. will not discipline it’s employees because the bastards would all walk out on strike, and the cleaning contractors all hide behind the wording of their Contract documentation!

The fact that the highest proportion of failing hospitals are in the Mental Health sector should also not surprise anyone, as it isn’t sexy, it doesn’t provide “breakthrough” headlines, and the whole sector is hidden under a dustsheet, because they’re all slightly ashamed of having slightly imperfect patients in their modern, all-singing, all-dancing Nu-Labour N.H.S!

No-one’s going to be fired, no-one’s going to be disciplined, no-one’s going to carry the can; so why did the Halthcare Commission bother?

Now in a so-called hard-hitting report from the Care Quality Commission, the successor to the Healthcare Commission, they state that a dozen of the precious Foundation Trusts should improve, or face ‘Tough Sanctions’. The failings of these bureaucratic playgrounds include the multitude of deaths in the Mid-Stafford Hospitals, the disgusting conditions in Basildon & Thurrock Hospitals which would not meet the standards of a Third World Cess-pit…..the list goes on and on.

But the Sanctions remain, the commission states. The Trusts might be fined (fines of course paid with your cash) suspending certain services or even prosecution. What goes around, comes around!No-one’s going to be fired, no-one’s going to be disciplined; hell if they’re really unlucky, the Chief Executive gets a pay raise!