大象传媒

OH DEAR - HERE WE GO AGAIN

Is it not highly likely that all living things cycle naturally - RATHER LIKE CLIMATE?

Elm disease HAS NOT WON. There are elms of varying sizes, to my certain knowledge up to 5" diameter, near the base. If they succumb, there are many more seeds in the soil. NOT ALL THOSE SEEDS ARE THE SAME. A freak Spring can cause rogue strains to germinate (think Hog Weed); a resistant Elm might be slumbering in a bank near you. Or the Bark Beetle might fall prey to infection. All is flux.

Oh - I just remembered - it's August at the Beeb.

The Elm was duffed by beetle barking.
But will recover time permitting.
The Duff that comes from barking pen
Cuts down Elm will to rise again.

OH DEAR - HERE WE GO AGAIN

Is it not highly likely that all living things cycle naturally - RATHER LIKE CLIMATE?

Elm disease HAS NOT WON. There are elms of varying sizes, to my certain knowledge up to 5" diameter, near the base. If they succumb, there are many more seeds in the soil. NOT ALL THOSE SEEDS ARE THE SAME. A freak Spring can cause rogue strains to germinate (think Hog Weed); a resistant Elm might be slumbering in a bank near you. Or the Bark Beetle might fall prey to infection. All is flux.

Oh - I just remembered - it's August at the Beeb.

The Elm was duffed by beetle barking.
But will recover time permitting.
The Duff that comes from barking pen
Cuts down Elm-will to rise again.

54. At 10:19am on 24 Aug 2010, John_from_Hendon wrote:

"although we all have a shared genetic inheritance with them of course!"

And with chimps, rats, fish and even bananas. With so much in common, it's amazing that there's so much disagreement, even to the point of our preying upon, and in some cases eating, those who we have so much in common with.

Perhaps there's a lesson there here on just how far we should take discrimination, and how a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Cosmetics and GCSE results, Tuesday:


Quarter-of-exams-graded-an-A.html

"Richard Cairns, the head of Brighton College, where 82 per cent of entries were A* or A, said: 鈥淚 would very much like to see a situation where a certain percentage of grades each year were awarded at each grade; the top 10 per cent could be at A*, the next 20 per cent at A and so on.

鈥淓veryone would then know where they stood and hardworking pupils would no longer have to put up with accusations that exams have got too easy.

"Grade inflation on the scale we have seen over the last few years 鈥� in university degrees as well as in school exams 鈥� cannot continue.鈥�

Sadly, it WILL continue so long as the market demands that individuals be supplied with what THEY desire (bling) instead of being awarded what society as a collective needs, as there's fame and fortune (albeit faux money and faux-fame based on image only and debt) to be made out of the former, but not the latter. Kids today crave excitement/bling, not substance. These results are all cosmetic.

reports that the usa house of reps have just given the preliminary $300 million funding to extend afghanistans 3 major military airfields for sole usa use ... doesnt appear that the usa will be leaving afghanistan in the near future .. this along with bidens comments on the intent of usa to remain in iraq ... where the usa largest embassy is situated

so much for the drawdown and end of illegal occupation .

what does Mark make of the report the ISI have told the Taliban not to negotiate with Karzai/USA?

i watch the ytube vids from afghanistan on a weekly basis. what is clear from the recent ytube afghanistan vids is the increasingly open sheer racism and indulgent violence of the allied troops

and on the jihad side how they see this afghanistan/somalia/chechnya/yemen/palestine etc as one and the same war ie they/we are in a world war. [Declared for them undeclared for us]

#61

virtualsilverlady /though you might be a man/

Women have never been innocent bystanders even if men in our culture have tried to limit their public standing for such a long time, voting rights included. These days some of us, plenty as a matter of fact, also refuse to be treated like toys and victims in boys' games.

#tb01

It's revealing what your plans are. I do not think I'm the only one, however, who knows how to read in between the lines, I'm glad to say. Perhaps you should spend a little more time reflecting.

In fact, I'm THINKING of writing a ditty on the importance of thoughtful reflection on so many comparative and 'associative' reflections that have been floating around for so many years, including particular individuals being compared to whole nations.

Talking of nuts...

WRT the GP Commissioning story. I am very concerned about this.

Buckman says: "Muscular dystrophy is a rare and distressing condition. There are very few people in the NHS, including GPs, who have expert knowledge of it," in effect he is arguing that MD is a rare condition so you would not expect GPs to know much about it.

However, it is not just rare conditions that GPs struggle to understand.

I have type 1 diabetes, it is not a rare condition. The last time that the Tories tried this experiment (GP Fundholding) I moved house and I asked my new GP to refer me to the diabetic clinic at the local hospital. He refused saying that the GP practice would provide the clinic. At the first appointment the GP I saw told me that he had just been on a course about diabetes and joked "but since you've had it for 17 years, I guess you know more about it than me". The frightening thing was that I did.

I am at another GP practice now and I go to both the GP and hospital diabetic clinic. I am quite amazed at how often the GP or practice nurse tells me to phone the hospital diabetic nurse because they do not know enough about diabetes. This was concerning recently when an insulin manufacturer withdrew an insulin I take to stay alive and the GP did not know a suitable alternative insulin.

At a local diabetes support group I asked how many people went to the hospital clinic and how many went to a GP clinic: it was about half-and -half. Then I asked who saw a doctor. Of those who went to the hospital 100% saw a doctor, of those that went to the GP clinic, none saw a doctor. Clearly diabetes is considered to be too minor for a GP to see the patient. Hospitals give the condition far more importance.

Sadly, this is what Lansley regards as being an "improvement". I really do fear about my health if his plans are implemented.

my surgery has dropped because of funding the visiting diabetic chiropodist...he told me on the quiet....'it's all about money and my local chiropodist doesn't want to know either....UK...2010...you couldn't make it up...

It's about time all unions were banned, particularly UNITE. They are a waste of space and only encourage more red tape and bureaucracy, so they waste tax payers money.

POLITICAL MEDICINE - SWALLOW WHOLE DAILY (#9)

I am at a loss as I observe that the general public fails to realise the order of priority in party politics. At all points on the journey (familiar ring?) from aspirant MP to Cabinet Minister, the ninny's focus becomes ever more political, and always less: the good of the country/constituency/constituent.

Every 'initiative' from government (any party) must first support a snappy name/slogan, then bring greater amounts of the current fad (choice/fairness/value-for-money/user power/greenness etc) and lastly be 'manifestly' superior to anything 'they' did. The most prominent areas of inept tinkering are: schools, health (aka sickness), law-n-order, immigration, then on into transport, military, and what have you. IT IS ALL A GAME.

Not only is Westminster now filled with visceral party-obedient game players, but the ETHOS is such that IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PUT THE NEEDS OF THE NATION'S MASSES FIRST. Westminster politics simply does not support such a priority. This is a heinous state of affairs. We must:

SPOILPARTYGAMES and then dismantle Westminster.

8

"Perhaps you should spend a little more time reflecting"

Perhaps you'd be better off devoting less time reading between lines and reflecting etc and devoting your efforts to reading what people post and following up what they are talking about? What I post is quite simple, and topical, with no hidden meanings. I don't understand most of what you post but do regard it as evidence of disturbed thinking, and I'm sure I'm not alone holding that view. If the Newsnight Production Team knows who you are, I trust someone there is looking out for your welfare.

"Sadly, this is what Lansley regards as being an "improvement". I really do fear about my health if his plans are implemented."

That and IDS's (or is it Charles Murray's see Paul Mason blog) approach to welfare.

The reality is that under the Conservatives we'll see a more blatant erosion of the welfare state than we experienced under New Labour (the Credit Crunch was a strategic way of ensuring that I suggest) - and all in the interest of private profit driving 'efficiency' of course. A welfare state would have been highly selective in who it gave jobs to and would have run public services like they're run in China - except, as we all know, that just doesn't work... does it......?

Anyone else fed up with all the lies we are told?

#14

Of course they know who I am. I even had dinner with some of them though didn't share the table with them. They know most of my secrets as well. But don't ask them as it might hurt.

#62 from the previous page

who are you trying to train, stevie, in (out of) your jeans?

#16 addendum

I even shook hands with Kirsty so she also knows who I am but as I've stated before I don't watch Newsnight that much again as I don't particularly like what's going on there. I have nothing against Kirsty herself as a journalist, I do understand every word she says and the Scottish flexion in her accent does not upset my ears.

#17 addendum

You may also 'care' to know that that night I shook hands with Jeremy, looked straight (well almost) in the face of Michael Howard (now Lord of Lympney who I've had the pleasure of exchaning e-mails with) and stood next to (well behind in fact) Michael Crick in the queue to the cloakroom. I also had nice vibes and exchange of smiles with the attendants looking after the guests.

WARK ON THE WILD SIDE (#17)

'Scottish flexion'?
Lazy diction!
I contest
false depiction.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

We should be under no illusions about GP control of NHS funding.

The reason the Tories have come back to this (failed) structure without any manifesto commitment to it and a pledge to back off further reform during the election is that it is central to creating an internal market in the NHS that is essential to allow further market reforms in the future. The mantra of "doctors know best" is ridiculous - GPs are gatekeepers for major medical conditions and mainly the prescribers for minor and chronic conditions - they are not financial managers.

GPs are still an island of self-employed private enterprise in the NHS system who famously had "their mouths stuffed with gold" when the NHS was created. It will not now be a big step to introduce "patient choice" where those that can afford it can buy additional treatment via their GPs and new charges can be introduced - a two tier NHS can be created via the back door, with universal provision being slowly rolled back, private insurance borught in and charitable funding pulled in to pick off the most "deserving" cases amongst the poorer population that will no longer be funded in the future.

Labour needs to spell out to GPs what the implications of this will be if they go along with it: when the ConDem government falls, it must mean the end to their self-employment and self-control of surgeries - if GPs show that they cannot be trusted to act in the interests of ALL patients (not just the rich ones), then clearly they cannot be trusted to be independent businesses funded by the taxpayer and must be nationalised in the public interest.

The choice needs to be plan - The questions are:

Are you feeling lucky, Doc?

Is your price still just thirty pieces of silver?

Is that a cock I hear crowing for the third time?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

NHS

The most crass and appalling thing about this governments NHS reorganisation is that yet again they obdurately refuse to learn from past errors, or the experience of hundreds of years of changing admin systems of large organisations!

First they should do the following:

1. Pilot the plan in a small-scale test.
2. Find out if the present management structure (the GPs in this case) is capable of managing the change, is willing to do so and has the skills to do so.
3. Produce and TEST the new structure's administrative (computer) systems.

Then and only then can the resources required to implement the new structures be computed.

Then these resources need to be built, hired and trained.

Then, and only then, can the new scheme be safely implemented.

This will take at least five years and probably a decade. And in the meantime BOTH systems must be run in parallel. This will be hugely expensive - but if any other course of action is adopted - disaster will be a certainty!

(This is independent of the innate silliness of the system change!)

How can anybody have a serious debate about " Corporate Nazi " leaning Obama's poll ratings if your key report totally fails to mention Carbon Trading and the Climate Change Scam in general ? The American people in general are no so stupid as those planet Coronation Street / Emmerdale driven ten bob fat cats here in the UK.

What a load of piffle from Burnham! Not only do the new reforms to the NHS mean that more money is spent on patients, it also means that less is wasted on pointless paperwork. It will improve services, and patients will be treated far faster than the current system.

"what does Mark make of the report the ISI have told the Taliban not to negotiate with Karzai/USA?"

its propaganda .. the usa and the fundamentalist neo cons have been seeking to have the isi labelled as terrorists .. as with irans revolutionary guard.

the usa-uk-india have a long reach into pakistan through their proxy pak taliban militants )jundallah) and nationalist orgs (bla)that have been resurrected in kabul with indian help ..

camerons efforts in india was to help along that demonisation for intervention in pak .. he is after all on the war bandwagon .. he is as deceitful as blair when it comes to the politics of war in that region.

the fact is that very little has been evidenced or exposed in the public domain - especially by our present and past govt .. it is all rumour and gossip.

the stupidity of the stance is that in the end we are going to have to speak to the taliban .. not just the so called good taliban that we use for our ends but those who object to our illegal war and occupation. the isi if anything are one step ahead .. and as a matter of fact musharraf had from the get go always said that our interventions are only increasing the problem and that negotiation was the only way forward.

anyway the usa drones have again illegally killed another 20 pak citizens ..

CHESS

When a senior piece makes a strategic move, it has no interest in the wellbeing of pawns, only in the exercise of power. So it is with the Westminster game of (party) governance. Changes in healthcare (sickness management) are point-proving power-plays, outcomes are secondary. If politicians REALLY cared about HEALTH, they would start with tobacco and alcohol (have they closed the 19 Westminster bars yet?). But that would knock a hole in their spending POWER.

WESTMINSTER'S PALACE
Life in Britain is still feudal. The ignorant masses run from the Westminster Citadel, where flouncing poseurs hold ritual court. But it has all got VERY complicated, what with multicultural ghettoism, imaginary money and creeping madness. The political ninnies are of a low order of philosophical awareness, quite unable to either recognise a single tree, let alone realise that they make up the wood.

Oh - it's all going awfully well.

#24

2 parallel systems, you say, one big and one small? Expensive to run?

Just wait and see what the response is.

"24. At 10:24pm on 24 Aug 2010, John_from_Hendon wrote:
NHS

The most crass and appalling thing about this governments NHS reorganisation is that yet again they obdurately refuse to learn from past errors, or the experience of hundreds of years of changing admin systems of large organisations!"

They know exactly what they're (destructively/opportunistically) doing, this is no 'reorganisation'. A NATIONAL anything is contrary to all Conservative ideology. National anything is too much like the Soviet system.

Power to front-line 'service providers' is how they denationalise/privatise. Watch how GP polyclinics etc fare without Health Authorities - they'll be like Head teachers without LEAs, i.e easier to privatise as Centres of Excellence etc, which will mean 'their' land will be sold off, and they'll be sold 'services' by entrepreneurs at 'very competitive rates'.... .. It's akin to putting children in charge of procurement. They are wreckers.

#31

Do you think, tb01, that the government are planning to sell me lock, stock and barrel together with the NHS?

I've come across the following quote by Robert Schumann:

鈥淭o send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.鈥�

I'm not sure whether all artists would agree with that. Artists create as they feel, admittedly with thought added, so I do not believe that there is any duty imposable on the creators. It nevertheless feels wonderful to have this kind of effect on others. Infinitely so even.

'But not everyone is happy about the move. '

Charitably, that should be taken as read about, well, anything.

How this lack of satisfaction is articulated, assessed, answered and/or debated are of much greater interest.

Sadly, the opportunity for those unhappy and vocal seems wide open, and seldom is any effective counter offered in favour of those simply unhappier with the unhappy.

Good for ratings. Not sure what other function gets served.

Just to advise a small, currently harmless, but potentially evolutionary 'glitch'.

When I post, the system seems to flip to the first post and reassign 'Number 1' instead of the usually 'awaiting mod' countdown and new queue position.

This gets cleared/resolved on refresh. But suggests a possible problem in the offing.

FYI.

burnham just lost his election in that hysterical interview

elms

there are resistant elms they could plant.

The Purrfect escape

apparently its not a crime to put a cat in a bin and then leave it so it either starves/dehydrates to death? is that attitude to animals a good omission in the laws?

No doctor is a god, whether a fully trained medic or an academic one. The GMC are currently investigating Dr Patel. It looks like the one who 'looked after' Michael Jackson, the musician made thousands if not millions of people dance in the world, is probably going to face justice.

And there are others also under investigation. OK?

BLOGDOG'S I-T COUSIN (#35)

This blog has all sorts of funnt ways Junkk. My double post was becuase '1' went into cyberlimbo until I posted '2'.

Blogdog is similarly erratic.

BLOGDOG'S I-T COUSIN (#35)

This blog has all sorts of funny ways Junkk. My double post was becuase '1' went into cyberlimbo until I posted '2'.

Blogdog is similarly erratic.

BLOGDOG'S I-T COUSIN (#35)

This blog has all sorts of funny ways Junkk. My double post was becuase '1' went into cyberlimbo until I posted '2'.

Blogdog is similarly erratic.

Oh - it gets better. When I try to post this, I get a note telling me I already made the comment @ 1!

BLOGDOG'S I-T COUSIN (#35)

This blog has all sorts of funny ways Junkk. My double post was becuase '1' went into cyberlimbo.

Blogdog is similarly erratic.

Oh - it gets better. When I try to post this, I get a note telling me I already made the comment @ 1!

CONFUSION REIGNS (#35)

This blog has all sorts of funny ways Junkk. My double post was becuase '1' went into cyberlimbo.

Blogdog is similarly erratic.

Oh - it gets better. When I try to post this, I get a note telling me I already made the comment @ 1!

TEST

Whatever I type, I get a message telling me i already posted that comment @ 1.

test

NHS COMPLAINTS UP - NOW WHY MIGHT THAT BE?

Is it remotely possible that MONEY is not the answer to good healthcare?

Might Manglish play some part? Or cultural mismatch, in finely nuanced situations? Perhaps the 'degree nurse' is proving less solicitous that the instinctive one?

Is this the Blair/Brown divident we failed to spot, while watching the wars?

Oh - it's all going awfully well.

The NHS...

would fare much better if it was only the NHS without the word INTERNATIONAL in front of it.

If it was honestly debated who would get care and how much when people move to Britain it could only be a good thing.

Whilst I feel sorry for the children of Pakistani first cousins (Channel4), surely with strong advice from their doctor they could understand this was a bad practice to intermarry so closely. And of course the children are all cared for by the NHS and education system. So why do we shoulder this burden that we didn't ask for?

Is there no limit to the actions peole can take? Look at the other interesting programme after the first cousins one, our stupid people drinking and drugging themselves to death, but still expecting the NHS to care for them and make their bodies whole again!

Isn't it about time we debated who and what should be treated on the NHS, (should that tatoo really be removed free), and people take more responsibilty for the actions?

How often are IFS correct in their forecasts ? If they are just going to churn out these reports of doubtful accuracy I think the government should scrap the quango that provides them with funds.