Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, PeterBB said:

…Who actually wants to pay more tax? - Nobody!  

I wonder how much antipathy to, or resistance to paying tax, is fuelled by the fact that the government, both at the National and the local level, is not particularly good at efficiently, wisely and effectively spending the taxpayers money; squandering a lot on vanity projects, unnecessary internal bureaucracy and “flavour of the month“ activist bandwagons to jump on.

 

I, for one would be more than happy to pay a little more tax IF (and it is a big if) i was confident that my tax money would fund something like better Street repair or new equipment for the local hospital.

[polybear]

30 minutes ago, The White Rabbit said:

Thoughts with those with health concerns/problems, including Mr H and Peter BB. From my own experience, both personally and those close to me, it's not the GPs which have let us down or crippled or killed us but a combination of hospital staff, consultants and politicians.

 

In Momma Bear's case it was the GP, 100% guaranteed.  I could quite easily have "taken it further" afterwards, but would very easily have ended up in deep poo (not that I cared at the time). 

 

Insofar as my own experiences are concerned when I was being investigated for "The Big H", the GP concerned (a long-standing member of the Practice) initially arranged a Bonce CT Scan rather quickly but after that did bvggerall for many months, despite promises and repeated chasing (even the Practice Receptionists were chasing him).  Eventually I got the right 'ump and asked to speak to the Practice Manager - when I explained why I was offered an appointment for later that day with one of the Practice Partners; I saw her and told her what hadn't been going on and she immediately replied "right, we'll do what we should've done 3 months ago......"

And when I saw the Consultant the first things he ordered were an Abdominal Scan and a Gastroscopy - the sort of tests where you'd much rather they don't find anything......

Now if they had found something then there would've been 3+ months (at least) where I could've been receiving treatment if the original GP had done his job properly.

 

I dumped that Practice not long afterwards (a very good move) - it used to be a "model of how a Practice should be" but the last time I had an appointment there it was like walking into The Bronx.

[iL Dottore]

6 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

Bloody hell those cakes are expensive..................................

For a mass produced supermarket cake, I’d agree with you there.

 

A Waitrose No.1 Lemon & Lime Drizzle Cake? - that’s £6.25 to you, Sir

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Dave Hunt said:

Just popped in to wish our Swiss medical rep a very happy birthday with lots of good grub and cake to follow. 

 

Dave

Thank you Good Sir,

 

So far, it has been a pretty quiet day: I have finished stage one of packing for Japan (selection and laying out of clothes et cetera); a light lunch of a home-made “brick” sandwich was had (In other words, a sandwich so stuffed with meats and cheeses that it has the thickness of a reasonably sized house brick); Friends stopped by with some birthday presents – some mini cakes and biscuits and the new Heston Blumenthal cookbook (which my friend swears absolutely transformed how he makes naan bread); and tonight the Wolfpack, Mrs ID and I will be heading out to a local eatery for a bit of culinary indulgence (triple cooked chips and ice cream may be involved [but not together])

 

Cheers iD

[pH]

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Sauté pans at dawn! (If you’ve ever dropped a professional grade sauté pan on your foot [as I have done - fortunately not one in use] …

You keep spare feet? 🤪

[Erichill16]

9 hours ago, polybear said:

Especially for you, @iL Dottore (and I'll be most disappointed if you wimp out before the full 1m 30s):

 

 

Believe it or not it also my sisters birthday AND she is also a doctor! 
I thought I’d send her this then I thought ‘Robert, you really need to review your medication’  Im not sure whether i need to increase or decrease it!

[Barry O]

7 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

This seems to be the case right across the NHS, nurses doing some work, but doctors doing little or nothing at GP/Health centres, it has the feeling that it is co-ordinated, by I am guessing, the tory government to get us used to either paying or having a third world countries version of what the NHS used to be. Just like dentistry that used to be free and now NHS treatment is almost gone, when did we allow that to be privatised?

Nope,, Tony Blur introduced the new GP contract which lets GPs work 3 days a week as they see fit....

 

Baz

Edited June 8, 2023 by Barry O

[Barry O]

7 hours ago, woodenhead said:

£108 per tooth removed for me at the moment - two coming out, should have done it when it was £55 - my fault.

probably covered the cost of half a tank of fuel in his new Porsche Cayenne..

 

Baz

[DaveF]

I wwnt to the Thursday comunion service once again thius morning and then had coffee and chatted and caught up on news of a few people.  I have also found that the things I no longer want might be of use to some refugees so will sort them out and take them to church next week so they can be distributed - assuming they really will be of use.

 

I had a nice walk on the promenade though it was cold then came back and cooked a good chicken dinner.

 

This afternoon I've done a bit more gardening and some model things, at long last a bit I sometimes find boring and fiddly is done so I can do things I look forward to more.  I can't find anything on TV today so I might get my book finished this evening, then I can start on another one.  I hate to think how many (hundreds) I still want to read.

 

Evri delivered a parcel intact and on time today and the firm had sent the right things.

 

David

[tigerburnie]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Sorry, but that’s utter ******

Do you know what GPs do when not seeing patients? How about

• Reviewing lab reports; CT, MRI, PET Scan reports, pathology reports
• Integrating the results of said reports into patient care plans
• Writing long reports for short procedures for the NHS (e.g. removing earwax from a clogged ear now requires about a page of notes instead of short sentences along the lines of “removed earwax, tympani OK, no other findngs”)
• Keeping up to date with NHS and other (internationally recognised) guidelines for disease management best practice
• Keeping up to date with NHS guidelines on non clinical matters that have to be followed
• Keeping up to date on the latest pharmaceutical developments (sometimes accompanied by thoughts of “I wonder if NICE will turn this one down as well?”)
• Finding time for mandatory CME (continuing medical education)
• Dealing with the NHS paperwork that practice staff can’t do or aren’t allowed to do.
• Dealing with practice management matters that can’t be delegated to practice staff (if a partner)

And maybe

• Grab something to eat/have a cup of coffee

With all that (and more) to deal with and not enough full-time GPs to go around, the “doing little” GPs are doing all the review work of several GPs (and much more besides)

 

According to the UK’s ONS the number of patients per fully-qualified GP has risen over recent years, from 2,100 to 2,300. If a GP wanted to dedicate 15 minutes to each patient and willing to work a 60 hour “facetime” week (so without paperwork, etc.) it’d take almost 3 months to work through the patient list…

 

No wonder GPs are bailing out and becoming locums: better money, minimal paperwork, better hours, minimal practice related stressors.

 

If you want to blame someone, blame those governments (of all political persuasions) who think it is appropriate to micromanage patient treatment and care (and that goes for other medical specialties, not just GPs)

I have friends at various levels in the NHS, I do have a finger on the pulse of what is happening in my county, so not utter carp at all.

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Not many people know that between 1718 and 1775 over 52,000 convicts were transported from the British Isles to America, mainly to Maryland and Virginia, to be sold as slaves to the highest bidder.

 

I didn't want to complicate matters with the convicts being transferred as "indentured servants", in other words slaves.

[PupCam]

Late Afternoon All!

 

Some very interesting and thought provoking posts on the woes of the NHS recently.     I agree with all of the very rational statements on the cause of those woes and the similarly very rational statements on what goes on behind the scenes unseen by Joe Public.   However, I also have my own personal experience to deal with (as do many others) and I'm afraid that rather clouds the issue!    I know they are all over-stretched, I know they are all under-resourced, I know GP practices are 100% overloaded by the relentless, ill considered expansions of local communities without the benefit of the necessary infrastructure to support them but I'm afraid all that knowledge and logic counts for nought when you collapse in a big heap with a serious condition and have to be scraped off of the floor ........

 

But of all the recent posts, this one of Jamie's is by far the most poignant.    Just one example of thousands and thousands of similar ones all completely different in one sense but all completely the same in another.     That really makes you think!

 

3 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

My fathers cousin, who I refer too as my uncle enlisted in the Manchester Pals in August 1914. He was pulled out for promotion as a grammar school and university scholar and returned to his unit a a Lieutenant.  After Palestine (I think) he went to France and survived the Somme.   He became the Quartermaster but returned to battalion duties in 1917.  He ws killed near Arras on the 23rd April that year.  The same date my eldest was born.  As an officer his death is recorded in the war diary and I've been able to locate the scene to within 50 yards.  I went with a friend on the actual centenary of his death.  I managed to make a makeshift wreath of red roses, as he was in a Lancashire regiment.

Dave and I then walked from the cemetery at Wancourt to the area where he was killed.  En route we passed this reminder, part of the iron harvest as it's known.

Then we walked on up onto the battlefield.  On the way we met an elderly French couple and chatted.  Ver graciously they tanked us for the sacrifices that had been made on their behalf then with great emotion the old lady said, " You don't know what it was like to be occupied".

 

Then up to where the battalion HQ had been as they assaulted part of the Hindenburg line.  Geoffrey had gone forward to find out what was happening for his colonel.  He was shot on the way back with the message.  The RSM carried him back the last stretch.  he delivered the message then died.  My father was only 3 at the time but he remembered the effect that the loss of their son had on Geoffrey's parents.   His letters home and medals etc are in the Liddle collection at Leeds University.   The action took place in the field in this picture.  It was snowing that day in 1917.  

Jamie

 

1

 

1

 

 

 

In Other News

 

Not a lot to report other than last night's astronomy was (mostly) a complete waste of time.     I need either spend a considerable amount of money buying some half decent equipment OR spend a lot time bringing what I've got up to some sort of reasonable engineering standard.

 

Anyway, I'm not repeating it tonight instead I'm going for a short chug on the Beeza to the local VMCC meet.   Back before it's dark though!    I don't do dark, wet, or cold on a bike these days 😂

 

TTFNQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by PupCam

[The Lurker]

Happy Birthday ID

[The Lurker]

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

For a mass produced supermarket cake, I’d agree with you there.

 

A Waitrose No.1 Lemon & Lime Drizzle Cake? - that’s £6.25 to you, Sir

But the Waitrose Essential version is cheaper- Younger Lurker gets bought one each Thursday along with. a copy of Autosport 

[DaveF]

Happy birthday iD!

 

David

[Hroth]

So many late spring early summer birthdays. Must have something to do with the nights drawing in...

 

Happy birthday iD!

 

[PhilJ W]

Happy birthday ID.

[AndyID]

9 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Andy I think you may have taken the wrong approach by emphasising the safety aspect, had you emphasised the revenue generating potential of well enforced traffic “management”, you’d probably wouldn’t be able to go 50 yards without tripping over police patrols or workmen putting up speed cameras…

 

Well I have received a response from the guv's office which says that someone in the appropriate agency will contact me. Whether or not it will make any difference remains to be seen but I suspect if the right person looks into it they will go ballistic 😀

 

If that doesn't work next step will be a video on Ye Tube documenting all the near misses.

[PhilJ W]

8 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

 

My grandfather was in the Leeds Pals and went to Egypt in late 1915. In (March?) 1916 they were transferred to France. During the Somme he became one of the casualty figures. Some might say that with 'a Blighty one' he was lucky. Though he spent most of the rest of his life (40 years)  in pain. Whether it's better to survive in those circumstances or die will always be a subjective issue. 

 

 

Quite a few people round the world say WW2 started in the 1930s. (Personally I'd actually describe WW1 as the [Napoleonic Wars] as that was also a global conflict). But yes, I'm afraid it's only recently that people have become more aware of their contribution. As mentioned previously, my grandmother was a QA in India/Burma during that campaign and many of the troops were Indian. As an aside, that made for more complex logistics - you had to have separate food for different sections of the 'Indian' troops. To put it crudely, you couldn't just make 100,000 sandwiches with one filling in for lunch - one religion would mutiny if served beef, another would if served pork, etc. So the logistics/catering sections had to consider these cultural and religious sensibilities so as to keep the troops fit and happy. Not easy at places such as Kohima. 

My dad fought alongside Indian troops at Imphal. The ones that were the best were the Ghurkhas though they were Nepalese rather than Indian.

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Busy day today and now knackered. Still going out this evening, SEERS track night, the last until September.

[Ian Abel]

Congratulations on another successful trip around the sun @iL Dottore enjoy any cake provided.

 

BIN day, plenty of activity getting them to the curb and processed by the various trucks.

 

Yesterday uneventful, air quality carp but WAY better then the US east coast for sure.

Today, working as usual, the Mrs taking a quick day trip up to the cabin - various housekeeping etc.

 

17c at BIN time, overcast/poor air quality, high of 25c expected.

 

Carry on.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

(Personally I'd actually describe WW1 as the [Napoleonic Wars] as that was also a global conflict).

Further back than that. The first "Global" war was the Seven Years War 1756 - 1763:

• North America - New France v. British American colonies (started by a Virginian, later famous as the first POTUS)
• Caribbean -  multiple islands swapped
• Africa - Senegal
• India - extensive land and sea engagements
• Philippines
• European Continent - extensive eastern Europe conflict (and the Spanish invasion of Portugal)
• etc

It is really the Seven Years' War that secured the Indian subcontinent as a future British 'possession'.

 

I like this paragraph - and the notion of the "Second Hundred Years' War".

Quote

The war was described by Winston Churchill as the first "world war", although this label was also given to various earlier conflicts like the Eighty Years' War, the Thirty Years' War, the War of the Spanish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession, and to later conflicts like the Napoleonic Wars. Contemporaries sometimes informally refer to the war as "World War Zero". The term "Second Hundred Years' War" has been used in order to describe the almost continuous level of worldwide conflict between France and Great Britain during the entire 18th century, reminiscent of the Hundred Years' War of the 14th and 15th centuries.

 

Despite the name, the American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783) was similarly global in scope.

[Ozexpatriate]

This is a topic of special interest to me, so if I may ...

7 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

Could this be down to the different way of 'pioneering' , the US was pioneered voluntarily so

there was more chance to be an individual ,while Aus was mostly forced pioneering by convicts so 'we look after our own ' would prevail .

(My emphasis). That statement is inaccurate. Australia was *mostly* settled by free settlers - some of whom were manumitted convicts.

 

It is certainly accurate that NSW, TAS and QLD (and, sort of, WA) were founded as penal colonies.

 

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

England only stopped sending convicts to the American colonies when the American War of Independence commenced, and then started sending them to Australia, so like Australia, the American colonies were initially "pioneered" using convicts.

(My emphasis.) That statement is quite inaccurate. Transportation was a Johnny-come-lately to the North American colonies. Its peak was in the 18th century. What cannot be understated is the number of "indentures" who were treated no differently than convicts in so far as their indentures were sold at the dock and they were worked like the slaves or convicts until their time was served.

 

4 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

I  agree to some extent , but I was really commenting on the original landing in 1620,

(My emphasis) That statement is inaccurate. The first (successful) permanent English settlement in North America was Jamestown in 1607.

4 hours ago, Sidecar Racer said:

convict transport was about 100 years later so the real pioneers were free to do the best for themselves

while the convicts would have been in a similar situation to the Australian ones .

 

From Wicki with my bold word .

 

Not many people know that between 1718 and 1775 over 52,000 convicts were transported from the British Isles to America, mainly to Maryland and Virginia, to be sold as slaves to the highest bidder.

(my emphasis) I agreed with your post - except the bolded part.

 

In Australia, the foundational colonies (NSW, TAS and QLD) were penal colonies - run by the government. There were no "penal colonies" in British North America. Yes, large numbers of convicts were transported, but, as you quote, their servitude was auctioned at the docks to private individuals - just like those under indentures and African slaves. So the 'organization' of the convict labour was very different.

 

In Australia it served colonizing. While many transportees worked on subsistence farming for the colony they also worked on public works. In the North American colonies they served private individuals. 

 

I recommend "Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America" by Anthony Vaver. He provides the following summary:

Quote

Immigrants to the 13 colonies 1700 – 1775

Convicts                                52,200                       9%

Indentured servants          96,600                     18%

African Slaves                   278,400                     47%

Free                                     151,600                     26%

Total                                    585,800                  100%

 About ¾ of the pre-revolution, 18th century immigrants to the North American British colonies did so without their freedom. 

 

Many of them (African chattel slaves excepted) would have white-washed their 'history' once manumitted and the revolution occurred. It is my hypothesis that this is the main reason the notion of "freedom" is so important in US culture.

 

Edited June 8, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Oops on 1607

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

Well I have received a response from the guv's office

Is your 'main road' a state highway? (I was imagining a county road.)

[AndyID]

1 minute ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Is your 'main road' a state highway? (I was imagining a county road.)

 

It's county so it's not exactly under state jurisdiction. But it is a serious threat to anyone using it and I am hoping the state can put a rocket somewhere. I'm sure they have their methods.

 

If they come back with "we can't do anything" it will be a video on the tube labelled "Suicide Junction".