A message to a Tory voter

Imagine a few years from now, you've been to the doctor's, it was a little niggle, didn't seem much to start out at, then comes the waiting to find out more. Weeks pass, months even. An appointment arrives and a specialist takes a sample or two. There's another wait, this time a little shorter and you're called by the doc again to come in and have a chat. The doc says it's cancer, but they caught it a little late, you can have treatment to extent your life but it's inevitable. You will die. 

Then it dawns on you. You had voted Tory to protect the NHS, you had voted Tory to keep your job, you had voted Tory because it was your patriotic duty to do so, to keep the foreigners out, to keep Britain for the British. Yet, your specialist was not British, the nurse who took your bloods was not British and you're still dying. You voted Tory. The lie reaches it's conclusion. Were there really enough doctors and nurses to see you earlier seeing the specialist would of been quicker, getting on a waiting list would of been shorter and your life would of been somewhat longer.

Worse still now imagine it's not you but someone you love in your family, your partner, a child, an uncle or aunt, your mum. All because you voted Tory against your own best interests. You voted to decimate your own health care, you can't afford a private operation and why should you because you've been paying tax all your life. But the Tory reality is wealthy people pay little if any tax. They ensure their money is theirs and nothing is skimmed off by the state. A little like those very big corporations, the ones who have made a killing and made multimillionaires even wealthier. The likes of posh talking people. The likes of those who run tabloid newspapers. The very newspapers you read each day telling you to vote Tory. So lets ask the question. When did those millionaires and those newspaper owners become interested in you and your health? When?

Imoral, misguided or just plain corruption

Boris Johnson has been in power as the head of government for more than a year. He won the Tory leadership contest first and then in December 2019 went to a General Election. So we should only count the days from the GE date rather than the leadership date. He won against an opponent who was toxic to the electorate middle ground. Corbyn, and Corbyn did not consider standing himself down regardless of the heap of negative press which came out of the majority of newspapers. His far left stance was old Labour and granted he whipped up support from the younger generations, he was never going to win those kingmaker mid-political-spectrum-votes. The consequence, a whopping 87 seat Tory majority and a disastrous result for Labour. Effectively now, Boris can do anything he likes in government. To cement his control Boris kicked out the experienced voices of reason, the ones who had level heads and might rebel.

Brand new MPs were engaged in Parliament with fresh willing-to-please faces. The sort who'd never been so high in politics before, eager to side with their master, do what he asks, because it is the Tory party that matters. It is power that matters and he has it all. Yet, in reality Boris is not running the country it is his special advisor Dominic Cummings and what Cummings says Boris follows.  Boris has no strategic plan of where to take the country is area of expertise is jingles the sort which sell tabloids and editors like, especially the "get Brexit done" which no doubt in many years time will be inscribed on a tomb somewhere.

With this government what normally would of been sackable offences and front page news has little value. In years gone by a scandal hitting the headlines would of led to being hounded out of office no longer is this the case. The old news cycle of yesteryear would reveal snippets of information over a few days, papers got their teeth into the story, pressure would mount up and the culprit ignominiously be kicked out of office. But the master of distraction is Boris, he termed the throwing a dead cat on a table.

It's a story which distracts from the primary news, simply a magicians method of misdirection. The news cycle has rapidly changed from hour to hour rather than day to day.  This government ensures the reigns of press are particularly weighted to the Tories as well. Yet we go from one disastrous news item to another, both in themselves they'd singly ensure a change of minister but rapid distraction is like a magician shuffling a deck of cards keeping them in office. We simply forget what happened, we stop shouting at yesterdays news and are aghast at today's news. With so many inept individuals in cabinet, making so many egregious decisions there is always something new to put in print, and so the distraction process of incompetency ensure they stay in power. They have all been promoted beyond their ability, more so than schools' exams fiasco.

Looking across the pond we see similar diversion methods being used by Trump, again a man not fit for office.  British government no longer plays by the rule of honour. Which is Johnson's choice, as the PM sets the culture and the rule book has been thrown out. Services which should go to public tender are given to colleagues to make a quick buck. Independent legal teams such as the Good Law Project are crowd funded are doing their best to bring these persons to account. Yet, these acts of appropriation should not be happening in the first place! This is so outlandish there must be a conscious decision making process going on behind it. It cannot be because of some misguided vision of the world because it is happening repeatedly.  Jobs for the lads can be seen as Cummings farming out contracts to friends.

How can this be right? How can they be getting away with running a government as though it is their own version of Monopoly and they have the cash tin? Again it comes down to an 87 seat majority and a disregard for unstated rules of behaviour and what can only be judged as corruption.

Test, Track and Isolate was taken up by Dido Hardy Harding a pitifully bad executive of Talk Talk who negligently allowed customer data to be hacked, her husband also an MP is on the 1812 committee and is an advocate of privatising the NHS. She also was on the board advocating the Cheltenham Festival take place just as Covid 19 had hit the country.

Rishi Sunak used to be a corporate hedge fund executive working for the Children's Investment Fund management. Which had been blacklisted for tax avoidance. He was also involved in the attempted raid on an American company's pension fund. Something he may consider to put in place for British pensioners in the future. After all he has to try and pretend he's interested in making the books balance. I doubt though whether he has as much money as his multi-millionaire wife. In government, he plays the art of doing what he's told he has no control over budgets he just likes to look competent. Then there was the case of Chris Greyling, the only man to ever buy a cross ferry contract for a company which owned no ferries and then to not get himself voted onto the intelligence committee because for once MPs did

actually vote conscientiously for the best person for the job Julian Lewis. There's talk Cummings wanted another puppet and access to the MOD. What a slap in the face that must of been? It stung so hard the Tories removed the whip from him. He is effectively chair of the highest defence committee in the country with no party. As for Dominic Raab who can ever forgive him saying he would prosecute the Dunn parents using the full weight of his Office for daring to challenge the manslaughter of Harry Dunn and requesting Anne Sacoolas come back to Britain to face justice. His judgement is despicable, he is a nasty individual. His quick wittedness is legendary especially for the time he admitted on prime TV only just realising the importance of the Port of Calais

in BREXIT negotiations. Lastly, lets also not forget the bumbling Matt Hancock a man who likes to lie to your face. He could never have passed his Maths at school because tests sent out in the post are counted as completed tests. He goes on camera and has the appearance of the pupil who didn't do his homework and has to answer questions from a teacher. It's getting to the point the most benign Tory backing interviewers such as Nick Ferari make Hancock look like an idiot and they don't mean to.

This is the worst successive Tory government we've had since the ones before and nobody would of thought it possible. A further three years of this government will lead to riots in the streets, will lead to marches on parliament and will lead to an absolute break down of civil society the like this country just has not seen and would never of thought possible. God help us all, if you believe in a non-existent useless entity that would be the most useless thing to say. A little like our government.

Shipley West Yorkshire - are you proud of Philip Davies your MP?

It is odd how certain places in acquire a stereo type image. Anyone would think Yorkshire of all places would be a friendly down to earth left leaning place. A place where being neighbourly and looking after each other was a norm. Yet somehow Shipley has elected in a Tory MP. Well, it is their privilege to elect whomever they want, however Philip Davies has got a bit of a name for himself. He's the one who likes to prevent as many private members bills single handedly. No matter what they were for. An example would be fellow Tory Nusrat Ghani, who tried to stop the use of the term 'honour killing' for simply it is a misnomer, there is no such thing in it and it should be called out for what it is, murder. The use of the word honour bestows an aura of justification not criminality or evil doing, there can never be any honour in killing. Even though we all think about it at times to our relates the vast majority don't do it. Then there was the occasion when Davies talked and talked and talked, by doing so he filibustered Caroline Lucas's bill in which she wanted to make sex and relationship education mandatory for kids. In fact you'd of thought such a bill to be quite reasoned, Davies didn't think so. He did the same to prevent the Istanbul Convention from ratification. This set a high bar for which violence against women should be dealt with. In a bill to allow free hospital parking for carers he did it again and in another bill to ensure landlords made their properties fit for human habitation he again gassed long enough to kill the bill. In fact it looks like Davies is the original Kill Bill.

So why Shipley, why, have you allowed this man to continue as your MP? People of Shipley is this who you really want to represent you, because it really does look like here is a man who represents himself very well. Do the people of Shipley also think and speak and feel the same way as Philip Davies? Because it is hard to believe they can for this behaviour is pretty low. To take this further there is now a video of a very distraught Luisa Omielan who tried to interview Davies, in a brief and upsetting interview she tried to understand why it was the NHS was suffering from cuts to it's services. Luisa had witnessed her own mother die in a NHs hospital and she was seeking to understand Philip Davies position on the matter. But it didn't end up as one rational person talking to another. Philip Davies shouted, accused and blocked Luisa from leaving with her camera recording of
events that had taken place. It can only be because Davis had shown his underbelly, not only is it yellow and cowardly it was the belly of a bully a man who tells doesn't listen and certainly is not worthy of the post of being an MP. A man who represents Shipley and you have to ask should this man have any power at all in the corridors of Parliament, for it seems there is more compassion in a sewer worker than this individual.

Now Luisa Omielan is a comedian by profession and she's not a hard wing left sympathiser, she does care about the NHS and her experience of it was on a personal level, an intimate level. In witnessing the decline and death of her mother. This is a person who had something to say and her voice should of been heard. Perhaps she should of asked to speak to Jeremy Hunt instead, but then surely any Tory MP should be able to show compassion to another individual and hear what they say. Followed by giving their astute political opinion on the issue raised. In this instance her interview with Philip Davies was scheduled and set in his diary so he had time to consider an answer. The interview wasn't about him being accosted out of the blue by a member of the public it was about him accounting for himself in what is a reasonable request. He didn't rise to it as a gentleman and certainly not as an honourable MP.

People of Shipley, seriously, is this who should continue to represent you?

Good Riddance Cameron

It is great news Cameron has left number 10. He has been a divisive politician who enjoyed the quip of fear politics to get his way. Then with a little sprinkle of hundreds and thousands on top of the cake Osborne to has been sacked as chancellor.  Or rather the word Georgie put out was he resigned, but we know better.  His post was untenable, he could not of stayed in it for all the tea in China. Imagine how disappointed he must of felt finding not only had his mate left he'd lost his job as well. His austerity budgets have reduced the continuing budget deficit but he never sustained an equilibrium, so the debt continues upwards.

Every thing Cameron said could be guaranteed the opposite of what he meant. When he said child poverty was down it had actually increased; more money was being spent on the NHS but he was referring to actual money and not taking into account per head of population which has trended ever upwards.  Greater numbers of Hospitals have been closed under this government than any other ever, mental health services are so dire the most vulnerable in society are suffering enduring torture of and no help. When stating more people were in work, he mean fewer people were claiming Job Seekers Allowance and doing either zero hour contracts or in poverty as self employed. When the Tory's introduced a reduction in tax for the lowest wage earners it was because their coalition partner's the Liberal Democrats put it on the agenda.  We are living now in a time where the richest are amongst the super rich of the world and the difference is so great between the poor it is abhorrent. He espoused it pays to be in work and introduced the new (Pending Titanic disaster) of Universal Credits he then went on to engineer a developing change so these credits were much less generous and are so much now the old system of in work benefits are more generous. In the Tory manifesto and in person Camers stated migration would be brought down to tens of thousands and he used the cliché words "no ifs, no buts" and then migration it a high of 333,000 migrants.

Cameron's government has unequivocally been one of failure. He deserves to be where he is, on the back bench. Even this was a result of his own hubris belief a referendum would result in staying in the EU. Good riddance!

Prescription: legalised death by Liverpool Care Pathway

The Liverpool Care Pathway is a doctor's prescription to allow a patient death.  Like anything else the Devil is in the detail of death, it is how the LCP is administered which matters.  Therefore taking this decision is not a light choice.  LCP is the conscious withdrawal of medication, liquid and food for someone considered to be hanging on to life but would not have much of a life if they were fully compis mentis, who has little chance of recovery. Morphine may be given, which will conveniently keep the patient on an opiate high and prevent them from acting in a concerned disagreeable manner.  After all anyone working or visiting would not want to be greeted by a dying person who in pain is doing nothing but moan and groan. They should die in piece.

If a patient has life, has some kind of mental ability even comatose, LCP should not be taken.  An example is seen in stories of comatose patients who have come to consciousness after a time, possibly weeks or months.  To be awake and conversant with those around them, when nearly everyone had given up.  In addition to this it is remarkable how the human body can survive when it is not fully functioning. Only having one lung, half your body or more paralyzed, the late Christopher Reeve comes to mind.  There are individuals walking about, talking, laughing, contributing to the world who physiologically are well below par, but they are part of it, they are here, their ability to communicate is probably what stops them from being put directly into a morgue.

Secondly, is the conviction with which a decision is made, the confidence and consensus of the decision. To take this choice immediately becomes part of the grieving process. Also if I were the patient in these circumstances I'd not want the decision to be made by most of relatives. Some of whom I am surprised can get up in the morning and make their own breakfast. These are people who are walking, conscious and alive but might as well be dead with the way they live their life and the constant pain of their existence. Just as it is a pain to accept they are my own family.  They may know me but they are not qualified to make a decision about my life or certainly my death.

Thirdly, and importantly is the type and amount of care which takes place after the decision is made to use LCP, or any other form of end-of-life prescription.  For this should be with compassion and dignity, some palliative care is given to make the patient comfortable.  Giving them washes, water when needed, soothing ointments which stop pain from continuing illnesses which are painful but don't kill. A rash, a bee sting, arthritis etc etc.

With the state of the NHS as it is, there is always a need for beds to be free to be taken up by another patient. Everything has a cost as well. Hospitals cannot afford for lingering deaths to happen, it is to their advantage to allow LCP decisions to take place. They may not be entirely neutral in the advice they give.  OK there may be an alleged oath they give to save life, to heal, to give hope, but to believe this without question is naive. Everyone has a right to question, the problem is being emotional and overcome by devastating thoughts and consequences takes the edge off.  To then ask questions, to disagree with medical professionals becomes a difficult task.

Then lastly there are stories of hospitals who use the LCP in a callous way, stories of relatives who have seen their loved ones die in pain from uncaring authority figures who are no more than providing the statistics politicians ask for. But what has to be done, just has to be done. These are the people who should be in court, facing a judge, and considered murderers.

Shame on University Hospital Wales

The care which nurses now provide in NHS hospitals is coming under scrutiny.  Time and time again stories arise how nurses fail to care for patients. This does not apply to all nurses it applies to some, the some who have no compassion for the people they actually look after. Caring for another individual when they're sick is a huge responsibility. To do it correctly includes having all those human attributes which historically have been associated with good nursing.  But now it seems these nurses are failing the patients, not giving them water when they are thirsty, cleaning them when they are soiled or making the last moments of life dignified and comfortable. The fact is, these nurses should not be doing the job. They should be sacked. It's simple.  Unfortunately the only conclusion I can come to is they are protected by the Hospitals they work in and by their colleagues who believe it is loyal to support one of your own staff.

An example of disgraceful nursing care has just come from MP Ann Clywd.  Her husband was terminally ill at University Hospital in Wales. She has spoken about her experience and her husband's death on national radio. If there are any rational spokespersons on behalf of this hospital they should be seeking out who those nurses were on the ward when her husband died. The nurses who put inadequate bed covering on Mr Clywd which would not keep him warm, an oxygen mask which did not fit and did not give him the curtisy of a dignified death.  The nurses, the administrator and the chief executive should all be made to account for their roles.  There are plenty of unemployed people who want jobs and training, and if these nurses are not up to common basic standards of compassion they should not only be sacked but considered to have broken health and safety legislation.  Then called to account and bought to trial. Negligence in the care of sick people is a criminal offence and negligence by common compassion and common sense should be on the statute book.

Shame on you University Hospital Wales