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.

Making the poor even poorer

The Tory government as always proves it is in government for the rich.  They vilify those who get welfare benefits, picking on a few extreme examples to stir up scape goat feelings against all the poor. They have hit Tax Credit payments and so reduced the income for 70 per cent of working families. The minimum wage is still kept excessively low and has not increased in line with real inflation. It is now considered lower than a living wage, the minimum wage is in fact a pauper's wage and less. The Tory party have been careful not to anger pensioners and kept their welfare benefits and incomes sacrosanct. There is good reason this has happened as it a fact pensioners vote more than any other part of the nation. However, there are rich pensioners who claim benefits they don't need to actually receive. Just as there are pensioners who have not contributed to society by working their entire lives. Just as there are people quite capable to work who have chosen not to work and continue to receive benefits.

If the UK continues on this course there are some inevitable consequences.  The poor will continue to get poorer. Crime will increase, the toll on the NHS will get higher, state pensions, state welfare, state education and income will all reduce. The deficit we are told is going down, but the word "deficit" is used to describe the amount of money still being lent by the UK to survive.  The future fuel energy costs of the UK will increase as there is no sustainable plan to encourage green energy. In winter people will die in their homes because they are unable to heat them. The building projects of the future do not exist.  The UK needs homes. So those who own property will see the values increase but will not be able to move home because the costs of a new home would be too high. Proportionately fewer and fewer new mortgages will be taken up. Over crowding in properties will increase. Landlord's will maximise the income of properties by illegally converting them or building sheds in gardens. Ghettos will grow and gentrification of the better places will increase. Society is gradually becoming segregated by choice and poverty.

Here is a fact. Poor people spend more money than rich people do. Poor people have no choice, because they are poor the proportionately spend higher amounts. This in turn goes back into the economy instantaneously. It is the poor who create liquidity, not the rich. Yet this is not recognised. Certainly not by the Tory's.  The future is very bleak if another term of Tory takes the ballot box. Given the hubris of the entire present cabinet I cross my fingers and truly hope they don't.

Horrors of Open Plan Offices

Whoever invented the open plan office needs a good kicking. I'm sure they are probably hiding under a table somewhere, in a conventional office. Because if they had any brains they'd realise there was a hit list and this is one individual who must be near the top. If not on the top, even, in doing a Google search there is some vagueness as to the original inventor. The word "architect" crops up.  Yes those people who design things for others but don't give a damn about the results, otherwise they would of designed them better in the first place and worked or lived in the places they designed. The hypocrisy is they don't.

Open plan offices are a cauldron of noise, they are unbelievably difficult to concentrate in, because there is always some idiot who speaks up loud or because of their own insecurities and psychologically unbalanced mind desperately seek attention. In the open plan office they can get all the attention they want.  Whether this is in talking about what they saw on TV, their pets, their family, sports.  The subject is irrelevant.  This is probably the biggest bugbear of any open plan office. Some employees need for silence to do calculations, read, or undertake any complex task requiring concentration it's essential. The open plan office takes this away.  Those individuals who have these difficult tasks are then under stress and strain, not just to do their work but also not to make mistakes. It's not like they are colouring in a picture by numbers, what they are doing is difficult and their need for clarity is essential.  Therefore mistakes happen and in business those mistakes can cost money.  Whilst an employer may see the advantage of cramming in employees tight like battery hens, they rather not consider these other costs.

It is mind boggling how employers mix functions of office workers under the open plan office. When mixed all out office war can take place. For example, a group of people who are constantly on the telephone should not be put next to a group who barely use the phone.  It is as though the telephone users intentionally want to stop or harass the non users from doing their work. Their job involves communication, not thinking and there is a blindness to understanding someone else may need to concentrate. They talk normally or loudly, they don't try to subdue their voice.  They fail to understand or see the effect of verbal diarrhoea.

In an open plan office individual's are more likely to be interrupted while they work. They are seen not just as sitting at a desk and getting on with the job, they are seen as available to others. Available to be spoken to, when they would rather just get on with it.  Some people also can not help but talk while they work, and try and engage others in what they are doing. Like the telephone employees it's as though they are looking for approval, as they discuss items or work. By discussion they take away their own decision making process, they share it. If uncomfortable in making a decision or because they don't have confidence in their own abilities. These people are a hindrance as they are being overpaid, and not doing the job they should be doing. But they are human beings, and it could be the personal need for social contact which makes them this way. Especially if they don't get the chance to speak to others outside of the workplace.

Hot desking. This is another useless concept bought in by employers with the advent of open plan offices in a way to reduce costs. No office worker has a dedicated desk, they may have an area but not a dedicated desk. Unless it so happens they have a disability. Then they do have a dedicated desk. However, by dedicating a desk to this individual there then becomes less choice for the remaining hot desking employees to sit anywhere else.

Windows. In the open plan office when one person opens a window the draught is felt fifty metres away in another part of the office which may be quite a bit cooler. On account of convection currents and sun light streaming through the window. Further to this some office workers like a little bit of air and may have a high body temperature, whereas those who like as much warmth as possible because they enjoy a hotter climate don't like the window open.

It is with a great deal of irony how open plan office may even be cited with architectural awards. Awards for all kinds of reasons, the most natural light, the most eco friendly, the most sociable, however the one thing they should be given an award for they are not. This is as suitable places to work in. The employees end up facing the brunt of it them.  This especially goes for the newer offices. The ones where the toilets never work properly, the air conditioning is ineffective or only effective in a certain part of the building so every other employee is baked like a jacket potato, or worse frozen. Lets not forget to mention how it is employers think when a lot of their employees are crammed into an open plan office those employees will require less stationary, or less toilet roll than they did previously.

The resounding effect of open plan offices is a great deal more stress and a reduction in productivity. You can tell the employer to you are blue in the face, but they don't hear.  At which the whip is cracked and you're asked why an urgent piece of work has not been actioned.  Oops, as you think back to a piece of paper which happened to be handy while sitting on the crapper.

Truthfully, open plan offices stink, in more than one way.

The British Class System

There has always been a class struggle in the UK. To state otherwise is being blind. The worst part about this struggle is how the entire British population are blamed for the sins of only a select few. What always comes to mind is the old colonial British Empire. The lust for greed and riches from far off lands wasn't something the general British people wanted to do. It was a sense of dominance carried by the upper-class elite. It was also these person who reaped the benefits of pillaging the British Empire. Not ordinary working class struggling Joe Bloggs. When I look at the way some continents view the UK I can see their envy and hatred. It is deep seated in how the British came to their lands and took. Yet, were they to see the poverty suffered by the lower and working classes of the UK at the time there might be some sympathy.  To imagine a hundred or two hundred years ago the general populace of the UK were ill educated, poor and mere plebs to the rest of society. We were no more enlightened than the general populace of say Pakistan or India now. Or even those poor subservient classes of China.  It is only those who see themselves above the rest of us who gained by keeping everyone in their place. Like the Indian caste system. A very similar societal norm was indigenous to the UK. But this is not elaborated on in history books and clues can be gathered from political history. From the Labour movement, from equal rights and one vote for each adult, regardless of gender.

So in today's modern UK we see a threat from terrorists and extremists who perceive us as rich, slovenly and  decadent, but are so wrong. Were they to know and understand how tough it has been for common society and the worker, the poverty stricken they might feel different.  Education can be a leveller, just as can be winning the lottery. Unfortunately for the most of us the common threads of society, NHS, education, politics are all being butchered.  Eaten away by economic cuts, moves to the centre ground and meddling politicians who think they know better how to organize something than the experts. Lastly not forgetting the cauldron of religion which acts to segregate the peoples further. Multi social groupings don't work, multi culturalism is a fragile concept which again can be torn to pieces by the want of poverty and a voice.

Maybe the ideals of communism would be an answer to it all. But then maybe not just as Animal Farm portrayed. Inherently human beings are selfish, whether they're on two legs or four.  An societies are divided by classes, classes which will always be salient and tangible.  The class system is here to stay regardless of what is ever thought, written or deliberated. Accept it and get on with it.

Amazon, they don't just screw the Taxman

Here is one of those bugbears which can make you go absolutely crazy and demand real justice. It's one of the most loved internet shopping sites in the world, Amazon. In the last few days it has come to be found of over four billion pounds of sales, the actual tax paid by Amazon was about 0.1 %, and it received more in the way of UK government grants than it paid in tax. This is one of the biggest growing companies in the world and they screw over the Taxman. Now when it is a run of the mill ordinary individual who manages to get away without paying a little tax, you might think well good for them. As long as this is not an everyday thing they do, as long as it is proportionate. But celebrities, rock stars, comedians, footballers, actors who do it, well they deserve the full weight of the law against them.  In a similar sense the same should happen with Amazon.  But this isn't new news, it had been common knowledge for some time, but the enormous scale of tax avoidance they are using means this is not just despicable, it is a wanton criminal act.

It is tax which pays for the services to the country. Tax pays for hospitals, fire  brigades, doctors, nurses, police, local amenities, such as parks and play grounds for children. Tax helps pay for Universities, it is through tax the jobless and disabled get welfare benefits given to them and because of tax pensioners have a state retirement pension. So when I purchase goods of Amazon I am effectively getting a slightly cheaper item but taken into account the tax which is not being paid and hence the profits Amazon is making, I am losing out. The country is losing out, every child, man, woman who uses a service which has been paid by taxpayers money loses out. Amazon are not just screwing the tax-man they are defecating on every ordinary individual who buys goods from them. By getting grants from the government higher than the tax they pay Amazon is in effect participating in legalised immoral theft. So Amazon, do you think the public will let you get away with it?

This is a pertinent question.  Personally since December 2012, I have not purchased a single item of Amazon. I've checked over my last year's worth of bank statements, as I didn't have much to do at the time, and there nearly every month there had been some kind of purchase through Amazon.  In the last year these purchases were over a thousand pounds.  I am just one individual. Now if this were to be multiplied by a few more individuals Amazon would find it does not pay to shit at the same table you eat from, which they now do everyday.  The last book I bought I got through a high street shop a couple of weeks ago. Now I intend to use high street shops or UK proper tax paying businesses for any purchase I'd of normally bought through Amazon.

My advice.  Don't just sit there and click on their web site, get up, go out, and spend your money somewhere else. It might cost a couple of quid more, but in the whole scheme of things it will be money spent to support your own country, not to furnish the pockets of an organization which allegedly is based in Luxembourg.

Galloway chastises the BBC

The continuing saga of Maggie Thatcher's demise continues.  Fortunately after tomorrow it can all be forgotten and the incident brushed under the carpet. It has been made into something disproportionately more important than it is. This sentiment was echoed eloquently by George Galloway in a 4 minute interview on the BBC today. He rightly voice how the BBC refused to play the full song "The Witch is Dead," and this was the only means the public had to demonstrate their view of this woman. It seems the entire divisive debate has as much venom in it as the great debate of whether Royalty actually has a place in society today. There are those ultra right wing people who no doubt bow down to both Royalty and will be shedding a tear for Thatcher as well. As Galloways said, Thatcher decimated the mining communities and industry in the UK was cut back by a third. The wake of her rule is still being felt. George also considered it sanctimonious and vile ten million pounds should be spent on her funeral. This is a significant point.

If public funds are being spent on an event then every member of the public has a right to comment or make judgement on it. Whether it is a good comment or a disliked comment. In this case it is because a woman died and there is a notion of politeness to never say bad things about those who have died. Yet, dictators and tyrants have died around the world and it has not stopped news broadcasters from still talking badly of those same persons. Simply if someone dies it doesn't make them any better in life.  We are remembered for what we did and the impact on other peoples lives. If there are persons who felt they were not treated with respect then or had an negative experience I don't see why they should be muffled in their opinions. There are many people in this country who will view Thatcher as a tyrant. There are no doubt families who have loved ones who passed away because of the effects which had reverberated through the policies Thatcher advocated.  Were it possible to weigh on a set of scales the number of lives saved against the number of lives lost through government policy, then Thatcher's scales would be more heavily with lives lost.  There is a public right to speak out when public money is spent and it is unjustified. Tomorrow will certainly be such an occasion.

Galloway on this occasion has expressed a general sentiment which a large proportion of the country agree with. It is wholly unfortunate it had to be Galloway who was given air time to say it and no other more respectable MP had. Galloway will say anything to get into the media and to get a gathering. As someone once said to me who knows of Galloway, "George is only concerned about George."  Politics has made him, popular, wealthy and possibly even given him some status. One thing is for sure though, I know he would not of got on with the Old Witch.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

The legacy of our the late Maggie Thatcher is now ensuring she will live in perpetuity in the history of UK politics. Even in death she has managed to create a stir. This time it is because her supporters have protested against a chart hit from being played in full on the BBC.  It is of course "Ding Dong The Witch is Dead" and it has become a massive download hit on the internet. As internet sales now count this song is fully representative of what the public consider to be contemporary music. Publicly this song has so much backing it is now a hit, yet a small group of Thatcher supporters think it is inappropriate. If this is the case then I can not help why did these opposing supporters not create an alternative hit by purchasing an different song. There quite clearly is not as much support as publicly they acclaim there is. Ding Dong the Witch is Dead, therefore will not be played in full by the BBC, they will play only a few seconds of the song.  The BBC is bowing down. In retort I expect there will be a few complaints from those people who believe it should be playing the entire song, personally I am considering where I stand on this issue. Tory voters will state there is a small minority of people who are rejoicing at her passing, but this can not be true otherwise Ding Dong the Witch is Dead would not of be where it is now.

Maggie Thatcher was not the iconic image of what a powerful woman should be. She was the first woman Prime Minister, an achievement. How she presented herself as a leader was tough but exceptionally divisive. I ask was it necessary to be a person who talked down on people, who demeaned them and came across as a bully?  Maggie manipulated the female vote for her own needs, to get herself voted in. She hoodwinked women using gender as an issue, playing on their naivety not on her politics. Many women voted her in just because she was female and they wanted to show the country a woman could do better.  Now a great many women have regretted they did so, Thatcher's policies ripped apart the nation as they accentuated the class divide.  Further the currying favour with the notion we live in a classless society, we don't. Society by it's very nature will always be class driven and those classes will change, as it is a concept with cloud like manoeuvrability, the wind blows it from one place to another. To an extent, Maggie was an opportunist, she was in the right place at the right time, but she did work hard to be there and to be in the seat of power. Famously she said she lived of only four hours sleep a night. Keeping up with politics is a 24 hour job, or rather 20 hour job. No other politician is said to have been as informed as she was. Pity she was not informed of the devastation and poverty she caused the lower and working classes.

So Ding Dong the Witch is Dead has just as valuable and iconic a place in contempary history as does the passing of the Iron Lady, the two are compatible and useful in understanding two sides of a coin.