Labours Own Goal

I see Labour are up to their usual tricks when it comes to their spin. According to the Sunday Herald

A Character presented as a member of the public in a new Labour election broadcast due to be screened tomorrow night has been exposed as a former senior party apparatchik.

Murdo Mathison, until recently the deputy general secretary of Scottish Labour, is portrayed in the commercial as a typical Scot worried about the SNP's "tax bombshell".

His wife is also used as the other half of a couple anxious about the prospect of a Nationalist victory in May.

Just about what you would expect from New Labour. You cannot believe anything they say anymore. Time to vote them and their Lib Dumb cronies out of government in Scotland.

Hat Tip to MARCIA on Political Betting.

P.S. When reading the article try to ignore all the bad spelling and words run together, they seem to be a "feature" of the Sunday Herald.

Labours Own Goal (from Sunday Herald)

All Good Hope abandon ye who enter here

The supposed text at the entrance to Hell according to Dante's "Divine Comedy" is

"All hope abandon ye who enter here".

Maybe that is the new motto for the NHS, when we read stories like the the attached article reported succinctly in the Times today as follows:

Cleaners at an NHS hospital have been told to turn over dirty bed sheets rather than use clean linen. Good Hope Hospital in Birmingham advised its staff to “top and tail” used sheets to cut the £500,000 annual laundry bill.

Posters instructing staff that this procedure would save 0.275 pence for every sheet re-used were pinned on cupboards and doors leading to the A&E and maternity departments. A health worker said that new patients were being given the same sheets as the previous occupant.

A hospital spokesman denied the practice. He said the posters had been issued three years ago but had since been removed. John Baron, Tory shadow health minister, described it as a concern given that MRSA was such a problem in hospitals. Good Hope recorded 36 cases from April last year to January.

Now you might think that it is a bit too far on the scale of unbelievable cuts in New Labour's NHS, but I had a little story told to me by a close relation, who is an ex-nurse, of how some nurses she know's prepare if they have to go into an NHS hospital.

Apparently they pack two cases, one with the clothes and bits and pieces for their stay, and the other with cleaning equipment and sheets for their stay. Before they use the bed they will strip it, clean it and use their own sheets rather than put up with a dirty bed and the NHS supplied "clean" sheets.

Little wonder they do this when we hear stories like this. The full poem by Dante as translated by H.F Cary makes you wonder if he was thinking of the NHS when he wrote it back in the 1300's

Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov'd:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.

Such characters in colour dim I mark'd
Over a portal's lofty arch inscrib'd:
Whereat I thus: Master, these words import.


Hospital ‘orders’ reuse of sheets-News-UK-Health-TimesOnline

Smoking Gun is Coming

Chris Ames author of the Iraq Dossier site has an article in Comment is Free section of the Guardian about the probable release of the first version or Williams version of the Iraq Dossier that has led to the death of 650,000 people in Iraq and the current civil war that exists there.

His contention is that this version has no mention of the infamous "45 minutes" claim that was apparently inserted later to "sex" up the document so that Blair could "legitimately" go to war.

Its release may be very embarrassing for many people in government and could be the final nail in Tony Blair's legacy.

Post Office forgets what it does!

The new flagship Post Office in Exeter costing £225 million has forgotten one minor thing, yes you can't post letters there at the moment. Not unexpected as the Post Office is closing rural offices all over the place so Exeter in far flung Devon shouldn't be forgotten.

Apparently they do hope to get some soon, once planning permission comes through, and if they can manage to post it somewhere!

Light blogging at the moment due to Kids Holidays, and the current heat wave, its the balmy 70's here.

Macavity Browne

I see our esteemed Defence Secretary Des Browne has been taking lessons from his bosses Blair and Brown and failed to appear for a Radio 2 interview with Jeremy Vine after specifically asking to come on the show this lunchtime. At 12:10 about 1 hour before the interview he was still due on but between then and 1 pm he pulled out, much to Jeremy's displeasure and judging by some the comments to the ire of the general public who were not best pleased. Instead a TV interview was released with the BBC's Vicky Young at the helm. No in-depth digging and basically a feed for Mr Browne to have his say rather than be questioned.

In the interview he basically says it was all everyone else's decision and he just had a "note" passed to him on the telephone about it. So it was only after he got to work on Monday that he changed his mind (more likely had it changed from him) and stopped the selling of stories.

Apart from making Britain, it's Armed Forces and our whole dealings with the Middle East look ridiculous then he has done little harm to us as a nation that hasn't already been done by Blair and Brown.

A resigning issue then you ask? When has a Labour Government Minister resigned when they have screwed up. Better to pass the buck and slope the old shoulders and hang onto screw us again later.

We can only hope that Scotland gives them a severe bloody nose in the May Elections and that both Blair and Brown along with Labour disappear back to the opposition benches as soon as possible.

P.S the photo is of Kali Mountford PPS for Des Browne, I googled for an image of Des Browne and the third one was this. I assumed it was Des in Drag at first!

Where to have your Piles done - NHS Choices

Patricia (Best Year so Far) Hewitt has released details of the scheme to allow "Patient Choice for All"

This appears to be some sort of "super" website that will (it's not available just yet!) allow us the customer to choose when and where we get our piles done. Now for me the choice is either Private or NHS in Aberdeen, my piles will be too inflamed from sitting on them to get to any other Hospital. (Not that I have piles of course).

Patricia then waxes on lyrically about the benefits of "Choice":

We are determined to put patients at the heart of the NHS and making sure patients can access and share information about health services is a crucial part of that. Patients will soon be able to choose, with the click of a button, where they want to have their treatment. Our new choice website will allow the public and clinicians to access a range of information through one super site that will act as a gateway to navigate NHS services.

"Patient choice is about people being in control. Patients needing a hospital appointment should have the right to pick and choose their time, date and place. To make this happen, we need to invest in facilities to help patients take control. Using public libraries and the internet is an ideal way to support patients, families and carers with information."

Actually we used to have this sort of ability many years ago prior to the current Labour Administration, We went to the Doctor and he had the ability to find or more likely know the best treatment, the best person to find out more or the best local Hospital for your need and sorted out the details. Unfortunately Labour then took this ability away when it stopped GP fundholding.

What Patricia has announced here is a dumbed down version of this whereby we "the customer" can now do this all by ourselves thanks to that wonderful internet thing. Just pop down to your local library explain to the old dear there about your piles and she'll help you find your best local hospital to have them sorted out. Just hope she's not too deaf when you try and explain your requirements. Dr Crippen has more on this here.

The Telegraph has more on this here with the last words being from a British Medical Association spokesman who said:

"They are spending an awful lot of money on things like new websites when patients would rather the resources were used to make sure their local hospital was of a good standard, clean and offers the right quality of care."

And remember NHS IT costs are so very reasonable.

GNN - Government News Network: "NHS Choices"