Morning music
On this day a year ago
Saturday quiz
Well, I again beat political journalist John Rentoul this week— 5/10 as against his slightly shocking 2/10.
I would have scored 7/10 had I been able to recall the answer to question 7 (which I basically knew) and had I been more observant in the many billiard rooms I have seen, and so been able to answer question 4.
Apart from those questions 4 and 7, I did not know the answers to questions 3, 5, and 10.
NHS
“A father-of-two who waited 20 hours in A&E only to be told to see his GP ‘refused to leave’ the hospital without vital blood tests – which revealed he was suffering from terminal cancer.“
“Following the diagnosis he says the treatment and care he has received has been ‘amazing’.“
[Daily Mail]
The NHS is a fine idea, which in practice is often also very good, but which is also often terrible.
The “free at point of use” foundation I support completely, but not for blacks and browns who come to the UK to get free healthcare off the back of the British people.
Increasingly, it seems that NHS healthcare is very hit-and-miss, and for many years there has been both terrible mismanagement and/or maladministration. There has also been a widespread (and from what I have seen) justified perception that basic matters, such as hospital cleanliness, have been left undone, or not properly done.
Further, not all NHS staff exhibit the compassion that they should, and that others do.
“Covid”, even now, has become and remains the go-to excuse for poor service, whether seeing a GP or using a bank branch (my own bank has now reduced its hours to those last seen c.1980).
American “pay or die” healthcare (a simplification, of course) is unsuitable, but so is an NHS which is now little more than a skeleton service.
What matters is what works for the people, “for the welfare of the people is the highest law” [Cicero].
Tweets seen
As I blogged when Starmer became Labour leader, even if you leave aside the fact that he is a puppet for the Jew lobby, the bastard is as dull as ditchwater, and has no vision, only pettifogging detail work to offer.
Wait until you see the lazy reporting from Ukraine…
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More tweets seen
An effusion, though, which took its force from Brooke’s class origins (without wishing to seem “Marxist”). The poorer classes were considerably repressed at that time, arguably more so than in some other countries, even European countries (e.g. France).
Brooke, though not an aristocrat or very wealthy, was from the reasonably-comfortable middle classes, arguably the most loudly-“patriotic” strata of English society in that era.
Incidentally, while looking up a few things about Brooke, I happened to see this Wikipedia entry about a young lady with whom it seems that Brooke had an affair: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Laird_Cox. Interesting character.
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A brief observation about the intolerable weather
As blogged previously, I have not only visited, but lived and/or worked in hot countries, albeit at a younger age, but there is something exceptionally oppressive about the heat this time.
I had to go out yesterday afternoon. Walking to the car, I felt the sun to be as fierce as I remembered it to have been once or twice in places such as Qatar. The sun felt, on the head and back, like some active and hostile force.
Disturbing to have such a feeling in England.
Late tweets
I blogged as much a few days ago.
How can Ukraine “win”? What would a Kiev-regime victory look like? All Russian troops pushed back into Russia proper? All Russian people deported? Crimea (and its 90%+ Russian population) placed under Ukrainian martial law (or rule, without law)?
If Crimea is attacked seriously and heavily, or if Russian forces in the Donbass region are pushed back and out, Russia will probably resort to “battlefield” or “tactical” nuclear weapons.
What would be worse for Russia, Ukrainian cities —including Kiev— flattened, or Crimea occupied by Kiev-regime forces, or Russian troops and civilians pushed out of Ukraine? I think, that for Putin at least, defeat is unimaginable, and he will do anything to prevent it.
Ha ha! A trifle crude, but true all the same.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 