Maybe I’m just a cynical bastard. It’s possible. But during this past few weeks, I’ve become ever more crotchety. And it’s not just the forced isolation – despite that being a source of annoyance. No it’s my fellow man. The fetishisation of the NHS for example. Sure, medical professionals generally do a fine job, but what we have seen recently verges on the deification, to the point where it has become vomit-inducing. The clapathon last week, was an example (I didn’t indulge. Indeed I had forgotten all about it until the noise outside alerted me and even then I didn’t realise what it was all about). Today, I was invited to join a group that is planning a ride out in April 2021 to thank the NHS (declined).
The NHS is a top heavy, centrally-planned nightmare of an organisation that swallows cash like it’s going out of fashion and still demands ever more, despite it being below our European neighbours in terms of outcomes. It is, apparently, the envy of the world, yet the world declines to emulate it. But here, in the UK, it is treated like a god and anyone who does not treat it like a god is a heretic who wants to kill or bankrupt sick people with the American system – there being no centre ground here, despite there being a perfectly good, working system just 25 miles away.
The level of pointless virtue-signalling and repeated nagging and ticking off should anyone dare to be guilty of wrong-think – or, worse, go out and drive somewhere nice to exercise the dog, has gone from being merely tiresome to downright irritating. I sometimes think I’m back in the infants’ school being ticked off by the teacher for some minor infraction of the rules. I suddenly realise how facile people can be and how supine when authoritarianism kicks in. Very few are railing against the necessity for this madness. Most simply accept that it is necessary, desirable and good. And anyone who thinks otherwise is rounded upon for being a spreader – if not the disease, of fake news.
The world is rapidly becoming a place where I don’t much want the be. My misanthropy has gone from overdrive to warp factor one.
Ò_o
Theta Sigma called – she’d like her TARDIS back.
Oops, corrected.
Discussion point- If the NHS is so superior to an insurance based system, please explain the chart below.
https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5e6a0fadaa5428000759a47e/960×0.jpg?fit=scale
The social based medical systems are affordable. In the U.K. it’s free, in France a MRI scan is 4,000 euros, in the states its $15.000. Same machine, same method. Someone somewhere is making a lot of cash out of someone’s misery. So much for the Hypocratic oath or ethics in a profit above all system.
In Cyprus an MRI of the entire spine costs €320. And people over 65 get 10% off, so €290. A colonoscopy costs between €250 and €350 with biopsies adding €50 for 4 polyps. All need a doctor to prescribe – and that’s €40 to 50.
Whole lot’s using the private sector. Intense competition keeps the price of routine stuff real low.
It’s not free in the UK, it’s free at the point of delivery.
You got there before me. The cost will be much the same wherever it is done. The difference is who picks up the tab at the time – the taxpayer or the insurer or a combination of both.
I think people are willing to do as they are told for the time being because there is a real and present danger that we are all working together to reduce. I’m hopeful that fewer people would put up with this kind of crap otherwise.
OT but have you heard of a US sitcom called ‘Parks and Recreation’? It is about the workings of local government and is well written and has a character called Ron Swanson who despises all government workings and has inspired lists of quotations. Capitalism is a system for sorting out who is smart and who is poor.
I’ve heard of it. Not seen an episode though.
I have been watching quite a lot of it with my daughter while we have been quarantined. Ron Swanson made me think about you because he seems to agree with you about lots of things.
https://inews-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/inews.co.uk/light-relief/jokes/ron-swanson-quotes-parks-and-recreation-nick-offerman-504691?amp_js_v=a3&_gsa=1&&usqp=mq331AQFKAGwASA%3D#aoh=15857497805776&_ct=1585749800256&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Finews.co.uk%2Flight-relief%2Fjokes%2Fron-swanson-quotes-parks-and-recreation-nick-offerman-504691
Well, I do like breakfast food.
Longrider, no it’s not just you. I’m in NL and the lockdown has been extended to April 28. This after 5 weeks of WFH has done nothing to lighten my mood. The police here are fairly relaxed so going out on walks isn’t a problem. Unlike the UK where the police are overreaching and the lockdown has made me realise what nasty little fascists some people really are.
People are hypocrites in the main LR. I’m fortunate because I live alone and work nights, so that’s got me used to being in my own company. There’s plenty to do around here that I was straining at the leash to get at when I was at work. I’m also fortunate enough to have the best neighbours that anyone could ask for, who, like me, mind their own business.
I’ve come to view the kind of people you talk about from the ‘forgive them, they know not what they do’ angle, because that is the way they think they have to act – because everybody does it – social and mainstream media says so. Otherwise none of them give a shit. They’re just sheep, like the ones who hold faux grief ridden candle light vigils and sing kumbaya when someone died who they never knew nor ever met. All it takes is one single virtue signaller on Farcebook or Twitter.
My daughter is a senior staff nurse, so yes I believe in showing appreciation, as I do with her, but ‘Clap for the NHS’ should have been ‘Clap for our nurses’.
I didn’t hear about it until after the event, but your comment is spot on, although I think junior doctors could be included.
Of course they should. Perhaps ‘Clap for the front line staff’, but it doesn’t have the same ring to it and is ambiguous – the term ‘front line staff’ could be interpreted to include the Police, which I don’t think anyone appreciates right now.
Hypocrisy – everybody is shouting now about nurses not having PPE. When all the panic buying began, visitors were stealing bottles of hand sanitizer from the beds, so much so that it had to be taken away while there was some still left.
During the last 2 weeks, at the hospital where my daughter works, there has been a spate of catalytic converters being stolen, cut off staff cars, causing on average £800 damage each. My daughter has to have a rather expensive parking permit, so its a patrolled car park. Where were the attendants?
These disgusting thieves of cats and sanitizer would be some of the very same people clapping on their doorstep.
If her cat is stolen by pikey scum, don’t buy OE from dealer. Use an aftermarket supplier eg Eurocats, Eurocarparts, GSF
The French healthcare system is the best in the world. It does use some personal insurance but you get some of that refunded depending on what procedures you require to get you healthy again. It is more expensive than the NHS but has far better outcomes especially for cancer patients. (I am not French, I am English but have worked in healthcare internationally for 22 years).
Amazing innit, a worldwide economic and societal shutdown to force a collapse to excuse an overleveraged banking system then blame it on the virus.
NO!
That makes two of us…
What’s with the “Protect The NHS” wibble? Isn’t the NHS supposed to protect US?
To misquote Barry Humphries – “Give the NHS the clap it so richly deserves”
I wonder, did all the Equality and Diversity Managers and Modern Slavery Coordinators* hear the nation clapping and happily think ‘How lovely; they’re doing it for me!’?
Also, is there any plan to put these desk-jockeys to work mopping floors etc while this lasts? BBC news last night gave a fleeting background glimpse of a nurse wiping down surfaces in a treatment room, a job which could surely be done by a less skilled (if higher status) employee while medically trained staff get on with what they do best. In normal times, of course, the unions wouldn’t wear it but now…?
(*Incidentally, the Guardian currently carries adverts for both of these jobs, each paying c.£39k of public money. Also, what does a Modern Slavery Coordinator actually do? I can’t help picturing him/her/them/zie cracking the whip atop a watchtower while hordes of toiling helots construct the new mega-hospitals.)
Read today’s Guardian. Have a meeting with Modern Slavery Team to discuss today’s Guardian. All then write reports on today’s Guardian ‘important’ articles, print and send to Diversity Coordinator. Go home
Or, dig hole in paper bin, then fill in
‘Print and send’ to keep mail boys/men employed
Agree. As for clapping – silence where I am
NHS portrayed as good and “Tory” (ha, ha) Gov as bad
Who’s really responsible for PPE shortage: those ~£300,000pa NHS Trust procurement Directors who should have been stockpiling from December. Their increased orders would have led to manufacturers (eg 3M) increasing production
I’ve not seen a single NHS employee on msm being blamed for shortage, it’s always BoJo/Trump’s fault.
FFS BoJo & Gov don’t make PPE. Matt Hancock doesn’t put in weekly orders for them
Yes, NHS is a quasi-religous cult
Only ‘irritating’? More like angering (see ‘sunbathing banned’ below)
Agree and same here
This is the police – step away from the Creme Egg…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8169709
Um… I was engaging in classic British understatement there.
NSW Police enforcing social distancing
“Under the new powers, police can hand individuals on the spot fines of up to $1,000 with additional fines of $11,000 or up to six months jail if the case is taken to court
NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller yesterday said he had given people enough warning and police would be cracking down on anyone caught doing the wrong thing”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WorH8zaoRU8
Crowds? Where? Only crowd was plod
New South Wales police commissioner has defended his officers after they raided parks and beaches on Tuesday to enforce social distancing rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wtewApkUZo
Sunbathing in the park is fine. What is the goal, social isolation to avoid the spread of infection or population-wide house arrest?
Vitamin D is essential for good immune health, but the cops will come and nearly run you over if you try to get some
Abuse of power? Yes
These powers will Never be fully wound back
One of my daughter’s friends is in quarantine in Sydney having returned from France. The Deparment of Immigration said they could receive takeaway and grocery deliveries, but the police wouldn’t let them through. Apparently they’re having a pissing competition to see who is really in charge.
I did think ‘Clap for the NHS’ was a bit unfortunate. Open to misinterpretation.
Or perhaps whoever coined it was laughing up his sleeve.
It’s not just nurses, a whole army of carers , paid less than NHS staff are working away out there. We would like a bonus when this is all over as we are basically keeping private businesses going for our bosses! Yes we do it because we care for our clients and some one has to continue doing the care work but ultimately the owners of the care businesses/homes are tucked away isolating somewhere while we keep their business going.
O/T
Just learned the excellent news that they’ve cancelled the Edinburgh Festival. That and the Fringe.
So checked about the IOM TT and – sadly – that too has been scrubbed.
A lot of predatory hotels and landlords are going to be hit, so long as their customers used credit cards, otherwise they are free to enjoy a peaceful visit to either place, if they can get there.
Edinburgh’s Festivals cancelled in not “excellent news” for anyone but miserabilists. It’s another cancellation of fun, happiness and trade
Wimbledon cancelled too. Why? Let the matches go ahead with no spectators other than debenture holders. Tennis is ‘social distancing’ sport
The IOMTT being cancelled is a real pisser. Dad and I were booked to go.