I was reminded once again last night by "you know who" that I am a
sad git because I watch the parliamentary channel, not so much the
debates in the House of Commons but the sittings of the various
committee hearings. The claim is why do you bother, you
aren't there, you can't take part and the exercise is pointless.
Well of course it is pointless in that sense but then so is so much of
what we read and watch. We do it as an exercise in trying to make sense
of the world around us, trying to educate ourselves, not so much to
effect external change but to come to terms with
an internal change as we learn what is in store for us in the future.
The Lords were having a hearing on the funding of the NHS and its poor orphan the Social Care offered outside hospital.
From the entrepreneur who ran a thing called Global Services, a sort of think tank looking at best practice across the world who was very persuasive in a marketing sort of way, to the Governments Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Scientific Advisor and a Professor who's expertise lay in his study of the growing disconnect within society as a whole, the Attainment Deficit which causes so much stress on a Health System designed in the 50s to deal with acute health issues but which has grown into a hand holding Aunty for many.
One is struck by the reliance on statistics and the part story they tell when listening to the Government advisors, as if the collection of facts and figures is enough to dictate the picture of need. A great play was made for the interconnectivity through IT of more statistics and reducing the inevitable overlap in a specific regimes area of expertise with another. Planning seemed to be a major question mark with plans not passing the medium term. The revealing absence of 'preparation' to meet known pandemics such as Alzheimer's, a sort of national "sticking the head in the sand" syndrome for which we are past masters in this country. As with all government employees, the absolute acute resolve not to have a view outside their remit, as if a lobotomy had been performed to exclude any thoughts which might get them into trouble with their political masters.
Scientific journalists such as from The Lancet, the Economist, the Guardian were much freer to hold and offer opinions and whilst their Lordships were interested in frightening the pants off the obesity fraternity, much as had happened with smokers and drinkers the jurnos were sceptical that without sanctions, education has a limited effect when it comes to eating issues.
The ever increasing funding was a misnomer if one recognised how, creating a fit health population with self esteem could contribute massively to the economy making the need to expend money on the genuinely sick, old and in-firmed once again affordable.
Attainment, schooling, parental education all massive hurdles which successive governments have paid lip service to but with private health care and a Harley St doctor to attend to your needs I suppose the effort to find a solution will be as far off as it ever was.
Dying is a great leveller. Perhaps we should all be inculcated into Buddhism to make our passage easier.
And so back to the question, why bother to listen to old farts rambling on about what ifs. Why not tune into Jeremy Kyle and see for oneself the disaster space some people live in or, better still, watch coins slide towards the edge of a shelf hoping yours will be the one to fall first.
Life is a game of two halves. At half time you are only one goal down and you have all the rest of the second half to get the equaliser but as the game moves on and you near the final whistle scoring a goal seems less and less important, merely attending the game is enough.
The Lords were having a hearing on the funding of the NHS and its poor orphan the Social Care offered outside hospital.
From the entrepreneur who ran a thing called Global Services, a sort of think tank looking at best practice across the world who was very persuasive in a marketing sort of way, to the Governments Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Scientific Advisor and a Professor who's expertise lay in his study of the growing disconnect within society as a whole, the Attainment Deficit which causes so much stress on a Health System designed in the 50s to deal with acute health issues but which has grown into a hand holding Aunty for many.
One is struck by the reliance on statistics and the part story they tell when listening to the Government advisors, as if the collection of facts and figures is enough to dictate the picture of need. A great play was made for the interconnectivity through IT of more statistics and reducing the inevitable overlap in a specific regimes area of expertise with another. Planning seemed to be a major question mark with plans not passing the medium term. The revealing absence of 'preparation' to meet known pandemics such as Alzheimer's, a sort of national "sticking the head in the sand" syndrome for which we are past masters in this country. As with all government employees, the absolute acute resolve not to have a view outside their remit, as if a lobotomy had been performed to exclude any thoughts which might get them into trouble with their political masters.
Scientific journalists such as from The Lancet, the Economist, the Guardian were much freer to hold and offer opinions and whilst their Lordships were interested in frightening the pants off the obesity fraternity, much as had happened with smokers and drinkers the jurnos were sceptical that without sanctions, education has a limited effect when it comes to eating issues.
The ever increasing funding was a misnomer if one recognised how, creating a fit health population with self esteem could contribute massively to the economy making the need to expend money on the genuinely sick, old and in-firmed once again affordable.
Attainment, schooling, parental education all massive hurdles which successive governments have paid lip service to but with private health care and a Harley St doctor to attend to your needs I suppose the effort to find a solution will be as far off as it ever was.
Dying is a great leveller. Perhaps we should all be inculcated into Buddhism to make our passage easier.
And so back to the question, why bother to listen to old farts rambling on about what ifs. Why not tune into Jeremy Kyle and see for oneself the disaster space some people live in or, better still, watch coins slide towards the edge of a shelf hoping yours will be the one to fall first.
Life is a game of two halves. At half time you are only one goal down and you have all the rest of the second half to get the equaliser but as the game moves on and you near the final whistle scoring a goal seems less and less important, merely attending the game is enough.
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