Peter Hil lBY
DAVID CAMERON promises seven days a week access to NHS treatment by 2020 and another £ 80billion in the health kitty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The coalition has had five years to sort out the NHS, plenty of time to tackle the weekend dead spot when doctors think work is a four- letter word.
But you’d be daft to think Ed Miliband could do any better. Labour had their chance and failed. Don’t politicians realise the public is too savvy to believe their bland promises? The more we hear expressions such as “As I’ve made perfectly clear”, “I hear what you say” and “Going forward we will…” the more we regard them with contempt.
The NHS has been stumbling for decades. No amount of money has changed the dinosaur’s plodding course. Don’t get me wrong. It works after a fashion. It’s still free apart from prescriptions, now pretty expensive unless you live in some regions or qualify for exemption. You will get treatment sooner or later. Queues can be horrendous but most patients come away praising medical staff even if hospital food and conditions are sometimes pretty awful.
No doubt it could be better but no one really knows how to make that happen and ill- conceived change makes things worse.
Do I know the answer? Hell, no. qAN
Argentinian film called Wild Tales might have tipped murderous co- pilot Andreas Lubitz over the edge. I saw the movie on Saturday and it’s a provocative lesson in vengeance.
In the first of six examples passengers on an airliner realise they are all connected to one man they have upset in different ways. Then it turns out he has locked himself in the cockpit. I’m not spoiling it by telling you he deliberately crashes it because that is obvious from the start.
The film is newly released but a trailer showing the airliner scene has been around for a while. It’s just possible if he saw it that something flipped in Lubitz’s already twisted brain though the poor passengers and crew on the Germanwings flight were completely innocent victims.
It wouldn’t be the first time fiction has inspired real- life horror. qTHE
Clarkson affair grows more stupid. By sacking the Top Gear star the BBC has said goodbye to hundreds of millions of pounds which we licence fee and tax payers will no doubt have to make up so the corporation’s luvvies can continue patronising us with right- on programmes.
The decision to fire Clarkson was an act of self- righteousness dressed up as principle. Most organisations would have found a way to sort it out sensibly. Now North Yorkshire Police seem determined to get in on the show, questioning witnesses and saying they might prosecute although the man Clarkson hit doesn’t want to press charges. Hasn’t this fiasco already gone far enough? qANYONE
caught urinating in the street will be made to clean up the mess under a new regulation by Eastleigh Council, Hampshire. Quite right. This nasty practice is definitely on the increase everywhere.
But what about another far bigger problem: dogs? Yes, I know they have to do it somewhere and, yes, owners today are mostly conscientious about picking up excrement but no one bothers to sluice down the many spots where dogs pee during the course of a walk. The approach and entrance of my local park stinks strongly of dog urine. It’s very unpleasant.
Dog owners are furious at any aspersions against their beloved pets. They don’t want to know about the nuisance and health dangers posed by the mess they leave. They would say it’s ridiculous to expect them to carry a can of water around to wash away the smell.
I agree it would be difficult but if you have a dog you have to accept the responsibilities that go with it. qINSPECTORS
reveal a catalogue of neglect and incompetence at 40 per cent of care homes in Britain. Life in these places is hell for thousands of elderly people unable to look after themselves. In fact it’s no life at all.
Anyone maltreating animals would be jumped on by the RSPCA and the police but humans don’t seem to count for much. We just want them to go away quietly.
The Bible says, “Do unto others as you would be done by” but although people know they, too, are likely to grow old they don’t see that tomorrow’s neglected folk will be themselves if the problem is ignored.
Next time a politician knocks on your door seeking your vote ask what they are doing about the disgusting care homes just around the corner. qTHE
boss of Debrett’s ( of all people) deplores that when it comes to getting a job it’s still who you know rather than what you know that counts. A study shows that seven out of ten young people use family connections to start their careers.
This is one fact of life that won’t change. Revolutions in Russia and China in which the old order was completely annihilated simply developed new elites who ensure their children get the best education and jobs. One selfperpetuating aristocracy replaces another.
It’s human nature to look after your own. qARTIST
Oscar Santillan hacked a piece of rock from the summit of Scafell Pike in the Lake District and put it on display in an art gallery. Cheeky sod. Like Sisyphus he should be made to push that rock back up the mountain and keep on doing it till he’s learned not to deface a famous landmark.