Special Relationship.

I have a special relationship with my daughter & grandsons. I love them unconditionally. Hopefully they love me back - but that depends on two things - whether I'm lovable & where I stand in their circle of family & friends. A special relationship isn't necessarily equally special to both parties.

"The Special Relationship is the unofficial term for the (supposed) exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural, economic, military and historical relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. It was used in a 1946 speech by Winston Churchill". Personally I think the political use of the term is well past it's sell by date - if it was ever relevant or realistic.

Individuals can have a personal special relationship, but countries - surely not. Countries are far too complex & diverse. Countries have different agendas & protect their own interests above anyone else's. The culture of different countries varies enormously in many ways. 

There may be mutually beneficial issues countries can work together on, but that doesn't necessarily denote a permanent special relationship. Once the circumstances change the special relationship goes out of the window & self interest moves in. Anyone who believes that isn't true of Mr Trump is deluded. 

There has been much speculation over the years about the power play of male senior politicians meeting. Who holds the arm of the other, guiding. Who walks ahead, leading. What the body language is saying. Whatever else Trump is he is a wily operator & will have been well aware of the impact of the hand holding. I doubt Mrs May needed it or welcomed it. 

 

Very few realtionships are actually really equal. Trump was metaphorically peeing on the lampost marking his territory & putting her firmly in her place as a mere woman. I wonder if he would do the same with Mrs Merkel.

When is Democracy not Democracy? - The Brexit Referendum & President Trump

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/shaun-lawson/when-is-democracy-not-democracy-when-it%E2%80%99s-in-britain

Just Google the question & see loads of answers which I won't summarise. Read the ones that appeal to you.

I would say that both the Brexit Referendum & the USA Presidential elections were prime examples of how undemocratic Western politics has become. Both dealt in public manipulation & downright deceit. Both showed how venal some politicians can be - prepared to do anything to get the result & power that they want. Both, dear reader, showed how gullible & easily swayed the electorate can be.

That isn't really the point in my view, however much it is anathema to true democrats. The public may well have been misled, but they cast their votes. We now have to accept that, live with it & move on, trying to hold politicians to account & make them deliver on their promises.

In order for democracy to work the populus has to be engaged & directly involved, even if only at election time. That means they have to put some time & effort in. They have to read not only the Mail or Telegraph, they should read the Guardian too. They should watch different TV discussions & documentaries to get a wide perspective. If we want democracy we have to use our intelligence to sift through the facts & discard the dross.

The sad truth is that we get the politicians we voted for. If we aren't prepared to do our part we are the ones who have to pay the price for the person in the seat of power.

Thank God Trump isn't our Prime Minister - hopefully his "America first" policies will mean that he does what most Americans do & stay in his own country, knowing & understanding very little about the rest of the world. However I suspect that even if he isn't interested in foreign policy, his decisions will impact on the rest of the world.

Here at home we need to move forward from Brexit. My concern is that we sound much like Trump, with a grandiose image of our own importance & influence in the world. We no longer have an Empire fortunately. We should stop behaiving as if we do.

Good Friends & Ageing.

Another year gone - 72 & now definitely counting. The news is full of people dying who are in my age bracket & younger. But that's no bad thing. In a way it's a shame we don't reflect on mortality earlier, to make us value what we have more.

What I have is good friends. Friends who sent cards, who emailed, who posted me on Facebook, who phoned, who visited. Although I do love the excitement of opening presents, I really don't need anything. I did enjoy opening my cards & eating my porridge though. It's nice to know that someone is thinking of you.

Friends come into your life & they go. It's the nature of friendship. You need different things at different times of your life. The important thing is to value what people bring to your life & what you bring to theirs. I don't have any friends from my childhood, but I do from adolescence onwards. As you age you have to make a real effort to make new friends, especially if you move house.

When we are young we can carelessly loose friends. I have friends who have fallen by the wayside through misunderstandings, arguments, or simply moving on. Sadly I also have friends who have died, some far too young. When we are old we realise that the things that matter are health, a home, financial security, friends & family. People are important, whether they are casual acquaintances or really close friends that you could talk to about anything at all.

I am very lucky - I hope my friends last. They are important to me.

 
Except when there's no sun. Have friends who are there rain or shine.

NHS - A Complex System in Crisis.

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2017/01/11/nhscrisis-bbc-reports-what-theresa-may-and-jeremy-hunt-are-hiding-now-lets-see-them-resign/

Do politicians really think we are daft? Our first hand experience can be dismissed as anecdotal, but it is real & relevant. We have family, friends & aquaintances who experience the NHS first hand. Each of us probably has a bank of experience of the NHS - both excellent, (probably historical), bad, (probably within the last 5 years), & dreadful, (probably the last year or so).

That adds up to a perception of the reality of service provision that few politicians have, because they probably don't use the NHS. They probably have private health insurance. They also have direct links with private healthcare insurance companies.

http://nhap.org/what-you-can-do/facts-fingertips/links-between-mps-lords-and-private-healthcare/

Theresa May's denial of a "humanitarian crisis" in the NHS does no one any favours. At best she is misguided. At worst she is shockingly ill informed. But she is not alone - the Conservative party is full of people like her. That's why the NHS is in the state it is.

I have a close friend. Her brother developed an acute, incapacitating agonising back problem just before Christmas. He couldn't walk, sit or stand without serious pain. He "didn't fit the criteria for an ambulance to take him to hospital". Eventually they got him to A&E. It was closed! He had to go home. Over the counter painkillers are useless for acute pain like this. Eventually A&E opened. He wasn't fast tracked. They had to sit around for hours waiting for a bed to be available. The only scanner, which he needs, has been broken for days & won't be repaired untill Monday the 16th. This has now been going on for about 3 weeks. 3 weeks of total incapacity & dreadful pain. 3 weeks of stress & extreme anxiety for the whole family.

The medics are in the situation of having to make impossible decisions about prioritising patients which they shouldn't have to be even considering. Whose condition is likely to result in death? Whose pain is worst? Who is most incapacitated? Their job is highly skilled & already stressful enough. Every patient is important & entitled to the best treatment when they need it, not when there is an available doctor or bed.

I imagine that the only way medics can do their job is by trying to keep a degree of emotional separation between themselves & their patients. Not to is the way of complete breakdown & inability to function. The politicians appear to have that emotional separation in spades. They seemingly have no problem condemning patients to a poor service which is not meeting their needs.

This was all forseeable years ago. Any politician worth the name should have been planning for this very situation from the post war baby bulge. They didn't do it. They only look as far as the next election. SHAME ON THEM.

PS
My friends brother became very ill at home. He was very nauseous & kept passing out. Eventually he was readmitted to hospital. They couldn't discover what was wrong. Eventually a medic discovered that they had given him the wrong pain medication & the symptoms were due to overdose. He had been given a high dose, quick release version of Tramadol & told to take too many. This negligence meant that he saw a consultant for the first time since the whole saga began. He is now back home & feeling much better thank goodness. This really shouldn't happen.

Angry with Apple.

Father Christmas bought me an iPod Nano 7 - Lucky me - NOT!

I am reasonably techie & also reasonably intelligent - senility isn't that far advanced yet. I have wasted hours, ably aided at times by an 11 year old grandson & my daughter, trying to get the b.....thing to work. Life is far too short.

This thing cost a minimum of £130. Apple is supposed to be an innovative company developing intuitive software for it's user friendly products - NOT! They are so cheapskate, like most tech companies, they don't give you a decent instruction manual & the online one is out of date.

I have Windows 7 Pro which supposedly supports a Nano. The first issue was downloading iTunes. There was some problem with a "part programme"which seems to be a common problem judging by the amount of comment on line. After a whole afternoon trying I gave up completely & ended up thoroughly frustrated & irritated.

Then 3 of us tried again & wasted a whole morning trying. We did get iTunes, which by the way I didn't want to be my default, I much prefer Media Player, but there is no choice.

Having got iTunes I naively thought my problems were over - NOT!

All I wanted to do was download the podcast of the Archers omnibus which I had missed over Christmas. I eventually found it on iTunes. I also eventually transferred it to the Nano. Hooray! I thought. Success at last. Persistance pays off. NOT!

I simply cannot get the b..... thing to play.

The tech support team are coming again this afternoon. Goodness knows if we will succeed. My point is it really shouldn't be this difficult. What is the point of clever technology which mere humans can't work? I'm reverting to my Samsung MP3 which was a doddle in comparison.

Apple I really do think you have a lot to answer for. I'm not impressed.

 

My advice - Leave it in the shops. 

PS

My lovely family tech support team sorted the problem - so simple - so annoying. I couldn't push hard enough to get the headphone jack properly into the Nano socket!

Eating - Food for Thought?

I was brought up in much simpler times. There were 3 meals a day & not a lot of choice. That was partly because the vast range of foods we have today simply wasn't available, but also because most people I knew were on quite limited incomes.

Most of my childhood & adolescence I had family meals & school dinners sitting at a table, where you ate everything put in front of you. You definitely didn't get pudding if you didn't eat your main meal, which was generally meat & two veg, (boiled). Either monitors, teachers or parents supervised behaviour. Sweets were a treat, as was fruit, (mostly it was tinned). Meal times were fairly sedate. There was conversation, but you were expected to sit & be polite.

Nowadays it couldn't be more different. Children are literally spoiled for choice. A worrying number of people have a very disfunctional relationship with food & family meals at a table seem a distant memory.

When I usher at the theatre we have to clear the rubbish after the performance ends. I am frankly appalled at how much packaging & food is simply thrown on the floor & left. Drinks & ice cream are spilled on the newly refurbished carpet & seats. I simply don't understand why the public seems to be unable to last for an hour or less until the interval without drinks & food. People even go out of the auditorium mid performance to buy a drink or something to eat, admittedly mostly in Panto performances. Do they not eat a meal before they come to the theatre?  It seems so rude to me to interrupt the performers & the audience.

We seem to have developed a really bad habit of constant snacking. People walk along the street eating & drinking. Usually that means highly salted or sugary foods, which have caused the current health problems which threaten the very existance of the NHS. I can remember a time when a coffee in a cafe was a real treat, not any more. It's become so important to our lives that we even post on Facebook when we are in Starbucks or Costa - Why should anyone be interested in that???  

It's ironic that now we know so much more about good nutrition & our bodies we eat & drink more bad processed food than ever before. From my perspective change hasn't been for the better.

Having largely stopped smoking ourselves to death we now seem to be hell bent on eating & drinking ourselves to death.