Land of Hope & Glory ????

Chorus

"Land of hope and glory, mother of the free
How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?
Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet
God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet"

Is this still in the least bit relevant to the UK in the 21st century? It was written in 1902.

How about "Rule Britannia" written in 1740?
Chorus:-
"Rule, Britannia! rule the waves
Britons never, never, never, will be slaves"
The verses are even more Jingoistic - "(characterized by extreme patriotism, especially in the form of aggressive or warlike foreign policy)".

The last vestiges of our Colonial "greatness" ended in the 1980's.
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_that_have_gained_independence_from_the_United_Kingdom
We had 62 Colonies by my count, which seems a bit greedy to say the least. The current Commonwealth is made up of 53 countries, mostly former Colonies. At least that is voluntary, although there are some fairly "iffy" leaders.

The thing is, we punch above our weight. We aren't, by any measure, a leading nation any more.

The Eight Great Powers of 2017 are:-

• The USA. It has been for the last century, the most powerful country on earth. 
• China (tie) 
• Japan (tie) 
• Russia. 
• Germany. 
• India. 
• Iran. 
• Israel.

In 2014 we had the 5th most powerful military, behind the USA, Russia, China & India, but the Conservative cuts have reduced that drastically. We are a bit player on the world stage & given Brexit it's about time we realised that & acknowledged it.

I don't see many signs of hope, let alone glory at the moment. I see discord, petty bickering, a desperate grab for political power & a huge & ever widening gap between the haves & the have not's in the UK.

Shame on us. Colonialism probably wasn't our finest hour, but at least we did achieve something. It's about time we started to adapt to reality & forgot our "glorious" past.

Maybe ditching "Land of Hope & Glory" & "Rule Britannia" would be a good start.

Back Pain is a Pain!

I put my back out somehow getting out of bed yesterday morning. I'm always stiff & it's always painful, but usually wears off quite quickly as I move about. (I imagine that the inactivity of sleeping  & being in one position for quite a long time makes old muscles sieze up. Who knows?)

Anyway this was a completely different thing & seemed to get worse as I went about the daily process of getting up. I couldn't bend over the wash basin to wash my face. I couldn't move the dining chair close to the table to eat breakfast. I couldn't bring the spoon to my mouth to eat cereal. Every step was very, very painful. If I did something wrong I did literally scream with pain.

Why do these thing always seem happen at the weekend? It really is s... law.

 

Anyway my brain wasn't affected, so I Googled what you are supposed to do in these situations. (Typing wasn't easy). Apparently now you dial 111 - I think this replaced the old NHS Direct.

This is a "triage" system - "assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties". Someone asks you a script of questions, some relevant, some not, to decide what the next step should be. In my case it was a call within half an hour from a doctor.

The call was quite prompt & he also asked more or less the same questions & decided that I should be referred to the local "on call" doctor who would call back within 2 hours. I did wonder if he had a record of my answers to the triage questions on his screen. If not why not? I asked if a prescription for Co Codamol, (on my repeat medication list), could be sent to my local pharmacy because I didn't have many left. He could, but said that no local pharmacies were open till Monday.

The local doctor phoned well within the 2 hours. She also asked similar questions. She decided that I needed Diazepam as well as the Co Codamol & all the other pain meds I normally take. She said a local pharmacy was open at 10.00 so my daughter could pick both meds up.

So the system worked. It took some time, during which I was in a lot of pain & was very disabled. But the drugs came & worked within a reasonable timescale. Unfortunately the Co Codamol wasn't the soluble one, which I have on repeat, but that's not the end of the world.

There is obviously a strict protocol in place to deal with patients in situations like this. People were efficient, helpful & sympathetic. So I'm not complaining at all. I'm very grateful.

I just wonder if the process could be less dependent on so many people & therefore quicker & cheaper. For example, could the triage questions be avaiable on line & on an app, so people could answer them themselves? Could those answers be put on the NHS system & be accessible to all medics involved? In a case like mine, could the patient be referred directly to the local on call doctor from the triage respondent?

I don't know whether there are good reasons why my suggestions wouldn't work. But I do think that the NHS could learn quite a bit from listening to a patients journey through the system as it is.

The bottom line is that, whatever its imperfections, the NHS is wonderful & we are very lucky to have it. I hope the politicians get a grip & give us the Health Service we all deserve.

Broke & Broken - World Debt

The UK owes £4.8 trillion - (A sum of money it is impossible to comprehend & which covers all liabilities). The National Debt is different & stands at over £1 trillion.
http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/

It is arguable that this money can never be repaid.

We have Government Debt & World Liabilities.

We borrow money from:-

• UK pension funds/insurance companies (29%)
• Private corporations / other financial institutions
• UK building societies. (e.g. building societies buy government gilts to invest their savings to get a decent return.)
• UK Banks
• UK Private investors
• Foreign investors (foreign banks and foreign investment firms (2015 approx 25%)
• Bank of England Asset Purchase facility (Quantitative easing)

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/4098/economics/who-does-the-uk-owe-money-to/

We are broke & have been for years. We are not alone - Japan, Greece, Italy & America are in the list of top 10 most indebted countries in relation to their Gross National Product (GDP). The world is broke & no one is fixing it.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/268177/countries-with-the-highest-public-debt/

 

I'm not a statistician or a financial whizz. I can barely do my personal banking. In my simplistic way of operating this seems completely unsustainable & actually bonkers! I can only come to the conclusion that the Free Market, Capitalist model is so broken that it is not possible to fix it.

What I don't understand is why anyone, in their right mind, lends money to countries who obviously don't know how to balance their books or spend money wisely? Again, in my very simplistic way of looking at this, all the money that is sloshing around in the world is worth b..... all. It's worthless bits of pretty paper & soon everyone is going to realise that.

God, (if s/he is out there), alone knows what will happen then.

Changing Your Mind

We are all guilty of rigid thinking - "persistent, obstinate, and absolutist beliefs and demands about oneself, the world, and/or other people" according to Dr Albert Ellis. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is based on changing rigid thinking.
http://albertellis.org/rigid-thinking-and-rational-living-dont-work-well-together/

I look forward to the day, probably not in my lifetime, when we can have removable chips in our brain which automatically copy all our memories & stored information. Dementia would be a thing of the past, other than the normal silliness of human beings. We could literally change our minds, or at the very least update them. 

But, to get to the point. What is wrong with changing your mind? Isn't it actually much better to be flexible in your thinking in the light of new information? If politicians weren't so afraid of being accused of doing U Turns they might not make such a mess of governing. No one person can know everything - Know all the permutations of possible consequences of action. Therefore it must be better to consult widely & try to reach consensus on the best, least fraught with danger, course of action.

But that isn't the way the modern world works. Changing your mind is frowned on. It is an indicator of vacillation, muddled thinking, not "knowing" your own mind. Rubbish! It takes a strong person to say, I think I may have got this wrong & change your mind before harm is done. 

In my view changing your mind in the light of new evidence is the sign of mature adulthood. It shows that you don't just react on gut instinct or emotion, you think about the consequences of your actions on the world around you & on others. You project beyond today into the future. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but by then the harm has been done & it may be too late to rectify it.

Losing Touch

I am losing touch with my feet. Either my arms are getting shorter or my legs are getting longer. Putting tights on is a real struggle - imagine a turtle on it's back on a bed! Even tight trousers are proving a challenge now.

I am losing touch with my brain. Everything I need to know is in there. I just don't seem to be able to recall it at the opportune moment. Then it pops out when I don't need it anymore.

I have lost touch with friends over the years. Probably for very good reasons, we have physically moved away from eachother, or lost whatever experiential connection or mutual interest we had. Or even had some sort of clash, when things were said which we thought could not be forgiven or unsaid. You learn, as you age, that retaining friendships or relationships requires effort & some degree of forbearance of slights & foibles.

As I look around at people today I think that the human race is in danger of losing touch completely. I know that sounds like a contradiction in terms in this "connected" world. But that's the point. It's a connection at a distance. Skype, Texting, Emails.....That isn't the same as being with someone, seeing their face, talking to them, touching them, (both metaphorically & in reality).

In this "time poor" world we need to make the effort to do more than send the odd text, email or voicemail. All of these can be misunderstood. Once the send button is pressed it's too late. The harm is done. It is very easy to respond emotionally & irrationally to a situation. Saying what you think in the heat of the moment isn't always a good idea. There are many shades of right & wrong.

It is very easy, but cowardly, to end a relationship or fire someone by text or email. If you haven't got the courage to see the impact of what you have done, you are in danger of being like a modern soldier pressing the button for the drone to fire the missile & ignoring the possible "collateral damage".

Humans need to be "in touch" both with themselves & other people. We need to socialise. We need to try out our ideas on others. We need to amend our opinions in the light of the opinions of others who may just know more than we do. Humans aren't meant to live in isolation or communicate at a distance unless there is no other choice.

Look at people around you. People you know & people you don't. Are they losing touch? Sadly - I think we may be in real danger of doing just that. "Keep in touch" is taking on a whole new meaning.

NHS - Free at the Point of Need?

The NHS was launched by the then minister of health, Aneurin Bevan, on July 5 1948. It was based on 3 core principles:

• that it met the needs of everyone
• that it be free at the point of delivery
• that it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay 

In 2015 I needed to see a Rheumatologist because of the chronic pain I had 24/7. It wasn't adequately controlled by medication & alternative therapies were a constant drain on my finances. I discovered that I had to wait for months for an NHS appointment - It was too long. A friend who worked for the Royal Berks hospital told me about a very good Rheumatologist who worked privately in Reading. Pain won against ethical beliefs & I made an appointment - for the next week!

I had the consultation, tests were arranged at the Royal Berks, which were done on the NHS, so I didn't have to pay. I got a diagnosis & recommendation for treatment. All I paid for were the really thorough consultations, which were worth every penny.

But I jumped the queue because I could afford to pay. That really doesn't sit well with me.

Now I need to see an Orthopaedic Consultant because of possible Rotator Cuff damage / trapped nerve in my left arm. I was referred by my GP, but heard nothing. After nearly 3 weeks I chased it up with the surgery. The referral had gone through straight after the consultation. I contacted the hospital department. Nothing will happen for 15 weeks. After that I will get an appointment, which I will presumably have to wait some weeks for. I can't go on a cancellation list until I have an appointment. I'm sure the hospital is ensuring that it complies with waiting time protocols.

My point is that, on the 70th birthday of the NHS, neither of my experiences actually comply with it's core principles.

Neither met my needs - in fact in both cases I have been left to suffer pain & cope with disability, despite being 73 & living alone.

Neither are based on clinical need - unless the NHS now operates on a hidden protocol that patients pain & disability is acceptable.

Don't misunderstand me, I am as sure as I can be that medics, both nurses & doctors, don't want to be in the position of delivering this broken NHS. So this isn't a rant about them. They are in the unenviable position of trying to make an underfunded, under resourced & under staffed NHS work as well as humanly possible.

My GP will try to find a hospital, within travelling distance, with a shorter waiting list. If he can't I will have to go privately. Again.

I can pay. Most people can't, so they have to put up with it. It is invidious.

Wealth determines Health.

Old Ladies

 

Die Alte Frau - Balthasar Denner

This isn't me - Yet.

Generally speaking I don't feel old. My face in the morning is definitely sagging a bit & more wrinkled. (I had to have a photo done on my phone yesterday for a visa - It didn't look like the me who is inhabits my head!) My skin generally is flabbier, covered with age spots & has lost it's youthful bloom. I can't dance or run anymore, but I can swim half a mile 4 or 5 times a week. I don't think I dress in either Granny clothes or like "mutton dressed as lamb" - at least I really hope not.

But as the weeks & years seem to shorten, my capacities seem to dwindle. I need to practice Kegel Exercises & if you don't know what those are for you are fortunate. There seems to be a lot more effort involved in doing quite ordinary things. Kneeling & getting up again is an art lost to me. It would be really nice to be able to remember where I recently put something. I would quite like to be able to hold a conversation & recall all the words I want to use. Also to hear people speaking above other noises off. (Yes, I have got a hearing aid).

But, generally speaking I feel that I am quite fortunate & I hope that shows in my expression. I hope I smile & laugh more often than I have a similar expression to Die Alte Frau. It's all too easy to be negative about people & things & life in general. I think that general displeasure shows in your expression. Then there is a knock on effect in how other people perceive you & react to you.

So a smile begats a smile & a frown begats a frown. (That's not to say that I'm not capable of having a good old moan about something though - but it's better out than in!)