That was quick

It is only two weeks since I predicted that this would happen.
Do you suppose Andrew Lansley reads my blog?
If you are reading this Mr Lansley please note that I am available for the still vacant post of CMO.

Free Speech and libel law

This article by Simon Singh is being reproduced widely on the blog circuit, and I am pleased to reproduce it again.

“This week is the first anniversary of the report Free Speech is Not for Sale, which highlighted the oppressive nature of English libel law. In short, the law is extremely hostile to writers, while being unreasonably friendly towards powerful corporations and individuals who want to silence critics.

The English libel law is particularly dangerous for bloggers, who are generally not backed by publishers, and who can end up being sued in London regardless of where the blog was posted. The internet allows bloggers to reach a global audience, but it also allows the High Court in London to have a global reach.

You can read more about the peculiar and grossly unfair nature of English libel law at the website of the Libel Reform Campaign. You will see that the campaign is not calling for the removal of libel law, but for a libel law that is fair and which would allow writers a reasonable opportunity to express their opinion and then defend it.

The good news is that the British Government has made a commitment to draft a bill that will reform libel, but it is essential that bloggers and their readers send a strong signal to politicians so that they follow through on this promise. You can do this by joining me and over 50,000 others who have signed the libel reform petition at:

http://www.libelreform.org/sign 

Remember, you can sign the petition whatever your nationality and wherever you live. Indeed, signatories from overseas remind British politicians that the English libel law is out of step with the rest of the free world.

If you have already signed the petition, then please encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Moreover, if you have your own blog, you can join hundreds of other bloggers by posting this blog on your own site. There is a real chance that bloggers could help change the most censorious libel law in the democratic world.

We must speak out to defend free speech. Please sign the petition for libel reform at http://www.libelreform.org/sign.    ….”

Simon Singh

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Quote

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stewart Mill (1806 - 1873)

Remembrance

It is often said that at 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns fell silent, but this statement is deceptive. They did not stay silent for long. Since 1918 the British Armed Forces have been deployed on active service almost constantly somewhere in the world. Major actions in that time have been; 

1919/20 Military support to the Russian White Army in the Russian Civil War.

1919-23 Military action against rebels in the Turkish War of Independence.

1920 British Somaliland

1919-21 Irish War of independence

1919/20 Third Anglo Afghan War, the first had been in 1839-42, and the second 1878-80

Numerous actions on the North West Frontier of India in the Inter war years.

1936-39 Palestine uprising

1939-1945 WW2

1948-60 Malaya
1950-53 Korea

1952-60 Mau Mau war, Kenya

1956 Suez War
1962-66 Borneo
1963 Cyprus

1963-67 Aden

1969-2007, Op Banner, Northern Ireland

1982 Falklands War

1991 First Gulf War

1991-95 Yugoslavia.

2001- present, Afghanistan

2003- present Second Gulf War, Iraq.

There have also been numerous other minor deployments of varying degrees of activity, both overt and covert.

The bodies of British servicemen lie on every continent, though the traditional practice of burying soldiers where they fall has now been replaced by repatriation.

Here are a few more of their faces.

Wear a poppy.

Mystery object 6 answer

Grumpy RN's suggestion that this could be used as an illicit drug delivery device is probably feasible but it is not the correct answer.

The answer can be found here sort of, as it does not go into details and I only have the vaguest idea of what you are supposed to do. If anyone out there knows the exact details, please keep them to yourself.

Mystery Object 6

This is not actually presented as a mystery object. Even to non anaesthetists this is clearly recognisable as a piece of anaesthetic equipment and any anaesthetist would identify it as a Magill type Mapleson A system, once the commonest system used in the UK for delivering anaesthetic gases.

It is now all but obsolete and you would have difficulty finding one unless you knew where to look.

The question is.

This system has found a new lease of life. A new niche. What is it?

No prizes

Told you so

I would like to say that I hate being proved right all the time, but I don’t. When I am proved right I get a sense of superior smug satisfaction, and recent news events have given me a double dose.

Firstly my previous comments on the working time directive, where I have argued that increasing doctor’s hours will not necessarily lead to better training. Well the cynical attitude of Trusts to their trainees is highlighted here. The statement “Many employers want us to work longer hours, not to give us better training, but to fill the gaps in rotas.” sums up exactly what I have been saying.

Second, my previous suggestions that CEAs are for the chop have been proved right, in Ulster at least. NO CEAs at all there this year. The Government are clearly testing the water and using Ulster as a pilot. I predict they will find only verbal opposition to this and then roll it out over the rest of the UK. 

Perhaps I will do the lottery this week.