Cut off

DZ has a confession. He owns a touring caravan. He is one of those at the front of every queue of slow moving traffic, with even the farmer on his tractor fuming behind him.
I recently went on a little holiday, simply following my nose with my home in tow and found myself on a very small caravan site somewhere in England. Despite it being the height of the holiday season there was no-one else there. We were all alone.

 In more ways than one. As we tried the various marvels of modern science we found firstly that there was no phone signal, at all. Nor could we get internet. Then we found we could not get any TV, or even radio reception. We were utterly cut off and alone. I didn't know you could find such places in the UK. It was nice being able, for the first time in years, to remove my tinfoil hat.

And when it got dark, it got really dark, no light pollution at all. Shame it was cloudy. Not going to say where it was. Keeping it to myself.

Tyranny

The GMC is getting it's knives out. They are talking about effectively striking off 8,500 doctors, none of whom appear to have actually done anything wrong. Nice to know they are using their authority in such an impartial and compassionate manner.

Well well

Ooooooooooooooh, surprise!  Not!

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Isn't it nice to see this twat given a well deserved kick up the jacksie.

 A man who knows nothing about health, nothing about the law, nothing it appears even about the limits of his own authority. Seriously Mr (suit full of bugger all) Cameron what were you smoking when you appointed such an ignorant fool to the post of health secretary. Were you having a laugh, or are you in the pay of "big homeopathy". GET RID!!!

Education

Via another blogger I have had my attention drawn to the following article about higher education in California. I'm reproducing it here as it is an exact mirror image of what is happening to higher education in the UK. Read & weep.

"In their Fall 2012 article in Dissent, Aaron Bady and Roosevelt Institute Fellow Mike Konczal reveal what higher education used to mean and how it was systematically destroyed. Bady and Konczal transport us to 1950s-’60s California, where bipartisan support for a University of California system built the state into a land of prosperity and innovation, a burgeoning middle class sent its children to college for free, and progressive Republicans happily funded education to support inclusion and social mobility for California’s next generation. In 1960, the Donahoe Act, or the Master Plan for Higher Education, represented California’s commitment to educate anyone who wanted to be educated. Despite the concurrent trends of racism, sexism, and American imperialism that pervaded that era, California’s higher education system was a golden example of what America could achieve.
So what happened? Where did it go? In 1966, Ronald Reagan was elected Governor of California and began dismantling the promising work of the past 20 years. Previously, admission had been free, except for a few relatively small fees, but the Reagan government lifted regulations on how much schools could charge in fees, allowing costs to skyrocket. Also, incentives were created for colleges to accept out-of-state students, who would pay higher fees. Both of these strategies shifted the financial responsibility for higher education onto students rather than the state. The process of culturally redefining higher education as not a right, or a public good, but an investment, subject to the whims of the marketplace and corporate capitalism, had begun."

Quote

"Don't get mad, get evidence."

DZ

A dumbdown too far

Other bloggers, as well as DZ, have been commenting for some time on the obsession government and management seem to have for reducing costs by having care delivered by less & less qualified people. NHS Direct was a prime example, getting nurses to do the work of doctors on the cheap. Undeterred by the disasters that NHS Direct was responsible for, the powers that be felt they could have the phone advice system run even more cheaply by employing people with no medical qualifications at all.
That they thought they could get away with this shows just how little regard they have for the public's intelligence. People weren't fooled for long. They knew full well that the quality of advice they would get from a 17 year old school leaver with no qualifications was such that they may as well ask the old lady next door, or the Daily Mail, or the cat.

  It now looks as if the 111 phoneline is doomed before it even got off the ground. It will not be missed. Perhaps this is a step back towards true professionalism.