Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@social.cleverlibre.org

Holy shit, when pretty right wing Max Hastings ex-editor of the Torygraph is comprehensively slagging off the tory government, you know the tories are in REAL trouble
https://twitter.com/Ian_Fraser/status/1627442638084362242...

Will the British ever stop referring to the NHS as “the envy of the world”!
The NHS is not and probably never has been “the envy of the world”. No one in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, or any other civilised European country envies Britain the NHS. Why, because their own healthcare systems are substantially better and more efficient than the benighted NHS.

Nobody in Luxembourg, where I live, would be prepared to wait weeks for an appointment to see a GP! If that was the case there would be outrage; there would be rioting in the streets! If I need to see a GP, I expect to be seen the same day that I phone for an appointment or the next day. If my complaint is urgent then I most certainly will be seen on the day I phone for an appointment.

No one waits for months or years for necessary surgery in any of the countries I have listed, even if the surgery is classed as routine and non-urgent.
I was reading today about a patient suffering from stage four cancer in the UK who has been waiting since late November for the results of a CT scan. I have been unfortunate enough to need a number of CT scans and an MRI, recently. When I go for a scan, I wait for 30 to 40 minutes after the procedure is completed and I am presented with a DVD containing the scan, a software utility enabling me to visualise the scan and the radiologist’s report. The idea that any patient would have to wait for days, weeks or months for the results of any investigative procedure, is totally alien to most cultures in Europe!

This is pretty typical of the way things pan out here:
During a routine colonoscopy, the gastroenterologist found a mass obstructing part of my intestines. He took a sample of the mass to be biopsied and gave me a prescription for a CT scan with contrast medium and a comprehensive set of blood and urine tests. This was on a Thursday; on the Friday morning the blood and urine samples were taken and I received the results during the afternoon of the same day! The CT scan would also have been done on the Friday except that I had to stop taking certain medications that “clashed” with the contrast medium they had to use, so the scan could not be done until the Monday. The results of the biopsy didn't come back until the Wednesday morning however late Wednesday afternoon, I was sitting with the surgeon discussing the surgery that would be needed to remove what, by then, we knew what is a benign tumour.
The surgeon apologised profusely as he was unable to operate for around 5 weeks because the COVID pandemic had caused an enormous backlog in non-urgent surgery. He explained that had there been any doubt that the tumour was non-malignant, I would have been scheduled for surgery that week or the following week, but as it was quite clear the surgery was non-urgent, I would have to wait.
When I was admitted to hospital for the surgery, I was in a ward with just two beds in it and with its own private bathroom. In fact, the second bed was unoccupied for my stay.
Private rooms or two bed wards are the norm in Luxembourg as indeed they are in most other countries in Europe.

Following the surgery, I was asked to get back on my feet as soon as possible and so I did a fair bit of wandering around the hospital. Wards/rooms that were empty, had their doors left wide open so it was easy to see what the occupation rate was like. On the floor that I was on which was a surgical area, only around 30% of the wards were occupied; this is in pretty stark contrast to the near 100% occupancy rates in the NHS!
Most of the nursing staff were not locals but commuted in from Germany, France or Belgium. I asked one or two of them why they came to Luxembourg to work rather than working in their own countries to which the answer was “because we are paid so much more in Luxembourg than in our own countries and because in Luxembourg, we're given so much more responsibility than in our own countries”.

How does that compare with your experience of the NHS?

Sadly, it looks like we will be saying goodbye to President Carter fairly soon.

A very fine POTUS indeed who did a great deal for America's less privileged. but who will be remembered mainly for the failed rescue of the American embassy hostages in Iran. It's a great shame as the man had nothing to do the nuts and bolts of the mission; it was due to the astonishing internecine squabbling between branches of the US military, that caused the mission to fail! In effect pilots were sent on the mission who were totally inexperienced in that type mission whereas pilots with years of experience in such missions were sidelined due to the arrogance and glory seeking of one branch of the US military over another!

President Carter has worked; physically worked, into his 90s, helping to build homes for America's underprivileged. I don't think Trump would ever lift a little finger to help anyone but himself, in fact the Trump family stole money that had been donated to his 'charitable foundation' resulting in him being banned from having such a foundation in New York!

Can anyone explain to me why Microsoft apparently believe that the Daily Mail and the Daily Express are credible, reliable sources of journalistic excellence?
Whenever I go to Bing (very infrequently indeed) or open the little widget down on the right hand side at the bottom of my Windows screen to see what the weather is doing, I am bombarded by articles from these two adult comics – the fuckin Beano would tell a story that was closer to reality!

This is something I don't quite understand, in France, where many of my colleagues hailed from when I was working, fixed rate mortgages are the norm when rates are relatively low. A colleague was able to remortgage his house, on which he had been paying a mortgage at 4%, for a new loan at a measly 1.44%; fixed rate for the entire 20 year life of the mortgage.

How come such deals are unavailable in the United Kingdom; is it the greed of the banks, is there some legislative reason why they can't or won't do this or is it, as I suspect, pure greed and profiteering!
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/10/20/a-global-house-price-slump-is-coming?utm_id=23852509992360064

Now there's an omen for you - I'm just not quite sure what it signifies.

I blame Corbyn or Putin maybe!

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/christ-the-redeemer-struck-by-lightning-the-impressive-photos-from-rio-de-janeiro/ss-AA17sZhL?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=254df5b09ffa4869ada673d56c50644d