Salt of the Earth? Not in Stockport chip shops!

"They've banned salt in the chippy, Ada!"

The council in Stockport is the latest to get themselves all in a lather about the relationship between salt intake and unhealthy Northerners. They think fish and chip shops and takeaways in general use far too much and that customers delight in oversalting their food. So they've aked for salt cellars to be removed from eyesight in case a whole lotta shakin' goes on.

Personally I think chips without salt are rather tasteless. But I don't care for that finely ground Cheshire stuff. No wonder they had to reduce the holes in salt cellars from 17 to 5. No, I much prefer some tasty sea salt freshly ground over the fish and chips I buy. When the chippy chirps up and asks if I want "salt 'n vinegar" I demur and think of my own crystals falling over the food.

Food without salt is, well, not that tasty. Food with too much salt? Not that great, either. If slavering Mancunians (and Cheshire type Stockporters!) can't summon up self control, then they may get heart disease, palpitations and dizzy spells. They know the score. But I don't see it the business of the state, local or national, to be mother, nanny and next-door-neighbour rolled into one.

Salt shakers might have been doing too much shaking. But let's get a sense of proportion.

Raunchy republican romps home in Massachusetts

Scott Brown has managed to win the Senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy. This is a triumph and I think it is a good thing in general. Normally I would tend to support the Republican Party over the Democrats. I'm of a conservative nature, so that would be a natural conclusion. However, the Republican Party does have a flaky side currently. I don't know much about Mr.Brown, but he obviously has that charismatic appeal much loved by Massachusetts voters. Ted Kennedy knew how to use that to get him out of the many scrapes he got into.

Newly-elected senator Brown is no stranger to poverty though. In that he is very different from Ted and his life. Kennedy had a good start and spent his political life championing the causes of the underprivileged. Scott Brown seems to be operating in reverse mode. On Wikipedia it says "Brown has said that he "didn't grow up with all the advantages in life" and that his working mother needed welfare benefits for a short period of time." So I would have thought that would give him some sense of priorities over healthcare.

This win is seen as a snub to Obama's healthcare plans. Maybe. But reality will kick in anytime soon and Americans will wonder what hit them. This country, the USA, is no longer a pioneer state made up of aspirant agricultural West Country workers and third sons of the English gentry. In fact the WASP ascendency looks like it buzzed off years ago. The modern United States is the melting pot come to the boil. Every class, creed and colour wants a slice of the action. America is built on being a giant financial bubble in dire need of regular puffs of hot air. Senator Brown looks to me to be just the man to give it some extra puffs. He once posed almost naked in his youth for a magazine, no doubt titillating youthful Sarah Palin types. However, rhetoric and rich talk like his seem to miss the point. And that is that the USA has a huge amount of underinsured and non-insured people with regard to health care. It's a time bomb ticking. Obama is trying to sort it out. Now his original plans may have been too much, but to do nothing is just plain daft.

Corporate America laughs in the face of democracy. They are just chasing the funny money dollars in order to sustain their avarice. Most small businesses only have access to real money. Average Americans don't get to turn bad loans into quality investments.

The Republican Party should try to get away from fantasyland politics and live in the real world. Interesting that the US government has so much available for Haiti (and rightly so) but some do not even want to discuss it for their own people. The day of reckoning will come when the bubble bursts and burst it will. The national debt of the United States is different from other countries. Not only has it been created by funny money, but by the dollar's position as a reserve currency. Cut the latter out and, well, it hardly bears thinking about.

I'd say it was a conservative thing to secure the future of your country and to give a level of personal security to the least of the citizenry. Not handouts, but a basis for self-achievement and prosperity. Just like Scott's mom!

Patient Foster went to Gloucester!

Andy Burnham has come up with a good wheeze. Patient choice. That is he wants us all to have the ability to choose the doctor's surgery that we want. So do the Tories, who are keen to tell us they thought of it first. Sounds good in principle but there's bound to be a catch. I can think of three to start with. First, some doctors are just better at the bedside manner than others. Grouchy types may find patients have left en masse. Now that may be an incentive for all to become more patient friendly, but a bedside manner is not the first requirement in patient care.

The second is what happens on referral to consultants. If you've decided to travel 60 miles to see a doctor because that particular doctor is the best you think you know, where will you be referred if you need an operation. And thirdly, for children and those who work away from home the choice is not about one doctor but the chance to register with two, which is not allowed at present.

As with a lot of things it sounds good on first hearing. Chat about it a bit more and you find it's not so simple. I'm reminded of a family holiday to a boarding house in the wilds of western Scotland in the Sixties. A Yorkshireman and his wife were in the same establishment. He had decided he was unhappy with the food on offer - basically what you saw is what you got. One evening he leant over from his table and whispered, knowingly, to my father, "I've been down t'other 'otel 'an they've got menya cards!" Needless to say it caused a stir in the dining room and the proprietress was at a loss as to know why.

I'd suggest that Andy Burnham makes sure his menu cards don't have too much choice on them otherwise we could all get an unhealthy dose of indigestion!

"You Lie!" taunt backfires against Congressman Wilson

Representative Joe Wilson has just experienced that defining moment in politics. One significant second when it all goes pear-shaped. Ted Kennedy had it at Chappaquiddick. Michael Heseltine had it when he unfortunately had a heart attack and looked weak and frail on TV pictures. Kennedy's was much of his own making, Heseltine's was not.



Joe Wilson is feverishly against Obama's health care reforms. One wonders why? He no doubt has his reasons. America is a nation divided. The haves and the have nots. When President Obama made his speech, Wilson shouted "You lie!" and pointed his finger at the Commander-in-Chief. This was over the statement that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the plans. Wilson thought the President would grant citizenship to the illegals thereby giving them coverage. I know it's easy to shout out when politically riled. I've done it myself. But there is a time and place for heckling and hecklers should know that it works both ways. You either get people onside and back your point or you get booed off stage. Wilson is getting the booing treatment.

I would have hoped that the 21st Century would have put paid to politicians who are working for themselves and their cronies rather than the people. Wilson's challenger in his district is Democrat Rob Miller. Miller raised $100,000 overnight from 3,000 individual donors after Wilson's dig at President Obama during his address to Congress on Wednesday night.

That shows some indignation. Even an apology is not enough, it seems. Wilson is learning the lesson that politics is a fragile business. A bit like butterflies in the summer sun. A sudden squall knocks them down and they are left fluttering on the ground.

PS. This is interesting too I think! "Joe Wilson: Healthcare Hypocrite"

In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition

This is a marvellous piece in the Washington Post about all the crazies in America who have come out of the woodwork since Obama became president. Of course, the USA is not alone. Every country in the world has it's home grown nutters. But American ones tend to have God on their side!

I just like the line from this guy in Pennsylvania (Randy Hook) who was accusing Senator Arlen Specter of being too kind to President Obama's proposals to make it easier for people to get health insurance. He is an ordinary citizen, burly, with a crew-cut. He stood up, trembling with rage, went nose to nose with his baffled senator, saying, "One day God's going to stand before you, and he's going to judge you and the rest of your damned cronies up on the Hill. And then you will get your just deserts." Now what I like is that God is assumed to be the one doing the positioning before the senator. No understanding of awe and wonder, just palpable guilt on behalf of Specter.

That is the truth about these crazies. God is their servant. In their minds, God does what they want Him to do. So if they think God is going to lambast all the ones they think are crazy then they really are crazy!

Human Foreskins are Big Business for Cosmetics

I knew the cosmetic industry had a few skeletons in its cupboards, but this one really gets me angry. Whilst President Obama tries to get his health care reforms through Congress, the medical establishment is still racketeering. Two totally unnecessary surgical procedures are routinely carried out - circumcisions and hysterectomies - so that doctors can pocket extra dollars. Now I find there is a bizarre trade going on - a multi-million dollar rip-off!

Newborn male babies are genitally mutilated by eager surgeons who use the harvested foreskins to sell to eager cosmetic companies. Until just now I had no idea that this trade was going on. Not only is it bizarre, but it is quite evil. To decide in a blatant manner that a newborn should treated as a potential dollar earner is disgusting. Only in America? Probably not. But I hope Obama puts a stop to this racket.

SkinMedica is one company that has used so-called foreskin fibroblasts in their cosmetics. I wonder if the women who purchase these creams and potions know what they are smearing on their faces? It's amazing!

I read this article (which is now over 2 years old) and it is very illuminating. Here's another article from The East African, just last week.

Babies deserve better. At the most defenceless stage of life, some are just seen as money makers - for greedy adults.

Supermarionated Andy Burnham - the anti-democracy man!

Andy Burnham takes the biscuit - the ward round biscuit! Not only is he New Labour automoton led, but he has a nasty streak of anti-democratic nature about him. Being in charge of the NHS has gone to his head. Nobody must dare to criticise the National Health Service of Britain. It is wonderful beyond measure, nurses are sweet and caring, the conditions perfect. Critics can go hang. They are unpatriotic. They are stupid. They are....whatever you want them to be so long as it is nasty.

Now the ridiculous Burnham suggests that David Cameron should ban NHS critics ( I prefer realists) from the Tory Party Conference. Ban, ban, ban, that's all Labour knows. Ban fox hunting (but not quite), ban smoking (but not quite), ban MPs expenses (but not quite), and so it goes on. Why should those who seek a different approach to health provision be banned? It is arrant nonsense.

The truth is out there! Mr.Burnham knows it but follows his master's voice without even bothering to think for himself. Yes, the NHS excels in fine health care. Most people have the highest degree of satisfaction. But money is still thrown at it like confetti. Staff still spend large amounts of time walking through buildings with clipboards looking busy whilst wondering what to do next. Not everything is rosy.

I suggest this. That Andy Burnham puts on a disguise and spends a day just sitting in a hospital watching things happen. He will get a far better education from that than any departmental briefing will ever give him!

The sainted NHS - Woe betide the gainsayers!

It is never a good idea to speak the truth about the NHS. If you do you get pilloried. By the supermarionated Andy Burnham, who looks like he's just had an NHS facelift. Or by the morally accurate compass maker, who doubles up as our prime minister. And now David Cameron has weighed in to criticise Daniel Hannan, who Cameron describes as an eccentric. He who won't have a word said against the outfit.

The trouble with the NHS is that it was a con from the start. Aneurin Bevan decided the people were too stupid to follow the real politics so he duped the country by inventing National Insurance. Nothing whatsoever to do with insurance. Slush funding at its best. Right from the start people thought they were paying into something and that "claiming" would be easy. It has always been underfunded. Only Keith Joseph spoke up and suggested a proper funding portfolio, but he was dismissed for his pains. Pity!

I have had first hand experience of the NHS recently. As with most British institutions it is good in parts. If you get a good bit, you'll probably praise it to the rooftops. I take a realistic approach, I think. It is staffed in the main by well-meaning, mostly caring people who can get a tad pissed off with a day's work. Some of the patients leave you wondering about your fellow human beings.
On one stay I had my first evening meal sitting up in bed with my trousers round my knees, soaking wet from urine, with a newly fitted catheter. Nobody had been able to attend to me. You see, time is not always of the essence. Before I got my meal, I was severely reprimanded for being past the five o'clock scoffing time. 6.30 was when the puddings had stiffened. I had asked for my meal at nearly 7!

In an NHS hospital you are more likely to contract a new disease than ever get one on the outside. Added to that, you get all kinds of nocturnal happenings. One of my co-patients used the washbasin by my bed as a urinal at 2.30 in the morning. Now I never asked for such added attractions during my stay. It just happened. Also, visiting time is a joy, especially when grumpy relatives ask you to join in to discuss their loved ones' problems!

Daniel Hannan is in hot water for daring to suggest that there may be an alternative way. David Cameron is said to be beside himself with a mixture of embarrassment and outrage that a Conservative could think in such a way. I'd like to know if David Cameron would care to eat a meal with urine-soaked trousers about his knees. Maybe that's just the price we have to pay for not putting our heads above the parapet?

The Conservatives would do better if they just got a grip of the truth. The truth being that the NHS system is overloaded and overworked. That it doesn't always run smoothly with sweet smiling nurses and a grade A service. I don't want an American system where the doctors are mainly driven by money. In the USA unnecessary surgery is conducted so that $10,000 can be pocketed instead of $1,000. The US system is great for the fully-insured when they are not sick.

Both countries have the potential for great health services, properly funded with everyone catered for. If the politicians got their faces away from the mirrors, stopped listening to vested interests and just admitted that things need to change, we will succeed in getting proper health provision. Otherwise it's the same old rubbish for the next generation.

Europhobia Is Only Getting Uglier

So says Michael Freedman in Newsweek. The American Right has always been made up of a mixture of white supremacists, bible-bashers and the elegant elite who wish the Statue of Liberty had gone down with the twin towers. After all, that woman with the flame is flaming French! Rednecks, good 'ole bubbas, mixing it with the genteel folk. All grist to Rush Limbaugh's mill. I'm not the sort of conservative he cares for. He's not the sort I care for!

He's upping the ante with his so-called europhobia nonsense. On his radio show, Limbaugh compared all the ways Obama is like Adolf Hitler. "Obama is asking citizens to rat each other out like Hitler did," he said. "Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate," he said. And so on. What a bollock-brained prat Limbaugh is. The real problem is that there are so many morons listening each day to his infantile rubbish.

Freedman has a good take on these nutters. Mostly they are enraged by Obama's health care program. I'd say this to the redneck roosters. If 40 million plus people went down with a disease that no hospital would treat because they had no insurance you'd have riot on your hands. Desperate people take desperate measures. In the crooked minds of the American Right the poor go hang but the rich get to steal and destroy banks with impunity. No wonder shrinks do so well. The next customer on the couch must be Rush Limbaugh!