me, me, me, me, me.

February 22nd, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

As Libya is about to fall, with *air strikes* against the people, all David Cameron can think about is his mates in the boardroom…

Mr Cameron flew on to Kuwait, where he will deliver a speech making a “liberal conservative” call for widespread political reform in the region.

Since democracy often goes hand-in-hand with open markets, more freedom in the Middle East could deliver commercial opportunities for Britain, the Prime Minister will argue on Tuesday.

All this death of Libyan citizens at the hands trying to overthrow their dictator of forty years is still not quite physically sickening to Cameron, it’s just “quite appalling”. Still much less of a crime than giving prisoners the vote, which did make him feel all weird. Physically.

So now we have another notch in the David Cameron Scale of Horrible Things. Killing civilians with aeroplanes is not quite as bad a criminals voting for other, bigger criminals.

comment *still* not published

February 19th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

To: The Cornerstone Group
From: Sim-O
Subject: blogpost comment
Date: 18/02/2011

Hello,

On Tuesday 15th of this month I left a comment on this post http://cornerstonegroup.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/prayers-in-parliament/.

Where is it?

What’s the point in having moderated comments if no one is going to check for comments and approve them?

I’m presuming that is what has happened, as opposed to someone seeing it and deciding not to publish it.

Sim-O

How to destroy the NHS: A step by step guide

February 15th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

From Stephen Law

Suppose I am very very rich, and very very selfish. The NHS annoys me intensely. It costs lots in tax revenue to run, and being very rich, I pay proportionately more of my income on it, and of course far more in terms of hard cash, then almost anyone else. I also resent the fact that my business empire is unable to cash in on providing the services that people would buy from my private businesses if the NHS was not there.

BUT, the public loves the NHS, even many Tories are fond of it, and to propose scrapping it would provoke howls of outrage. Plus there’s no evidence I can marshal that the public would get a better service if it were provided by the private sector – rather the opposite in fact.

What would I do? Here’s what I would do.

First, I’d ensure a team of expert PR run the Tory party – people adept at twisting facts, spinning, and indeed telling bare face lies and getting away with it. And I’d have my private health companies etc. fund them generously.

Next, once elected, I’d get them to introduce phase one: the introduction of a market system in which GP’s buy services from NHS hospitals, or anyone else, based on variable price, etc. This can still be called “NHS” because it’s still free at the point of use. This would all be justified by lies about how the evidence shows it’s more efficient, etc.

Read the rest.

Prayers in Parliament

February 15th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

I got bored of waiting for my comment to be moderated on this post about the suggestion that prayers at the start of the day in the main chamber should be abolished by Edward Leigh at The Cornerstone Group, so here it is in all it’s majestic glory…

they provide a short opportunity to meditate or even collect one’s thoughts at the start of the day.

Can’t you collect your thoughts before the working day starts, like on the journey in, or something?

Irrespective of one’s religious view, is three minutes in 24 hours too much to think about God, the creator of all that is?

Yes, especially if you don’t believe in a god.

Is three minutes too long for the members of the National Executive to pause and remember their place, their duties and their responsibility for wellbeing of their nation?

I should hope the members of the National Executive would be able to remember where they are and their responsibilities without having to stop everything they are doing and have a think about it for a while. Most other people don’t seem to have such bad memories.

Christians, I believe, must be prepared to stand up for their belief in public life. If they don’t, their views will fast be marginalised or driven out because they would be considered eccentric to hold them – even in a nation with a Christian heritage.

Oh, give over with the ‘persecuted Christian’ nonsense. It’s rubbish and you know it, unless you’ve been reading the daily Mail/Express.

A wedding or a ‘wedding’

February 14th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

BBC..

Ministers are expected to publish plans to enable same-sex couples to “marry” in church, the BBC has learned.

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone is to propose lifting the ban on civil partnerships taking place in religious settings in England and Wales.

There are no plans to compel religious organisations to hold ceremonies and the Church of England has said it would not allow its churches to be used.

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said the change was “long overdue”.

Civil partnership ceremonies are currently entirely secular.

As far as I know, and I’m willing to be corrected on this point, churches religious temples of whatever denomination aren’t obligated to marry anyone, hetero or not, so I don’t see why they should be complelled to marry same-sex couples.

I don’t know why civil partnerships are referred to as such and can’t be refered to a marriages as that is what they are. They are no different to a heterosexual civil marriage. Both are secular and both bring the same entitlements in law with them.

Why should there be a ban on civil partnerships being conducted in the first place? Surely it is up to the church/synogogue/whatever who they allow to marry there and if a couple are legally allowed to marry, or ‘marry’, then what is the problem?

Happy Valentines

February 14th, 2011 § 3 comments § permalink

So. It’s Valentines Day or whatever the official title is. Did you get you partner anything?

You did? Well done you. You’re either under the thumb of capitalism or your other half.

You either don’t tell your loved one you love them often enough or you need someone else to tell you when to tell the love of your life how you feel.

Have a good day, won’t you?

(Posted using my phone so, please, excuse the spelling)

Free at the point of use

February 11th, 2011 § 1 comment § permalink

Here we fucking go

Drunk people should pay for the treatment they receive at accident and emergency units, a patient’s group has said.

Oh, just fuck off with that shit.

Margaret Watt, chair of the [Scotland Patients Association], said she would be raising the issue with Scotland’s health secretary.

Ms Watt said: “Anyone who has been abusing alcohol and can’t stand on their feet and is admitted to hospital at the weekend should pay towards their treatment.

“Staff are used and abused by these people.”

Watt is conflating two issues here: 1) abuse of staff and 2) self-inflicted fucking up.

Staff also get abused by sober people when they’ve been waiting for fucking hours in A&E. People turn up at weekend unable to stand on their own two feet for a whole host of reasons, many because they’re twats and hurt themselves.

What about a drunk person that didn’t mean to get fucking leathered and had their drink spiked? Should they be charged? What about the rock climber that fell off a cliff because the hand hold was not as strong as they thought.

People that abuse staff should have their treatment refused or arrested or both.

Either everyone that ends up breaking their body due to their own stupidity has to pay for the services they receive or no one does.

What’s the difference between someone that’s drunk so much they’re livers packed in before they’ve got to the hospital and the IY enthusiast that stuck a drill through the middle of their hand (that was an interesting experience, I can tell you)?

Absolutely nothing. The means may be different but the end result is the same.

We all pay for the NHS and services it provides through our taxes. If I’ve gotta pay for treatment every time I need it, and pretty much everytime I need is is my own fault, I would opt out of the paying those taxes and spend it on private health care. It is a selfish thing. I’m not paying towards the health service to provide health care to some other fucker, I (happily) pay so it’s there when I need it. I shouldn’t have to pay fucking twice.

The way the Tories are taking it, Ms Watt will get her wish. Along with having to pay for treatments for stuff that isn’t self-inflicted.

The Scottish government said alcohol misuse cost Scotland £3.56bn a year – about £900 for every adult.

When asked about the issue of charging for drunk patients for emergency treatment, Ms Sturgeon said: “Not only does alcohol misuse burden health service and police – and the healthcare costs alone are around £267m annually – but it also leaves families devastated by the death and illness caused by alcohol.

So what if aclohol abuse costs Scotland £900 per adult per year. Charging to use the hospital isn’t going to fucking help. You won’t get peole to stop drinking themselves to oblivion because “ooh, I’d better not. I can’t afford a stomach pump this week.” It’d probably cost more to get payment out of people than the treatment itself.

Traffic accidents leave families devasted. Are you gonna start charging them as well?

Well, if somehow this is introduced, I expect a little leaflet through my door with the scale of charges. Just so I know how much every little accident or drink is going to cost me.

Another thug speaks for Nadine Dorries

February 11th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Charlie Flowers once claimed to be doing the work of Nadine Dorries. No, he didn’t claim to be a researcher, but a thug harrassing and threatening Tim Ireland. Nadine has said nothing about it.

Well, it seems someone else has decided to join in on the action, not against Tim, but someone else Nadine sees as a mortal enemy, Ms Humphrey Cushion.

. @humphreycushion Enjoy your day tweeting. Remember Nadine and I might be watching you! ;) (closely) and oh lastly FUCK OFF #blocked

(source)

It’s not as if @DarkblondAngel is unknown to Nadine, infact the tweets between each other I’ve seen between them, before Nadine quit Twitter (again) could be described as quite chummy. Will Nadine denounce this latest bit of imtimidation and bullying like she didn’t with Charlie Flowers? Probably not.

At least these people aren’t hired thugs, but I’m guessing this isn’t an example of the ‘Big Society’ the Tories’ will be trumpeting.

Working for the Daily Mail

February 10th, 2011 § 2 comments § permalink

People have been having fun applying for a job at the Daily Mail.

I would apply, after all I’m quite suited to the Mail.

  • I can write beautifully, as this blog can attest to
  • I’m not bothered about immigrants one way or another, although if I’m paid I’m sure it can’t be too hard to work up a bit of angst.
  • I’m all for the betterment of wimmin. Especially through the careful use of fear and criticism, including but not limited to commenting on how much weight they might have lost/gained and reminding the little ladies of the consequences of leaving pregnancy too late because of selfishly pursuing a career.
  • I don’t trust doctors and haven’t had my children vaccinated with the MMR – or I wouldn’t have done if I hadn’t forgotten and accidentally took them down to the doctors surgery at their appointment time.

I think it would be quite fun working for the Mail. The only thing that’s stopping me from applying is, well, what category does the Mail fall into?

Does working for the Mail give you cancer or does it cure cancer?

Self serving to customer serving

February 4th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Following on from a previous post today on the subject of nationalisation/privatisation, 21st Century Fix

[L]et’s change the focus please from public versus private to that of identifying and changing the cultures of the self-serving to customer-serving – wherever they may find themselves.

Where am I?

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