SNAPS ON SUNDAY

Ah Yes... the blokey from BP made a personal statement, not on behalf of BP,
saying that he would worry about doing business in an independent Scotland.
He somehow feels that this would be worse than doing business in Libya and Nigeria.
Odd that!

Then there was this poisonous ignorant old bat, the egg woman
(the one that thinks Alex Salmon (sic) was a Labour MP), who weighed into the debate
 on food banks and poverty. Someone should probably remind her we can't
 all sleep our way into a job and then write a kiss and tell book
 about what a tart we have been and whose pants we've been in,
 wrecking marriages on the way to make even more money.
Shut up you silly toxic old fool.
 Go and dribble somewhere else.

Dave's first draft. Someone thought that talking about the
History of England was a better bet. Duh! Spads these days huh!

Add the personality of a wet weekend in Cleethorpes and you sum the man up

What was it Ozzy said about uncertainty stopping investment? Liar?

They were wrong about every single one of their predictions of gloom.
THEY LIE PEOPLE. Either that or they are some extra special kind of thick.

Nah, right enough, it was lying.

Damn, a paper that tells the truth about money, and Oh, look, it's the FT.
Now what would they know about financial matters?

We are heading back to the Victorian days. You have to be rich to get any justice.
Justice isn't for ordinary people on the minimum wage
who don't have £12 to spare never mind £1200.

Goodness: What a shock.

Competition Caption...

Incidentally, I've just noticed that Stewart Campbell has posted about the amazing number of page hits that he has been getting. 

Of course first and foremost it is attributable to the fact that his blog is quite simply brilliant.

He gets the stories, he researches, he links, he writes in a flowing, informative, amusing style, and he's bang on. Although he has come to verbal (or written) blows with people in positions who could easily take him to court, he is sure of his facts and he stands his ground... then they back off. Or (I think I'm right here) they never even broach the subject, pretending they haven't seen the story (Ian Smart).

But of course the Daily Mail has to take some of the credit for Stewart's record breaking figures.

In an attempt to put him (and us) down with their pathetic front page feature on Cybernats (the one which all but ignored the fact that there were equally as many Britnats saying equally repugnant things), they insisted on highlighting Wings over Scotland on a couple of occasions.

Well... for all its faults, the Mail has the third largest tabloid circulation in Scotland... and

there's no such thing as bad publicity, Mail. Thank you for helping us to spread our message. What would we do without you?

Oh come on, they ask for it...

ROOM 111, BE AFRAID. IT'S YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE

I've just read this article over at Liberal Conspiracy. 

It's something that I think we all need to read. 

People need to know that this company (and why would any other companies be different) are playing around with the health of sick and vulnerable people, and treating their staff with such disdain.

Do they not see that having to deal with these situations day in and day out, without proper medical knowledge, will create an intolerable strain. I wouldn’t last the first day.

Companies tender for these contracts, from which they can make a lot of money; they cut costs to the minimum with never a thought to the consequences. 

They are, after all, not in the least interested in the patient outcome. Dead or alive, they make money and it appears that if it all fails, they simply hand back the contract to the government and walk off with bonuses and Mercedes.

I am reminded of the almost unbelievable situation we found ourselves in a few years ago when retirement homes ran out of money and couldn't cope, because the management had sold off the property to give themselves massive bonuses, and then couldn't afford the money to rent them back. The taxpayer had to step in, regardless that the directors of the company had made millions, and rescue old people who didn't know where their next meal was coming from. 

It's hardly a modern European way of doing things, is it?

It’s no use appealing to a Tory government though. They and theirs are covered by private health insurance so they won't be listening. It’s a problem for little people of no account.  So Mr Hunt (promoted because he managed to deliver the Olympics with an unlimited budget, which we have never been allowed to know; and with the help of tens of thousands of army personnel, because his private contracts went belly up just days before curtain up) will continue to make a complete mess of running health in England.

Yes, in England, so, thank god, it is not us. Yet. Let's make sure it never is. 

Here's the article:

by Anonymous

The NHS Direct service, which has received much negative coverage since launch, will pull out of 111 contracts and hand over to other providers.

Does this surprise me? No – it serves an example of the negative consequences of the privatisation of the NHS.

As a former employee I know first hand that although this service fails its patients, they are not the only victims. The ‘call handlers’ whose job it is to speak to patients have been failed by the service too.

I worked for NHS Direct for four months, and during this time I was ‘trained’ to handle calls on the old service, and the new 111 number. I had no medical background, and five weeks of training on a computer questionnaire health system was deemed adequate to begin taking calls from the general public.

Focus was placed on the quantity of workers as opposed to the quality of our knowledge.

My first live call was a disaster. The patient was a stroke victim, and I did not recognise the signs. Trying to contact a clinician for advice was useless due to the long queues because of large call volumes. It was only when a manager intervened (a previous call handler with no official medical training) did I recognise the signs. Instead of being taken offline and being given the further training that I obviously needed, I was  informally disciplined and told to keep my head down.

Staff morale was low, and the wages were terrible. I worked for an external agency that was employed by the NHS to provide staff and the agency paid us up to 60% less for doing the same job as those employed by directly by the NHS.

Shifts could be changed within a twenty-four hour period; no paid sick leave, pension options or incentives. Because of this and poor management, no counselling or emotional support much of the staff did not care about the job or the patients.

Confidentiality breaches were common; with many staff unaware what decision to make would often invite others to help. Calls from the mentally disturbed and elderly were handled incorrectly by some staff members who had not received enough training to correctly handle these calls. Abuse calls required a flag to be raised but many staff simply could not always recognise the signs and would decide not to take action.

I participated in commissioner calls in order to deem the 111 service safe for a live launch. The calls were conducted in a casual and unprofessional manner. A call which I was tested on involved the caller speaking in a ludicrous French accent to determine if I knew what correct procedure to follow on the computer system. Even though the centre was deemed ‘safe’ it was obvious that given the circus like atmosphere on the day of the final tests that the staff were unprepared.

During my time as a call handler I tried to do the best that I could with the limited resources available. But because of the emotional and mentally draining element of the job I decided to leave, as did many other staff.

The illustrations of the English cabinet secretary for health are mine.