john healey - under pressure?

In the post-PMQs analysis on The Daily Politics yesterday John Healey and Norman Baker were discussing NHS reform and waiting times for operations. At about 1:09:55 into the program (available on iPlayer with the usual caveats) John Healey says

The problem for the government, Norman, is this; waiting times are starting to edge up and you're making the problems worse for yourselves by piling extra pressure on the NHS

and then, just a minute later at 1:11:20, he says

it took the pressure off the NHS so waiting times are creeping up partly because of that as well

I'm no expert on these matters but if removing AND increasing pressure on the NHS leads to waiting times rising then we're fucked whatever any government does to attempt to improve the service?

you couldn't make it up

A musician was arrested after a performance of the 1970s song Kung Fu Fighting at an Isle of Wight bar sparked an alleged racism row with a passer-by.


What. The. Fuck?

b is for beer

I started reading Tom Robbins' books with Another Roadside Attraction many years ago, long before Even Cowgirls Get The Blues was turned into a film. He has a way with adjectives that few can match that, for me at least, often paints beautiful and humourous images across my imagination. Each time I come across a new release I feel compelled to buy it and immerse myself in his fantastic worlds once again.

This is not one of his full novels and is, as described on the cover, aimed more towards children. I read through from cover to cover in under 2 hours but don't let that put you off this enjoyable tale.

not so hidden agenda

I read the article about the fire at the Apex Metals scrap yard that has shut the M1 motorway causing traffic congestion for a number of days and shook my head in disbelief. That kind of headline is pretty damning for smokers, isn't it? When I read the article I found

A cigarette thrown from a passing car is amongst the theories that started the blaze. Arson is also being considered.

So it could be the fault of an evil smoker or, if not, it might have been arson. I wonder who's theory that is Laura, yours perhaps? Why would arson be considered at all when smokers are the most likely cause of this event?

Police are investigating two arson attacks near the yard in the early hours of Friday morning before the fire began.

So there's a fire in a scrapyard, there has been two other suspected arson attacks in the area at a similar time, police are investigating those attacks but it's more likely to be a random passing smoker?

a view from a pub

I sat enjoying a post-ride beer or two (and some serious calorific refuelling) in the later evening watching the sun sink out of the gloriously blue sky .......

even the terminally stupid can enjoy themselves

Then again I might have misread this sign a little .. .. ..

angramatical error

Yes I know it's the right letters and they're in an order that spellcheck likes but I'm sure that should be RESERVE currency not REVERSE currency.

not our fault innit

The Independent has started a campaign for safer cycling with some grim stories and statistics about deaths on the roads involving HGVs and bikes. It ends with this

Nine steps towards safer cycling

The London Cycling Campaign, which promotes safer cycling in the capital, has produced a nine-point-plan for reducing the toll of death and injury among cyclists:

* Enforce speed limits and clamp down on drivers who use mobile phones.

* Crack down on hit-and-run drivers, who account for a large portion of serious road injuries.

* Introduce 20mph speed limits in all built-up and shopping areas of Britain's towns and cities.

* Require all lorries to carry full safety equipment to help them avoid collisions with cyclists: six mirrors, sensors and safety guards.

* Require organisations which run lorries and other large vehicles to provide their drivers with cyclist awareness training, as already practised in four London boroughs.

* Include a "cycle awareness" section in the driving theory and practical tests

* Allocate more road space to cycling, as has been done in The Netherlands and Denmark, among other places.

* Provide all children with access to Bikeability cycle training, the current version of the Cycling Proficiency test

* Encourage less car use and more. cycling so that, as in The Netherlands and Denmark, collision rates for cyclists are reduced.

I read that and laughed. Only one of those nine points is aimed at cyclists and, as I have previously commented, locally to me at least they seem more interested in clipboard box-checking rather than actually teaching the kids life saving road skills for the Bikeability training.

The other eight points fall into the "it's never our fault" category. Not for a moment am I going to suggest that in any example of a cyclist's death that the Indy uses that it was their own fault because that would be churlish. However surely the best way to make cycling safer is to offer good training and good advice, to bring in measures for those people who are involved in cycling?

Why no call for a crackdown on cyclists who flout the law? I've seen riders deliberately pass through red traffic lights, ride at night without any lights wearing all black clothes, not be able to stop without using their feet as brakes. These people are a danger to all road users, just as drink-drivers, reckless drivers, are a danger to all road users.

Why no call for a riding test, licensing, regular MOT test, compulsory insurance for bikes and riders? These things that motorists are subjected to must be reducing road deaths (unless there is another reason for them?) so why not demand that cyclists prove they and their vehicle are road safe?

If a militant cyclist reads this their instant mental response may well be "but we have more to lose out of a collision than the car driver" and they would be right. A cyclist does have more chance of death if they collide with a car or HGV than the driver but why should every HGV owner be forced to fit devices to their vehicles for the benefit of cyclists, when we aren't prepared to subject ourselves to the same restrictions and costs that other road users are forced to pay especially when we have more to lose, when things go wrong? Because it's not our fault innit.

no faith

I've just seen the TV advert for this product and the thing that springs to my mind is the lack of faith that Dettol have in the ability of their hand soap to kill germs.

today's top tip

Sage advice was delivered in the pub this evening.

Do not, under any circumstances, come home from a night out on the beers and decide that boiled eggs would make brilliant post-drinks food.

Especially do not do this if you are going to fall asleep with them boiling happily in the saucepan because when the last of the water evaporates the eggs will explode coating the whole of your kitchen in eggy mess that, if you do not clean off instantly, forms a tough coating that is very difficult to remove.

Particularly do not do this if you think that only a dozen eggs will be sufficient to satisfy your munchies.