Congratulations West Ham, the only club named after two things that the Unislamic State hate.

Well, it has been a good weekend for the kids.  We took them to Chessington World of Adventures and they loved it.  My wife however was not able to go on the rides, as she is allergic to them.  This has been an issue in Legoland and was noted by me BC (Before Children) as students when we went to Alton Towers.  Then she was in a queue and trusting me asked me if the ride was scary.  Despite the screams of people above us, she listened to be and seemed to ignore the noise of terror.  Needless to say, she has done her best not to go on rides since.  But this actually worked out very well for us.  She got to relax and the kids managed to enjoy the theme park.  They took me on rides like the Vampire, the Black Buccaneer, the Monkey Swinger (do not go on that if your kids do not do well getting wet) and Kobra.  They managed to get my wife to go on one ride, Bubbleworks, which was not filled with adrenaline, but was a great experience for the kids, and as we were with them, us as well.

We are at home now, tired, the kids are in bed after watching Strictly and I am while the X-factor results are on, I am getting ready to watch Black Sails.  I did not get to watch things like the Arsenal win properly on television but spending such an enjoyable weekend with the family was more important. 

I went to the doctors today I confided that I've been depressed for eight years or more. "I think I know the root cause," he said pointing at my Arsenal shirt.

Well, I am annoyed with the performance of Arsenal.  Not with the team mind you, nor the manager.  Will, sort of annoyed with the team when it came to the game against Hull.  The first goal was the result of not just a foul, but the Arsenal players playing for the whistle.  And while Mertesacker was blamed by some for the second goal by Hernandez, Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore should not have been given the time on the wing to combine to put the cross in. 

But it is the fouls that annoy me.  When it came to the game against Chelski, we were fouled over and over again with loads of them taking place off the ball.  And while I understand that teams will not want us to play football against them.  Well, let us see what is going to happen tomorrow. 

Do they call themselves ISIL, ISIS or IS? They should pick a name that represents them, like The Unislamic State.

Well, I am in bed with a flu like illness, ironically on the day when I am meant to be helping out in a flu clinic!

But I am lucky, I am still here.  I only have flu as opposed to other illnesses and I am lucky enough to live in the UK.

What this post is about, as you can guess from the picture, is both Islamophobia.  I can not express my shock and horror at the murder of Alan Henning, an aid worker who delivered aid to Syria to help those in need. Murdered by those who claim to follow Islam, murdered by a group involved in the murder of others who not only do not follow the same religion as them, but the same interpretation of that religion. Some call them the Islamic State but really they do not represent the teachings of Islam. And this is not just something which I, a non-Muslim thinks, but is the view of many Muslims across the globe. The thing is that there are many who forget this and seem to judge most Muslims based on the abhorrent actions of a few, worse not just those on the far right. Fortunately, there are those who will speak out against prejudice. (This picture was taken from the Facebook wall of 360, his post on this was made on the 18th of December, but the best post on this is on the 19th.)

The binary version of 101 Dalmatians isn't nearly as impressive as the original...

Well, the score today was brilliant, 4-1!

Welbeck was amazing, (as was all the team) and to think that he was bought for a bargain considering the prices of footballers now.  I know that some fans did not realise how good he is.  Considering that he has scored a hat trick in European competition I hope that they now keep the faith.

In A&E and a doctor has just taken my pulse. To be fair, I shouldn't have brought a bag of lentils to hospital in the first place.

The NHS is in the news again. 

Labour have promised to increase the numbers of GP’s working in the NHS, but they have also stated that the way GP’s are to work is to change.  The Conservatives have promised that they will also increase the numbers of GP’s available and that they will allow patients to see their own GP if elected in 2015 seven days a week, the GP being available from eight in the morning till eight at night.  And Labour have promised to bring back the ability to see a GP within 48 hours. 

But they seem for forget that the NHS is failing.  Doctors who work in Accident and Emergency departments are leaving, hospitals are having to pay money for locum cover, more money than would be spent on regular staff, and the same is the case in general practice.  Some in the land of the RCGP argue that GP’s should have a bigger slice of the NHS pie when it comes to the money that is available.  My argument is that the pie should be bigger.  While everyone is aware that the deficit is something that has to be tackled, people forget that the doctors who work in the NHS can leave, and do.

For those who think that GP’s are paid too much and under worked, the simple counter argument is that there are not enough General Practitioners to work in the system as it is.  There have been loads of surgeries that have closed, and some of these have been in the private sector.  This is nothing to do with the way that the CQC will be acting to close down failing surgeries, but is quite simply because there are too few doctors who want to work as General Practitioners and this is shown by the number of training places that are unfilled.  People say that GP’s do not work after surgeries close, but the out of hours doctors services are staffed by GP’s who are working in most cases for private companies (something brought in under the Labour government for those who associate the increased role of the private sector in the NHS with the Conservatives).

So, remember this, there are not enough doctors working in A&E or General Practice as it is.  If someone says that they want to make the NHS work better, they need to tackle this without decreasing funding to the rest of the NHS.