The Menu

This morning was quite stressful, and the effects of this lasted a while, we went to have a late lunch at The Shepherd, great Guinness and service, but a shame about the food.

An irony then that my wife and I started to watch The Menu afterwards. It is very dark and she had to stop watching it after a while. I continued to watch it, and I have to say that I enjoyed it and would recommend it to those with a sick and depraved sense of humour. 

Anyway, here is hoping that I feel less stressed tomorrow. 

The Conservatives stealing a Labour policy

Many people complain that they do not know what Labour stands for. A reason for this, is that the Tories will steal Labour policies. Labour unveiled a plan to help jobseekers find work earlier this week. Jonathan Ashworth (Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary) promised improved support for those who have recently left employment, the plan designed to encourage older workers and those with medical conditions back into work.

Today, the Tories, in effect stole it. 

I think that we do have a system where it is hard for those who are ill to get benefits, but if they improve a bit, they are in a catch 22 situation where if they do try to return to work, they will lose benefits, and this can be catastrophic if it turns out that they cannot remain in work.

While this is not the Universal Income that I would prefer, this is a step in the right direction.  It is a shame that Labour will not get the credit for these changes though.

A minimum service level legislation for the NHS

The government want to ensure that the NHS provides a minimum level of service during strikes.  What I want to know is what they consider a minimum level of service to be outside of strikes. 

An ambulance dispatcher has spoken about their fears on the BBC website.  This as a personal feel for me as my mother, who woke up with crushing central chest pain last year had to get to hospital by taxi as no ambulance went out to see her.  Where I work, I saw a lady who had a similar issue, waking up at night with chest pain, but cancelled the ambulance when her pain went.  I saw her the following morning and it looked like she had some heart damage as a result.  My mother was fortunate, it was not her heart, but for too many, they do come to harm due to these waits.

While the government like to blame the pandemic, this was a problem for too many before it.  It is just worse now.  The issue of waiting times for ambulances was discussed in Parliament in 2016 and in 2018, there were reports of patients waiting more than a day for an ambulance as well. 

Patients are dying in hospital corridors now, but again, this was happening before the pandemic, this article being in 2018.

I would love the government to state what standards are to be expected during a strike and to be accountable if those standards are not met when there is no strike action taking place. 

Oxford United's FA Cup tie with Arsenal

I forgot to post about this last night!  I had listened to most of it while charging my car (our home charger was being used by my wife) but I did get back home to watch the last few minutes and then saw the goals I had been listening to earlier. 

My worry before the game was that we would slip up, but winning it will mean nothing if we lose, as expected to Manchester City in the next round.  If nothing else, I do hope this game means that Eddie Nketiah continues to improve and also that Smith Rowe returns to his amazing form. 

The Conservative health policy

Many years ago, when the GOP was opposing the Affordable Care Act, the alternative plan (or lack of one) as described as “Don’t Get Ill, And If You Do, Die Quickly” which I think is the mantra of the Conservative Party today. 

That is the only reason I can think for them to allow the NHS to get so bad, and then to blame the NHS for it being so bad.  

While the Conservatives have increased funding, they have not done so according to its needs, hence the rise in the waiting lists as well as its failure in so many other areas. 

Retaining NHS staff

First of all, my son and I are back from France. He had talked about an early morning trip to Paris, but come the morning, faced with getting out of bed he decided to stay in bed. A trip to the airport in a taxi and then the flight home. Though it turned out we had not paid for everything and our cabin luggage had to go into the hold. My wife picked us up, having spent the weekend in London with my daughter having a great time themselves.

Anyway, one topic that has been discussed is if NHS staff are valued. In the last two months, as part of my job I have talked to two nurses who have left their jobs for better money elsewhere. One has now left for Australia, where she is to continue working as a nurse, just somewhere that will pay her properly. I need to write to by MP if they should have stayed in their jobs and accepted a below inflation pay rise, or if they should have left.

I am also going to ask him about an email from one of this fellow MP’s…

My return to Space Mountain

My feet hurt. Originally we had planned on getting to Disney so that we could be on the rides for 0930. But my son was asleep, so I let him rest and we did not actually wake up until 0900 when we went to have breakfast. My son did not eat much, but he normally does not have much for breakfast. I did eat, but the standard of the food here is not great. 

 

When in Disneyland, we went to Space Mountain. When we had been here before in 2014, my son was too short to go on it. My daughter did, but she hated it and refused to go on it again. He loved it but wanted to see the rest of the park. We later returned to the Indiana Jones ride, but he was not able to remember this, but that was almost ten years ago. After this we wen to the Marvel park. When there, I found my scariest ride ever, this being The Tower of Terror, and I also found my third scariest ride, this being the Avengers ride. When it comes to me and rides, the two things that get me are accelerating and dropping. Space Mountain accelerates, but it stops doing so before it gets very scary. Not so with the Avengers ride where it continues for longer. It was the Tower of terror that was the worst though. When I finished the ride, I was literally trembling with fear, and my son laughed. And then made me go on it again. 

 

We stayed till late, making use of the rides, including a return to the Buzz Lightyear ride that he loved so much back in 2014. We saw bits of the firework demonstration which is at the end of the day which I had wanted to watch. Seeing the few bits that I did see was good enough for me. 

 

Anyway, time for bed, and tomorrow, back to Blighty!