NHS staffing (again)

This week, two stories were in the headlines. One is about the UK taking too many healthcare staff from developing nations. The other later in the week was about how the NHS does not have enough staff itself to provide our nation with the level of healthcare people expect. 

Due to working conditions and pay, other developed nations are taking staff from the NHS. Staff have been voting with their feet and have opted for better pay and working conditions abroad. We need to change that. 

Boris Johnson again

First of all, there is the matter of the resignation honours of Boris Johnson from his time as PM. Labour said the list amounted to “rewards for those who tried to cover up rule-breaking”, while the Lib Dems said it was “gongs for Johnson’s Partygate pals” and described it as “corruption pure and simple”.  Listening to BBC Any Questions, the issue of Tony Blair came up.  While there is no doubt that Blair misled Parliament with his dodgy dossier, this was an exaggeration, not an outright lie.  Boris will continue to argue that events which required suitcases of wine to be brought into Downing Street were work related. I am not sure that many others either isolating, or like me working on the front line (though in my case, it was in the trenches just behind the front ones) will agree.

What is also interesting is how Nadine Dorries has quit as an MP, forcing a by-election which will cause harm to Rishi Sunak. Boris Johnson has since done the same after being given the Partygate report, but he claims to have been forced out.  It is a shame that this has happened as a return of Boris Johnson to power would herald even greater support for Labour in the next General Election. 

In summary, Boris Johnson who has finally resigned over PartyGate, has rewarded lots of people for helping him while he decided to mislead Parliament. 

Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam

On the 6th of June, the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine was destroyed.  Both Russia and Ukraine blamed the other side. For Russia, this would cause issues with the water supply to Crimea and also risk safety at Europe's largest nuclear plant. For Ukraine, this means that not only are the areas that they recaptured to be flooded, but also this is going to be harder to cross the Dnipro River. When I say cross, Ukrainian forces already did this in April and it may be that the flooding may affect those who are on the south bank.  

Such an action will make it harder for Ukraine to retake Crimea, but I suspect that was going to be a hard ask anyway. 

  

Love Island day 3 2023

 Sad though it is, my wife, daughter and I are watching Love Island. My daughter realised earlier today that it had started and so we watched the first episode, bits of the second and we are watching the latest episode right now. My wife has the view that the one I think is the prettiest is a mutated dwarf, but she tends not to like women I find attractive.

Our son is the sanest out of us all as he refuses to watch it.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Watched this with my son. He assured me that we had watched the first film in this series together, we had not. However, it was still a very enjoyable film, one, which considering how it focuses on the relationship between teenagers and parents was great to watch with my son.

My favourite superhero will vary from day to day, but most days, it will be Spider-Man (the other two from my childhood are Bat-Man thanks to the series, and Superman thanks to the films). This film lived up to my childhood recollections of Spider-Man. In some ways anyway. He was funny, clever and, I guess, this film has a lot to offer many fans of the franchise. It stayed true to the issues he faces with the challenges faces to come out to his parents, but they would only continue to love him if he did. I love the art work, I love the plot and the characters are great as well, including the villain.

My son loved the film and I think that he enjoyed the time with me there as well as walking to and back from the cinema. The only downside was that he would not let me pay for his bubble-tea. Would I pay to watch it again? Yes. But I will not as I am happy to wait until it is streamed. Now I just need to watch the first one… 

Home at last

We are home at last. While everyone was sleeping, I took Leia out for a walk. The drive back was an uneventful one and it is great to be able to relax at home once again. 

Day four In Gloucestershire

 Technically it is not Gloucestershire at the moment we are n Berkshire. We cleaned up the house, had breakfast at the local cafe and then said our goodbyes to David and Whitworth. We did drive to Cheltenham, but my daughter decided it was too cold to get out of the car. 

So we ended up driving to where we are now which is just outside Reading. Leia has enjoyed the walk and lunch was amazing. I hope that dinner will be just as good.