In season

Leia has come into season now. It is expected as we knew it was coming, but it is frustrating as we have a few things planned, and she will not be able to go to the dog sitter as normal.  Which means I will have to find a way home tomorrow 

Arsenal and frustration

How can a team that took Spurs apart with ease play so poorly against Brighton? I know that Tottenham let us play, while Brighton did the best they could to frustrate us, but there was a huge difference between the two games.

I hope that we play like we did last weekend more often, but my faith in our ability to do so is limited.

Keir Starmer At Lab21

Today, I took a break from work at lunch to listen to the speech from the leader of the Labour Party. 

It was one that the Conservatives would have loved.

The most memorable part of the speech was the heckling that took place.  I suspect that will cause as much damage to the chances of Labour being elected as the high profile resignation before.  After all, I do not remember much of what Theresa May said in 2017, but I do remember her being given her P45.

Saying that, Labour have forgotten that part of politics is advertising.  The brand of Labour was damaged due to the worldwide economic crash of 2008 which both the Conservatives and Momentum have blamed on New Labour.  But further damage to the brand occurred under Jeremy Corbyn.  I still stand by my view that the damage was caused, not just by a manifesto that appeared to be out of touch, but also occurred due to the actions of some who supported him, but ignored his call for Kinder Gentler Politics.  Under Tony Blair, easy to remember sound bites were used, Education, education, education being one.  The Conservatives understand this and in the last election, repeated the mantra of more police (but not enough to replace the way they defunded it), more staff for the NHS (despite increasing vacancy numbers) and the like.

Boris Johnson will come across as having a united party next week, and I doubt that he will many hecklers distracting from his message.

GP surgeries are open

“GPs must bring back face to face consultations with their patients. We need to get back to our workplaces.” Jacob Rees-Mogg said that in Parliament being unaware, along with our Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Health and Social Care that surgeries have been seeing patients face to face since the pandemic began.  

It is frustrating as before the pandemic, it would be common to be sitting next to someone in the doctors waiting room who had a viral respiratory tract infection.  Just before the first lockdown, many GP’s moved to a system of triage by telephone before seeing patients and this recommended by medical institutions. Patients continued to be seen, but what could be dealt with by telephone was dealt with by telephone.

In the surgery I work in, much more face to face activity is taking place, but people still slip through the net, coming into the surgery with symptoms of infections.  Staff are now vaccinated and social distancing takes place, putting them at far less risk compared to last year.  However there is a risk to them still, and more importantly to other patients.

With the waiting rooms kept quiet, the risks posed to other patients is reduced (at our surgery, we see suspected respiratory tract infections in our hot room).  If general practice is opened up to the levels seen before the pandemic, in the same manner, then more people will catch infections in the waiting rooms, and of those, some will be COVID19, and of those, some will die when they would not have if the triage system was in place,

Sadly, the Conservatives forget the pressure that Primary Care was under before the pandemic, let alone the increased pressures it faces now.  They did promise to recruit more GP's in 2015, and failed.

So when Jacob Rees-Mogg speaks about GP’s seeing patients on a face to face basis, he either is unaware that this never stopped, or that he wants waiting rooms full of ill patients infecting each other.

Why I am wrong to call Conservatives scum.

Our nation has record levels of In Work Poverty, rising Child Food Poverty and the government are to cut Universal Credit.  Apparently this is acceptable, as is referring to women in certain forms of Muslim attire as letter boxes, being racist, being homophobic, conspiring to beat up a journalist, cheating on your spouse as well as lying to your employer, electorate and other politicians.

Angela Rayner was unprofessional when she called the Tories scum.  But I have done the same, normally when I have dealt with someone who has been affected by the policies that the Conservatives have brought in.  Often after and during listening to interviews with Conservatives redefining black as white I will rant about how much I hate them.

I know that many honestly are unaware of the hardship that they cause, but I honestly think that is because they refuse to see and hear the truth.  

However, it is wrong to refer to all Conservatives as scum.  I would consider it accurate to say that they have done some scummy things and those in power appear to have no morals and seem to turn a blind eye to corruption if not engaging in activities which do not appear above board.  But not all Conservatives are like that, and due to this, I have been wrong on the many times that I have called them scum.

Zombieland

Last night, I finished watching Zombieland.  And I enjoyed it.  I still think that Shaun Of The Dead is one of the best Zombie comedies around (along with Braindead) but this was fun and I am glad I watched it.  Full of gore, and black humour, it was a much needed lift to the day. 

PMQs and our COVID vaccinations

First of all, family.  We have had our COVID vaccinations today, the kids having their first ones, my wife and me having our third ones.  However, I did get worried when my daughter had a headache later.  It did improve with paracetamol though though did not do away.  My son had wanted to have time off PE due a sore arm, but he asked us this before he had his vaccination and forgot to mention it afterwards.

Anyway, PMQ's.  Angela Rayner put in a spectacular performance, asking Dominic Raab about his comments on British workers being amongst the worst idlers in the world as well as the trade deal our Prime Minister had said we would get with the USA. He gave credit for the USA dropping travel restrictions to the UK to Boris Johnson, even though the USA had decided to do this for Europe and was considering this before PMQ's.  However he did not answer the question posed about British workers.  She referred to the issues that many face about In Work Poverty, missing out on how things are at record levels.  Dominic Raab did list a range of things done which he said was to improve the lot of those who are poorly paid, but he ignored how things are worse under the Conservatives.  I did not get a chance to listen to the rest of it, but the main event was enough.