Parlez~me~'n~Tory

Rightly Wry, Satirically RIGHT

My wife took my 20 month old child to the local medical practice this morning (they hold a walk-in session) prior to official opening hours to get her eye seen too and to have a large bump on her head checked out.

What followed was something that can only be described as ludicrous. My wife could not get an appointment to see a Dr unless she booked one with 14 days notice. My child could not be seen by a Dr on the premises because there was an A&E within 15 miles of the practice.

The receptionist then set about trying to suggest she knew what the prognosis was without any further explanation. We had already consulted 2 pharmacists who although coming to the same conclusion cannot prescribe without authority yet a nurse who might see us as 2pm today can prescribe. That alone is a ridiculous situation to find ourselves in.

Why is it so difficult to get an appointment to see a Dr in your own medical practice? What is the point of belonging to a medical practice when you cannot ever see a Dr and will only ever get directed to A&E?

When Labour allowed GP’s to rewrite their own contract did they oversee the right to remove themselves from frontline patient services?

Well, that was rather incredible to be honest, watching the machinations of ALL sides during those 5 days.

After tonight’s programme my respect, albeit not a high level of respect for Lord Adonis has all but evaporated, he struck me as desperate on every level. Though having met Sir Gus O’Donnell in the past I was, as always rather impressed by his cool headed attitude.

I was in absolute awe of the candid access Nick Robinson had during the 5 days, from the screenshot of David Cameron’s laptop as he telephoned Nick Clegg whilst trying to form the coalition to the admissions of some of the ministers (not always to their benefit).

What came through from the LibDem side was to me that it is clear who doesn’t sit comfortably with the coalition but the vast majority do, at least currently they do, and there are some Labour representatives that don’t even think they did a thing wrong. It is obvious that something had to give and both parties did what was right to get the deal done, to put Britain back on the road to recovery, to stop the rot.

What else came through is that Ed Balls didn’t come across very well at all, that is not just from a Tory point of view, it makes it look very clear as though it was all the fault of Ed. Quite simply it won’t do his leadership bid any good whatsoever.

I am saddened that Gordon did not speak, was not interviewed, you could almost see the tears in Peter Mandelson’s eyes in that photo just before leaving. I do not know why he did not appear but can only assume it was his own choice.

One thing is very certain, politics in Britain has changed forever as a result of these 5 days as has access to the details that we will from now on demand of our media representatives.

Kudos to Nick Robinson for he has done something very special here and for the record Paul Waugh from the Evening Standard, this program was #worththelicencefeealone. We have all been a part of history.

Don’t waste time reading this, get BBC2 on and watch Five Days That Changed Britain…then consider coming back

This is yours, if you want it…

Today I spent a little time exploring a piece of software that I have had for rather a long time and never actually opened. I was scared of it, I didn’t know how to use it and was quite content that one day I would wake with renewed vigor and it would all jump out of the box and explain itself to me. Well, that day was today.

In truth it didn’t take much working out but it allowed me to explore an idea that has been floating around my head for a while. What you are about to watch is only 57 seconds in length and does not feature all the “stars” that you would expect to see but it is a clue to what I was thinking (it is only a draft so it is patchy in places).

So, the question begs, do you want to work with this, expand on this, recreate this?

This is clearly going to take some time to complete and if you have that time then great. The seed of the idea is there, why not use it, there are many of you out there that can do a much better job than this, but for a first attempt I am rather pleased.

The tune is perfect, the lyrics lend themselves so much to pretty much whatever angle you wish to take them so why not have a little fun.

My only request is that if you use the idea then at least please link back to here so that I can see how clever you are and hopefully garner some tips for my future use. Thank you and hopefully you will enjoy…

Parlez_me_nTory was recently approached to assist with a blog post concerning NHS Wales and a scandal within.

Whilst content to write the post I thought it would carry much more weight and heartfelt concern if it came straight from the heart and therefore this post is courtesy of Carolyn Webster whom I am sure you will agree feels very passionately about this subject.

NHS Wales. In the care of whom?

I have pretty much relied on the NHS for my children.

One child was referred to Great Ormond Street hospital at 3 months old, she’s fine now. The other child will need the NHS for the rest of his life. His condition is not life limiting.

The medical staff and therapists in the NHS who have played such a vital role will continue to play that part for the rest of his, hopefully, long life.

It is due to this absolute dependency of the NHS that when I read an article posted by Aberdareonline posted WAG must not put NHS managers before nurses I was horrified.

To make mattes worse this information has barely received any media attention.

In Wales, the control over the NHS is devolved to the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG).

This means that out of our budget managed by the Labour/Plaid Administration (yes, Labour still hold a little power somewhere), not only do we get free prescriptions, but it seems that we can now afford to maintain a policy that protects the jobs and salaries of the Chief Executives and other directors of former NHS Wales Trusts (all previous trusts were amalgamated to form 11 trusts).

In the real world, there would have been a round of redundancies, and redundancy payments, a bit of Gardening Leave, maybe a leaving do. But no, these non-job holders get to keep their jobs and salaries for 10 years.

This is despite a WAG annual operating framework where Local Health Boards are instructed to make a 3% reduction of the workforce of those above a band 5 salary scale post every year for the next 3 years. Basically this directive means that over the next 3 years, 2000 nursing and midwifery posts are threatened.

But meanwhile those Chief Executives, whose roles were in effect made redundant are safe for another 10 years.

So, Senior Management. Which of you will step forward to help my son speak?

Which one of you will care for him after another medical procedure?

Which one will hold my hand as I cry at another hurdle faced by my son?

Come on. Who cares?

In a week of turmoil, speculation, the Emergency Budget and false claims it has transpired that the Public Sector Unions are on the cusp of being offered a Gold-Plated carrot to “hush down”.

Normally, I don’t repost articles verbatim but this time the essence is too strong to avoid an error creeping in. The following is from James Kirkup and Andrew Porter over at the Telegraph.

David Cameron will use the threat of cuts to public-sector pensions as a bargaining tool to counter trade union unrest over massive reductions in spending.

The Prime Minister’s advisers believe that widespread industrial action can be avoided if public sector workers are offered a deal over pensions.

The Coalition this week set out plans to cut almost £100 billion from public spending over five years, freezing pay for millions of public sector staff and sacking thousands of others. Unions have warned of coordinated strikes and other protests to resist the cuts, which experts have predicted could result in 700,000 people losing their jobs.

Adding to union anger, the Government is also seeking to cut the cost of what Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, has called “gold-plated” public sector pensions.

Some senior figures, however, believe that the prospect of a deal on pensions could be used to lessen union opposition to spending cuts elsewhere. One idea is to give the unions seats on a review of public sector pensions led by John Hutton, the former Labour Cabinet minister. With official figures showing that the cost of funding state pensions will more than double to £9.4 billion in five years, public-sector employees could be asked to pay higher contributions for the same level of retirement income.

Richard Balfe, Mr Cameron’s trade union “envoy”, suggested that pensions could be used as a “lollipop” to soften union anger.

He told The Daily Telegraph: “Public-sector pensions are like lollipops for kids. You decide what sort of lollipop you’re going to give, and then you work out how you are going to pay for it. It’s perfectly possible to maintain public-sector pensions at their current level, if you make some fairly modest alterations to employee contributions.”

He added: “Public-sector pensions will clearly be a very significant issue in the wider relationship between the Government and the unions. I hope they can be persuaded of that.”

Mr Balfe, a former Labour MEP, said that most trade union leaders would take a “pragmatic” view of the spending cuts, but warned that some would be more confrontational than others. The Public and Commercial Services Union would be the most militant, he predicted.

“They represent a lot of civil servants who are going to lose their jobs,” he said.

“There probably will be trouble in the heartlands like Newcastle where all the benefits staff are. But this is a dispute that has to be won.”

The Government’s political strategy emerged as the Prime Minister conceded his “radical” plans to slash spending and shake up the public sector could anger voters and cost him the next general election.

Speaking in Toronto at a G8 summit, Mr Cameron said he was prepared to be a one-term prime minister rather than back down on his wider agenda of shrinking the state and decentralising government power.

Criticising Labour under Tony Blair for playing safe, Mr Cameron said: “I would rather have five reforming years as Prime Minister than 10 wasted years like Blair. I want this to be a radical reforming Government.” Mr Cameron said he was determined to enact the agenda he has developed with Nick Clegg, his Liberal Democrat deputy.

“There are a lot of plans coming out between now and the summer and the reform agenda will be running through almost everything we do going forward,”

Make of that what you will though won’t Nick Clegg look a bit silly having made the “Gold-Plated” statement?

Either way, it is so refreshing to have a PM who is out for the country however short or long term instead of out for himself and cronies?

You can read the original article here.

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This is the first in my singlehanded attempt to change the way in which Twitter is hijacked every 7 days.

I am guessing that you are reading this because you are already a member of Twitter and therefore I don’t need to explain what #ff or #followfrriday is and if you don’t you should probably read this blog post.

So, who have I chosen for this weeks suggestions as my #ff/#followfriday’s?

To note, Coalition Tweeps probably won’t feature within this first post as it will take time to add the majority of those so those will retain the existing method at least for this week.

Also, there are a huge number of Tweeps that have interacted yet it is very difficult to determine “where they sit” Politically hence they have been left off at least for now.

Well, as stated in my previous blog I shall identify

those that I have discussed with during the previous week, debating partners, considered intelligentsia of the political world (whatever flavour)

Generally I wake early of a morn and share my good cheer with my timeline, occasionally some fellow Tweeps report back, those that bother at such an ungodly hour deserve a mention: @d_kitchenham

Those that need a lift this week include: @lmlc

My Labour Tweeps this week: @SamCellis @Tchee @Neilwigg @thedancingflea @DarrellGoodliff

Generous to a fault this week: @sensiblecharity

My smilemakers: @dolbsterpoet

Lastly, I offer @WicksieSnr who I shall be spending time with this weekend at his 50th Wedding Anniversary.

Not happy? What? Were you expecting the masses of recommendations that you see every week from most Tweeps? May I refer you to the first line of this post again?

This is the first in my singlehanded attempt to change the way in which Twitter is hijacked every 7 days.