The following is a sound off about my local GP surgery. 
Just putting it here to work on.

Ten years ago this wasn't a bad surgery. Then things started to become unreliable. Getting an appointment. Actually seeing a Doctor. Getting an appointment within a time that was useful to you. We did our best to avoid it. We then discovered that they had allegedly received a lot of money from Government to "Improve Patient Services" The Chief Medic went to Downing Street & met with Theresa May  to accept this funding They boast about this on their website. Boast about receiving funding from the one person whose Government has been doing it's utmost to destroy the Health Service.  Well I have to say it has failed, big time. If it was bad enough when you had to fight your way past a receptionist to grab an appointment before, you now have the delights of a call centre where even pressing for the emergency option leaves you on hold for around twenty minutes. This group of surgeries has failed. 


A few months ago I was experiencing a great amount of pain. I was fobbed off for one appointnent. Tried a week later & had to travel 40 minutes from home to grab an emergency appointment that was beyond the so called "Same day service" they boast about. When I got there, It had been double booked. They had had 24 hours to phone and tell me this, but they failed. So. This surgery, given a wodge of money to improve services - failed - and, having asked around - they appear to have failed or inconcenienced a lot of people. I have NO trust in this surgery any more. The Doctors may be fine as they battle against the system. It is their system that is abysmal.

The Social Media Killer!

I hate the term "Social Media".  I loathe it.  Almost as much as I loathe the idea that there are people out there who are "Social Media Trainers".  SMT's are only one step less loathsome than the Happy Clappy Personal Trainer types who run near Religious style gatherings telling people how they can "Improve their lives" *spit* *spit*.

I knew a Social Media Trainer.  She was nice enough, a bit "over perfect" in her lifestyle, in a slightly nauseous way, but I just viewed the sort of stuff she did as some sort of 21st Century con trick.  Sure, there are people who could use being pointed in the right direction in using the various platforms available - but I really do not believe that with the "service" being as young as it is - that anyone can claim to be an "Expert" in Social Media.

My General advice is - buy a cheap book about it - 'cos it'll save you a lot of money over going to some Happy Clappy Seminar.

Of course, there have been some useful groupings of people on the website portals, getting together to March, or Petition the Government about things.  Useful "Support Groups" or gatherings of local people to discuss local things in ways they may never have connected before!

BUT.......

What have we become? There is Facebook Group after Facebook Group - Moaning about stuff? We do love a good old moan - which is what you'll notice me doing here! A few years ago for instance, there was (and still is) this thing called the "People's Assembly" - It was born from the sort of thinking by the likes of Owen Jones, Tony Benn, Mark Thomas etc, that someone had to stand up against what the Tories were offering because Labour were being bloody useless.

It brought together the middle classes over the usual tree huggers and hipppies - but it brought them as well - and all seemed good as they rallied around the country discussing stuff and speaking with one voice about......

NOTHING!

In the end, it was a little old ladies tea party! You could imagine Monty Python's Hell's Grannies sitting around, drinking tea and saying "Ooh! Isn't all this terrible! We should do something about it - right after we've had a cup of tea!"

.........and that was it.

.........and marches were arranged. 50,000 marched in Manchester.

They were ignored.

100,000 marched in London.

They were ignored.

100,000 signed a petition.

A debate was held in Parliament. 15 MP's turned up and...

Then they were ignored!

So there we go.  Is "Social Media" working? or is it just giving people a sounding board to save them taking to the streets - and even when they do go to the streets, nothing happens anyway!

Still. Mustn't grumble.  

Might just have another cup of tea. 

Home Taping is killing Music! Then it didn't.

Just written the following on a Digital Spy Forum about Torrenting and Downloads:

"One view of the illegal download thing. It's a mad idea, but.......

Once upon a time we produced cars, they were arguably a little unreliable, came with vinyl seats and had a lot of wood in. You had to pay extra for a radio and a heated rear window to keep your hands warm when you were pushing it down the hill to start it in Winter.

Then along came these naughty Japanese chaps, they brought in these funny little cars with free radios, heated rear windows, fluffy corduroy seats and a unique plasticky smell of sick in the shiny new interior. They started in Winter as well!

So we had to take notice and offer a better deal ourselves or the pesky Japanese would put us out of business.

The rest is history, but we did try to compete to begin with.

If this was handled the same way as the internet - we'd fining everyone who bought a Japanese car before banning them completely!

(In a way we did do this, because at first only a certain number of Japanese cars were allowed to come into the country each year).

Yes, on the one hand - not paying for things is naughty and different from the analogy up there - Yes! You didn't get hundreds of people taking cars for test drives and then stealing them.

Although - in the eighties you did get a hell of a lot of people importing their cars from Europe - legitimately - because the prices of Cars in the UK was higher than the list price in France or the Netherlands for instance. In the end the Govt and UK car industry had to take notice and bring prices in line.

I think the Music and Film industry has been caught on the hop. I think they've taken a head in the sand Dinosaur attitude to new technology and have missed the boat.

Had they seen the extra potential for sales via streaming on the net - they would have set up their own hugely promoted websites offering affordable downloads.

After all - the history of business is quite often that someone else comes along and does it cheaper - which is what healthy competition is all about? Surely the multimillion dollar recording industry bods could afford to knock a bit off their own prices? It's not as if they pay some of their stars all that well to start with!

Trouble is - they haven't. They've treated the net with contempt (Just a theory) and they've ended up being well and truly shafted. You have always had Pirates! Who can forget "Home Taping is Killing Music!!"

Well, it didn't did it?

So the last resort of the Publishing Companies is simply to get together with their Pals in Government to clamp down on everyone and smack people's bums. When all they needed to do was to offer these services themselves in the first place!

But they didn't. It's Sour Grapes and Laziness on their part.

Don't jump on me - I'm just putting forward a light hearted view, just a whacky idea. It's not wholly how or what I think about it - Just sticking a book on the table to see if anyone wants to look at it.

Thought you might like to have fun with it!"

Oh Boy!

When we were heading towards the last election. I knew for a fact that with the Tories back in - the NHS would disappear.  I also knew that the the Welfare State as it was wouldn't be far behind.  It's what they do.  No amount of shiny suits and shiny haircuts could disguise the fact that the "New Tories" were just made up of the same old failed Ministers from the last time around. Such a shame that so many did fall for it.

After 1997 there was an interview with a Junior Minister in the Major Government who said that there was a "Green Paper" or a discussion paper going around Tory Central Office looking at options for introducing competition (aka "Privatisation") into the NHS once they were re-elected.  I never forgot this and knew it would get dusted off once they got back in.

This latest round of cuts announced yesterday is really scraping the bottom of the barrel though in regards to fairness.  It is Demonisation and Victimisation of the worst kind.  You'll think it extreme and an exaggeration to suggest it - but they are on edges of Nazi-ism.  I feel ashamed at daring to suggest something that is - in a normal democracy - laughable, but there you are.  I've said it and it does appear to be a stone's throw from what the Tories are doing.

Instead of a "Bedroom Tax" - How easy would it have been to introduce a couple of extra tiers to the Council Tax Bands and impose taxes on Mansions that would be appropriate to their size? Have a look at your Council Tax Bands - Go on! What's the percentage difference between Band A and Band G, or H or whatever the last one is these days? Not much is it?  Perhaps that could change?

Equally, Instead of cutting off small businesses by not lending, not supporting jobs or encouraging people to set up on their own, would it be so difficult to get some money out of the very Bankers who caused the crash in the first place? The "Banking Transaction Tax" could do just that - and put money back into your community to support your services.

Whilst we're on the idea of "Predictions", The Minimum Wage.  As soon as Cameron started on about his "Big Society" - didn't you guess that it was just there to undermine it? When Job Centres came up with Workfare? Wasn't it too easy? As soon as there were enough volunteers doing good work in the community - how easy would it be to cut, freeze or just let fade away the Minimum Wage? After all - It was the Tories who cut out the old "Wages Council" in the early nineties - so it was only a matter of time before they did the same once again.  So obvious, so predictable, so why didn't anyone else realise?

But they won't do that. In the old "Divide and Rule" cliché.  In the old "Laugh at the little guy" bullying tactics of the Classroom, this bunch of schoolboys just want to pick on you, pick on what you do, make fun of your clothes and hair and - oh yes! Pinch your Dinner Money.

Fixing Expenses for Good - Possibly?

With expenses rearing their ugly head again, I thought I'd re-kick off this blog with my Big Plan for MP's.  I can't see the problem, with it - can you? Let me know. 

To begin with; Solve the problem of outside expenses by having a "Constituency Office" in the heart of every constituency.  This will be owned by Parliament and staffed by a Civil Servant - It will also pass from MP to MP of whatever Party is representing the area at the time.  All paid for centrally - be it Freehold or Leasehold.  It could even be a space within the town hall.  Let him or her have a camp bed there if they don't live "near enough" as some of the more dodgy ones do.  This takes away the need to claim for mortgages, staff or furniture.

In London - They can simply refurbish an old office block in the style of student accommodation - Breeze Block Walls, Lino on the floor - Individual blocks with a shared bath/ shower room and two bedrooms with a shared study off the bedrooms.  Oh! Did I say "Eighties style student block?"  Well, if it's good enough for a hard working student for four years - why should MP's have anything more luxurious?

To me it brings all expenses "In house".  In fact - with so much infrastructure provided for them - they have hardly any need to "Claim" for anything at all!