bridge too far

And bloody Wycombe not helping either

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/26630281 Something to be very proud of

Absolutely agree and very powerfully delivered. Goodness knows what the solution / outcome will be though.

Also interestingly, this article appeared on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26583536

JB the link refers to the 1980s - 30 years ago. I joined the NHS in 1991 and one of my colleagues managed the PALS service for the hospital (Patient Liaison Service). Back then, the hospital had 14 days to respond to a complaint / query and faced reprimands if it didin't. This coincided with the ending of Crown Immunity

My concerns for the future of the NHS are simple. 20 years ago (and I've worked in the NHS for over 20 years) people knew how to raise and concerns and with whom. The NHS was accountable to its end users and to those who managed the service. Today it isn't. With an increasing number of providers from the private sector, the accountability is to the shareholders of that provider. Yes there are contracts stating KPIs but the monitoring resources are inadequate for the job in hand. Many CCGs were struggling half way through the financial year leading to a limit to the availability of some services. They were struggling because they didn't have the expertise to manage and monitor contracts - contracts that didn't need to be outsourced. There have been lots of stories about, for example, poor out-of-hours services and increasing use of A&E because the public can't access GP care (the same GPs who run the CCGs). I need to know who to contact if I have a concern about my local health service. Short of contacting my MP (who hasn't been at all helpful to his constituents in the past) it's tough to know where to go. I understand the need to rationalise major trauma treatment and specialties - what I don't understand is the ability of unaccountable providers (and the useless Secretary of State) to make important decisions without consulting the very people they are supposed to serve.

I'm not talking about way back when. I'm talking about now. Of course life expectancy and standards of treatment have improved - due to research and constantly increasing knowledge. I'm talking about increased unaccountability of (private) providers to end users. And you only have to look at the passing of the emergency legislation on Clause 119 last week to see that you and I have very little say in how our treatment is managed these days. Not to mention lengthening waiting lists. Recently I had an accident that resulted in knee reconstruction. I've no complaint about the standard of care I received from the emergency services but, even though I live in a large town near to a motorway network, I had to be treated about 20 miles from my home. Fine in itself but I simply could not get back to the treating hospital for physio (it was not my local Trust). So I had to be referred to a local provider (privately run service contracted to the NHS). It took 6 weeks - yes 6 weeks - to get this sorted and that's with me, one who knows her way around the NHS and therefore badgered constantly. My injury required immediate post-discharge physio. Fortunately, as a former fitness instructor, I was able to do some work myself but I really was scared that I might do more damage! As far as education is concerned I can now only relate to what's happening where I live. We still have the 11+ here and increasingly the grammar schools are selecting either children from private junior schools in county or even loads from out county to the detriment of local stated educated children. A recognised measurement is the number of children receiving free school meals going to grammar schools. This number has fallen significantly year on year. Even the local Academies are now selecting, leaving a good number of children struggling to find secondary places. When essential services are driven by the bottom line rather than by excellent standards there exists a conflict. You only have to look at the number of MPs who have vested interests in private healthcare companies or education providers to question their motives in voting through these damaging changes. http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/p/key-facts-of-lords-and-mps-connections.html

However, when you consider the inexorable privatisation of the NHS and, to some extent, education you have to say it's looking like an unmitigated disaster.

I think that's a little unfair. No-one can help their backgrounds or education as a child. He was the one who changed the law so that hereditary peers could denounce their peerage and I know for a fact that his children went to the local comprehensive (because I was working there at the time).

I DID move back when my dad died to help my mother out. Not back to the City (Sholing) but towards Fareham. I think I'd looked at my youth through rose coloured specs because things weren't as they were before. I was tempted back to Oxfordshire by a great job offer and we moved like a shot (Mr TF is from Bishops Waltham but he was happy to move too). Got lots of relatives in and around Southampton and we might be tempted back once my daughters don't need me for childcare and Mr TF retires. I'm amazed at how cheap property is in the City compared to here so we'd be quids in I reckon.

Since when has that ever bothered them?

So if Barker goes they'll be looking for their 10th manager in 5 and a half years!

Strange - Wiki has him down as a graduate of Queens College, Oxford. Edit just seen he was a Chair at So'ton University - my mistake

He also made some progress in the maritime industry For Boyd Tonkin, writing in the Independent, Mr Crow was in reality "a modern unionist" who used "small-scale, hi-tech unionism" to build the RMT's power. However, the writer says it packed a "much feebler punch on the high seas", adding that newspapers would seldom give him credit for having campaigned to extend the UK minimum wage to foreign-flagged ships in domestic waters. Significant, no doubt, in leveling the playing field to protect the UK ports and shipping

Penny Mordaunt has just claimed in the H of C that Portsmouth FC is the only 100% community owned club in the country! Do they ALL lie down there? Is it something in the waters?

And it's a useful tool for comments. There have been scores of them, apparently, most of them very negative. Still, as you say, a tool - for a tool

He's paying FB £7.5K for 'likes'! According to the Daily Heil (who hate him with a vengeance) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2576414/Please-like-Cameron-pays-Facebook-fans-manages-double-social-media-following-month.html

Why not look at their website? Just a thought

*Like*

Is this a euphemism?

Who gives a **** ?

I don't really know what's going on in Ukraine. I read the papers and listen to the BBC but I'm not finding an answer to a question I have. As I understand it, Ukraine deposed its president and government by demonstrations and revolt and not by democratic and fair elections. Is that right? I'm also led to believe that the replacement Ukraine government comprises a large number of fascist / extreme right wing representatives. Is that right? So why is perceived to be an illegal act for Crimea to want to hold a referendum? Some are saying that's undemocratic and illegal, but is it any more undemocratic and illegal than what's happened in Ukraine?

Adam coming on

Or, at the very least, suppressing stuff they don't want us to know http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26435000

Done for the 3rd time - he's still in 3rd place