Monthly Archives: August 2009

What a waste….

Over 200 British soldiers killed…. thousands of civilians dead… our politicians don’t have a clue…. what a waste…. a damning waste. What is the point of the war in Afghanistan?

US healthcare reform row

United States president Barack Obama’s flagship policy on health care reform is in danger of unravelling because a of a highly emotive and vicious public campaign by both political and clinical opponents.

In this report from The Guardian today, many critics have quoted comparisons of their health care system with our own ‘socialist’  National Health Service. “Evil and Orwellian” as one saw it. Public meetings to discuss the issues have often been disrupted because people on both sides of the debate angrily wanting to have their say.

My advice, from a Brit to America is:

GROW THE F*** UP!!!

Shouldn’t you guys be aiming to improve the health care of a significant number of your fellow countrymen and women because they can’t get adequate insurance? President Obama has no plans whatsoever to copy our NHS, funded solely by taxes. Opponents of reform, instead of  rejecting any  change just for the sake of it, should put forward their alternative plans and then tell the public how much would they cost.

The US health care system, despite some faults, is still among the best in the world. Some changes are needed to make it even better. For Obama’s sake… and fellow Americans, these reforms deserve a chance to succeed.

Baby P: Row rumbles on

The controversy and public outcry over the death of young Baby P simply refuses to go away. Today, the identities of the killers of the 17 month-old boy were finally revealed.

Mother, Tracy Connelly, and her partner Steven Barker, were both jailed. The boy died in the same London borough, Haringey, as Victoria Climbie nearly eight years earlier.

In a separate development, Sharon Shoesmith, the former head of the council’s children’s department, and several other high-ranking officers are planning to sue Haringey for issues including unfair dismissal, and sex discrimination. Shoesmith is also planning to sue the government over the way that she was removed from her post. There will be a vicious legal battle… one in which only the lawyers will be the winners.

Elsewhere, the council continues to pull itself apart in public over how to address its failings. As I previously posted on this blog, they are in a deep hole, politically, financially and socially. Who in anybody’s right mind would want to work in an area which has such a poor reputation and is chaotic as Haringey?

While all this is happening, the borough’s vulnerable children will continue to be denied the basic help and care they so desperately need. Another tragic death cannot be ruled out.

Today's Britain: leaderless and rudderless

What sort of country would allow both Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman to go on holiday at the same time?

When an unelected cabinet minister has to run the United Kingdom from Corfu, it shows that the government has run out of ideas… and people.

Is Obama a socialist?

Obama socialist

Yeah, right (!)

And so is Gordon Brown, yeah, yeah. So utterly predictable.

By the way, is that what the Labour party used to believe in?