And so it ends...

I've been thinking about doing this post for a long time, but I couldn't quite bring myself to, but it's really time to. I am bringing a close to proceedings on this blog. I've just run out of time and steam. A full time job means I just don't get to devote the time I want to to my writing anymore. This blog was at it's best at the beginning of 2007 when I wasn't working and all day long to work out what I wanted to write about and what I wanted to say. My blogging has now been reduced to me firing off a few sentences on the top news story of the day and frankly I'm embarrassed by the quality of it.

On top of that it seems like a good idea to go out on a relative high. I was so chuffed to do well in Iain Dale's rankings this year. In many ways this is just a good way for me to avoid being horribly disappointed next year by a massive plummet in the rankings.

Anyway - thank you everyone who's been reading this blog, I do look at my stats and there is a little band of loyal readers out there and I thank you very much for putting up with my random rambles.

I doubt I'll be able to give up blogging altogether. I'll keep reading them and maybe one day I might start a new one, although probably anonymously this time!

So in a nutshell - it's been fun, see you again one day.

Oh and one final thing - Vote Richardson for CF Chairman

Well DUH

What does it take though to get Brown's government to take responsibility for anything?

A Very Bad Idea

Today Gordon Brown has announced that they might change the way the NHS works by refusing to treat those who won't quite smoking or eating too much. According to The Times:

Patients face having to meet conditions to qualify for free healthcare under a new “contract” between the National Health Service and its users.

Smokers or people who are chronically overweight may have to agree to exercise or to other changes in their lifestyles in return for NHS treatment, as part of the move.

Now there are several problems with this approach, at the very least my own personal displeasure. This sort of approach has a very unpleasant logical conclusion. It starts with smokers and over eaters but it ends up hitting everyone very hard. Imagine an NHS where when you are wheeled into A&E with an alcohol related injury on New Years Eve having had one too may for the first time in ages, you then have to sign a contract saying you won't drink for six months. How about mental health issues? Smoking, alcoholism, over eating are all addictions - mental health issues in fact. So will we start refusing treatment for someone who commits suicide because they had stopped taking their medication?

Healthcare professionals should never have to be acting as Father Christmas - deciding who to treat on the basis of who's been naughty and who's been nice. That's not the world we live in and I hope to god that won't change. Frankly I'm shocked that someone who at one point considered themselves a socialist could even contemplate this.

The other aspect of this of course is it would completely destroy the relationship between doctors and patients. A doctor can only be effective when their patient is totally honest with them. If patients know they face penalties against them for bad behaviour (or just simply giving into their personal vices and addictions)they will lie to their doctors. Simple as. Doctors need to be in possession of as many facts about your health and lifestyle to treat you properly - anything that puts pressure on the patient to not be entirely honest with their doctor is bad. End of.

Thankfully this is only a proposal at the moment and not a concrete plan. It must be opposed in every possible way. The scary thing is because of the information your doctor already has to collect to get their funding every year they already know how much you smoke, drink and weigh. The implementation could be immediate. Disgusting example again of how the government is just gathering more and more information about you to use it against you.

Days of Rest

Who can be bothered to blog at this time of year? Surely we're all too busy having fun doing nothing and recuperating before we have to go back to sodding work.

Well clearly not so because many people are blogging over the holiday season. Dizzy has had some excellent posts up, Iain Dale has had all his end of year poll results to publish and Guido has done his own retrospective of the year.

Well frankly I cannot be arsed. Far too much effort. You all know things in Pakistan have gone to shit so enjoy the last of these idyllic holiday days with a very very very very funny bit of stand up I found on YouTube yesterday. Warning - some may find the language a little offensive, but it's Ed Byrne so it's all quite sweet really!

Merry Christmas Everyone

I've had a weird evening. My family was having a big party tonight and it went fabulously. However midway through everyone in the house dancing around to Mariah Carey someone arrived and told us Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated. Tragic news that shocked us all and caused great discussion. However parties must go on and we eventually got back to the festivities. Sadly I have to work tomorrow so I left about an hour ago. I got on the tube and things got worse. I witnessed my first ever racist abuse. You may say I'm naive / sheltered whatever to have never seen anyone racially abused before. I've lived a pretty wide and varied life but I like to think that living in the tolerant place that London is had left me thinking that most cultures really can get along together. So I was pretty shocked and disgusted with what I saw tonight. I was on the down escalator to the Victoria line in Kings Cross when two chaps on the up escalator started shouting Merry Christmas. I saw this as festive goodwill until I saw the chap they were shouting at was a Muslim man in full cultural Islamic dress, accompanied by a woman wearing the full Hijab. They then started laughing and shouting "Hang on I recognise him! Ain't that Osama Bin Laden?" "Yeah it is, prick" "Yeah PRICK". I was so horrified. I've really never seen behaviour like this in London before. Now I'm a few glasses of wine worse for wear so I screamed "RACIST WANKERS" back up the escalators at them - may not have been the most eloquent retort but I felt it conveyed the message I was trying to get across quite effectively. I then went up to the man and the woman after we all got off the escalator and said "Please ignore them, they are wankers".

Now I suspect to a very strict Muslim chap, having a pissed woman swear at you is probably not what you want to hear but again I hope it conveyed the point I was trying to make.

I'll probably get shot by a thousand Tories for saying this but I see Christmas as a secular holiday these days. Every religion, culture etc. has some sort of festival of light in the middle of winter and I think we should all enter into the festive spirit in whatever way we wish regardless of religion or culture. What is important is we all take some time each year to think of how to be good to our fellow man and to be happy. What I witnessed on the tube this evening was insignificant compared to the tragic events in Pakistan but also was the direct opposite of the festive spirit but it just makes me want to strive to spread happiness and kindness further. Don't over rationalise Christmas - don't try and make it more than it is, a time for giving, a time for joy and above all a time for kindness. Be nice to someone tomorrow and make up for those wankers on the tube - do something good and try to counterbalance the psychos who assassinated Benazir Bhutto. So with that in mind I give you the happiest festive song of all to inspire you:

Eight in 2008

As always I think meme's are silly things and I'm very bah humbug about them but since it's Christmas Eve and the great Iain Dale has tagged me I suppose I shall have to partake in the meme silliness.

So eight things I'd like to see in 2008:

1. A general election
2. Th resignation of at least one of Brown's cabinet to show they have some conscience between them.
3. A good fight for the US presidential election
4. The removal of Robert Mugabe somehow
5. Me having more inspiration about what to blog about
6. A new series of Nearly Famous
7. The eventual release of Manhunt 2 on the Wii
8. Jonathyn Rhys Myers naked in my bedroom.

I shall tag James Cleverly, Shane Greer, Mike Rouse, John Moorcraft and Hot Ginger and Dynamite

Education, education, education

Now where have I heard that before?

And what are Cleggy's ground breaking plans? Dunno - he didn't say. But apparently we need to look elsewhere in Europe to find it. Not surprising considering Clegg's European outlook and upbringing. He is of course right to say that it is a disgrace that the Government has pumped so much money into the system yet yielded such small results. However would be nice to know what he proposes to do about it. Clearly something is up in the system and it would be great if we could see a real debate in this country about how to run the education system. Shame then that the Sunday newspapers all decided to run with the "Man Becomes Catholic Shocker" story instead.