FOOTBALL OVERKILL

Have to admit I am not a sports fan and couldn't give a hoot about rugby and football but to suggest having a Bank Holiday to celebrate if England wins is absolute madness.  Apparently it would cost 3 Billion - not sure why but that's what was on the news.

I really do get upset at the assumption that we are all Footie fans.  There was a poll some years ago with regard to the percentage of folk interested in and followers of Football . The result was 30% which did surprise me.  Tony Blair acted as though the whole  population were Footie devotees.  The behaviour of many of the fans is so appalling  it would put me off even if I were so inclined.  

Today there was a poll as to whether there should be a Bank Holiday to celebrate a potential English victory and 70% did not think so.

And, of course, all the TV schedules are altered to accommodate the Football which is intensely annoying.  One of my favourites - Antiques Road Show - was rescheduled for 9.00 pm on Sunday and then came up against 3 other programmes I would have liked to watch.  Must say, this is very unusual to have so many programmes which appealed.  After the local Meridian News I turn over to Netflix on most nights as there's nothing which I want to watch on Terrestrial which is stuffed with Game shows, Cookery and Reality.  At least we now have the benefit of Catch Up. 

One of the programmes scheduled last Sunday was 'The Turkish Detective'.  I binged on BBC Iplayer - it was extremely good.  In fact, on Netflix, I watch a large amount of Foreign films and series.  Unfortunately one often has to turn on Subtitles for English products because of poor speech and mumbling.  I used to avoid Subtitles but have become so used to them that I hardly realise I'm watching a foreign film and reading the script.

Beautiful Garden

 Went to lunch at friends on Saturday.  They have a magnificent garden.  This year there was a rather unusual colour combination which, I believe, works.  I'd never have thought of putting Apricot with Lilac/Mauve but the mixture looks stunning don't you think.

Battle of Britain Memorial Day - Capel le Ferne 7th July 2024

As promised, some photos from a wet, windy and cold Capel.  

Air Attachés

At the Memorial Wall with my tribute to René Mouchotte =

Cross of Lorraine - sign of the Resistance

French Air Attaché Col. Xavie Rival and

Air Commodore Rick Peacock Edwards

 

BATTLE OF BRITAIN MEMORIAL DAY - Capel le Ferne

I do hope you've followed me over from Twitter.

As you know I've long been a big supporter of the Battle of Britain Memorial and allied charities.  It was at Memorial Day in 2007 that I sponsored a name on the Memorial Wall and thus began a 17 year project with regard to Commandant/Squadron Leader René Mouchotte - one of only 13 Free French pilots with their names on the wall.  The Documentary is on You Tube https://youtu.be/oVNwEZ8KriM

Over the intervening years I secured a short Documentary on my Search for René Mouchotte; was instrumental in the renaming of the RAF HQ in Gibraltar - Mouchotte Buildings; was able to have René's Diaries republished in English in 2022  'Free French Spitfire Hero'; last year on the actual 80th Anniversary of René's death I secured a service at the Biggin Hill Chapel - where René was based and from where he flew on the fateful day of August 27th 1943 and met his death on the Raid at Eperlecques - the V2 manufacturing base.

I've attended all the Memorial Day services since 2007, sadly now a shadow of what they were.  When I first attended there were 25 Veterans, several of whom became my friends.  We now have no veterans and the panoply of the RAF Band, the British Legions and the public have all gone but we still mark the day and honour the Pilots and Air Crew who flew from July 10th to October 31st in the Battle of Britain.

I formed a good relationship with the now outgoing French Air Attaché and this bore fruit as he too had an interest in René Mouchotte.  Last October the 12 French Squadron Badges were presented to the RAF Club along with a beautiful painting, heavily featuring René on the historic day at Biggin Hill when they celebrated the downing of the 1000th Enemy Aircraft.  René and a Canadian pilot Squadron Leader Jack Charles shared the honour and the prize which I know René shared with his groundcrew.

Last year it was wet, windy and cold at Capel le Ferne which is very exposed on the cliffs.  I was very cold so this year, when similar weather conditions were forecast, I abandoned the summer dress and went for a Winter Velvet Suit.  Delighted to say it saw me through the afternoon and I was at least warm if somewhat wind blown.  For some reason my photos from yesterday are not loading into my Photo Library but will post when they do. 

Here's the Painting now proudly displayed in the RAF Club.  

WELCOME

Hallo and Welcome if you've followed me from Twitter.  

I closed my Twitter account today for many reasons mainly because I felt so helpless in the face of all the animal cruelty and abuse and was totally unable to help.  My main charities have presence on Facebook.  I have an account but rarely use it - I think Facebook is worse than Twitter for abuse.  However I will now post for my charities on the site and also, if I can come to grips with it, on Instagram.  

A very small part of my decision to leave was the nasties.  Admittedly I've been subjected to very few over the years but they hurt and very often, unless one engages in a 'tit for tat' one is unable to explain fully what you meant because of the restriction of 240 characters.

On my Website I can explain myself fully.

I will see if I can make the site for Members only - free of course.  I would like to stop JobsWorths and journalists snooping on what I see as my right to express my feelings freely.

As you possibly remember I was cancelled in September 2022 for two old Tweets in which I had done nothing more than express an opinion about the Abominable Yulin Dog Festival and also a comment on a BBC breaking news story.  The first was posted in 2020 and the second in 2021.  I was due to do a special recording of Pointless celebrating 'A Hundred Years of the BBC' and was obviously a last minute replacement (but I'm not proud) as I presume the Newsreader originally engaged must have been called away for duties to do with the Queen's funeral.   I was cancelled at the last minute and possibly have a Black Mark on my record.  I approached the FSU - Free Speech Union-on my behalf and despite asking the BBC for disclosure under 'Freedom of Information' the request was ignored.

BTW - If you believe in Free Speech then please look them up.  You can get the Newspaper for free or if you become a member - where fees are used to fight legal cases of people wrongfully accused - the fee is less than £3 a month.

Under the new Government I rather suspect there will be many more cancellations of otherwise innocent people.

  I made a promise to myself that I would try and steer clear of Political comment because whenever I do on Twitter on here on my website, it gets me into hot water. Well - get the bath ready😀

I will have my say first and then hope I can post an excellent article by Camilla Toominey in the Telegraph.

When I was a little girl I was actually quite bright (what happened). We lived in a rough area - Woolwich, SE London (now very gentrified in places with accommodation on the site of the old Woolwich Arsenal selling at eye watering sums).  My father was brought up in India  with excellent schooling.

Daddy was a non commissioned soldier (though he did rise through the ranks to Captain) on very little pay but he managed £4 a term for me to go to a small Convent School in Charlton.  Everything is relative but when I started work at 17 I was paid by the BBC the huge sum of £6.10shillings.

I passed my 11+ with flying colours to the extent that I was offered a Scholarship to study at a private school - Christ's Hospital.  We lived in a Labour borough controlled by the LCC (London County Council). Because my father had paid that small sum to send me to what he considered to be a good school (not private just a fee paying convent) I was denied the Scholarship.  

I have often queried this with my father but he remained adamant that was why I couldn't accept the Scholarship.  I have never forgotten that or forgiven Labour.  

I am not a dyed in the wool Conservative and am shocked at their Government so I've no idea for whom I will vote but I never ever would vote Labour because in my book they wish to bring everyone down to a level. (Communism by another name - and that doesn't work) They don't like Business and the rich but it is exactly the rich who pay the largest amount of tax to HMRC. 

It is obvious that Labour will be our next Government possibly with a huge majority and that, in my humble opinion, is dangerous. (It is always dangerous to not have an effective opposition). Labour, like all parties, is promising so much but where is the funding?  In relative terms the biggest Tax burden falls on the middle classes.   The super rich don't feel the pinch, the poor are ring fenced.

And just watch the power of the Unions grow again.  I'm all for a fair day's pay for a fair day's work and there are many worthy workers who should be paid more but WHERE I ask you is the money to come from.  When I was born this country had 48 million inhabitants - we are now approaching 70 million with many millions not contributing to the economy.  People expect too much of the NHS which was never meant to deal with all the demands put upon it when begun after WW2.  

I lived in Australia in the early 60's and they had a Health System which worked and still does today.  If you were poor you got medical treatment for free but as your income increased so did your contributions to the State Health System.  Of course they have a much smaller population but you get to see a doctor quickly - you pay and then are reimbursed a percentage of the fee.  So you are not getting something for nothing but neither is the system abused.

The NHS is a Sacred Cow which no one dares touch but it is outdated.  I read that money is thrown at the NHS but is not used efficiently and much goes into Administration and paying huge salaries to Trust directors.  When I was young, there were Hospital Matrons who ran their wards with a rod of iron.  There were dedicated nurses who didn't need degrees and for those who wished to work in a caring profession but didn't wish to take qualifications you had the nursing auxiliaries.  I've been in hospital several times in my life and it seemed to me that the old system worked better.  However, IT didn't exist and there were jobs for everyone.  The situation is very different today and likely to get worse with more AI.  I'm so glad I was born when I was and though I would have loved grandchildren am now thankful I don't have any - I would be so worried for their future.

THE TELEGRAPH - Camilla Tominey

“How are you going to accommodate private school pupils into the already oversubscribed state sector if their parents can no longer afford the fees under a future Labour government?”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has forecast that Labour imposing 20 per cent VAT on private school fees (and stripping private schools of business rate relief) could result in three to seven per cent of privately educated pupils switching to state schools as a result – up to 40,000 children.

Shadow minister after shadow minister refused to answer the question of what will happen to them, insisting that talk of an exodus had been overblown by vested interests – even though the IFS is completely independent. Wes Streeting, Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and even Bridget Phillipson, the woman hoping to be the next education secretary, appeared unable to provide a practical solution, preferring instead to blame “scaremongering from the private schools lobby” for the critical response to a policy Sir Keir Starmer had insisted will be implemented “straight away” if he wins the keys to Downing Street next month.

Then the shadow attorney general let the cat out of the bag by admitting that the policy does indeed risk increasing class sizes in the state sector. She was surprisingly relaxed about it considering she belongs to a party that has consistently railed against “Tory cuts” to the education sector and teacher shortages.

“Certainly, some schools that have vacancies [may take ex-private pupils]. My primary schools and my secondary schools have space and they’re very welcome”, said Thornberry, who is hoping to be re-elected as the Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury on July 4. 

“They are good schools and people should send their children there. I mean, it’s fine, and if we have to, in the short term, have larger classes, we have larger classes.”

So now we are finally closer to the truth.

Labour hopes the policy will raise £1.7 billion, which it has pledged to spend on recruiting 6,500 new state school teachers (it’s going to need them) rolling out a new national “oracy” programme and ensuring all state schools in England have access to mental health counselling. (Curiously, Labour has said nothing about the mental health of private school pupils who will be affected by this policy).

But the truth Thornberry has exposed is that it will inevitably come at a cost. Teaching unions are already agitating over potential redundancies after two independent schools announced they will close at the end of the summer term – both blamed in part on Labour’s VAT plan.

Labour hoped this was a policy only the “privileged” would have to worry about. But the impact on all parents – including those who send their children to state schools (and note to the left: my son attends a state school) – has now been laid bare. It is certainly a dramatic departure from how Labour fought and won a general election in 1997. Back then, privately educated Tony Blair made five clear pledges to the electorate, the first of which was to cut class sizes to 30 or under for 5, 6 and 7-year-olds.

Amid a 2007 row over his then Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly sending one of her children to a £15,000-a-year private school for pupils with learning difficulties, Blair made it clear he supported “the right of parents to choose the school they send their children to”.

“What the Prime Minister supports absolutely is the right of parents to make choices about their children’s education which are best suited to their children’s needs irrespective of who their parents are or what job they do,” a spokesman said.

How times have changed.

Fear of getting old and ill in this country

I've always had a healthy respect and regard for the NHS but it is no longer functioning properly.  We have too large a population, too much is expected of the service and we have too few doctors and nurses.  Little wonder when you realise that upon qualification doctors and nurses can leave the UK and work in much more inviting countries like Australia.  As the training of doctors and nurses is very expensive, one would have thought they would be required to put in a few years of work for the country which afforded them their education.  I've met retired NHS workers who say that money is thrown at the NHS but in the wrong direction - apparently it goes into the burgeoning bureaucracy.  I am old enough to remember the days when Matron controlled the wards and not some nameless administrators who are not 'hands on'. The hospitals were spotless and everything was done in house and not farmed out to private companies.

To my shock I was diagnosed recently with needing  knee replacement surgery following on from an old accident in 1969 when my leg was broken in two places.  I've had several Xrays which just stated 'Age Related degeneration' and nothing further was done.

My right knee gave way completely and I had to have surgery on May 1st.  I make no complaints about the surgery but do question the fact that one is discharged the day after surgery with only 2 days of strong painkillers and after that paracetamol which doesn't even touch the sides of the pain.

Prior to surgery my Doctor had given me a prescription of Melatonin to aid sleep after the operation. It was useless and so began a vicious cycle of not sleeping, tossing and turning all night and exacerbating the intense pain in the knee.  In desperation on Friday I filled in one of the wretched Econsult forms on line.  I am a touch typist but it still took 20 minutes of answering mostly inappropriate questions.  By the afternoon I was in tears with the pain and tiredness and held on for the now obligatory half hour.  A prescription was sent to the chemist and a friend picked it up for me - promithezane which is an anti histamine and useless.  Monday I phoned the Surgery again explaining the position but heard nothing.  Today I held on for 30 minutes and a very sympathetic lady explained that none of the doctors would write me a prescription for sleep until I'd had a consultation.  Of course, I am totally housebound for another few weeks.  She offered me a phone consultation for June 5th.

When I joined the surgery 6 years ago, there were 6 names on the Partnership board - there are now 4 and when I looked up the surgery - all the doctors were part time.  I'm sure there are other non partnership doctors at the practice but all this mechanised  handling does not bode well for the patient.

The average wait for a face to face with a doctor at my practice is anything from 4 weeks plus.

After knee surgery one is supposed to do a series of exercises 3 times daily.  I have tried hard but the combination of tiredness and pain means I've not been able to do the exercises as often as I should.  All I can say about the pain is I'd rather give birth.

I only pray that when my time comes, I die quickly and don't need a hospital.

When I was born there were 48 million people in this country - we are now approaching 70 million.  The NHS existed for basics such as tuberculosis, broken limbs etc.  Now it is a service of which so very much is demanded and I doubt most people have any idea what all the treatments cost.  I do, having had to raid my Rainy Day money to pay for the Knee operation.