Stat Porn

Ive passed the 4000 mark at 5 am this morning with a visit from Germany

I am relieved I never thought it would happen so thank you all those people who read my blog

On another front the weather is casuing mayhem and general problems

You will note that highwinds do not usually cause railfreight problems except by putting trees on the line

Perhaps this is the clearest message from God about global warming that rail freight is the way forward and that old railways should be brought back to use

Anyway its the first of the month so have a very good long leap year February

Police to have stop and search powers increased

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is planning to give police the power to stop and search people without giving a reason, sources have told the BBC.

Another fencepost, I would caution you if you have the money and the wherewithal to leave for Norway, Argentina, Brazil, or one of the old Dominion Countries where the Queen is the Monarch still

Switzerland if you really have the money and if you must stay within the eurozone for personal or professional reasons then choose Austria, Portugal, Finland or Sweden if you can take the taxation rate there.

If you are going more northerly than the UK ie Scandinavia then purchase the best lightbox and start taking your Omega 3 fish oil see my post Alpha and Omega

Fascism is being brought in, the last time people could be stopped and searched for absolutely no reason was in the Second world war mostly in Nazi Germany and the occupied areas of France, the Benelux countries Norway and Poland

Believe me this is the beginning of the end

By 2012 you will find it impossible to breath without the government sticking their nose in to your affairs if you continue to disabuse your vote and apathetically stay at home because you feel that you make no difference.

Make no mistake, the one day the people actually have the power is Polling day and it scares those politicians whose constituency have not been listened to because it may be the end of their free gravy train at Westminster though these days they get such fabulous severance benefits any time at Westminster is good for those pigs who like to take the more equal share of the trough I speak of course of those MPs such as Derek Conway we all know who he is and what the Sidcup MP has done.

Roger you have another fencepost to put up in your series. I hate to be the bearer of bad news

On another front all the local GPs in South Yorkshire were summoned to the PCT headquarters this afternoon and would have been given reprimands if they had not attended to hear that the government is varying their contract unilaterally and illegally to force them to work more hours for no more pay

Sounds pretty fascist to me Dont say I didnt warn you.

Happy Blogiversary

It is exactly one year since I started blogging. It also happens to be the 60th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

As I look back over the year it has been a strange year but one in which I have made new friends in the blogosphere, and generally improved my chances of having a life outside of Medicine with the blog, Facebook and most recently Second Life.

There is no substitute for meeting real people but with the advent of Skype I can talk to my far flung friends in Australia for nothing and spend as much time talking as I like.

I have also made a dear friend of a blogger in Belgium and she knows who she is

All in all alls well that ends well but theres still some way to go yet.

Life throws up new challenges and crises and we have to deal with them and it is ok to make a retreat and then come back and deal with things later.

I have had the gift of time and no pressure to go back to work which has been a tremendous help and I thank all the people over the last year who have made my journey a better one.

As for the blogging I shall be back to daily posts from tomorrow

It has been good to have your readership and long may it continue

Henry

Nomination for the Worst Blog namely that of Ara Darzi

Ara Darzi has a blog where he writes about his work as the under secretary for health.

I wonder where he gets the time to do so because the blog is basically his meetings agenda and what he is going to espouse at those meetings.

All comments are sanitized by some DoH! person which I hasten to add is not done out of hours.

A legal disclaimer is also put up plus wording to the effect that the blog comments will be deleted if they dont fit what the NHS and the DOH want you to know or slag off the blog in anyway

I personally doubt that Lord Darzi actually writes a single jot of this website. After all we all know what the collective noun for professor is and that is absence ie an Absence of Professors much like a parliament of owls...

I would be willing to wager that the Lord has a petty vassal who writes the stuff shoves it in front of Ara gets the go ahead and then posts it up on his behalf

How can I say this? I am a psychiatrist with over ten years of training under my belt and I am authorised to do part 2 and part 3 work for both the courts and the police in the preparation of court reports and the suchlike by the secretary of state for health through his nominated deputies.

It also varies from I to the royal We in the text. Someone is writing it on his behalf I cannot think that he could actually author it himself unless I had eye witness accounts that he had actually written proof read and posted it up to the internet himself.

For one thing he could not possibly write so much and keep all his clinical commitments and his governmental commitments unless he works 23 hours a day.

Having worked with a Professor of Surgery namely Cuschieri I would say that that was a fallacy, they are usually involved heavily with research and have no time as they are here there and everywhere, everyone wants a piece of them and writing the amount of text that he does requires a certain amount of time.

So I would exhort you to vote that his blog be the worst of all time and I have been exhorted to write about this on my blog by another blogger which is kind of nice as it means that I get a little boost as to what to write about having fallen off the wagon earlier in the month so thank you GM

Lord Darzi's blog here

Voting here

Apologies

It has been several days since my last confession... well that's what it feels like. Blame the catholic guilt complex and the protestant work ethic on my preparatory school, the same one that Jeremy Clarkson went to, until he left for Repton.

I havent been able to post, firstly due to a faulty BT and internet connection pair at the exchange but by the time that was fixed I was out of the habit ( geddit?) (Nun and habit)

I saw the SOCPA youtube offering by Tim Ireland so posted that quickly up but apart from that haven't really been able to get the writing juices flowing except for musing prose such as this

" The moon was setting over the futuristic glass and concrete office buildings on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead, it was a scene reminiscent of many a sci fi drama on tv, most notably Blake's Seven. Over on the motorway the heavy machinery laboriously groaned into life constructing the new junction 8 of the new four lane M1."

Those were my thoughts as I rushed to an appointment in the North on Tuesday morning an appointment which got cancelled and postponed.

I blame it on the full moon personally.


Politics and witty comment will return soon I hope but my life is throwing more and more grist for me to mill so it may be infrequent.

A wonderful piece from Bloggerheads about SOCPA

Comment Moderation

I have had to turn this back on while the troll Frank Lunt continues his abuse

I am not happy and your details and your employer have been circulated to the police

I wouldn't bother deleting your blog either as I've already copied it mate.

Do anything more and you will be arrested and you will be charged and convicted.

Your IP address has been noted and will be given to the police.

Blogging will return soon. Bear with me as my internet connection grinds slowly back to life

Bullies

I have been subjected to bullying both at school and at the workplace. Now that I have blog friends and one of them has suffered at the hands of a bully too. That bully is now leaving comments here as a troll named Bullshit spotter. He is the workplace bully of my friend who has a blog link to my blog on his page. This guy is so stupid as to log in from his work computer and now I have the information I shall be informing the police.

So you are anonymous no longer. You use Tiscali at home.

Edit: You are Frank Lunt from the Wirral

More Trainees in Australia Soon

MTAS, and now Sian Lloyd in yesterday's Sunday Times pontificating about how competition is good for the NHS.

What utter bollocks 9000 jobs and 23000 people competing for them? I can guess that at least half will emigrate, causing a fabulous waste of money again.

I haven't heard that line since Virginia Bottomley was in power. You remember her don't you She was the one who brought in the purchaser provider split. What a farce that was.

New Zealand however took it to heart and made primary care private such that people there have to pay $40 NZ to see their GP.

Unsurprising then that common conditions are not being diagnosed early as people don't go to their GP because it costs and poor people even less so when welfare there is only 130$ a week.

Not something they tell the emigrés from here. Something they find out when they go and register.

Facebook and Henry North London

I have now caught up with the younger generation and developed an application on Facebook so that you can read my blog there and be informed when it updates by adding it to your profile

Here is the link to the Henry North London Blog application

The Times has no knowledge of Red flowers

In today's Saturday Times there is a piece about Luc O'Donnell arriving at his father's funeral with a red rose. Well forgive me for saying this but it looks awfully like a carnation to me.

Have the journalists no eyesight or did the editor not see this one?


Edit: January 6th I seem to have upset a few people over on the Times site
Someone got there before me but I'll say my piece anyway - what a moronic contribution Henry makes. Whether he's joking on simply an flora-obsessive I don't know why he bothered making such a ridiculously trivial comment. With that out the way, I think it's an awful, awful story and feel huge sadness and empathy for his family. It was great that so many people turned out to celebrate his life.

Sophie, Manchester,

Moronic comment from Henry in the corner... I really don't know why he found it necessary to say anything. Either he was joking or he's a flora-fanatic. Or an idiot. Regardless of his ridiculous trivialising, I find the story terribly sad and feel huge empathy for O'Donnell's family.

Sophie, Manchester,

Henry North of London - 4 young children have tragically lost a loving father - what does it matter if the name of the flower is incorrect?

Angela, Merseyside,

Sure enough the story is sad and tragic I dont deny it but to have such a resounding mistake on a broadsheet paper is well; bad journalism

Libertarian Party Launched

Hallelujah Finally a party with some sense and a firm belief in the commonsense principle. Link here

Snow

Henry is having a break from blogging until later in the month

You can blame it on the snow.

Edit:The snow didn't last long enough

Happy New Year 2008

Kenya is in election meltdown,Cyprus and Malta have adopted the Euro and the NHS is starting to roll out the electronic record for everyone.One cannot help but be struck dumb at the pace of change.