Monday, 17 October 2011
Well Consider Me Shocked(!)
The care manager from the hospital has called my father in for a meeting to discuss my grandmother's discharge. This meeting will take place at 12:00. Exactly the same time as the Court of Appeal will be hearing the Dale Farm residents application for appeal.
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Well I've Got My Monday Planned.
While my father and brother were visiting my grandmother in hospital the night sister asked my father for my mobile phone number to "talk about my section 4 application." This of course was completely unnecessary because my phone number was on the application. However it gave the sister the opportunity to "accidentally" inform my father about the application.
Incidentally on Thursday (13/10/11) I spent most of the afternoon trying to contact my doctor to make an appointment but was blocked by a phone hack on the computerised exchange. This actually prevented me from telephoning my grandmother's doctor to discuss the application but I digress. When I finally got through to my doctor on Friday (14/10/11) the earliest appointment they could offer me was on Monday October 24th by which time you would have expected my prescription to have run out making life very difficult for me.
So it sounds to me as though someone's got a bit of an experiment going. It's a shame really because if the sister wanted to leave the profession she could have simply written to the Royal College of Nursing and asked to be taken off the nursing register. There was no need to involve me.
Anyway shouldn't be much of a problem after all I didn't get up until the middle of the afternoon today (16/10/11). If I was living in Korea.
Incidentally on Thursday (13/10/11) I spent most of the afternoon trying to contact my doctor to make an appointment but was blocked by a phone hack on the computerised exchange. This actually prevented me from telephoning my grandmother's doctor to discuss the application but I digress. When I finally got through to my doctor on Friday (14/10/11) the earliest appointment they could offer me was on Monday October 24th by which time you would have expected my prescription to have run out making life very difficult for me.
So it sounds to me as though someone's got a bit of an experiment going. It's a shame really because if the sister wanted to leave the profession she could have simply written to the Royal College of Nursing and asked to be taken off the nursing register. There was no need to involve me.
Anyway shouldn't be much of a problem after all I didn't get up until the middle of the afternoon today (16/10/11). If I was living in Korea.
Global Occupation!
Inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests and the Spanish Indignants yesterday (15/10/11) the Occupy movement went truly global. There are now occupations in 950 cites in 83 countries in places as diverse as Toronto and Taipei. Moscow and Melbourne. London and Lisbon. Madrid and Manila. For the most part the occupiers aren't the people who normally go to protests or have much to do with politics so it is hard for them to know what they want and what they're against. They do though know who they are.
They are the people who've seen their pay cut just as prices start to rise. They are the people who are being told to pay more for their pensions when they can't afford lunch. They are the graduates who spent thousands on their education only to find that there are no jobs for them. They are the people who want to get married and start a family but can't because they can't afford a home. In short they are all the people whose futures have been lost to pay for the greedy bankers and their bailouts.
Unlike a march or a rally that burns brightly for one day before disappearing the idea of the Occupations is that they start small but then grow slowly over days, weeks and even months. So on the first day for the most part the Occupations were small, civil and overwhelmingly polite. The only exception was in Rome where the Occupation quickly gave way to running battles between the police and anarchists in some of the worst rioting the city has seen in twenty years. This is because the problem is much more acute in Italy. While everyone talks about Greece the big worry is that the Italian economy could soon collapse and the country's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is facing votes of no confidence and multiple criminal prosecutions. So in Italy the Occupation could well be the thing that finally brings about the fall of the clown.
Edited at about 20:00 on 16/10/11 to add: With 949 other occupations going on it seems rude to only talk about the London one. However I guess it is my neighbourhood so;
After being prevented from occupying Paternoster Square near the London Stock Exchange by a court injunction granted to the landowner Occupy London (occupylsx) has set up in the Church yard of Saint Paul's Cathedral. This is private land so although the police were yesterday (15/10/11) very keen to show that they in no way endorsed the protest they don't actually have any power to remove the occupiers unless they are asked to by the landowner and even then they're pushing the rules to breaking point and can't arrest people for refusing to leave. Apparently the landowners (the Church of England) have so far been very reasonable and haven't objected to the occupation. However they are going to come in for some pressure by both the police and the City of London Corporation to allow the occupation to be cleared by the start of business tomorrow (08:00 on 17/10/11).
If that does happen it's worth remembering that Dale Farm is just a 40 minute train journey from Liverpool Street. Although the residents have been granted an appeal hearing at 12:00 tomorrow there is still a chance that Basildon Council will attempt and eviction regardless of legal process.
They are the people who've seen their pay cut just as prices start to rise. They are the people who are being told to pay more for their pensions when they can't afford lunch. They are the graduates who spent thousands on their education only to find that there are no jobs for them. They are the people who want to get married and start a family but can't because they can't afford a home. In short they are all the people whose futures have been lost to pay for the greedy bankers and their bailouts.
Unlike a march or a rally that burns brightly for one day before disappearing the idea of the Occupations is that they start small but then grow slowly over days, weeks and even months. So on the first day for the most part the Occupations were small, civil and overwhelmingly polite. The only exception was in Rome where the Occupation quickly gave way to running battles between the police and anarchists in some of the worst rioting the city has seen in twenty years. This is because the problem is much more acute in Italy. While everyone talks about Greece the big worry is that the Italian economy could soon collapse and the country's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is facing votes of no confidence and multiple criminal prosecutions. So in Italy the Occupation could well be the thing that finally brings about the fall of the clown.
Edited at about 20:00 on 16/10/11 to add: With 949 other occupations going on it seems rude to only talk about the London one. However I guess it is my neighbourhood so;
After being prevented from occupying Paternoster Square near the London Stock Exchange by a court injunction granted to the landowner Occupy London (occupylsx) has set up in the Church yard of Saint Paul's Cathedral. This is private land so although the police were yesterday (15/10/11) very keen to show that they in no way endorsed the protest they don't actually have any power to remove the occupiers unless they are asked to by the landowner and even then they're pushing the rules to breaking point and can't arrest people for refusing to leave. Apparently the landowners (the Church of England) have so far been very reasonable and haven't objected to the occupation. However they are going to come in for some pressure by both the police and the City of London Corporation to allow the occupation to be cleared by the start of business tomorrow (08:00 on 17/10/11).
If that does happen it's worth remembering that Dale Farm is just a 40 minute train journey from Liverpool Street. Although the residents have been granted an appeal hearing at 12:00 tomorrow there is still a chance that Basildon Council will attempt and eviction regardless of legal process.
Saturday, 15 October 2011
To New Zealand's Credit.
They couldn't have made it more obvious.
G20 finance ministers are currently meeting in Paris. The main topic of discussion is how to sort out the Eurozone crisis without trigger a second global credit crunch. France are out to get as much money as possible for their banks and Britain is out to just cause chaos. Therefore it was essential for Britain to have France be seen to win their rugby world cup semi-final being played in the British Commonwealth country of New Zealand. This was the result the host duly delivered with France beating Wales 9 points to 8 after Wales had a player sent off for no apparent reason in the 18th minute of the 80 minute match.
G20 finance ministers are currently meeting in Paris. The main topic of discussion is how to sort out the Eurozone crisis without trigger a second global credit crunch. France are out to get as much money as possible for their banks and Britain is out to just cause chaos. Therefore it was essential for Britain to have France be seen to win their rugby world cup semi-final being played in the British Commonwealth country of New Zealand. This was the result the host duly delivered with France beating Wales 9 points to 8 after Wales had a player sent off for no apparent reason in the 18th minute of the 80 minute match.
Friday, 14 October 2011
Oliver Letwin's Rubbish.
Today (14/10/11) Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper published photographs of Conservative MP and Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin dumping documents into a bin in a public park. As the documents were in no way sensitive this seems to just be an enquiry as to why I've been aimlessly wandering around my local park in recent days. Sadly the answer is amazingly dull.
Although I'm reasonably fit I don't spend anywhere near enough time walking and generally standing about. As a result my posture's appalling and my lower back is nowhere near as strong as it should be. This became a problem last week when I strained my lumber discs and lower lats. Or to put it another way I had a bad back. When this happens all you want to do is lie down but the best thing to do is slowly and gently ease out and strengthen the muscles. So this is what I did. Up until now I'd been able to disguise this with long meandering walks to and from the hospital and trips to the shops.
Bizarrely my grandmother's mobility problems are caused by similar issues although her condition is complicated by arthritis and crumbling vertebrae. For the past three years my grandmother's care givers approach to the problem is to confine her to a chair and discourage her from walking or standing. Needless to say my grandmother's mobility problems have not improved and in fact have got worse to the point where now in hospital she actually needs to be confined to bed or a chair until she can undergo a course of physiotherapy.
On a related note the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which regulates care providers in the UK yesterday (13/10/11) released a report that found that care for elderly patients in UK hospitals is shockingly bad and in some cases constituted actual criminal offences. Obviously the main point of this story is that elderly care in UK hospitals is shockingly bad. However there is a reasonable chance that my grandmother's case will end up with the CQC so this seems to be them trying to avoid that by giving a warning to my grandmother's care team. I actually think it's a shame that the CQC seem to be hesitant to do their job. After all they actually have law enforcement powers so if they find evidence of criminal conduct surely they should be prosecuting rather then just publishing reports about it.
Although I'm reasonably fit I don't spend anywhere near enough time walking and generally standing about. As a result my posture's appalling and my lower back is nowhere near as strong as it should be. This became a problem last week when I strained my lumber discs and lower lats. Or to put it another way I had a bad back. When this happens all you want to do is lie down but the best thing to do is slowly and gently ease out and strengthen the muscles. So this is what I did. Up until now I'd been able to disguise this with long meandering walks to and from the hospital and trips to the shops.
Bizarrely my grandmother's mobility problems are caused by similar issues although her condition is complicated by arthritis and crumbling vertebrae. For the past three years my grandmother's care givers approach to the problem is to confine her to a chair and discourage her from walking or standing. Needless to say my grandmother's mobility problems have not improved and in fact have got worse to the point where now in hospital she actually needs to be confined to bed or a chair until she can undergo a course of physiotherapy.
On a related note the Care Quality Commission (CQC) which regulates care providers in the UK yesterday (13/10/11) released a report that found that care for elderly patients in UK hospitals is shockingly bad and in some cases constituted actual criminal offences. Obviously the main point of this story is that elderly care in UK hospitals is shockingly bad. However there is a reasonable chance that my grandmother's case will end up with the CQC so this seems to be them trying to avoid that by giving a warning to my grandmother's care team. I actually think it's a shame that the CQC seem to be hesitant to do their job. After all they actually have law enforcement powers so if they find evidence of criminal conduct surely they should be prosecuting rather then just publishing reports about it.
Here Comes The Re-shuffle.
Today (14/10/11) the embattled British Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Liam Fox MD has resigned over his relationship with his friend Adam Werritty.
Although I thought Dr Fox had actually begun to turn things around over recent days this is really no great surprise. Adam Werritty was clearly selling access to the minister to lobbyists which in terms of political malpractice is really only one level below the cash for questions scandal and it took the previous Conservative government almost a decade to descend to that level of corruption.
We are yet to hear if the Prime Minister will simply replace Dr Fox or whether this will trigger a full cabinet re-shuffle.
Although I thought Dr Fox had actually begun to turn things around over recent days this is really no great surprise. Adam Werritty was clearly selling access to the minister to lobbyists which in terms of political malpractice is really only one level below the cash for questions scandal and it took the previous Conservative government almost a decade to descend to that level of corruption.
We are yet to hear if the Prime Minister will simply replace Dr Fox or whether this will trigger a full cabinet re-shuffle.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Still No Dale Farm Judgement.
Mr Justice Ouseley is taking his sweet time publishing the reasons behind his decision yesterday (12/11/10) to reject the Dale Farm residents applications for Judicial Review. With an appeal having to be lodged on Friday (14/10/11) to prevent an eviction on Monday (17/10/11) this is hugely obstructive. I can only assume that Mr Justice Ouseley is having some problem justifying his decision.
The eviction that Basildon Council intend to carry out at Dale Farm is what is legally termed enforcement action as defined by the Town and County Planning Act 1990. This allows councils or their agents (bailiffs) to enter, remove or destroy private property or remove people from that property who are otherwise legally entitled to be on that property. However under section 173(4) councils are only permitted to take enforcement action in order to (a) remedy a breach of planning legislation e.g demolish a building or (b) remedy damage to an amenity caused by a breach of planning legislation e.g unblock a storm drain.
In the case of Dale Farm (b) doesn't apply and the October 3rd judgement by Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart made it quite clear that Basildon Council is unable to change the land use of the site from residential by removing all the residents or return the site to a greenfield state by removing all the buildings. Therefore there is a very serious question as to whether Basildon Council have a lawful authority to carry out enforcement action against Dale Farm. By refusing a Judaical Review Mr Justice Ouseley is simply preventing this question from being asked. Given in his involvement in the eviction of the Hovesfield site which Basildon Council are now using an illegal waste dump this seems like a clear abuse of power.
The eviction that Basildon Council intend to carry out at Dale Farm is what is legally termed enforcement action as defined by the Town and County Planning Act 1990. This allows councils or their agents (bailiffs) to enter, remove or destroy private property or remove people from that property who are otherwise legally entitled to be on that property. However under section 173(4) councils are only permitted to take enforcement action in order to (a) remedy a breach of planning legislation e.g demolish a building or (b) remedy damage to an amenity caused by a breach of planning legislation e.g unblock a storm drain.
In the case of Dale Farm (b) doesn't apply and the October 3rd judgement by Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart made it quite clear that Basildon Council is unable to change the land use of the site from residential by removing all the residents or return the site to a greenfield state by removing all the buildings. Therefore there is a very serious question as to whether Basildon Council have a lawful authority to carry out enforcement action against Dale Farm. By refusing a Judaical Review Mr Justice Ouseley is simply preventing this question from being asked. Given in his involvement in the eviction of the Hovesfield site which Basildon Council are now using an illegal waste dump this seems like a clear abuse of power.
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