London Branch SNP 13january15 NHS

The following are my rough notes. There was a lot I didn't understand and so I just wrote down a name for me to google later.
I have probably got hold of the wrong end of the stick at some points - let me know.
It might be good if we had an online space where those who were there could add corrections, explanations or comments.

The speaker was Allyson Pollock - Professor of Public Health ??
England is in process of abolishing the NHS. The 2012 Act removed the 'duty' to provide medical care. Now there are insurance based structures. In law, 'eligibility' comes into force - the authorities can pick and choose who gets help - and how much of it.
The 'duty to provide' has changed to a 'duty to promote' - Allyson demonstrated this with a packet of crisps and showed the difference.
Healthcare in England is modelled on US lines.  Simon Stevens who is now the NHS chief executive spent years working in the USA and is committed to that model.
Scotland and Wales still have the NHS but England doesn't
People are not aware that the 'stream' system is being dismantled (stream?)
The NHS as a public system of healthcare has been abolished. Jeremy Hunt is no longer in charge of the NHS.
www.nhsbill2015.org
is campaigning for reinstatement of the NHS as we knew it - to include the duty to provide medical care.
Andy Burnam
There is a duty to commission  which is a duty to contract . . .
A question about the effect on Scotland of the Trade Agreement between the USA and Europe
Pressure from TtiP is not as great as the pressure from England
Steven is committed to the USA model - big healthcare businesses

Good writers: Polly Toynbee and David Owen
The media don't show him though.
The narrative is that the NHS is failing due to too many obese people, too many sick people  and drinkers
Asked for evidence AP mentioned the McKinsey report and plans of hospital trusts
Why did the government return £3 1/2 million to the Treasury?
There has been a misallocation of resources

Specsavers for instance are promoting themselves as the authorised provider of audiology care but when/if anything goes wrong - they wash their hands of patients and send them back to the NHS
Hinchinbrook Hospital?
Geographical boundaries are used in emergency situations only now.
A question about Cronyism - look at http://www.spinwatch.org/
BMJ gave details of MPs' private health care links
Alan Milburn
www.keepournhspublic
http://www.nhsconfed.org/about-us/contact-us
enter your postcode and write to your MP asking for their position on reinstatement
Book :NHS for sale
upcoding ensures more money is received
Scotland has managed the same achievements without recourse to the private purse
Question: why does it all matter? Its about the distribution on money - where is it going and is healthcare going to be free at point of need.
There has been an enormous waste of money - something like £30 billion has been spent on  bankers, lawyers, accountants and administrators
Nye Bevan said the NHS will be there as long as people fight for it - but at the moment not enough people are fighting for it.
Question: who can reverse the trend? Its up to each one of us to join campaign groups
38degrees don't do the necessary campaigning but the keep our nhs public people do. The Green party support it.
Go to your CCG meetings.

New Year's Day

As a child in Scotland, Ne'erday was a nightmare! Especially the mornings
The adults were asleep - presumably they had been up till all hours celebrating, or possibly at a Watchnight Service. Us children had been allowed some watered down ginger wine and a shortbread with our next door neighbours, but we were in bed at the usual time, Hogmanay or not.
So the adults were asleep, our Christmas presents were no longer a novelty, outside nobody was stirring.
Although the New Year's Day concert from Vienna was started in 1941 I don't remember watching it before Willi Bovkovsky took over as conductor in 1955.
I have strong and unpleasant memories of being left totally to our own resources and devices.

This morning I had the same dread of the day - especially as I am just recovering from flu.
Then there was a ring at the doorbell - and everything changed!

Thanks, Menna, for that totally unexpected and very thoughtful present!

And what joy later on to get on the Overground and go to Westfield! even if all I did was to sit in Costa Coffee while Brian did the shopping

The Morningside Flat

I sat in the train. We passed Peterborough Cathedral, Durham Cathedral, York Minster. I stared glumly out of the window. What was I doing - and why?
I felt a bit better when the sun came out and I saw Holy Isle of  Lindisfarne - don't always see that on this journey.
Leaving the train at Waverley, I lost my nerve and took a taxi. The bus was a step too far!
I asked the driver to let me of at Holy Corner so I could approach on foot, and,looking back, decide if it was safe to enter.
Now I began to rehearse the instructions which I'd memorised on the train: up the close between. . .through the gate on the left . . .
And yes there it was, leading into a tidy little courtyard with plant pots. This would be a nice place to sit in summer. But this is not summer - its December. . . it will be very cold.
The key turned quite easily when I found the right door. Up the stone steps with a little twist, along the corridor past the other flats . . . ah, the key for the flat door takes a bit more manouvring and manipulating.
I blew out - and couldn't see my breath so it's not that cold I thought.
Next challenge - turn on the water, outside the flat, in a cupboard full of ladders and cobwebs, turn and turn and turn . . . and hissss, Phew! That's on then,
Into the kitchen, below the sink, ah yes there's the gas lever. An immediate hiss this time and the match lit the gas ring.
After that it was a matter or negotiating the little tables and rugs all over the place, of keeping track of where I'd put the torch and wearing my hat in bed.
And why? well an unoccupied flat gave me the same feeling as an untrained child, or an unweeded garden or field. Something needs to be done to make them productive. Otherwise what do we mean when we pray 'Thy kingdom come.'
I felt very at home in that little flat with no electricity - and was somewhat overwhelmed by the luxurious normality of the next place I stayed.

Four generations of hair!

There have been issues with hair in my family for many years. It started, as far as I know with my mother, in about 1914. She cut hers at the front - and it never grew again.

After cutting her own hair, my sister went to the hairdresser to get it straightened up. She thought he hadn't noticed until just as she paid and left he said.'Now next time, no knifeadaforkada, please'! I have a photo of her showing the knife and fork effect but rather than showing that one  . . . this is the view she was looking at at the time.

Our oldest son was very fair when he was a very small child and we told him he looked like Kojak. Soon after that he got hold of the scissors and helped himself to look even more like the bald TV detective. He was a bit older than this, but his hair was still invisible from any distance!

Then during the year living in Guadeloupe, Charis, our granddaughter, cut off the very piece of hair that she twiddled while she sucked her thumb! She compensated by taking the similar piece from the opposite side.

I myself have never cut my own hair - well, not so as you'd notice, but once in a time of depression I decided to have it permed - with disastrous results. I looked like the Queen Mother! I should say I was a fraction of her age at the time. That taught me not to yearn for curly hair.
In more recent years I asked one hairdresser to cut it like Camilla Parker Bowles. That wasn't a success either. Nice at the time, but it soon degenerated into this wild look

Last week I asked the hairdresser (another one) to cut it like Annie Lennox . She was a bit doubtful but when she saw the result she was delighted and clapped her hands and complimented me on my decision!

Of course the best times were when our neighbour, Tony, cut it. He would tell me when it needed cutting and then do it with such care, not exactly one hair at a time but not far off. It was a very relaxing experience. I always thought he was a trained hairdresser, until the morning of Heather's wedding . . .


PS. When Alyssa heard about this blog, she asked if she could be in it as well. 'But you never cut your own hair,' I said. 'No, she replied, 'But there was that time when I asked Lisa (their hairdresser friend) to cut it like George in The Secret Seven' ! I was there that day and had a photo, but had no idea about George!
So here you are, Alyssa - just for you!

The best kitchen window!

Its been fun this week, watching and wondering why they were digging such a large hole, watching which men were working hardest, and watching the traffic going the wrong way round the roundabout!
Eventually I spoke to the engineer in charge . . . who immediately told me that I wasn't local and that his firm did lots of work in Scotland! They are working in Edinburgh at present.
He did tell me though, that the problem was a leak in a 36 inch mains pipe, the top of which is 2 metres down.
We remembered that in 1613 Sir Hugh Myddelton had organised the bringing of water into Islington from near Ware in Hertfordshire, and that it comes along past our house. Its underground at this point so - in a large pipe.
To the south of us the water is open again and we have the very pleasant New River Walk - a long narrow park which leads to the Angel where there is a statue of Sir Hugh Mydellton. The water comes to an end near Sadlers Wells theatre where the water supply was used for Aqua Drama.
To the north the water is under the grass in the centre of Petherton Road dual carriageway. This   photo is actually only a fraction of the view from one of our two kitchen windows - this one a very wide bay window.
It is possible to walk the entire length of the New River - almost 40 miles. We have done this - but not all at once!
One friend suggested that during the war, Petherton Road may have been targeted for bombing because of this water supply. There is a website which shows you the location of every bomb in London. However there were so many that I don't think it is possible to say Petherton Road was specifically targeted. It is easy to see where the bombs landed - the places where the old houses give way to much newer flats.

Three views of  the New River Walk

Another view from the kitchen window - looking up Petherton Road.

When we moved into this house 35 years ago there was no roundabout and no grass in the middle of Petherton Road.
History is all around!

Impressions of an SNP meeting - in London.

I might have to revise my idea of heaven! The top floor of The Hoop and Grapes last Tuesday evening, a roomful of people talking sense in Scottish accents. At the very least I felt that I'd come home.
We listened to an introduction to the Smith Commission  https://www.smith-commission.scot/
and then the floor was opened to all comers to describe their experiences of the Referendum - the big day and the lead up to it.  The actual floor was not to be seen - covered with the bodies of those who weren't able to get a chair or got tired standing -phew - it was hot! So many people - 60 + possibly, I couldn't see behind me.
Many had traveled north to help in campaigning, leafleting, marching, meeting people and talking to them about why they should vote yes. Places mentioned were Motherwell, Coatbridge, Paisley, Greenock, the Isle of Skye, Aberdeen and Edinburgh (Craigmillar).Mostly people mentioned the good atmosphere and the buzz, a largely positive response. However one person had spent time - albeit a very short time - in a Better Together office . . . and there were loud groans when someone mentioned no voters who were now regretting their decision.
Some described the opposition from corporations such as BP and Shell who told their employees how they would suffer financially as a result of independence and it was also alleged that Labour party members had targeted vulnerable pensioners telling them they would lose their pensions in the event of a yes vote winning.
Issues mentioned included the need for more pro Independence media in Scotland and the need to complain when lies were published in the press or other media.
We need to find out the answers to the questions people have so we can explain things to them, also how to complain about racism against a group as opposed to against an individual.
Some of this stuff confirmed my suspicions, some of it was new to me, but all of it made a lot of sense.
The convener was being realistic when he summed up the evening's proceedings when he said that we had won the argument but not the vote. There is work to be done. The atmosphere in the room was such that I felt that that work would be done and that it would make a much bigger difference next time as 'come it will for a' that'.

A funeral.

I only went to the funeral to support some good friends in our church family. How I enjoyed singing real hymns! Dear Lord and Father of mankind, Nearer my God to Thee, - and seven others!
I loved the fact that there was no time pressure that we get so much of these days. Anyone and everyone who wanted to speak was welcome to do so. And of course the service over ran badly! So what? It was no problem.
The officiating minister was 82 years old and had the most wonderfully deep, resonant voice and he said things like, 'Do you hear me, church? Church, say Amen!' So of course we did. And tried to mean it.
Outside the church the mother of the deceased came up to me and said, I recognise you! You taught my granddaughter.' There was a click in my brain and I suddenly realised whose funeral I was at. And I became a real part of it. Which meant that at the graveside I could join in the singing and dancing! even if I had to make up the words when I didn't understand the Shona language! Wonderful! I have to tell you that not much gets rid of sadness and grief like loud singing and energetic dancing.
I knew the dead woman quite well. She came into my classroom twice a day, most days. What a privilege to meet someone else that I taught to read, now studying law at university. This is one of the benefits of staying in one place for decades!
There might have been a couple of hundred people at the graveside, and it seemed like the same in the house. Thats twice in 24 hours I have been in rooms with standing room only! I found myself next to a delightful Zimbabwean lady and we had quite a chat about education in Zimbabwe, coming to live in England and so on. Then when she realised I was Scottish, she said that when she read about the Scottish referendum she thought to herself, ' Here comes Zimbabwe all over again.' So I need to read up about the history of Zimbabwe.
On the train home I sat beside a Russian from Latvia. He told me about Latvia getting their independence . . .