Hello, welcome to my blog

Mostly you will find, here, transcribed entries from the secret diary that I used to keep as a teenager between 1970 and 1975. I try to be honest with my transcriptions, but, just occasionally I do edit, to protect myself or others from embarrassment or some other emotion.
Also, though, I like to do a brief review of the books I have been reading, so these are interspersed throughout. I reserve the right to write blog entries, also, about other random things.
Why do I keep this blog? I don't know. I am an academic and one of my research interests is around how people construct their own identities. The diary transcriptions, and what I write about my books, are very much about revealing something of my identity.

Friday 9 July 2010

Rape, anonymity and NHS managers - a rant

I am keeping an eye on what the Con-Dem government are up to. I may have to regularly monitor and rant. 3 things this morning:
1)The new coalition government are planning to grant rape defendants anonymity, despite much protest from women's groups, police and MPs on all sides of the House. This anonymity was dropped in 1988. This is the second display of contempt for women that the new government has shown. The first was the budget.
2)GPs are to take on responsibility for commissioning and paying for services for their patients. This will mean that they take on the work currently done by managers and administrators. They have been trained to practice medicine. They are a sparse resource. All this electioneering bunkum about not reducing front-line staff in the NHS is nonsense. Managers will be made redundant in droves. Then who will manage the frontline staff and services? Well, my guess is that the paperwork and meetings won't go away - they will have to be managed by senior clinical practitioners. They have been trained to practice. Who will treat the patients?
3)The Guardian this morning gives an interesting breakdown of the exactly where the school building projects have been axed. 57.2% of the stopped projects are in Labour party seats. Speaks for itself. But is it political or just a disregard for the needs of the poorer sections of society?
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2 comments:

  1. Gail9 July 2010 at 06:18

    You won't agree with this astonishing piece in today's Guardian, then... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/08/david-cameron-best-prime-minister

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  2. Jackie T11 July 2010 at 07:04

    Well, I do worry that I might be one of the old labour 'gawkers and grumblers'. There is something quite nice about standing on the sidelines criticising the government's every move, knowing that they are 'the other side'. It is a fair article, I think, but the last paragraph probably spoke best to me. There's the man and his manners - and there's the party policies . . .

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