Retiring

My mother retires in a few weeks. She is leaving the chaos that is the Birmingham mental health system. For the last few years she has watched it disintegrate. She is left wondering what went wrong.

My mother claims that the permissive attitude of the younger doctors and nurses to the consumption of illegal drugs is partly to blame for the mess Birmingham’s mental health services are in.  She sees patients taking them openly in the presence of staff members.  This has always happened but at least they used to have the decency to hide what they were doing.  They call it self medication. The problem is that it often renders their prescribed medication ineffectual.  Also the staff do not know which comes first, which is the chicken and which is the egg, the mental illness or the drug addiction.  

As someone who has had my lucidity snatched away from me, I do not not much patience with those who surrender their lucidity voluntarily. I would give anything to have mine back.  To be devoid of muddle headed thinking, visions, dreams and voices. But is anyone permanently in that state, I wonder.  Clouded visions, dispatches from another dimension have their uses. But being like this all the time renders you completely dysfunctional and can deprive you of the ability to make any kind of meaningful contribution to the world.

And that is tragic.

Addendum: According to Our Esteemed Leader:

(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2065491/David-Cameron-I-end-sicknote-culture-acts-conveyor-belt-life-benefits.html)

‘An expert report for Downing Street suggested more than three-quarters of GPs admitted they had signed people off sick for reasons other than their physical health.’

Make of that what you will.

Oh, look, it’s the Ghost of Lord Kitchener:

No, not you. You suck. Nor you. You suck like a Dyson! And haven't I told you to go forth and multiply about ten times already!

You Know What They Say About Brevity…

I was wondering when they would get around to this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2032960/PM-attacks-BBC-riot-coverage-Stop-making-excuses-looters-says-Cameron.html

Worth the license fee ten times over and almost makes up for the Jonathan Ross debacle.

This is what Our Esteemed Leader has to say: ”We all do stupid things when we are young’.

Indeed. I couldn’t agree more. One thing I didn’t do though was regard smashing up expensive restaurants as a rite of passage.

I’ve no doubt we’ll soon get a missive from The Greatest Doctor In The Entire Universe explaining why there is no moral equivalence between lower class feral brats rioting and upper class feral brats rioting.

Addendum: Criminal damage is criminal damage. And it’s against the law. Could members of the Bullingdon Club still be prosecuted for their actions?

Now that would be interesting.

My Weird Take on the Election

A new government has been formed – a coalition government comprised of the Tories and the Lib Dems. There have been stranger bedfellows. Yesterday I was afraid. Today I am slightly less afraid. Yesterday I believed that the Mail on Sunday would have their way; they called on David Cameron to form a minority government with the words: ‘Brown Lost, Clegg Lost, Cameron won.’ As if they think we have a presidential system.

I, rather selfishly, wondered what all this would mean for me. Maybe it won’t mean anything for me. Maybe it won’t affect me at all. Maybe they’ll let me go on my merry way on the cosy little island I have created for myself whose only other inhabitants are Nobby and Ginger.

The voice in my head that says, ‘They want you dead’ will be there regardless of who is in power. The voices in my head are malevolent now. The benign ones have departed. Maybe the malevolent ones have driven the benign ones away. Maybe they declared war on them and massacred them, disposing of them forever. The inside of my head is a volatile little place.

You see what I just did there? I began this post by discussing an issue that will affect an entire country and I conclude it by talking about myself. A commenter wagered that with the birth of my niece I might become a little less self-obsessed. Ain’t gonna happen, sweetheart.

Still the Same Old, Same Old…

Tories.

Dave’s words of wisdom:

We talk about people being “at risk of obesity” instead of talking about people who eat too much and take too little exercise. We talk about people being at risk of poverty, or social exclusion: it’s as if these things – obesity, alcohol abuse, drug addiction – are purely external events like a plague or bad weather. “Of course, circumstances – where you are born, your neighbourhood, your school, and the choices your parents make – have a huge impact. But social problems are often the consequence of the choices that people make.

Speaking of being at risk of obesity, has anyone noticed that ‘Dave’ himself is looking a tad, well, portly, recently. Look at those pink, chubby cheeks. He’s not exactly the Tory answer to Kate Moss now, is he? I might write to him with a few tips on how to shed that extra weight.

And in other news: Apparently, Dave no 2 (Mini Me 0r David Davis) cost the taxpayer £80,000 with his little gesture. I wonder if the Mail on Sunday will be bitchin’ about that. We might get a line or two from the gorgeous Peter Hitchens, who is right on the money, by the way, when he comments on how easily fooled these people are. I guess if you stand for nothing you fall for everything.

And tell me Dave, what action are you going to take against ‘fat’ (aka: devoid of self discipline*) members of your own party:

(I is furry scared.  Imaginary kitties, ghostly felines, blurred lines, landmines.  Tired but afraid to sleep.  Need a kitty to cuddle but GhostCat might chase real cats away.  They shall have their revenge)

*This is not what I believe. by the way.  I am no more ‘morally superior’ to these ‘corpulent MPs) because, at the age of fourteen, I learnt to purge.