Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

Some more money is the answer, but not an infinite amount of money, and not a system where everything depends on money.

 

I've not seen any posts that give me the impression that is what people are thinking.

We do need to sort out the tax system, to close all the loopholes the wealthy exploit. And we do need people to take personal responsibility when it comes to life choices that impact health (though many on the edge of coping financially do have severely limited ability to do this). The best way to improve the nation's health is through healthy food, good housing, time for exercise and leisure, freedom from endless worry about making ends meet, and so on.

 

My BIL and SIL are on blood thinners for a "family" related atriall fibrillation. OH, same genes but infinitely healthier diet, is not. Two friends of mine in London ditto - they can't be bothered to cook now so eat out 5 times a week and their diet is not exactly swimming with fruit, veg and fibre.

 

My diet IS swimming with fruit, veg and fibre. I have a wife who would like to keep me for as long as possible (to pay the bills, open jars, vacuum, wash clothes, iron, wash-up, do the garden, and get rid of spiders and insects - in an environmentally friendly way, of course).
There again, I snore, eat more than I should, interrupt, and generally get in the way.

 

I think my wife just keeps me as a pet, for her own amusement. I'm an accessory. I enable her to join in conversations with her her friends about how annoying and useless the menfolk are. I think they get competitive. One will boast about how their husband said or did something utterly useless the other day. They'll all laugh, then another one of them will pipe up with 'thats nowt, my bloke said/did <place ridicule here> the other day'.

Without me, my wife would be left out of such conversations. I think that's why she keeps me.

 

Had to phone the doctor this morning, seeing that it was a Monday, thought I'd delay phoning till the '8 0/c Monday morning rush' had abated. I phoned around 9.30am and was told I was no. 11 in the queue, not too bad, I've been in the late 20's in the queue before. After waiting patiently for 20 minutes I got an automated message saying that I was next and the receptionist will answer shortly. Then nothing..... the phone dropped out.

Bit miffed I phoned again, this time I was told I was 7th in the queue. Again waited patiently, when I got to the end..... nothing... the phone dropped out.
'
At this point my BP was rising, but thought better of it and tried just one more time. This time I was 6th in the queue, and when it came to me being next, the receptionist answered. I did mention the problem I had to the receptionist as an 'O by the way'. I just got 'Oh that's odd, I wonder what happened there.... , no explanation.

Am I wrong to be suspicious?

 

I think the NHS was certainly a product of its time and based around the idea of a decent standard of health (ie not being unable to get treatment for a disease because of a lack of funds) as a fundamental human right, which is a good thing. The context was also post-war when it was hard to deny how important a universally accessible service was.

Time has moved on, however and the NHS cannot cope, partly because of demographic changes (ironically, people are living longer because we have become better at treating non-age related illnesses partly thanks to the NHS), and staffing issues. I feel like it was also designed at a time when mental health treatments weren't really commonplace and now they account for a huge proportion of cases.

Its a treatment service, and not enough is done about prevention, I won't deny personal lifestyles are a person's own responsibility, but food/alcohol/gambling corporations and society I think also have an obligation to help the consumer make better choices, and they just aren't doing enough. The NHS as a concept is about a society focused on the good of all, whereas modern Western lifestyles are focused on prioritising the individual.

 

I deplore the monetisation of everything. If housing was considered a basic human right, rather than just another way to make money, we wouldn't have such extortionately high prices, a homelessness, COL, MH crisis. How many social issues would be resolved or at least alleviated by having a decent, secure home, I wonder.

If rents werent so outrageously high, prices would drop dramatically, and a lot less people would struggle. But low supply, high demand, pushes prices up.

Education and healthcare are considered a right in this country, why not housing?

 

Fish and chip shops are traps for people over 45.

See, when I was a kid, anything from the chippy was nice. Invariably it was fried in beef dripping or lard. If you were taking them home, they'd stay nice, because they'd be wrapped in old newspapers, which are porous, and therefore let the steam out and soak up all the excess grease.

Then at some point about 30 years ago, the rules changed. For hygiene reasons, the old newspapers had to be single use grease proof paper. Wrap your food in it and all the steam and excess grease is trapped in, where it will cool. The steam becomes water, making everything soggy. The excess grease doesn't drain off and be absorbed into the paper, it just pools. And that grease is now vegetable oil that's been used a bazillion times.

But, if you grew up in a time when chippy food was good, that deep rooted memory still occasionally compels you to go to the chippy, spend a fortune (chips are not cheap as chips anymore, and a fish requires that you sell your soul), only to get soggy, nasty beige mush.