PAYG-NHS: Lording it over welfare: Kiviak: Texas motor massacre: Wood burning Volvo: and an “amphibious” house.

Gale is having a bit of a howl and dawn’s crack is nowhere in sight at the Castle this morn, the liquid metal in the gauge is slowly moving vertically and I have this urge to hang some onions around my neck and get on a bike.

According to “a leading academic”

Patients will have to pay for treatment that is currently free on the NHS under the Government's health bill.

Allyson Pollock, professor of public health at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, said the Health and Social Care Bill had "a hidden purpose" which amounted to privatising health services in Britain.

Writing in The Lancet, she argued that ministers were intent on creating "a system that permits alternative funding sources for services currently provided free as part of the NHS".

She said the "heart" of the Bill, currently being debated in the Lords, was "to introduce a mixed financing system and to abolish the model of tax-financed universal health care on which the NHS is based".

Prof Pollock has consistently argued that the Bill will abolish the duty of the Health Secretary to provide a universal healthcare system free at the point of use.

It will potentially enable groups of GPs, who will be allowed to make profits from their practices, to exclude costly patients with numerous illnesses.

Their analysis - shared by many other opponents of the Bill - is fiercely disputed by ministers and supporters of the Bill who dismiss it as scaremongering.

The Prime Minister and Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary, have both repeatedly insisted that the NHS will remain free to patients at the point of the delivery.

Print out the last sentence and keep it somewhere safe....

And once again the arse of Lords

Has kicked yet another Piss Poor Policy into touch-for a while...

Peers backed by 10 votes an amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill, overturning a move to cut payments to specific council tenants with one spare bedroom.

Ministers have already had to reverse several defeats over their proposals, which include capping benefits at £26,000 a year per household.

They want the bill, which is back in the Lords after being approved by the Commons, to enter into law soon.

Still not listening then Dave...

Up to the land that is green

Kiviak is a traditional winter foodstuff consumed by Greenlandic Intuits’.

To prepare this delicacy you will need one seal carcase and 400 Auks, then stuff said dead Auks complete with feet, beaks fathers and all into the hollowed out seal carcase, press all the air out of it  and bury it under a large rock pile for approximately 3-18 months.

When you are really, really hungry dig it up and eat it-preferable a long way from other Intuits’.

Num, num, num...

Left to the lone star State

Around 250,000 spectators gathered in Houston, to see over 300 wacky and crazy vehicles drive by, on May 8th. Dan Akroyd, star of “Ghost Busters” movies, as well as other famous comedies, was the one who kick-started the flamboyant event, in the cheers of the crowd.

Allegedly the Houston Art Car Parade brings together car enthusiasts and artists alike, featuring a selection of extremely modified cars that, despite all the adornments, still run beautifully.

Oh dear....

Back to frozen Europe

After the heater in his Volvo stopped working Pascal Prokop, who lives in Switzerland, caused a minor internet stir when photos of his stove-car near Mettmenstetten, a town 25 kilometres south of Zurich, began to circulate on Friday.

Prokop needed to get permissions from the Swiss Technical Inspection Authority to be able to drive it on the streets.

The car is now officially registered as a “Sedan with a wood oven.

With a nut behind the wheel…

And finally:

Back to the banks of the Thames

Architects have been granted permission to build Britain’s first amphibious house, the property is designed to be flood-proof as its pioneering design allows it to float on the surface when water levels rise.

The timber-framed three-bedroom property, due for completion this year, rests on a concrete hull to create a free-floating pontoon set in a dock made of four guideposts to keep it in place.

In the event of the river bursting its banks, the water pressure will unlock the home from the dock and allow it to float up to the water level.

The garden will also act as a natural early warning flood system, with terraces set at different levels designed to flood incrementally and alert the occupants well before the water reaches a threatening level.

With an estimated value of £1.5 million, it will cost around 25 per cent more to build than a conventional similar-sized home, but there should be major savings on insurance costs.

Wouldn’t just be easier and cheaper to build it on stilts?

That’s it: I’m orf to enrol in an automated course

And today’s thought:

Bottoms up

Angus

Duckess in the dock: British decency: Tesco Crimbo: Sonic balls-up: Cow bras: Toulouse le expensive: and Irisin arrives.

Cold, crusty and clear at the Castle this morn, the butler has set up a conveyor belt to shove fat teenagers into the furnace, the fall down and lay in vomit thing has returned, and his Maj has discovered the joy of the nice warm airing cupboard.

And the interweb thingy has gorn tits up-again, started this at 05.30, still here-08.00.

I see that the ugly sister’s female parent

Is in a bit of bovver in Turkey, a court has said it plans to prosecute the Duckess of York for secretly filming orphans in the country for a television documentary in 2008.

The court plans to accuse her of going "against the law in acquiring footage and violating privacy" of five children.

The Duckess visited the orphanage near Ankara while making a film for the ITV Tonight programme and filmed scenes of children tied to their beds and left in cots all day.

Turkish officials made a formal request to the Home Office for help as they tried to bring a case against her in the past.

British ministers refused to accede to the further request for legal assistance from Turkey so from a UK perspective the case is closed.

The reasons for refusal were that the minister considered that to provide the assistance requested would have been likely to prejudice the sovereignty, security, ordre public [public order] or other essential interests of the United Kingdom.

 

I can see millions out on the streets supporting the Duckess-not...

And the Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club Coalition

Has “vowed” to overturn three Lords defeats on welfare reform, after peers dramatically sent the bill back to the Commons.

The government proposals were branded "devastating", "severe" and indecent last night, as peers argued that the plans would effectively deprive disabled children of funds.

"The government has been defeated because quite simply they tried to cross the basic line of British decency," shadow work and pensions secretary Liam Byrne said.

"For months Labour has been determined to stop this cruel attack on cancer patients in its tracks and today the House of Lords agreed."

Welfare Minister Chris Grayling told the Today programme the government intended to strand firm.

"We have said very clearly that we will seek to reverse the amendments in the Lords when it comes back into the Commons," he said.

"We are dealing with some extraordinarily difficult economic times financially."

If the government is acting confidently, it is because it knows it has significant public backing for its welfare reforms plans.

Bollocks; so why are they going to do yet another U-turn on child benefits?

Over to the land of automation and the home of the car crash

General Motors Co has issued a recall of over 4000 of their current year Chevy Sonic subcompacts, because there is a possibility that they might be missing inner or outer front brake pads. This recall is in effect for both Canadian and US vehicles as their internal research shows that between 20 and 30 vehicles were sold with missing brake pads. The issue was discovered during some routine maintenance on a rental fleet car.

And nobody noticed?

East to the old enemy of the aforementioned

Cows in Russia's republic of Yakutia are being given hand-made fur bras.

Because Yakutia is officially the coldest place in the northern hemisphere, even the cattle need to be prepared for very low temperatures.

And with it sometimes reaching minus 55 degrees Celsius, some farmers have taken to producing hand-made rabbit fur accessories for their animals, reports rt.com.

The cow bras are said to consist of a rabbit fur pouch for their udders which is held in place through a series of straps.

Udderly wonderful, wonder if they do a ball brace for the male members of the herd....

 

Back in overpriced Blighty

My favourite retailer didn’t do too well over Crimbo; apparently like-for-like UK sales at Tesco were down by 2.3% over the festive what knot, the supermarket giant has reported.

Britain's largest retailer said the results, for the six weeks to January 7, were "below expectations and disappointing".

It also warned that it expected "minimal" profit growth for the coming year.

The supermarket's share price plummeted by more than 14% on the news.

Non-food sales were particularly bad and the fall came despite Tesco's Price Drop promotion.

Tesco chief executive Philip Clarke said: "We are disappointed with our seasonal trading performance in the UK.

If they didn’t charge three times the price for cheese as they did a year ago then Worrall Thompson wouldn’t need to “borrow” it...

 

Dahn Unda

Toulouse le plummet is a $12,000 cat - and that's not due to his breeding but the cost of surgery after surviving a fall from a seventh floor flat.

The six-year-old tom landed on his feet in the early hours of December 30, but broke all four paws. Owner Renelle Williams said it was amazing Toulouse suffered no internal injuries when he landed on the bitumen below.

"We were on the balcony and the cat would normally have a routine of jumping on to the next-door neighbours' balcony for a visit. He's gone over and probably fallen," Mrs Williams, of Surry Hills said.

Mrs Williams and her husband had to decide whether to keep Toulouse alive with an operation that required metal pins to be inserted into every toe and from his ankle through to his feet.

The cost of the orthopaedic surgery and recovery is expected to be about $12,000. She said they weighed up the decision and based it on the quality of life he would have once the bones healed.

Toulouse is recovering at home and will have the pins removed in six to eight weeks.

Sydney University Veterinary Hospital specialist surgeon Ben Landon said it was fairly common for cats to fall from apartment blocks, with the phenomenon known as "high-rise syndrome".

One down, eight to go....

And finally:

Scientists have come up with a goodie

A newly identified hormone that mimics the effects of exercise could one day help people lose weight and fight obesity-linked diseases without surgery.

Lab mice that were injected with this hormone lost weight and improved regulation of their blood sugar levels, which lowered their risk of diabetes, according to researchers in a new study. Normally the hormone, which the researchers have named Irisin, builds up in the blood of people after doing months of endurance exercise. 

I want some-now!!!!

That’s it (finally): I’m orf to the workshop.

And today’s thought:

Angus