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.
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....
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...
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...
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....
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:
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
