Piss Poor Policies Dave C is a liar: Silly Billy is a liar: Man bites dog: Cramper van: Load of old PC KIKI: and a verbose rejection.

‘Tis going to be another scorcher at the Castle this morn-according to “them”, the garden still needs gardening, the hedges still need hedging, the borders still need bordering, the lawn still needs lawning, the shrubs still need shrubbing and I need another holiday.

Tomorrow I will update All and Sundry on the doings before my Welsh Wales break-with pics, sad, sad story….

On the 12^th of April this year PPP Dave C said “that the government will not take risks with the NHS in England”.

Today the Torygraph has this-Almost half of trust finance directors questioned by a leading health think-tank said they would lose beds and reduce treatments as the NHS seeks to save £20billion.

Others said they would cut their workforces, prescribe fewer drugs and try to ensure inpatients are discharged more quickly.

Few thought they could save money through “politically popular” reductions to back office functions despite the Government’s insistence that savings can be made without front-line services or clinical staff being lost.

Prof John Appleby, Chief Economist at The King’s Fund said: “With hospital waiting times rising, the NHS faces a considerable challenge in maintaining performance as the financial squeeze begins to bite.”

The think-tank questioned 26 finance directors from hospitals, mental health bodies and Primary Care Trusts from across England how their productivity plans were progressing.

It found that most had achieved their targets for the current financial year but 18 were “uncertain” about meeting “more ambitious” goals for 2011-12.

Asked what challenges they were facing, “many panel members stressed the difficulty in trying to manage increased demand for care with reduced capacity and the need to continue to meet targets and maintain quality while keeping within reduced budgets.”

In listing their top three ways for meeting the targets, 12 of the 26 NHS finance directors mentioned “ward closures and bed reductions” as well as “the closure of services”.

In addition, 16 said they would look at “headcount reduction through rationalization” and plans to “stop agency dependence”.

Twenty said they hoped for “length of stay reductions” and planned a “review of prescribing” while five were going to use “demand management” to “reduce activity”.

One panel member said: “A saving is not a saving until the activity has reduced and the beds or theatres have been closed and the jobs taken out.”

Liar, liar Dave C’s pants are on fire.

And talking of liars

Back on the 4^th of April this year silly Billy Hague said on Libya- "We're sticking very closely here to the United Nations resolution...which makes it very clear there must be no foreign occupation of any part of Libya and we will stick to that."

Auntie has this today-a British plan to send a military team to advise rebels fighting Col Gaddafi would harm chances of peace in the country.

UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the move complied with a UN resolution to protect civilians in Libya, which forbids foreign occupation forces.

The team is set to provide logistics and intelligence training in Benghazi.

The BBC understands about 10 UK officers and a similar number from France will be despatched on the mission.

Silly Billy stressed the officers being sent to the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi would not be involved in any fighting.

They would be drawn from experienced British military officers and charged with supporting and advising the NTC [opposition National Transitional Council] on how to "improve their military organisational structures, communications and logistics".

So: how many British troops does it take to make an “invasion?”

Over the big, wet, salty thing to the left

A 33-year-old man who bit back after he was caught by a Phoenix police dog is suing police.

Erin Sullivan alleges the dog violated his civil rights and used excessive force to capture him after he ran from officers in Glendale during a burglary investigation last year.

Police say Sullivan bit the dog back, injuring it.

The lawsuit names the cities of Phoenix and Glendale and four officers.

Precursor filings to the lawsuit sought $200,000 from Glendale and $250,000 from Phoenix.

Officials in Glendale and Phoenix have declined comment.

Sullivan also alleges Glendale police refused to give him insulin to treat his diabetes. Sullivan's attorney, Keith Knowlton, has said his client suffered a diabetic seizure in a Glendale cell.

Sullivan is serving eight years for convictions in the Glendale burglary.

Biter bit the biter?

Back in Blighty

Shoppers were left bemused after spotting the world's smallest caravan being towed inside a London supermarket.

The £5,500 QTvan is small enough to be used legally on the pavement or inside a shop.

It was designed by Yannick Read, who previously built a 'Bond Bike' complete with ejector seat and flame thrower.

The QTvan is so named because it caters to three peculiarly British obsessions: caravans; queuing and tea.

As such the tiny camper is being touted as the ideal home away from home for anyone having to queue overnight for the sales or tickets.

With a bed, kettle, TV, radio alarm clock the mini 6ft by 2ft 6ins abode boasts everything needed to make a long wait bearable.

Shoppers aren’t the only ones who are bemused…..

Dahn Unda

A Newcastle woman has been asked to "show cause" as to why she should keep her personalised number plates, bearing her nickname Kiki, which means genitals in a Filipino language.

Kristen Perry is so attached to her nickname Kiki she has number plates on her car bearing that name.

But the word doesn't sit well with the Roads and Traffic Authority which says it is considered offensive in the Filipino language, Tagalog.

In that language the word is used to describe part of a woman's genitals and the RTA is now demanding Ms Perry show cause to keep the plates.

Ms Perry says she was shocked.

"I was taken aback," she said.

"At first I thought it was a joke, but then I realised it was actually quite serious and that my number plates would be taken off me if I didn't respond appropriately.

"Quite frankly it's a bit of a funny thing, but at the same time quite a bit scary that we've got people that can just report a number plate that seems quite inoffensive to 99 per cent of us out there, but one per cent has an issue with it."

Ms Perry says her nickname is linked to her Greek heritage and she is disturbed it could be considered offensive.

OMG......

And finally:

Back in bollixed up Britain

 

A driver who claimed for £42 pothole damage to his car got a 200-page rejection letter from a council.

Essex County Council sent Terry Rothery, 65, its entire roads policy when he asked for a payout.

Mr Rothery, of Billericay, Essex, said yesterday: “I thought it was a wind-up.” The council said sorry.

Nice to see that PPP Dave’s “less red tape” policy is working.

That’s it: I’m orf to jab a Badger

And today’s thought: I don't approve of political jokes...I've seen too many of them get elected.

Angus  

YES! YES! YES!

I did something last night that I haven’t done for years, and I kept it up for 45 minutes, it was the most fun I have had for along time, and this morning I feel like a bouncy little lamb.

What was it? I spent almost an hour head banging, singing and playing air-guitar along to the QUO who were at Glastonbury for the first time in its history, you can forget Blur and the Boss, for me the QUO were the bill toppers.

It was nice to see entertainers that actually enjoy what they do, and are not there for the money or kudos, just for the fans.







Anyway, back to the weird and wonderful world of the news:

More health and safety overkill a group of pensioners have been banned from holding a coffee morning at a public library for health and safety reasons in case they spill hot drinks on children.

The seven members of the coffee morning for over 50s have met at Eye Library in Eye, near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, every Tuesday for the last four years without incident.
But the anal killjoys at the council have decided that the meeting should be axed in case toddlers from a nearby nursery who use the library at the same time might be injured if hot coffee was spilt on them.

Retired office worker Patricia Owen, 70, and her husband Ray, 69, from Eye Green, near Eye, have also been attending the coffee mornings since they were launched.

Mrs Owen said: "We are being told we can't have a hot drink. Health and safety is a silly excuse. We have now made alternative arrangements and plan to have our coffee mornings at each other's homes."

A spokesman for Peterborough City Council, who run the library, said: "Eye Library is a small library and there were concerns about hot drinks being served to the group when there were small children sitting very close by.

"However, we do not want to spoil anyone's fun, and will be speaking to both groups to see if we can be more flexible about the timings so that the nursery group are not in the library at the time the coffee morning is meeting."

So why the f**k didn’t they do that in the first place?

Liar, liar pants on fire 12 days ago I did a piece on the girl who said that 56 stars were tattooed on her on her face as she slept.

She has now admitted she was awake the whole time – and lied because her father was "furious".

Kimberley Vlaminck had insisted she dozed off after asking the tattooist for just three small stars – then woke in horror to find her face was covered.

The Belgian blamed the Flemish-speaking tattooist for not being able to understand her French and English instructions.

But the 18-year-old has finally confessed she did not fall asleep, that she wanted all the stars and was "fully aware" of what Mr Toumaniantz was doing.

Ms Vlaminck told a Dutch TV crew: "I asked for 56 stars and initially adored them. But when my father saw them, he was furious. So I said I fell asleep and the that the tattooist made a mistake."

Your sins will always find you out.

Job for the boys An artist has been given a £20,000 National Lottery grant - to look at girls' bums.

Sue Williams was given the money to "explore cultural attitudes towards female buttocks", reports The Sun.

She will create plaster cast moulds of women's behinds to try to understand their place in contemporary culture.

Mrs Williams, 53, of Swansea, will also examine different racial attitudes towards bums in Europe and Africa.

Emma Geliot from the Arts Council of Wales, which awarded the grant, said: "This produces a tee-hee response but there is a serious point."

No there isn’t, it is just a waste of lottery money, mind you if Ms Geliot wants an assistant……………

Our Liz is about to publish her accounts the figures relate to 2008-09 and will concern funding provided by the taxpayer to finance the head of state.

Last year's accounts revealed the Queen and other members of her family cost the taxpayer 66p per person over the 12-month period to March 31 2008.

The figures also showed more than £22,000 was spent chartering a helicopter to ferry the Monarch to and from the Kentucky Derby in Louisville during a state visit to America in May 2007.

The Queen's visit to the United States, to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement, was the most expensive royal overseas trip that financial year, with a plane chartered at a cost of £381,813.

The total cost of keeping the Queen and the Royal Family increased by £2 million or 5% to £40 million during 2007-08.

The Queen's Civil List - money used to fund the Monarch's official duties - increased by £500,000 to £12.7 million, while the amount spent on royal travel rose to £6.2 million - up by £600,000.

I am on the fence over this one, where do you stand?




And finally:

Something close to my heart Doctors to hit out over NHS errors Doctors are to call on the Department of Health to take full responsibility for NHS errors caused by political policy implemented via "perverse incentives", targets and performance management.

Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) will also be debating the increasing "commercialisation" of the NHS.

Another big issue will be the recent scandal at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.
One motion being debated at the annual conference in Liverpool warns that failures at Stafford are at risk of happening elsewhere.

Another motion calls upon the Government to hold an independent inquiry into the impact and consequences of "crude" targets that affect the running of the NHS in the light of Mid Staffs.
A report from the Healthcare Commission in March condemned "appalling" and "shocking" standards of care at Mid Staffs, which led to some patients dying.

Between 400 and 1,200 more people died than would have been expected in a three-year period, with the poorest examples of care at Stafford Hospital.

The BMA has issued new guidance for doctors who have concerns about patient safety.
It calls on doctors to raise fears about malpractice or failures in the system, rather than allowing the situation to reach a point where patient safety is under threat.

A spokesman said the guidance pointed out that employees who were victimised after raising their concerns could bring an employment tribunal, and that their employers could be heavily fined.

Yeah right, and we all know what will happen-nothing.




Angus

NHS Behind the headlines

Angus Dei politico

Angus Dei-NHS-THE OTHER SIDE