Strike one.

So what has been happening today?

Well the junior doctors have called off the first of their strikes, after the NHS expressed concerns that they had not had enough time to prepare for the walkout.  What a desperate uncaring bunch these doctors are.  Incidentally I heard an interview on Radio 4 last week with a representative of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh who referred to them throughout as trainees, which is both patronising and to a certain extent wrong.  Anyway they have not given up but are willing to concede that the circumstances are such that they are willing to cancel the first of their planned five day strikes.

Why are they striking?  Well as I understand it Jeremy is trying to screw even more out of the NHS.  His ambitions are actually laudable.  In most NHS hospitals routine procedures are not carried out at the weekend.  This does not mean that hospitals close at weekends, of course they don't but the operating theatres and CT scanners are not routinely used on Saturdays and Sundays.  Neither are many GP surgeries open at weekends either.  Looked at from a purely spending point of view this is a gross waste of resources.  Expensive facilities lie idle for two days out of every seven.  That is nearly 30% of the time.  It must make sense for these facilities to be used all the time.

Well yes, but, and here's the rub, Jeremy doesn't want to spend any more money doing this. His bottom line is that it must be 'cost neutral'.  Who the blood and stomach pills does he think is going to do all this extra work.  Well one brilliant way he had of achieving part of this was to increase junior doctors' pay but make their statutory hours longer so they that most of Saturday is now part of the normal working week and thus reducing the amount of overtime they receive, so: cost neutral.  A bit rich given that MPs work a four day week at Westminster, and judging by what I have seen on the BBC Parliament Channel, many of them don't bother to actually attend debates, so who knows what they are doing.  Probably enjoying one of the 23 heavily subsidised bars and restaurants available to MPs in the Palace of Westminster.   

As it happens I quite like the idea that the NHS operate a seven-day-a-week service.  It would help to bring down waiting times and would be more convenient for those who work on the other five days.  The same goes for GP surgeries, which if they were open at the weekend would surely help to relieve the pressure on A&E departments.  Actually I really like the idea, but there is one big fly flapping about in the Germolene.  It is going to cost money.  It cannot be done on a 'cost-neutral-basis'  however much Jeremy wishes it could.  I am all in favour of it but I am also all in favour of spending a great deal more on the health service in general. And I don't want the odious Branson and his Virgin Healthcare anywhere near my NHS.

Elsewhere Mrs May continues to cement her reputation as a hard line autocrat.  In China she made a speech in which she ruled out an Australian points-based system for immigration on the grounds that anyone who achieved the requisite number of points would be allowed in and that wouldn't do.  To quote her, "I want a system where the government is able to decide who comes into the country - I think that's what the British people want. A points-based system means that people come in automatically if they just meet the criteria."

Who knows what sort of riff-raff might come?  Perish the thought.  I almost feel sorry for the members of her cabinet, particularly those with testicles because I bet if she grabs them she will squeeze really really hard to get what she wants.

And to finish on a lighter note, they have found the Philae Lander, I mean I know they knew it was somewhere on that comet, but they have located it, so that's all right.  They can't actually do anything with it but still it's nice to now where it is.  It's like discovering your car keys are in a magpie's nest at the very top of an unclimbable tree.  You know where they are but they are still absolutely no use to you.

Love Tim xx