OT. The futures Bright, the Futures Brexit!!!

[Geoff Parkstone]

I bet brexiteers never wash their hands, base dirty people

[Trickytreesreds]

Great song ‘Amster!

Moving on and away from all the personalised crap...I’ve just spent about ninety minutes driving while listening to Nicky Campbell on R5L.
The topic for most of that time was Coronavirus and at least 50% of that time seemed to be taken up with stressing the importance of washing hands etc. NSS!!!
The Remainers on here have taken no end of stick for being arrogant and condescending about Brexit but can that really be the case when listeners - aka the electorate - apparently need advice on hand washing and tissue disposal in order to prevent the spread of a virus?

Errrrrrrrrrrrm, it's their job?

Are you telling us that all NHS staff/doctors should stop telling people not to smoke/drink/eat chips/do drugs etc?
Contrary to what you might think. Spreading disease is probably more in the hands of the young than anyone. They mix more, travel more, interact(cough) more than anyone.
Yet since when have the young taken advice and common sense to heart?
If you don't keep stating the obvious, it gets ignored.
QED

[ramAnag]

=Trickytreesreds;39443686]Errrrrrrrrrrrm, it's their job?

Are you telling us that all NHS staff/doctors should stop telling people not to smoke/drink/eat chips/do drugs etc?
Contrary to what you might think. Spreading disease is probably more in the hands of the young than anyone. They mix more, travel more, interact(cough) more than anyone.
Yet since when have the young taken advice and common sense to heart?
If you don't keep stating the obvious, it gets ignored.
QED

So the young ‘travel and cough more’ than anyone else...lol...really!!?
My point has nothing to do with the young, and while I understand that Swale shot himself in the foot with his ‘earnings related intelligence’ jibe at you a couple of days ago, even you must surely recognise the paradox.
On the one hand your ‘power to the people’ mentality suggests that the electorate is capable of reaching an objective decision on something as complex as Brexit while, literally weeks later, the very same people have to have explained to them the importance of hand washing and how to use a tissue.

[Trickytreesreds]

So the young ‘travel and cough more’ than anyone else...lol...really!!?
My point has nothing to do with the young, and while I understand that Swale shot himself in the foot with his ‘earnings related intelligence’ jibe at you a couple of days ago, even you must surely recognise the paradox.
On the one hand your ‘power to the people’ mentality suggests that the electorate is capable of reaching an objective decision on something as complex as Brexit while, literally weeks later, the very same people have to have explained to them the importance of hand washing and how to use a tissue.

And that is exactly the sort of answer the left /liberal would throw at the likes of Johnson in order to score points.

Don't say anything and they'd be up in arms at the governments lack of preventative action.
Say something and you're patronising us.

Don't go to floods and you're being evasive and uncaring.
Go and you'll get shouted at and accused of doing nothing even if you have assigned your underlings to the job.

So great sage, what would you do?
Repeat the obvious like all NHS nurses do, over and over?
Or say **** all and let it run riot?

Remind me again, isn't education the life blood of society? Surely you would be championing this?
I think you let your own personal anti Tory/Johnson bias, cloud your brain at times, at really do.

[ramAnag]

Tricky, Tricky, Tricky...stop trying - and failing - to put words in my mouth and searching for a fight.

Where have I even mentioned Johnson or the Government, let alone blamed them? Answer...I haven’t.

My point is quite simple...it isn’t really even political let alone even vaguely ‘left/liberal’ it’s just observational...isn’t it a bit odd that in December the electorate are seen as being capable of being trusted - at all costs - with all the complexities of Brexit and yet by February they apparently need advice on how to wash their hands and use tissues properly.

I’m not trying to be a ‘great sage’ as your favourite expression repeatedly goes, but tell me you don’t see any sort of contradiction there when the electorate is entrusted with a monumental economic/political decision one month but has to have it’s proverbial hand held - no...better cancel that - over basic hygiene a few weeks later.

[MadAmster]

Had my annual MOT at my GPs last month. Apart from being a stone and a half or so overweight I'm doing fine. Yet again, they focused on that one thing. Watch your diet, drink less alcohol, exercise more. I then produced the ammunition. I showed them my alcohol intake from the previous 8 weeks minus the usual Xmas and New Year excesses. Showed food portion sizes reduced from the year before, reduced amounts of carb intake. During the summer between 150 and 200 Km a week cycling. In the winter 2 and occasionally 3 games a month as ref, covering an average of around 10Km per game. I closed that portion of the discussion with..... and I aint cutting down further.

Then I brought the big guns out. 4 of the 9 meds I was on have weight gain as a possible side effect. Result? They have stopped one of the meds and halved the dose of a second one. Upshot of that is half a stone loss in 4 weeks despite a 5 day weekend of celebrating my 66th birthday last weekend. I fully expect the weight loss to continue, especially now the better weather is on the way and I can get back out on the racing bike again.

The point of this? I am getting benefit out of doing my doctor's job for him rather than taking the crap thrown at me each year. Education IS the life blood of society but it isn't just Joe Public that needs educating, by any stretch of the imagination. Once you hit a certain age the doc always says "it's an age thing", no matter what the issue is. Education is a 2 way street. We should not only be educated by the press and the media (and doctors and others) but we also have a duty to educate others in the same wway I have educated my doctor. We are now looking at another one of my meds which has tinnitus as a side effect. Can we safely drop it or is there a good alternative I could try?

The point I think you both want to make is that education should be a daily part of life but that it should, in no way, be condescending.

On the other hand I might have this all wrong

[Geoff Parkstone]

Fair point MA, if we left education to the teachers we'd all be in deep ****!

[MadAmster]

Fair point MA, if we left education to the teachers we'd all be in deep ****!

Careful GP, teaching gave rA, you and I a living for at least part of our working lives. In my case, roughly the last 1/4 of it. I like to think, and consequent chats with former pupils seem to confirm, that they appreciated the extra curricular stuff I threw in such as music. Playig songs for varying reasons such as spotting grammatical errors like the double negative of Floyd's "we don't need no education". Working out what the lyrics actually mean in songs like Al Wilson's "The Snake" and Mr Probs "Waves" amongst others. Taking things like cookery and have them create a menu based stereotypical English standards and then have them actually cook the meals. Explain that GB/UK isn't just England, explain how the 4 countries eventually morphed into one, explain their original languages..... can you say that long station name sir? They were gobsmacked when I said it. Onto the anthems and giving (after apologising for my appalling singing voice) renditions of Flower of Scotland and Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (lyric crib sheets used for both). I also drifted off into accents and dialects from time to time to emphasise that a) not everybody speaks standard English and b) there are accents/dialects you won't understand. (Scouse/Manc/Brum/Cockney (incl some rhyming slang)/Yarksher/Geordie and. of course South Derbyshire - Enya sane it / sin tin intit? / nah, tin tin tin). I'd write that on the board and they never had a clue what it might mean even when I said it aloud. The point being they knew that BBC English was rarer than the regional accents.....

[Trickytreesreds]

Had my annual MOT at my GPs last month. Apart from being a stone and a half or so overweight I'm doing fine. Yet again, they focused on that one thing. Watch your diet, drink less alcohol, exercise more. I then produced the ammunition. I showed them my alcohol intake from the previous 8 weeks minus the usual Xmas and New Year excesses. Showed food portion sizes reduced from the year before, reduced amounts of carb intake. During the summer between 150 and 200 Km a week cycling. In the winter 2 and occasionally 3 games a month as ref, covering an average of around 10Km per game. I closed that portion of the discussion with..... and I aint cutting down further.

Then I brought the big guns out. 4 of the 9 meds I was on have weight gain as a possible side effect. Result? They have stopped one of the meds and halved the dose of a second one. Upshot of that is half a stone loss in 4 weeks despite a 5 day weekend of celebrating my 66th birthday last weekend. I fully expect the weight loss to continue, especially now the better weather is on the way and I can get back out on the racing bike again.

The point of this? I am getting benefit out of doing my doctor's job for him rather than taking the crap thrown at me each year. Education IS the life blood of society but it isn't just Joe Public that needs educating, by any stretch of the imagination. Once you hit a certain age the doc always says "it's an age thing", no matter what the issue is. Education is a 2 way street. We should not only be educated by the press and the media (and doctors and others) but we also have a duty to educate others in the same wway I have educated my doctor. We are now looking at another one of my meds which has tinnitus as a side effect. Can we safely drop it or is there a good alternative I could try?

The point I think you both want to make is that education should be a daily part of life but that it should, in no way, be condescending.

On the other hand I might have this all wrong

you are absolutely spot on.

I expect medical "experts" to state the obvious to me.
It may be condescending, but if they don't do it. Can anyone actually moan they weren't told?
Not everyone is educated to degree level and understands how Virus germs are transmitted.
In the same way as some kids do not understand the risks of a gruesome death they may endure, by taking up smoking.

No one forces you to listen, but you can't moan if you was told.
I fail to see what RA is trying to get folks to admit. THAT WE ARE/WERE NOT smart enough to have a referendum?
If so, that sounds like Swale through and through.

Considering the amount of lies presented to us, in what way were we not qualified to be entrusted with a decision with what we want?
I made my own mind up thank you very much.
I did so after reading and consuming lots of online stuff. In the same way as this "pandemic" is being portrayed. I'll make my own mind up as to what to do about it.
It actually doesn't scare me, like an Ebola outbreak would and I look forward to going back to far east as soon as is possible.

MY DECISION!!!

[MadAmster]

My GP now understands that "it's an age thing" is no longer acceptable to me and he has to investigate any ailments I may go to him with. I hope he doesn't have to do much investigating on my behalf but no, just because it might be an age thing doesn't mean it is.