O/T. The Government's handling of Covid

[Andy_Faber]

Okay...moving on.
I’m a little in limbo at the moment for reasons that may become apparent but two recent events have provided food for thought.

A week or so ago I was talking to a much younger friend of mine who is a selected ‘first responder’. He was recently called to an elderly lady in her nineties who had hurt herself as a result of a fall in her bathroom in a Derbyshire village about five miles from Derby. He rang for an ambulance and was informed that the waiting time would be ‘up to nine hours’!

Last night I had the misfortune to have to use the German emergency services for someone very close to me. The ambulance arrived within ten minutes. Initial diagnosis was made and the person concerned was in hospital and being treated within another half hour.
Fortunately the relevant EHIC does not expire till early 2023 and, despite us having left the EU, there was no reluctance on the part of the Germans to accept it.

It honestly gives me no pleasure to say this and I know it’s more about the NHS than Covid itself, but...compare and contrast. Is this the state of Brirain today and a reflection of how far we have fallen in recent years?

It may do, but for every tit there is a tat - Germany is a greater user of the bad boy of fossil fuels,coal, than UK, and has deteriorated badly since their renewable peak of 2018.

Also, having watched the 'Ambulance' programme on TV, its neither about Covid nor NHS, but the brittle, misguided UKpopulace, which may actually support the implication of your closing question

[ramAnag]

It may do, but for every tit there is a tat - Germany is a greater user of the bad boy of fossil fuels,coal, than UK, and has deteriorated badly since their renewable peak of 2018.

Also, having watched the 'Ambulance' programme on TV, its neither about Covid nor NHS, but the brittle, misguided UKpopulace, which may actually support the implication of your closing question

Jeez...only you, these days, could bring fossil fuels into an observation about the emergency services in two different countries.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Jeez...only you, these days, could bring fossil fuels into an observation about the emergency services in two different countries.

No, I could too if called upon. Back in the days of steam powered ambulances..........

[Geoff Parkstone]

Okay...moving on.
I’m a little in limbo at the moment for reasons that may become apparent but two recent events have provided food for thought.

A week or so ago I was talking to a much younger friend of mine who is a selected ‘first responder’. He was recently called to an elderly lady in her nineties who had hurt herself as a result of a fall in her bathroom in a Derbyshire village about five miles from Derby. He rang for an ambulance and was informed that the waiting time would be ‘up to nine hours’!

Last night I had the misfortune to have to use the German emergency services for someone very close to me. The ambulance arrived within ten minutes. Initial diagnosis was made and the person concerned was in hospital and being treated within another half hour.
Fortunately the relevant EHIC does not expire till early 2023 and, despite us having left the EU, there was no reluctance on the part of the Germans to accept it.

It honestly gives me no pleasure to say this and I know it’s more about the NHS than Covid itself, but...compare and contrast. Is this the state of Brirain today and a reflection of how far we have fallen in recent years?

OK, a riposte. My brother in law who lives in Germany, and has done for donkeys years, fell down stairs, an ambulance was summoned and 6 hours later it arrived. Contrast that to my Mum who recently needed to go into hospital and an ambulance arrived promptly and efficiently.

Do I therefore conclude that this is "the state of Germany today and a reflection of how far they have fallen in recent years". No, I conclude that here is one unfortunate incident out of maybe many millions every year and not necessarily representative of anything.

Are you sure you havent been smoking the weed today rA, as some of your posts today seem to reflect an unbalanced mond!

[ramAnag]

OK, a riposte. My brother in law who lives in Germany, and has done for donkeys years, fell down stairs, an ambulance was summoned and 6 hours later it arrived. Contrast that to my Mum who recently needed to go into hospital and an ambulance arrived promptly and efficiently.

Do I therefore conclude that this is "the state of Germany today and a reflection of how far they have fallen in recent years". No, I conclude that here is one unfortunate incident out of maybe many millions every year and not necessarily representative of anything.

Are you sure you havent been smoking the weed today rA, as some of your posts today seem to reflect an unbalanced mond!

If you’d had the last twenty hours that I’ve had your ‘mond’ might not be the best. Never ‘unbalanced’ though.
I’d have put money on you being the first to make a ‘smoking weed’ gag - you’re that type of chap. Give you an inch and you’ll take a mile...but no, I haven’t...not for a great many years since I had kids of my own.
Still I take your opening point. Both are possible but the ambulance service I last required, also for my mother and approaching fif**** years ago, was superb by any standard and I’m not sure we may now rely on that.

[Andy_Faber]

Sorry Andy, but something’s changed and I don’t think it’s me.
You’ve been well and truly rumbled on at least three occasions this week.
Your point about extrapolation and risk made little sense and even you had no comeback when the error of what you had written was pointed out. Your point about the ‘underclass’ this morning was just recycled sh1t stirring which led to you clearly contradicting yourself prior to taking refuge in pedantry, and your barbed comment at Swale over your description of the poor/underclass ‘playing the system’/‘defrauding the system’ was just a piece of slightly malicious foolishness.
I’m sure GP will now try and jump to your assistance with some smart arse piece of nonsense as is his way but, although I’ve regularly disagreed with you, I always, for what it’s worth, respected Andy Mk1. Have to say that sadly I’m struggling with the new model, which seems to have swapped common sense and respect for bitterness and an overwhelming desire to be right about everything. None of us are fellah...and you’re certainly no exception.

I’ve just spent 10 minutes drafting a detailed response but then deleted it, Because I really don’t think you read what I or others post carefully enough so I don’t see the point. Your response re ‘working the system’ is a case in point, GP understood exactly what I meant, I don’t get how that can be misinterpreted. Sorry. And There’s no mk11 here

[ramAnag]

I’ve just spent 10 minutes drafting a detailed response but then deleted it, Because I really don’t think you read what I or others post carefully enough so I don’t see the point. Your response re ‘working the system’ is a case in point, GP understood exactly what I meant, I don’t get how that can be misinterpreted. Sorry. And There’s no mk11 here

I suspect you spent time ‘drafting a detailed response’ but actually found you had no answer...so ‘deleted it’...and to suggest something was a reasonable response because ‘GP understood exactly what I meant’ isn’t really any sort of a defence when you look at much of what he’s written recently.

Taking just the the one example...I mentioned - quite some time ago and sensibly I thought - the difficulties posed by the ‘underclass’ with regard to getting everyone vaccinated. This is after all the ‘Covid’ thread.
You immediately jumped on your high horse and suggested there was no such thing.
When corrected, and when it was defined for you - and not just by me - there was some sort of grudging acceptance before you, yesterday, started it all off again by your out of the blue comment about the terms ‘underclass’ and ‘difficult to reach’ being so ‘nebulous as to be meaningless’.
You then criticised the group we were talking about for ‘working the system’ which apparently - according to the accountant speak of you and GP - doesn’t imply any sort of moral wrong doing or benefit fraud whatsoever...before, when Swale picked you up on it, rudely denied knowing what he was talking about and made some fatuous comment about Brexit in a lame attempt to make him look foolish.

In the meantime any sensible and adult discussion is punctuated by GP’s repeated and frankly irritatingly juvenile comments about ‘rA’s favourites’ or ‘rA’s underclass’ while you eventually concede that all you really meant was that you weren’t actually denying the existence of an ‘underclass’ and would just like to substitute ‘hard to reach’ for ‘hard to convince’.

This typifies the sort of pedantic, contradictory and inflammatory tone that has, imo, come to be synonymous with the posts of someone who used to be reasonable and logical. Just read back some of the arguments you have made and ‘lectures’ you have given recently if you really don’t believe me...and the fact that GP is apparently now ignoring me comes, I have to say, as nothing more than a blessed relief.

[Geoff Parkstone]

Hmm I think perhaps it is you that has changed, rA. You've always been opinionated (who on here isn't) but you have morphed into someone who takes every slight disagreement with your views deeply personally and a challenge to counter attack or claim not to understand the points made. It's both unseemly and boringly repetitive of late.

Never thought I'd do this to the old rA, but onto ignore you go

[Geoff Parkstone]

That reminds me, time to get my winter fuel allowance claim in!

[Trickytreesreds]

In lighter news, I'm off back to Hua Han in a few weeks for a couple of months.
Sun /sand/crystal waters/ palm trees and beautiful people. Hasn't that made you all feel a lot better?





Jingle bells, on sea shells, Santas on his way.