Return to the book group - This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay

I stopped going to the book group because the other readers were so annoying, so unable to appreciate literature, but the person who runs it is not annoying, but the reverse, the sort of person who soothes one's nerves. I finally caught up with the book groups because they chose Adam's Kay's autobiographical book about working as an obstetrician in the NHS - This is Going to Hurt.

The book group was composed of the same elderly people that went to it before, so I knew all the faces except two - another elderly gent and a woman who has had a stroke and comes in a wheel chair. At the end her carer came to wrap her up and take her home.

First of all, the elderly people doubted that the book was true. They agreed that the NHS gets overwhelmed but this is surely because the population is ageing. Why then, does this affect obstetrics?

The men said the book was not for men. They do not like reading about the things that affect women's bodies. "Revolting." It's very interesting that the men in the book group radiate their feeling of pride in masculinity, as though being born male was such a huge achievement they hardly have to do anything else to prove themselves. (Why have the women in their lives not questioned this? I think it is maybe because men who served in WW11 deserved recognition for their efforts, and then this carried on when men did National Service. - call ups ended in December 1960. In 1963 the last of the National Servicemen left the army. Only after this did this "men are wonderful" mindset start to change.)

The group agreed that the NHS is badly run. For example, the NHS sends its patients for private operations, which it pays for. All agreed that this is a stupid waste of money. It's possible because they have private health insurance and think NHS patients should not get the same treatment as those who pay. They also tend to the belief that the people from other countries come here for medical treatments which they are not entitled to, having never paid their National Insurance, and they are never charged. I said that this is not possible any more, but they said they think it happens all the time.

The group believed that the government is making a false economy by stopping the bursary for training nurses, not providing nurses and hospital doctors with accommodation, and the nurses should also get free food in the staff canteen.

Examples of waste in the NHS includes their refusal to take back Zimmer frames and walking sticks which have been used (apparently they are too expensive to clean. Couldn't you make a large steriliser and do it easily?) There was a long digression into using Freecycle and how it works - also what the Red Cross can provide you with if you are in need.

Self-inflicted injuries - the group agreed that patients should pay to have objects removed from their rectums.

I suggested that there were three areas which in this account of a junior doctor's work are really shocking:

1. He was often far too tired to be responsible for a department full of patients. If another doctor was ill there was no cover available and he might have to work for 24 hours at a stretch.
2. The Consultants who were senior to him were no practical help at all, and this is WRONG.
3. The training method is "see one, do one, teach one" and this is NOT TRAINING or not enough training.

Everybody agreed that this was really wrong and shocking but they are secure in the knowledge that the Conservatives are in power and it will all be sorted out. "Boris is very clever" they say, misty-eyed.

Many of them said the book was not true, it was just for a laugh. The swearing was awful, really awful. The writer is gay. Hmmm.

Marks - all 7 and 8 out of 10.

I was trying to work out if they are all able to "go private" and I think about half of them are. They really don't care about what's going on outside their own lives. It is very depressing.

Two nations - and more

Benjamin Disraeli wrote a novel which I haven't read, but I will, called Sybil, or The Two Nations, and this is the most famous quotation (never "quote" please, girls!) from it.

Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets. The rich and the poor.
 

Well, now we know, don't we! In this country it's the educated and the uneducated, and it's the same; we don't know each other. We hardly visit each other's websites - even though it's easy to do so - because they are so unattractive each to the other. I accidentally went to a website called Right Lad and I was really disgusted by it - jeering hatred of a tearful liberal woman. ("Her period will stop and she'll forget all about it.") And this is triumphalism, which they are good at (not that they know the word) because they have won the referendum. The level of their comments ranges from "Suck it up you whining bastards" to "Don't you get it, losers, it's a democracy!"

At present the situation which most worries me is the potential for a split between Scotland and England - another two nations. This is such a small island that to break it apart makes no sense at all, except for the Europe question. Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, that this thing had to happen at all. How gloriously happy and blinkered we have been. Of course, often when I wrote about my life I said we were lucky and that many people in the U.K. are not so lucky, and I jeered at myself in a way, because I am not entirely unfeeling about that.

London voted to remain - in large numbers - and they are pretty angry with the situation. London is interesting. It is becoming politically active. It supports Jeremy Corbyn, whose parliamentary party is trying to oust him as leader - resigning in huge numbers - really with no reason as most (62%) Labour supported voted to remain, the same as Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish Nationalists. There is another binary split between the lefties outside parliament (pro Corbyn) and those inside (anti Corbyn) and why on earth should those inside entirely ignore the wishes of those outside whom they are supposed to represent? Anyway, a mob came out to show their support of Corbyn on Wednesday. The London mob! It hasn't been seen for centuries.

Parliament Square, Wednesday

Sadly, not so many at his last meeting yesterday in Bloomsbury.

The reason why all these people support him is because he is not at all glossy and tailored; he can't be bothered about his image; he is just himself - a conviction politician who has been active all his life for the things he believes in - veteran of anti -apartheid, anti- nuclear protests; you can go back decades and see him protesting. When you look at the last Labour leader, Ed Miliband, you can appreciate the difference. He was part of the political machine - he lived and breathed Westminster - it was very hard to identify with him because he was such a rarefied species. I never felt he'd been to anything like a protest where he might have to rub shoulders with the common people! For me, he was Blair's man, so I loathed him the way I loathed Tony Blair.

Of course, Miliband has said that Corbyn should resign!

In the Tory party there is also a great deal of infighting as they try to decide who will take the leadership from Cameron. If it is Boris Johnson he will split the party as he is not respected or trusted; he doesn't seem to have convictions and he has not served much time as an MP. When he was an MP he did it part-time as he was still a journalist, and was editing the Spectator at the same time. He delegated his MP work to some secretary. Not much commitment, then, no time to make connections or to form judgments of his fellow Tories. However, the people seem to warm to him. They think he is a real Union flag, Brexit man like themselves, who wants to close the borders (he doesn't).

Some people want Theresa May, who is a natural successor to Cameron, but she was in the Remain side and some people say the new leader must be someone who was in the Leave side. (Theresa May has no moral scruples. There was a programme on Parliament and it showed her pushing through an important piece of legislation by tabling it at short notice at the end of the day so there was no time for a debate on it. She swept in with her acolytes and looked like an Empress with her courtiers. She didn't look as though it had occurred to her to represent anyone but herself and her own glory.) Well, the Tories will like that, I suppose.

Another thing about Corbyn is that he does want to represent the ordinary man who voted for him. I don't think this is laughable. I think he correctly understands his function!

When I see Owen Jones trying to be brave and encouraging us all to make plans for the future, I still feel terribly sad, and reading all the comments I see that everyone else feels the same. We are like headless chickens.

The Day After The Shock

If anything, today is worse! When I went out yesterday everywhere was really quiet - the car park at Virginia Water was almost empty. I heard more Urdu spoken than any other language, and I also heard Russian, and American accents. At V.W. there is a private American school - we have three of these in this area, and the Americans spend a lot of money  - they rent big homes, they pay school fees (employment for local teachers) they buy big cars, private healthcare, and our expensive petrol - I won't go on, but believe me, they live very well (and they also employ people to clean their swimming pools and have fireworks displays and so forth) - the redeployment of the Americans will be a huge hole in our local economy.

When the area is poorer the Poles and Czechs will follow the money to the part of the EU that's richer. So the Vote Outs will have had their way on immigration - but the COST!!! It turns out that they honestly believe that the EU is where the Muslims come from, and they've just stopped women in burkhas from entering the country. There were also some regrets from the Vote Outs yesterday because it seemed they regarded it as a protest vote and didn't expect to win!

Anyway, I am slightly sorry that Cameron has to go - he has behaved like a gent and kept his promises, although he was foolhardy about the referendum. The main horror is that there is no person of talent to negotiate our exit (which may turn out to be more of a quick march to the door and a hard push) because when you look at Gove and Johnson you don't feel inspired by their talent. Johnson is a good journalist and a brilliant self-publicist, but he is all for himself. One feels his grasp of issues and problems is weak. Gove is slightly mad (he took To Kill a Mocking Bird off the choices for GCSE reading on the grounds that it wasn't challenging enough, and wasn't English, also Of Mice and Men, replaced by Romantic Poetry. Hard luck, 15 year-olds!).

Apparently, according to a specialist I heard on the radio, the referendum was a choice between - Do you want everything to stay the same ? (Remain) or Do you want change? (Leave), so malcontents voted Leave.

Still shocked. Can't wait to see our friend in the IMF and find out what's going on there.

But actually - from something my sister-in-law said on Facebook I have been thinking again about the vote and why the Leavers won - they voted that way because they don't care if the economy tanks, because they think we all deserve to be poor, like them. They think we rich southerners have had it easy for too long and when we are poor too, we will get a taste of our own medicine. It's not a mistake on their part - it's an intentional vote for decline and chaos.