Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS

90 patients die from MRSA & C.difficile infections in hospitals run by Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.

In a move possibly unique within this government, where abject failure and lack of responsibility are watchwords, Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, has ordered the NHS trust to withhold severance payments from its former Chief Executive, Rose Gibb.

Johnson described the deaths as 'scandalous' and Medical Director Dr Malcom Stewart said that the trust 'was changing the way it offered services internally and externally, opening an independent sector treatment centre, managing a financial deficit as well as applying for foundation trust status.' Silly me, I thought doctors were interested in making the sick better!

One of the causes of the huge increases in hospital infections is the constant pressure from both this government and the previous one, to reduce costs within the NHS. This led to cleaning being subcontracted, the removal of the all-powerful Matron, and hospitals employing armies of paper shufflers. Hospitals exist to make us better when ill, and every patient MUST be treated with basic human dignity.

Ms Gibb, previously Chief Exec of North Middlesex Hospital when it was labeled the worst in the country for cases of MRSA, was this week described as being obsessed with targets. Given that the Labour government is itself obsessed with targeting and measuring everything, but not actually improving much, I would have thought that she would have been Labour's poster girl, not its scapegoat.

Election 2007 Updated Update...

As at 9.05 this morning 12360 signatures!

Election 2007 Update

6839 & counting...

Election 2007

During today's Prime Minister's Questions (soon to be renamed Prime Minister's Inability to Give a Straight Answer) Gordon the Ditherer poured scorn on the country's desire for an election, saying only 26 people had signed an on-line petition requesting an election this year.

There are now just under 3000; to add your name click on the link below:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Election-year/

Obviously a politician's primary responsibility is to cling onto power and status for as long as is humanly possible, so I wouldn't expect a petition with 10 million signatures would sway Brown & his cohorts, but you can't blame us for trying.

If Parliament Is Not Dead, It's Certainly Not Very Well

At about 4.15pm today the BBC announced that there would be no General Election held this year or next.

Throughout its 10 years in power, the Labour government has consistently and continuously ignored parliamentary process and chosen to unveil its plans by talking to its friends in the media.

Today's news, which should have been announced in the House of Commons where the Prime Minister would have been subject to more stringent questioning than that of Andrew Marr , is just the latest example of this.

When anointed PM, Gordon Brown promised a return to trust & integrity in politics; his cynical photo opportunities and spin-driven press releases highlight that the emperor has only acquired some new clothes

Too Little Chocolate Gives Keynsham a Headache

Today's Cadbury Schweppes announced the closure of its factory in Keynsham and the loss of 700 British jobs as they move production to Poland, of products such as Crunchie and Dairy Milk.

Keynsham is a town of about 15500 residents, of whom 500 work for Cadbury (the other 200 jobs will be lost in Bournville). It has been suggested that Cadbury will sell the site for the development of 'much needed housing' in the town; I wonder how the people of Keynsham will be able to afford a mortgage now!

This news set me thinking about men such as Titus Salt, Joseph Rowntree and George Cadbury, men who created large profitable companies, but who also realised that a business was profitable in areas that couldn't be measured in pure monetary terms. They accepted their social responsibility to the communities in which they were based, and set about funding leisure and welfare facilities, and housing for the benefit of their employees.

I wonder how much consideration the Chairman of Cadbury Schweppes, Sir John Sunderland (or indeed Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the Chairman & CEO of Nestle) gave to his social responsibility before deciding to close the factory in Keynsham.

Perhaps a protest fall in sales would make the company rethink its strategy.

Big Brother IS Watching You

Today the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 became law.

So what, you may ask.

This law demands that data about every telephone call made or received in this country has to be stored for 12 months and be made available, without a warrant or other legal document, to any one of 652 different public bodies, including every local authority in the land, the Environment Agency, the Inland Revenue and the Post Office, and others shown on the link below:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000023_en_12#sch1

Quite why the Post Office or the tax man wants to know who I've been talking to is beyond me.

And don't forget that mobile phone data includes information about your location when you were on your mobile.

Despite the government's claims, this has nothing to do with defeating terrorism, but has everything to do with the state's ongoing attempts to control its citizens