Diana Watch

There are 2 mysteries this week, and I’m ignoring the one about a socialist, terrorist loving, Muslim Marxist got himself elected President, how much did America not want the Republicans? No, no, I am referring to 1) Our bee problem and 2) the NME issue, again.
Firstly our bee problem. For reasons we cannot even begin to fathom every so often, be this I mean in the morning when we get up and then in the evening when we go to bed, we seem to be finding a singular bee wondering about in our bedroom. Now there is the possibility that it is the same bee that is really tired and just wants a lie down but we don’t think so because the cat has killed a couple of them. It hasn’t eaten any of them this time though, which is a bit of a relief. She did once and I spent about an hour waiting for her throat to swell up and for me to have to rush her to the vet and explain why she had a biro sticking out of her neck as I’d carried out an emergency tracheostomy. Significant other seems to think we have a bees nest somewhere in the roof and now has some sort of fear about the bedroom being filled with a cloud of angry bees, well at this time of year they are less likely to be angry and much more likely to be very, very sleepy indeed. More of a carpet of sleepy bees than a cloud of angry ones.
The second mystery is why am not on the NME cool list? I believe that I mentioned last year that I didn’t make the list and it has happened again this year! What do I have to do to get on this list? I write a blog once a week that is read by up to 15 different people, sometimes. And I’m not married to any of them so they don’t have to read it and be nice about it. Well maybe I don’t want to be on your stupid list anyway.

There has been some news this week but do we want to cover it? Oh ok, maybe a little bit. That bloke Obama won that election thing in America and we are filled with hope but, as significant other pointed out, we do have the “Tony Blair” fear now. All that hope and expectation and then within a couple of months he introduced tuition fees and ruined it all. Git. Then there was that war that 1 million people marched against. Double git. The trouble that Obama is going to have was shown this week in the coverage he received over the puppy issue. He would like a rescue dog but needs the type of dog that doesn’t drop it ‘s hair and most of the breeds that do that are really posh and that would be see as elitist. It’s a dog! The bravest thing he has done this week was saying that he was going to move his mother in law into the White House with them. You can make you own jokes here because I don’t want to come over all Les Dawson but that is so very brave but it will save them a bit of money on babysitting charges because I’m pretty sure he might be a little busy for the next couple of years.
The Daily Express, of course, could not bring it’s self to share in everyone else’s joy. On Wednesday, the day after the election, the Express, in the version we get here, it must have an early edition so I’ll let them off, whilst every other paper had decided to run with the historic victory as their main headline, they had a completely different story on the front cover and only had a tiny bit about it on the cover. On the Thursday however they made up for this oversight and, again, every other newspaper went with a positive message of hope and they considered the historic importance of a Black man being elected leader of the most powerful nation in the world, a man who 45 years ago in that country wouldn’t have been able to vote was now poised to lead it, the Express went with the positive message of someone will try and kill him, look at hiding behind 3” bullet proof glass. Oh for god’s sake, couldn’t you just try and be nice of once in your nasty little lives.

2 NHS related stories this week. Oh, while we are talking about the NHS that reminds me, congratulations to my friend Fiona who received her PhD this week, she works for the NHS if you want to know how my mind works. Anyway, back to the stories. A report this week said the NHS can pay top ups on their treatment and buy better/not NICE approved drugs. Where as the system now means that if you want to buy any medicines you have to leave the NHS alone and go private, under these plans you won’t. I have given this a bit of thought and I think I am against it because which ever you look at it if we will end up with a 2 tier NHS. Those who can afford better medicines will be able to by them whilst those who cannot will get the bog standard treatment. I believe that this is wrong. Under the NHS all treatment should be the best and free, it’s as simple as that.
The other story was brilliant. The Tory health spokesman said this week that they would make it a manifesto commitment to take the politics out of NICE. So they would take the politics out by introducing it into the political arena. Fantastic! Well done you. They also want to reduce the amount of time it takes for drugs to be licensed and used within the NHS. This is fine but there is a reason why it takes a long time to licence these drugs, they are really bloody dangerous. I don’t want my drug trials hurried and licensing based on Daily Mail and Express headlines. Can I just point out how most of these “New Miracle Cure” come about? Drug companies, not the most morally sound companies, release the results of bits of studies and half complete studies to a PR company and they make up a nice package to give to the press. The package will not include any important information such as what sort of trials have been used, any bias in them and most importantly, any negative trial results. So you then get a headline on your morning paper about how some drug will cure everything and in fact it cured one thing in about 1/3 of the people who tried it and actually killed a few.

A bit more focused this week I think and so now we move on to the awards with a minimum of fuss.

The Award For Most Important Anniversary of the Week,

This week is the 150th anniversary of the Gin and Tonic. This is reason enough, I think as gin is my most favouritist thing, to celebrate by having one and then another one. The drink itself was invented as a way of drinking tonic water, which is poor in taste, as it contains high levels of quinine which is used to prevent and treat Malaria.

The Award For Unintentionally Funny Statement of the Week,

I will steal this story from the BBC website and reproduce it here exactly, lazy huh, anyway, see if you can spot the bit that I found amusing,

“Police have started searching for a woman reportedly seen naked and tied up near a Hampshire railway station.
A man in camouflage clothing was standing next to her, said a couple driving past Micheldever station.
They called police who began searching for the pair and a third man seen nearby at 1500 GMT.
Det Insp David Collings said it could have been a prank or "some misdirected leisure activity" and appealed for the woman to contact them.
He added: "It was very much an open site and we need to make sure this woman is safe and there is nothing more sinister behind it."
Mr Collings urged the woman or the men to come forward so they could scale down the search.”

Now I know the whole story might not by funny and something serious might have happened but I don’t think it has. Yes, I liked the tying of a naked lady to a railway station being described as a “some misdirected leisure activity"

The Award For Pointless Allergy Advice of the Week,

This goes to the packet containing my chicken soup yesterday lunch time. The allergy advice bit said “not suitable for vegetarians”. People are vegi for many reasons, moral reasons or just not liking meat, but not many are actually allergic to meat.

Have a nice week, it is significant others birthday tomorrow so happy birthday her. We will be celebrating via the medium of pub quiz which they better let us win.