#India November 2015 PT2

On 5/8/2015 I posted a blog outlining my planned trip to India. The time has now arrived. I fly out at 10am on November 1st and return on 28th - so effectively a 4 week visit. I have done quite a lot of preparation for my trip over the last 3 months - the wonders of the internet.

As with other big trips I have done I am sat here with a sense of anticipation and I have to admit a degree of unease - might even say nervousness. I guess the unease has its roots in concerns about security and perhaps more so on this occasion - health and wellbeing. I am travelling alone. I am backpacking. I am staying in budget hostels or have arranged homestays. I am travelling across India by train - 12 separate train journeys of which 6 are overnight. I want to get into the thick of it and see some real India.

Inevitably I have talked to some people about my plans or people have referred to it. I would say half have said I have always wanted to go to India - the other half have said "you must be mad!"

Clearly India is a challenging place to visit - heat, crowds, sanitation and food - and of course like anywhere their is a threat of casual violence. My biggest concern is health - stomach bugs - mosquitos - and dengue fever - but this is not new to me. The precautions I take:

• good base inoculations including rabies.
• I wear long sleeves and long trousers and usually a cap and neck scarf.
• I don't take malaria tablets but do use repellent. I have been given an Indian brand which apparently is very effective - Odemus or Odemms.
• I have a good quality silk liner that I sleep in and have a mosquito head net if necessary.
• You have to use bottled water in India but I also use Oasis water purification tablets and have had no side effects over long trips.
• I love to eat street food but care is necessary of course. I avoid salads and probably meat - and ice in normal situations.

That is the down sides. What about the up sides. Why go?

Well I think back to my late dear parents - my mum never went abroad - my dad just to Germany to do national service. It was not in our lifestyle or certainly budget to go abroad. A common term today - not on our radar. Apart from a school trip to France I don't think I went abroad until I was 20. But as with many people opportunities have gradually opened up and I feel a considerable obligation to take them because my parents made a lot of sacrifices for us. I think travel is a wonderful thing to do - but acknowledge too - it is not everyone's cup of tea - and people like doing different things.

What I particularly like is planning a trip and then completing it. In the 4 weeks I am away in India I know where I will/should be - trains booked - hostels booked - and a good number of the things I want to see pre determined. I do it this way for two reasons - one is I think it is more secure for a lone backpacker and the second is I think it is more efficient in the sense that planning and booking takes time - time wasted in those precious 4 weeks if not done before. The down side - I guess likely felt by the purist traveller - is I am not going with the flow (as the mood takes me) but you can't be everywhere see everything and I will be ecstatic - ha! if my trip works out as planned.

So what am I looking for over the next 4 weeks. Well I want to experience the sights and sounds and smells of India. I want to meet some of the local people - travel with them - watch them - smile at them - observe their lifestyles. I want to form a view of India for myself - learn some more about it - feel where it is going - that will be amazing.

Early on 2nd I arrive in Kolcata (Calcutta) in West Bengal. I am looking forward to walking over the Howrah Bridge over the Ganges and see the markets, see the Belur Math Shrine and visit Mother Theresas Home among other things.

I will post some more as I go.

#Parenting

To put this blog in a context it would be useful to read my opening blog on this site "Approaching the big 60" posted 19/5/2014.

I have been a parent for nearly 35 years (you never stop being a parent - ha!) I have 4 wonderful offspring all together - a daughter 34, twin boys 33 and my youngest son, 21 - plus 2 beautiful little grand daughters aged 4 and 1. Frankly they pretty much make up my life.

I thought it would purposeful to write a blog about parenting - some of my thoughts. I do so with a grave sense of humility - not because I necessarily know the right way or best way to be a parent - or that I have even been a good parent - who knows - who defines it - what is the criteria? Clearly there is no "right" way - being a parent is a very personal thing and it is a changing role of course - a role that evolves. I am very proud of my family for many reasons.

Thinking back being a parent came naturally. Obviously you can buy books about parenting - I think we had a book by Dr Spock - but to be honest I am not sure we ever read it (maybe to define the signs of chicken pox!). For most parents - it literally does come naturally - we are animals after all (although incredibly some people find this impossible to accept.) We call on learned experience - how did our parents do it? We are greatly assisted - when our children are born - we are gifted a deep and unconditional love bond towards them - everything else flows from that.

So what about the practical side of parenting. I stress again these are my personal thoughts - it doesn't make me right - every parent is different and they have every right to be - it depends on their personality and their philosophy. The other factor too is there are usually two parents - so it is a shared role.

I guess as a parent - you basically take a leadership role - maybe it is a managers role. I heard Sir Alex Ferguson talking the other day about his success at Manchester United - leading his team. He put it down to 2 things - control and particularly consistency. I agree - but my analogy - comparing parenting to running a football team might make some child psychologists despair - ha!

Perhaps the starting place is to consider the objectives of parenthood. Distilled down - for your children to grow with a healthy body and mind and to be happy.  More specifically :

• to have good self esteem and self confidence.
• to have the tools to compete in a competitive world (as in Darwin).
• to develop good lifestyle habits.
• to have a good ethos.
• to be able to lead and not just follow - objective and pragmatic.
• to nurture and develop potential.
• to emphasise and encourage the concept of family.
• to develop a positive can do attitude to life.
• to expose to a wide range of possibilities and options.
• to be happy and understand those things that lead to happiness and fulfillment.

If that is the list how do you achieve it - ha!?

Here are some of my thoughts based on a reflection of the past 35 years. They are in no particular order :

• An uncle told me light years ago - if you love them son and they know you love them - then they will turn out alright.
• On reflection - the Manchester United analogy might not be a bad one after all. The family is the team. Within the team ethos the individual needs the freedom and opportunity to develop and express themselves with confidence and support. It is about balance - no favouritism but an understanding each child is different and will need different things at different times.
• I have always believed in making boundaries - consistently applied - as wide as reasonably possible - but the boundaries must be clear - unacceptable behaviour understood - and a certain level of consequences if the boundaries are exceeded. (The football pitch is the boundary not just the centre circle!)
• In terms of consequences I would say this - I do not really believe in punishment. Things like grounding , or stopping pocket money etc. I certainly think any sort of corporal punishment should be truly exceptional and if it is ever used - more for shock (a wake up call) than pain. My approach has  always been to reaffirm the boundary - say it like you mean it and mean it. Rather than punishment (I think understanding is key) I have preferred strong eye contact - look at me. I would quite often start by asking "why did I  ask you to stop that" or "why were we annoyed with you". The answer is not I broke the rules - but there follows a discussion about why - there was danger in it - or it was selfish because we were watching something else on the TV - ha! Other phrases - the emotional/conscience bit - you have let yourself down - you can do better than that - you have not been fair to your family, how would you like it etc. It certainly helps if discipline can be applied at the time - with a couple of provisos. The first - the talking to is best and most effectively done in private - a one to one.(take your child out of the room). Embarrassing a youngster is not a great idea. The other proviso is the effect of tiredness. If either parent or child or both are tired I would avoid the eye to eye talking to. That is better done the next day i.e. "I want to talk to you about what happened last night" - I have found tiredness so often means emotion and inconsistency.
• Carrot or stick? Your youngster produces something. Do you praise for the job done - or do you express a negative if you are not really impressed. Do you encourage by praise. Do you encourage by being critical of the effort made. This is a matter of judgement. How do you get your youngsters to put the effort in. " look I have got to say I think you could have done better than that"  and possibly upset the child in the short term. Every child is different - every circumstance different - but I think tough love has its place - not everything should be praised - parents have to raise the bar at times too. Certainly there are some parents who put far too much pressure on their children. Children must not be scared of failure otherwise they will find ways of not participating. Have a go attitude - do your best - is all that can reasonably be expected or wanted.
• On the subject of setting the bar and pushing - I knew a lady many years back who reached number 8 ranking in UK tennis. She represented England against the USA. Her parents pushed her like mad - moved house from Birmingham to London to get the best coaching - huge family and personal sacrifices made. She told me she was glad her parents did it but that she would never do it to her children. Make of that what you will - ha! One thing I have learned is the learning process is often not very enjoyable and children will resist it - learning to swim for instance - but once you have helped them over the hump to reasonable proficiency then the game or past time becomes enjoyable, there is a sense of achievement and the youngster then gains their own momentum. I think parents have to push a bit to get over that initial hump. This applies to academic learning too I think.
• Choice. It is an act of love and affection to give your youngster choice. It is an important way to learn and to give responsibility. But actually in my thinking choice is often a problem too and there is just as much a place for direction - particularly with younger children. To try and mollify a tired youngster at meal time with "what would you like for tea" is not a good idea. In fact I would suggest meal "choice" is a bad idea. My approach has been - this is what the family are having for dinner tonight. I would not accept "I don't like it" if the child has not tried it. Parents get into a tangle with food. My little darlings will pretty much eat anything now and enjoy it - ha!
• Learning by mistakes. That is the prime way of learning - particularly as children get older. On the other hand it is probably better for all of us if we learn from other peoples mistakes. We want to protect our children from danger of course and probably from any sort of negative. I think the best way is to talk about some of these issues well in advance and hope the penny drops. A difficult balancing act. Certainly in todays world there are too many children mollycoddled and stifled and probably resentful. 
• Exercise. Children are naturally energetic - with energy to burn. They need to get out of doors - probably daily. Sport is a great thing for children (and adults) to be into. I am going to be controversial now. I have great scepticism about ADHD. Diet and exercise is the cure together with a healthy dose of real and decent parental authority/control. We want to protect our children but we must find ways of giving them massive amounts of fresh air and exercise. Absolutely vital and a key to happiness in my view.
• Camping. Increasingly we live in a sanitised and ordered world. Proper camping in a tent poses all sorts of challenges. Learning to cope with the wind rattling your tent, creepy crawlies, or the dark, or a bit of grass in your food is a great thing. Kids have to learn to rough it a bit too. Who knows what life is going to throw at them?
• Social media - Facebook etc. I am far from an expert on this. What I would say is there has always been peer pressure to conform. I remember talking to my children about making their own minds up - at times better to lead rather than be led etc. Facebook seems to be a massive pressure in modern lives. Parents have a challenge in helping their offspring remain as individuals rather than social clones dependent on mass validation.
• Finally I come to PMA - our family motto if we have one. It stands for Positive Mental Attitude. If any of us get a bit negative or wimpy we use the retort PMA. It reminds us to take responsibility and not make excuses and get on with it. On the issue of responsibility - we live in a world of blame - it is always somebody else's fault - there is always a ready excuse. I have always tried to counter that view. We take responsibility for our own lives. My youngest son went to a pretty badly performing state secondary school - with teaching problems. We agreed that the absence of a teacher was not an excuse not to learn. That would not get him the exam passes he needed. He pestered staff for the learning material, found out for himself what he needed to know if a lesson was missed. (and the school responded well). He is now a medical student.

Just a couple of other things 1) those teenage years - and then they are adults! Don't expect teenagers to necessarily agree with you - but the seed planted - they will reflect on it - and when they need to make a decision hopefully what you have advised some time before will have some impact. As adults the parental role inevitably changes (although I can remember my dad reminding me to be careful crossing the busy road when I decided to walk over to the local shop - I had just driven 150 miles with our then three kids in the car!) I suppose now I am more the chair of the board of formidable directors - or maybe a cooperative. Whatever it is hopefully my offspring know I mean well even if I forget they are now full blown very capable and competent adults! 

The other thing 2) is parental divorce. A split in the leadership or management team. Obviously this will have some negative effect on the family unit and the individuals that make it up. Divorce is not desirable. However it can and should settle down and a divorce has got to be better than living in a unhappy household which at worse becomes dysfunctional. Both parents still love their children and want the best for them and it is possible for the children to eventually get the best of both world's and be the better for it. Hopefully the parents can be mature enough to keep a similar ethos but it is also true that children can be confronted by one set of boundaries in one home and a different set of rules in the other. A problem - but children are resilient. More significant problems can relate to the introduction of new partners and possibly their offspring. This can be extremely difficult for all concerned. No one loves the children like their own parents and no one has the same insight or forgiveness. We see on Jeremy Kyle type programmes that kids can feel or be marginalised. This is a horrible thought and not good.

Anyway these are some of my thoughts. There will no doubt be many more - but that is enough for now. Happy parenting - the easiest and the hardest job of all. The most gut wrenching and rewarding too!

#Exeter Canal and where you live.

It is a funny thing. Have you ever noticed that guests or visitors to your town or country sometimes get to do or see things in your area that you have never got round to doing or seeing despite the fact you have lived there for years.

This weekend I returned to Exeter to see my family. I was brought up in the Exeter area - lived there for over 20 years and return regularly.

As part of a day out we cycled the length of the Exeter Canal. It was something I had done before but maybe not for 35 years. There was a time when the Exeter Canal and River Exe running parallel were a bit of a playground for us boys growing up - especially for course fishing. I look back fondly to memories of casting light float tackle with the tiniest of hook baited with live maggots. We caught perch and dace and very very occasionally the larger bream. It makes me smile now thinking of the laughs we had - gear all tangled up in a bush or snagged up on the bottom or trying to deal with scary eels unfortunately hooked! But all that was many years ago.

It was only in the last few days I realised I knew very little about the Exeter Canal - now I know its proper name is Exeter Ship Canal. So as a visitor I dragged brother Rob for a bike ride along the Canal. He was slightly puzzled when I suggested it - not least because it is on his relative doorstep and he hasn't been on the tow path for light years either! The bike ride prompted me to do a bit of research. For some crazy reasons that I cannot explain I now feel especially well disposed to the Exeter Canal. It feels a bit like an old relative that I knew little about, but now that I do, am proud to have in my family. An illogical affection!

So what have I recently found out about it? Well - surprisingly in is one of the oldest artificial waterways in the whole of the UK and built long before the canal building "mania" of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In fact the Exeter Canal was started at the beginning of 1564 and finished at the beginning of 1567. It runs for about 5 miles from the Canal Basin in the heart of Exeter to Turf where it joins the wide Exe Estuary. Why was the canal built? Simple answer - the port of Exeter was served by the River Exe. This was a very important link and relied on the tide - which reaches up as far as Exeter. Unfortunately the Countess of Devon decided to build a wear downstream of Exeter across the Exe. She did this to power her mills. The port of Exeter was cut off. The family also got much much richer because they created a port to serve Exeter at one of my favourite places - Topsham. Eventually Parliament gave permission for the Canal to be built and to run parallel to the river, to once again make Exeter a port. The canal was successful and served Exeter well. I remember the Esso petrol tanker coming in and the large sludge ship Countess Wear only stopped in the mid 1990's.

Now the canal is used for leisure only - boating, fishing or walking or cycling on the tow path. Our initial intention yesterday was to cycle the length of the canal on the tow path.

However a cycle route has been established - Sutrans. It means much of the tow path is signed for walkers only. The cycle route runs closely parallel but often below the canal bank, which can be a touch frustrating. The views and countryside remain lovely however and it is a flat easy ride. The Sutrans route carries on to Dawlish which is what we did. On route along the west side of the Exe estuary you pass the unspoilt grounds of the Earl of Devon estate - Powderham - complete with deer and castle, scenic Cockwood, Starcross ( the pier used to be our favourite hotspot for plaice and flounder fishing - and Starcross is famous for Brunel's Atmospheric Railway ) and Dawlish Warren. There are great views across the expansive estuary to Lympstone, Woodbury Common rising above and Exmouth on the east mouth where the Exe joins the sea. Dawlish Warren is a smallish holiday resort - very commercial now at the land end it seems - but we remember it as kids when we had fantastic beach times on the sand spits golden beach. Our parents used to take us cockling on the back of the Warren which was made up of alluvial mud. Happy days.

Dawlish itself is a proper little holiday town. We had a pint at lunchtime and a leisurely ride back. It became a much changed scene as the tide up and the light gradually fading. Quiet and lovely. Inevitably we finished with a beer at the excellent Double Locks pub to reminisce some more.

It was a great day out. Not a sunny day - overcast in fact - but still and not cold. The ride brought back many happy childhood and adolescent memories indeed. Thank you Exeter Canal and the Exe Estuary and all the places on route for the pleasure you gave us a youngsters and can continue to give now we know you even better.

Exeter Shipping Canal Basin

The parallel River Exe Quay 



Looking into the canal basin

Double Locks - a landmark pub too

Lime Kilns where the big boats turned

From the canal bank looking across the River Exe to Topsham.

Start/End of the canal at Turf - where the canal joins the river Exe proper.

Turf pub - a great setting

Looking down the Exe estuary from Turf towards Exmouth

The wide expanse of the Exe estuary - a vital bird life haven.

Views of the Powderham estate - home of the Earl of Devon

We get to Dawlish - a seaside town.

Rob - a quick pint in The Brunswick Arms

The main rail line serving Devon and Cornwall showing the repair

Powderham chapel

The Exe on the way back - tide now up.

Brother Rob on the right. Me paying for the round as usual! Double Locks bar on the way back.

#Volkswagen institutional, corporate and personal corruption and greed

(just back from my early morning sea wall bike ride. Very cold - thick coat and gloves for the first time this year - also needed my lights! I think the clocks change on 25th - ha!).

The VW debacle seems truly staggering - almost unbelievable. It seems incredible that one of the world's largest corporates, with a cast iron reputation built up over many years for safety, quality and engineering excellence decided at the highest level to build into their cars a computer programme to try to fool emissions testers, dupe the public and undermine the fight against global warming. How could they be so corrupt - so self serving - so naïve - so stupid? What about their crash test data now - is that fiddled?

In June I wrote a blog about corruption (see my blog 5/6/2015 below). It is so corrosive once it gets a hold on a society. The VW case illustrates how vigilant we have to be - it shows how personal ambition and corporate greed can manifest itself in a most extreme and perverted way.

I have lived long enough to remember many corporate and institutional frauds. State monopolies fiddling, corporates like supermarket chains forming cartels - utility and petrol companies price fixing, the sub prime banking fraud. We know about statistics - lies, damn lies and statistics. We know bribery and back handers happen. HSBC getting involved in money laundering. We know the police have juggled crime figures, NHS managers manipulating waiting time categories and successive governments massaging unemployment figures.

In the UK probably more than any other country we do have good checks and balances - a truly independent judiciary, democratic elections, OFWAT and the like, the Nuclear Inspectorate, Judicial Review, Coroners Court's and perhaps most of all freedom of the press with a tremendous record in investigative journalism. "Transparency" is the buzz word in government now - and despite the problems it causes the Freedom of Information Act is a force for good. We do try and set high standards in the UK and we should be very thankful for that - because it seems give any institution, corporate or indeed powerful individual the latitude, fair play and decency cannot be assumed!

I have never been on board with the Liberal agenda. I am happy for GCHQ to be monitoring my E mails and phone calls if it helps the war against terrorism and enhances national security. We all use Google and billions use Facebook with the most incredible level of personal information uploaded. We assume this in the main is harmless, will not be misused - but in reality can we be sure? Can we be sure of anything. Who is monitoring all this stuff? Who can we trust? I am 100% sure in years to come something will emerge about the use of our information on the internet and the www that will shock us.

However unlike some I see no reason to be paranoid but clearly there is every reason to support, fund and demand the independence of those checks and balances that seek to protect us against the ongoing possibility of institutional, corporate and personal corruption and greed.

I hope the world throws the book at VW. I hope the company is hit with so many law suits it ceases to exist. It will serve as a much needed example to all those that might need the lesson in the future.

#People

This original thought came to me today. I thought I would share it.

There are 4 types of people in the world.

1) Hard on the outside and a hard heart.

2) Hard on the outside but with a soft heart.

3) Soft on the outside but with a hard heart.

4) Soft on the outside and with a soft heart.

What is in the heart is clearly much more important because it ultimately defines the person you really are. Outwardly perhaps it is more a shell only - a persona either unknowingly or deliberately created to compete or for self preservation maybe.

Broadly I think we as individuals naturally fall into one of these categories - but I also think it is highly likely that life's knocks (nurture) can harden people up although it may also be possible that it can soften the heart too. I think it is quite evident people with a hard heart do try to soften their apparent exterior for their own ends. Similarly some people act tough when they are not

I think it would be meaningful for everyone to do a self analysis and understand which is you and also very useful to think about the type of person you are dealing with - for all sorts of reasons. It is often a case of peeling back the onion rings. I would suggest if you have a hard heart you will never be deep down happy - can you do something about it - I don't know.

For the purposes of definition I would sum up :-

1) with the potential to be cruel and uncaring.

2) likely to create negatives but potential to be endearing and is compassionate.

3) likely to be endearing but with the potential to be manipulative and self serving.

4) nice maybe too nice - potentially gullible and misused.

#Teide Tenerife

We are just back from a week's all inclusive poolside holiday at Puerto Santiago, Tenerife. The weather was lovely, the hotel excellent - and the food tremendous - a fun and relaxing week at frankly very reasonable cost.

On the middle day in the week we had planned ahead to do a day trip. We went to Parque Nacional del Teide with the intension of getting to the top of El Teide.

El Teide Mount Teide is a volcano on Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Its 3,718-metre summit is the highest point in Spain and the highest point above sea level in the islands of the Atlantic. At 7,500 m from its base on the ocean floor, it is the third highest volcano on a volcanic ocean island in the world after Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and others in Hawaii. Its elevation makes Tenerife the tenth highest island in the world. It remains active: its most recent eruption occurred in 1909 from the El Chinyero vent on the north western Santiago rift. The United Nations Committee for Disaster Mitigation designated Teide a Decade Volcano because of its history of destructive eruptions and its proximity to several large towns, of which the closest are Garachico, Icod de los Vinos and Puerto de la Cruz. Teide, Pico Viejo and Montaña Blanca form the Central Volcanic Complex of Tenerife.

Here is our account :

We hired a car for the day for 39 euros to get there.

Most hotels are on or near sea level of course (as was ours) - the summit of Teide at over 12000 feet. So a massive height transition necessary in a short time therefore making symptoms of altitude sickness a risk.

For this reason and for practical time issues we decided not to climb from the base of El Teide - an assent of apparently 6 to 8 hours from the base. Instead we took the easy option - the Teleferico - cable car to within a 30 or 40 minute walk to the top.

The cable car is limited in size and busy. It costs 27 euros. To avoid the worst of the queuing I would recommend you buy tickets online if possible.

The vast majority of the cable car riders are not permitted to climb to the top of El Teide volcano. Numbers are very carefully limited by the requirement of a licence with a passport check. I booked several months in advance online from the UK. There was no cost but it is necessary because as I say numbers are restricted and there is no chance of a licence if you do not plan well in advance.

When we got to the limit of the cable car we went on to the path to the top and all the crowd was thankfully gone. It was very quiet, beautiful and lovely - the views truly outstanding.

The hike to the top was cold and windy despite the sun. It was quite a scramble but within the compass of a reasonably fit person with a bit of nerve. (be prepared for some sort of altitude related headache) Personally I would suggest going up to Teide on the cable car and not going to the crater top would have left a rather unfulfilled experience. When we got to the summit we are wonderfully on our own - the highest people in whole of Spain - ha!

I attach some photos. The extensive El Teide National Park is really spectacular with dramatic evidence (and colours) of intense volcanic activity over millions of years. A great place to visit and highly recommended.

Teide National Park

First view of the back of Teide with lava fissure

First view of Teide proper

From the cable car - the caldera below.

On the path to the top.

At the top



Highest in Spain.

#Conservatives to David Cameron re Junior Doctors

#JuniorDoctors

I start this blog with three statements. 1) I believe in and support our National Health Service. 2) I support the Government drive to deal with the deficit. 3) I have no connection with the NHS or the Conservative Party other than I am a citizen.

The Government have and continue to make changes to how health care is delivered. This is necessary in principle to drive out inefficiency and waste and to provide better health, treatment and care outcomes in an ever more challenging and complex environment.

One of these challenges is to try and deal with the disparity between outcomes on those treated on weekdays and weekends. It would be hard to argue with that!

So what is Jeremy Hunt and the Conservative government proposing? Answer - unfair and shockingly provocative changes to the junior doctor contract. Junior Doctors and the BMA are outraged by the proposals and are quite right to be so. Why?

To qualify as a Junior Doctor you have to attend Medical School for 5 years minimum, study incredibly hard and pass challenging exams. Of course this is necessary because being a doctor requires an exceptionally high degree of complex knowledge - quite literally a future patients life will rest in their hands - an there is nothing much more complex than the human body.

To ensure Medical Students are likely to be capable of completing the 5 year medical school assault course and pass the necessary exams they only take the brightest most gifted academic students. It is hard to get into medical universities for this reason - their standards are exacting. Unlike most university courses (which are 3 years) Medical Students have to go through a searching interview process to ensure they also have the essential personal qualities as well as the academic excellence to succeed as a doctor.

The ability of students that choose medicine is evidently so high that they could in reality succeed in pretty much any career - banking, the law, engineering, business/corporate management etc etc. Most are attracted to medicine because they see a vocational element - an opportunity to do good and important work - but they are far from mugs. If the Government treat them as such their will be a massive recruitment and retention problem. Jeremy Hunt is trying to treat them as mugs! How?

Currently Junior Doctors have a base starting salary of under £23000. Lets put that in context. Some of our brightest, hard working and most decent young people - study extremely hard for 5 years - incur a massive financial debt for paying for the privilege of qualifying as a doctor - now doing a job carrying huge responsibility and consequences will earn just £8000 gross  per year more than someone on minimum wage working in McDonald's with no qualifications or responsibility. This is the current situation and bad enough. Junior Doctors do typically earn more by working anti social hours and much longer hours (a contractual requirement demanded by the NHS) than a typical working week - and this has to some extent offset the ridiculously low basic salary - and only just. The Government are now proposing to dramatically curtail the ability to top up the basic salary by modifying or removing overtime payments for anti social hours and weekend work.

As a lay person I wish to make these observations.

• We need to attract and retain excellent Junior Doctors. The Government is blithely saying they are going to recruit large numbers of new doctors because we need them. It takes a minimum of 5 years to train them! There is a world shortage of properly trained doctors. British trained doctors can find jobs anywhere. Australia, USA etc etc. They will leave if not treated reasonably. The brightest students will not choose medicine unless it is seen as a career with prospects (vocation in its self will not be enough for most - and rightly so). We are already recruiting doctors from countries where English is not the first language and training might not be so good. We will have to recruit many more to compensate for the loss or our own unless the Government change their thinking. This is crazy and totally short sighted.
• The NHS is a hugely wasteful organisation. Management "suits" in on going "meetings". Scandalous PFI and purchasing. Profligate maintenance contracts. These should be the target areas for Jeremy Hunt - not Junior Doctor's pay.
• Doctors and nurses are the ones at the coal face. They are the ones who have to deal with an increasingly obnoxious public - a public brim-full of their rights - empty on responsibility (largely government's fault). It is doctors and nurses that have to patiently deal with the ignorant consequences of obesity, smoking and alcohol related violence. Doctors and nurses are actually heroes and should be treated as such.
• Just to show how skewed public thinking is there was an outcry in some quarters when the government wanted to introduce a benefits cap of £26000 (net). The Labour Party want to remove the benefits cap as unfair. Junior Doctors earn £23000 (gross). How crazy and unfair is that.
• Junior Doctors already work anti social hours and weekends. Hunt's objective to improve treatment outcomes at weekends does not lie in making Junior Doctor's have to work these hours for even less pay how ever bad the overall deficit. He is targeting the wrong people. He will demotivate them and damage their public spirited co operation.

The Government have it desperately wrong with their proposed changes to the Junior Doctor contract. They must re think their proposals. The consequences for all of us are potentially horrible and we are being very unfair in the way we are proposing to treat these excellent young people of whom we should be both proud and thankful.

#JeremyHunt to Jeremy Hunt re Junior Doctors

#JuniorDoctors

I start this blog with three statements. 1) I believe in and support our National Health Service. 2) I support the Government drive to deal with the deficit. 3) I have no connection with the NHS or the Conservative Party other than I am a citizen.

The Government have and continue to make changes to how health care is delivered. This is necessary in principle to drive out inefficiency and waste and to provide better health, treatment and care outcomes in an ever more challenging and complex environment.

One of these challenges is to try and deal with the disparity between outcomes on those treated on weekdays and weekends. It would be hard to argue with that!

So what is Jeremy Hunt and the Conservative government proposing? Answer - unfair and shockingly provocative changes to the junior doctor contract. Junior Doctors and the BMA are outraged by the proposals and are quite right to be so. Why?

To qualify as a Junior Doctor you have to attend Medical School for 5 years minimum, study incredibly hard and pass challenging exams. Of course this is necessary because being a doctor requires an exceptionally high degree of complex knowledge - quite literally a future patients life will rest in their hands - an there is nothing much more complex than the human body.

To ensure Medical Students are likely to be capable of completing the 5 year medical school assault course and pass the necessary exams they only take the brightest most gifted academic students. It is hard to get into medical universities for this reason - their standards are exacting. Unlike most university courses (which are 3 years) Medical Students have to go through a searching interview process to ensure they also have the essential personal qualities as well as the academic excellence to succeed as a doctor.

The ability of students that choose medicine is evidently so high that they could in reality succeed in pretty much any career - banking, the law, engineering, business/corporate management etc etc. Most are attracted to medicine because they see a vocational element - an opportunity to do good and important work - but they are far from mugs. If the Government treat them as such their will be a massive recruitment and retention problem. Jeremy Hunt is trying to treat them as mugs! How?

Currently Junior Doctors have a base starting salary of under £23000. Lets put that in context. Some of our brightest, hard working and most decent young people - study extremely hard for 5 years - incur a massive financial debt for paying for the privilege of qualifying as a doctor - now doing a job carrying huge responsibility and consequences will earn just £8000 gross  per year more than someone on minimum wage working in McDonald's with no qualifications or responsibility. This is the current situation and bad enough. Junior Doctors do typically earn more by working anti social hours and much longer hours (a contractual requirement demanded by the NHS) than a typical working week - and this has to some extent offset the ridiculously low basic salary - and only just. The Government are now proposing to dramatically curtail the ability to top up the basic salary by modifying or removing overtime payments for anti social hours and weekend work.

As a lay person I wish to make these observations.

• We need to attract and retain excellent Junior Doctors. The Government is blithely saying they are going to recruit large numbers of new doctors because we need them. It takes a minimum of 5 years to train them! There is a world shortage of properly trained doctors. British trained doctors can find jobs anywhere. Australia, USA etc etc. They will leave if not treated reasonably. The brightest students will not choose medicine unless it is seen as a career with prospects (vocation in its self will not be enough for most - and rightly so). We are already recruiting doctors from countries where English is not the first language and training might not be so good. We will have to recruit many more to compensate for the loss or our own unless the Government change their thinking. This is crazy and totally short sighted.
• The NHS is a hugely wasteful organisation. Management "suits" in on going "meetings". Scandalous PFI and purchasing. Profligate maintenance contracts. These should be the target areas for Jeremy Hunt - not Junior Doctor's pay.
• Doctors and nurses are the ones at the coal face. They are the ones who have to deal with an increasingly obnoxious public - a public brim-full of their rights - empty on responsibility (largely government's fault). It is doctors and nurses that have to patiently deal with the ignorant consequences of obesity, smoking and alcohol related violence. Doctors and nurses are actually heroes and should be treated as such.
• Just to show how skewed public thinking is there was an outcry in some quarters when the government wanted to introduce a benefits cap of £26000 (net). The Labour Party want to remove the benefits cap as unfair. Junior Doctors earn £23000 (gross). How crazy and unfair is that.
• Junior Doctors already work anti social hours and weekends. Hunt's objective to improve treatment outcomes at weekends does not lie in making Junior Doctor's have to work these hours for even less pay how ever bad the overall deficit. He is targeting the wrong people. He will demotivate them and damage their public spirited co operation.

The Government have it desperately wrong with their proposed changes to the Junior Doctor contract. They must re think their proposals. The consequences for all of us are potentially horrible and we are being very unfair in the way we are proposing to treat these excellent young people of whom we should be both proud and thankful.

#JuniorDoctors

I start this blog with three statements. 1) I believe in and support our National Health Service. 2) I support the Government drive to deal with the deficit. 3) I have no connection with the NHS or the Conservative Party other than I am a citizen.

The Government have and continue to make changes to how health care is delivered. This is necessary in principle to drive out inefficiency and waste and to provide better health, treatment and care outcomes in an ever more challenging and complex environment.

One of these challenges is to try and deal with the disparity between outcomes of those treated on weekdays and weekends. It would be hard to argue with that!

So what is Jeremy Hunt and the Conservative government proposing? Answer - unfair and shockingly provocative changes to the junior doctor contract. Junior Doctors and the BMA are outraged by the proposals and are quite right to be so. Why?

To qualify as a Junior Doctor you have to attend Medical School for 5 years minimum, study incredibly hard and pass challenging exams. Of course this is necessary because being a doctor requires an exceptionally high degree of complex knowledge - quite literally a future patients life will rest in their hands - an there is nothing much more complex than the human body.

To ensure Medical Students are likely to be capable of completing the 5 year medical school assault course and pass the necessary exams they only take the brightest most gifted academic students. It is hard to get into medical universities for this reason - their standards are exacting. Unlike most university courses (which are 3 years) Medical Students have to go through a searching interview process to ensure they also have the essential personal qualities as well as the academic excellence to succeed as a doctor.

The ability of students that choose medicine is evidently so high that they could in reality succeed in pretty much any career - banking, the law, engineering, business/corporate management etc etc. Most are attracted to medicine because they see a vocational element - an opportunity to do good and important work - but they are far from mugs. If the Government treat them as such there will be a massive recruitment and retention problem. Jeremy Hunt is trying to treat them as mugs! How?

Currently Junior Doctors have a base starting salary of under £23000. Lets put that in context. Some of our brightest, hard working and most decent young people - study extremely hard for 5 years - incur a massive financial debt for paying for the privilege of qualifying as a doctor - now doing a job carrying huge responsibility and consequences will earn just £8000 gross  per year more than someone on minimum wage working in McDonald's with no qualifications or responsibility. This is the current situation and bad enough. Junior Doctors do typically earn more by working anti social hours and much longer hours (a contractual requirement demanded by the NHS) than a typical working week - and this has to some extent offset the ridiculously low basic salary - and only just. The Government are now proposing to dramatically curtail the ability to top up the basic salary by modifying or removing overtime payments for anti social hours and weekend work.

As a lay person I wish to make these observations.

• We need to attract and retain excellent Junior Doctors. The Government is blithely saying they are going to recruit large numbers of new doctors because we need them. It takes a minimum of 5 years to train them! There is a world shortage of properly trained doctors. British trained doctors can find jobs anywhere. Australia, USA etc etc. They will leave if not treated reasonably. The brightest students will not choose medicine unless it is seen as a career with prospects (vocation in its self will not be enough for most - and rightly so). We are already recruiting doctors from countries where English is not the first language and training might not be so good. We will have to recruit many more to compensate for the loss or our own unless the Government change their thinking. This is crazy and totally short sighted.
• The NHS is a hugely wasteful organisation. Management "suits" in on going "meetings". Scandalous PFI and purchasing. Profligate maintenance contracts. These should be the target areas for Jeremy Hunt - not Junior Doctor's pay.
• Doctors and nurses are the ones at the coal face. They are the ones who have to deal with an increasingly obnoxious public - a public brim-full of their rights - empty on responsibility (largely government's fault). It is doctors and nurses that have to patiently deal with the ignorant consequences of obesity, smoking and alcohol related violence. Doctors and nurses are actually heroes and should be treated as such.
• Just to show how skewed public thinking is there was an outcry in some quarters when the government wanted to introduce a benefits cap of £26000 (net). The Labour Party want to remove the benefits cap as unfair. Junior Doctors earn £23000 (gross). How crazy and unfair is that.
• Junior Doctors already work anti social hours and weekends. Hunt's objective to improve treatment outcomes at weekends does not lie in making Junior Doctor's have to work these hours for even less pay how ever bad the overall deficit. He is targeting the wrong people. He will demotivate them and damage their public spirited co operation.

The Government have it desperately wrong with their proposed changes to the Junior Doctor contract. They must rethink their proposals. The consequences for all of us are potentially horrible and we are being very unfair in the way we are proposing to treat these excellent young people of whom we should be both proud and thankful.

#RugbyWorldCup

We are out. England have not made the quarter finals. All those dreams have gone. All the anticipation pre tournament has been spent. The tournament is barely half through and the host nation, one of the tournament favourites and my country have been beaten twice in a very tough group. You have to smile. It is what makes sport a great thing to follow - an emotional roller coaster. Shame it did not last a bit longer.

So what of England. Well they gave 100%. They tried their hardest. Everyone involved carried themselves well and they and we should be proud. The three matches, Fiji, Wales and Australia were all tense games - real competition in the best sense.

But what went wrong? England are probably the best resourced team in the world. We have a massive population to draw on and few countries if any have as many rugby players. Our team is made up of players as big, as fast and as fit as any of the others. Our planning has been meticulous. The sports science behind the team - cutting edge.

My theory! All those assets are also liabilities.

Too many players to choose from - no one is secure - everyone knows one blip and they are on the bench. Does this constitute a positive pressure  - doubtful - is it an inhibitor - probably. Does it give time for players to really bond - to build implicit trust - to give to the team selflessly.

Resources and planning and preparation - no stone unturned. A specialist coach for every aspect of the game. Maybe it is a case of disect a cat - you no longer have a cat!

I think England were perhaps too professionally prepared. Too much to think about perhaps. When any team in any sport are playing well - in the zone - it flows. Spontaneity and second sense are what is often needed to break through rather than just a well rehearsed game plan which is ultimately compartmentalised and inflexible. It is hard to create a "club" mentality in such a large expectant international team set up.

A couple of other things. Of course all England players are proud to wear the red rose and sing the National Anthem. They are playing for their country. But on a wider point the English for some reason seem to fail to feel that intense sense of patriotism that say the other home nations or just about any other country seem to display. Englishness is low key - even confused. The English players may sing the National Anthem (we need one of our own!!) but not with the intensity of other countries players. When margins are tight this extra patriotic dimension rather than just winning might be a factor.

The other point - Stewart Lancaster - the England boss. I like him and wish him to stay on in his role - but only marginally. When you look at say Gatland, Cotter, Cheika or several other International Head Coaches they have something of the Pit Bull about them - a sort of controlled aggression but on the edge. Lancaster does not seem like that. Does he have to be?

So England are out but their matches were great emotional entertainment. Up until now I offered little cheering support, if any, for the other home nations. Now I am with them - particularly the Welsh and even the Scots. The Welsh can go on and do really well - but subject to their injury list. The Welsh are rugby to their core. It is in their DNA. It is a working class game. They will be going crazy in their working men's clubs especially as they beat us English. (would it be churlish to mention they have New Zealand manager and his assistant is English - ha!