Councillor Bob Piper

As those of you who drift along here occasionally to catch up with my ramblings will undoubtably have realised, I haven't really had a great deal of enthusiasm for blogging over the last year or so.

So, in the immortal words of Jim Morrison, this is the end, my friend. This week the blog is 9 years old, and whilst I enjoyed it once, then it became a toil, these days I have just become bored with it.

Thank you to all of you who have commented over the last nine years, even those that were downright friggin' rude. Things will probably remain here until the people who host the site realise I am no longer paying them, but from me… Goodbye!

A splendid piece from The Guardian about lazy journalism and raging hypocrisy.

To see the Mail gasping at Mantel's suggestion that the duchess is “designed to breed” when it has been on “bump watch” since she walked down the aisle is the Fleet Street reenactment of Captain Renault in Casablanca proclaiming himself to be “shocked to find gambling is going on here” while collecting his winnings. It then added helpfully that Mantel is “infertile” and “dreams of being thin”. Yeah, no wonder she's jealous of our Kate, the fat childless cow.

Roy Lilley in brilliant form on the Francis Report:

Well, I've done it. With a bucket of builder's and a box of Hobnobs, I've ploughed through the Francis Inquiry Report.

I'm not sure I'm going to be too popular for saying this but I'm underwhelmed. True, it is a huge document, forensically written but as an epitaph to the dead and a tribute to the relatives it falls short. Hundreds have died and no one is to blame. Collective responsibility brings a welter of apologies but no real regret, no remorse and no repentance. Francis points a finger but makes no direct allegations. Francis admonishes without naming names.

Hours before the Francis report was published Number 10 had decided that its 290 recommendations were not enough. One more was needed. The Prime Minister announced he alone had the solution; an Inspector of Hospitals. If that is the solution I suspect Francis would have said so. Why didn't he? Because he knows what we know; it is bureaucracy that got us into this mess. More bureaucracy is the last thing we need. Daft idea but the lad has to look busy so he's had his two-penny-worth.

That's the trouble; everyone will want to have their two-penny-worth. Two hundred and ninety one recommendations will become 291 headings, 500 sub-sets, 1,500 reports and three thousand complications, report-backs, work-groups, committees and a shed-load of costs.

Francis backs away from holding individuals to account. I wonder what would have happened if David Nicholson, boss of the SHA, happened to be working for Sir David Nicholson the boss of the NHS. Would Sir David have given David the sack? Leaders get the organisations they deserve. I listened to Niall Dickson, boss of the GMC, delivering a shambling performance on the BBC's Today programme. Dickson was one of the BBC's finest journalists. I wonder if Dickson the journalist would have let Dickson the bureaucrat off the hook so lightly.

When it comes to structures, Francis abandons his lawyer's forensic for establishment fog. Monitor is to pass most of their powers to the overburdened, drowning CQC. What happens to Monitor? What happens to the market, to regulation? Answers are there none.

The NHS will now infect itself with post-Francis-itis. Expect conferences, seminars, study groups, papers, reports and mind-numbing PowerPoint presentations picking out bits and pieces to suit the organisation and the event and the presenter. That is the problem with Francis. There is something for everyone; it is intricate, detailed and will be twisted, obfuscated and messed about-with. I suspect Francis will generate a multi-million pound industry.

The Francis conundrum is easy; corporate priorities were given precedence over organisational purpose. Answer; give organisational purpose precedence over corporate priorities. I am not sure 291 recommendations really tell us how. Cash will always trump care.

Francis talks about 'culture change'. Effectively making the people we have make the services we've got, work better. On that basis Francis fails. What we've got doesn't work. Never will. Think about it; nearly all the quality problems the NHS faces are around the care of the frail elderly. Why? Because the NHS was never set up to deal with the numbers of porcelain-boned, tissue paper skinned elderly it is trying to cope with. The NHS' customer-base has changed but the organisations serving them have have stood still.

Will Francis 'work'? I have no idea but if I was forced to bet the farm; I'd say no. Francis is complicated when the NHS needs simple. Francis is a jungle and the NHS has a reputation for hiding in the undergrowth.

The massive Francis report will be the NHS' F-word for quite a while. What is missing from his report are a few more 'F' words;

“Fund the front-line fully, protect it fiercely, make it fun to work there, that way you'll make Francis history.”

Have good weekend.

I suppose it is a little insensitive to refer to medics slang in the week that Robert Francis's report into the ghastly lack of basic human care and dignity at Mid-Staffs hospital is published, but in my defence I'm referring to slang used in that beacon of medical practice, the United States, and anyway, not in a medical context.

For those who don't know, medical slang is the sort of notes clinicians put on patient records to pass on information about colleagues or awkward patients. So, should you see WOMBAT (Waste of money, brains and time), TTFO (told to f*** off) or GPO (Good for parts only) on a medical file left lying around, you'll know what it means. My personal favourite is JAFFA – just another fat f****** administrator.

This slang came to mind not because of Mid-Staffs, but because of a quote from Jon Cruddas in this article on LabourList

“The quiet revolution within the party led by Iain McNicol and Arnie Graf is perhaps the most encouraging of all the Labour stories. In that it is developing local leadership and local campaigns. It is confronting centralism and bureaucracy; remote authority and alienation within the actual Party itself.”

It made me think again about the problems we are experiencing here in our little corner of the West Midlands. Our Constituency Labour Party was placed in special measures by some nameless person for some unspecified reason about three years ago. No-one from Jon Cruddas' 'remote authority' ever had the courtesy to explain to branches why they were in special measures, what it meant for them, and what they could possibly do to get out of them. The first branches knew about it was when applicants to join Labour's campaign against an uncaring coalition received a letter from said centralist bureaucracy explaining that they couldn't join the Party because the CLP was in 'special measures' – although they weren't offered an explanation either.

Over the last two years our branch – an active and lively bunch – has recruited just four new members. Two transferred from other CLPs, one who worked for the Labour Party, and another chap who somehow crawled under the barbed wire, and was therefore regarded by everyone with suspicion as a double agent of some kind.

We have raised our concerns everywhere we can. Our MP John Spellar tells us he thinks it is mad. Our CLP officers, the Leader of the local Council, the Regional Secretary, two NEC members I contacted, and Tom Watson who is forever writing to us to remind us of the need for recruitment to the struggle, all say it is madness and nothing to do with them. Meanwhile, applicants continue to give up on their attempts to join in frustration. One, a local community activist who has lived in the Ward for years, and went to school with the CLP Secretary, has been told after 14 months of trying to join, that he cannot confirm his identity (he's pictured in the newspapers twice a week) and anyway, he's not on the electoral register!!!

Whew I'm glad Jon Cruddas thinks that centralism, bureaucracy and remote authority are on the run, that's very reassuring.

*FODE – Fell on deaf ears

If David Nicholson is offered up as the sacrificial lamb to the Tory press when the Francis report is published tomorrow, who will David Cameron and his Sooty puppy Jeremy Hunt choose to be the next Chief Executive of the NHS?

I bet you can't get a bookie to give you a price on Mr Mark Britnell, the head of KPMG's Global Health sector who once said:

“In future, the NHS will be a state insurance provider not a state deliverer.

“The NHS will be shown no mercy and the best time to take advantage of this will be in the next couple of years.”

Not that David Cameron has the faintest idea who he is, of course.

I suppose I'm not best qualified to talk about the 'sanctity of marriage'. I have no religion whatsoever, (although some of my best Christians are friends) and I was raised in a family where religion played no part in a happy family life. When I married my first 'wife' back in the 1970's it was more for a tax refund than any concept of holy matrimony (in those days if you got married in September you received a tax refund because you were given a married man's tax allowance). No church, choirs, flowers and bridesmaids, just a couple of witnesses – one of whom I'd never seen before, nor since.

So, whilst I find it difficult to get my head around this whole marriage bit, I do support the struggle for those who wish to see same sex marriage. It isn't about being particularly in favour of marriage, it's about opposing discrimination. I just don't see why religions, especially one that is the state established church, should be allowed to opt out of discrimination legislation, whether that be employment legislation that enables them to include religious requirements for caretaker posts, preventing women becoming priests, or maintaining medieval attitudes towards homosexuality. It becomes even more ridiculous when you consider that churches are being allowed to opt out, and don't have to give their 'blessings' to any couples if they don't want to. They will be able to stick to their ancient rites and rituals enabling them to discriminate quite freely against whoever they so wish.

I suspect in a couple of decades this whole debate will be regarded as quite incredible. The views of the bigots will be seen as ancient, outdated and ridiculous, in the same way we regard those US Bible Belt churches refusing to give their God's blessing to interracial weddings.

NHS Cuts and closures via Allyson Pollock and David Price

In North West London the government plans to cut 25% of beds, and throughout London at least 7 accident and emergency departments will close with further departments under threat.

Up to 5600 jobs in North West London will be lost by 2015.

Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust is cutting 208 posts.

In Merseyside, 4000 NHS jobs will go by 2014

In South Yorkshire, Rotherham Hospital is set to lose 750 staff by 2015

In West Suffolk, Serco is planning to cut 137 Community Healthcare jobs.

In Devon and Exeter, the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust plans to cut 1115 full-time equivalent posts between 2011 and 2014.

In Greater Manchester, there are plans to downgrade Trafford General Hospital’s A&E to urgent care and cuts to intensive care, acute surgery and children’s services. Maternity services have already closed.

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust plans to cut 750 full-time posts by 2013.

Bolton NHS trust is making 500 redundancies.

In Warwickshire, the George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust plans to cut the equivalent of 257 full-time staff between 2010 and 2014.

In Cornwall, Royal Hospital Truro proposed to cut 400 jobs in 2011.

In Portsmouth, Queen Alexandra Hospital cut 700 jobs and shut 3 wards in 2011.

Across England, twenty four out of thirty NHS Direct call centres will close.

6000 nursing posts have been cut since the coalition came to power in 2010.

From The Telegraph:

The leaders of Britain’s biggest multi-national companies have warned David Cameron to abandon plans that will force firms to disclose their tax affairs, warning that the move threatens to undermine the economic recovery.

Conservative-controlled Westminster Council is considering proposals to cut the benefits of claimants who are obese and fail to carry out a programme of exercise.

The Leader of the Council says these are “exactly the sort of bright, forward-thinking and radical ideas that need to be looked at.”

Not too far down the road from Westminster Council there is a chap responsible for local government policies, who is in regular receipt of state handouts, who may be equally incentivised by this bright, forward-thinking radical idea…

Just when we thought Bradley Wiggins had been crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the Liberal Democrats have stepped in. Apparently, as Brad didn't get more than 50% of the votes cast, after careful analysis and a transfer of votes from the losing candidates…Ellie Simmonds is the new Sports Personality of the Year for 2012!