The Austerity-Obsessed Tory Government Failure To Properly Fund The NHS

A Bizarre Row Between The Health Secretary And A Scientist.

The most bizarre row of the summer has been between Jeremy Hunt and Stephen Hawking over the NHS, with the Health Secretary accusing the professor of peddling a “pernicious falsehood” for saying the Tory cherry-picks his statistical data.

It’s so hard to guess which one has got the maths right.
Is it the esteemed quantum physicist who is widely hailed as one of the most brilliant scientists Britain has ever produced?

Or the gormless-looking, privatising stooge, who was once described to me by a well-known writer who met him while Culture Secretary as: “Without doubt, the thickest man in a suit that I’ve ever had a conservation with. There is nothing going on behind the eyes. It’s like trying to get through to a mollusc in a coma.”
Tough call.
( Brian Reade, 02.09.2017 )

Inequality In Money Spent On Children’s Mental Health.

A postcard lottery in children’s mental health means the NHS spends £136 per head in top areas and £10 in the worst.
Staff have branded the inequality “unjustifiable” amid fears cash allocated for such child and adolescent services is not reaching the front line.

Theresa May had promised “record levels” spent on mental health services.
Royal College of Psychiatrists data, in the Health Service Journal, shows Tameside and Glossop had the lowest spending per head at £9.69 per child to the age of 17, while South Tyneside spent £136.32.
( Martin Bagot, 23.09.2017 )

Go Vegan And Nobody Gets Hurt.

The vegan movement supports both non-human and human animals and helps them to live better lives.
The term vegan refers to those who choose not to support the humiliation, exploitation, torture and killing of innocent animals.

One doesn’t eat leather, or ingest duck down or consume wool.
You can’t munch on a circus or chow down on a zoo.
It’s also notoriously difficult to scoff a horse race.
Sadly, animal abuse doesn’t end with eating them.

As for those who say they won’t go vegan because they don’t want to eat processed foods, my jaw drops every time I hear that one.
Do they have no idea how much processing meat, milk and egg products go through before they reach the supermarket shelves?

Some seem to imagine that a burger made from plants is ‘unnatural’ where as one made from a cow’s butt couldn’t be more pure.
What utter nonsense.

They seem to dismiss the antibiotics that are pumped into animals reared for meat, the hormones that rage inside two thirds of dairy cows at any one time (because they’re pregnant) and therefore make it into the milk humans consume, the colouring that is added to salmon to make it look pink, the water injected into chickens to make them heavier (as they’re sold by weight), and don’t even get me started on bacon.

Health and veganism are connected, in that having a whole foods, plant based diet (along with regular exercise and mindfulness) is your best chance of leading a long and healthy life. However, veganism is an ethical choice and non-human animals must be at the centre of it. Go vegan and nobody gets hurt.
( Tofu Temptress, 18.09.2017 )

Tory Government Failure To Properly Fund The NHS.

More than 250,000 patients waited at least 12 hours in A&E last year (2017), up 72,000 in 12 months.
The grim data sparked a fresh demand for more funding just two weeks after 60,000 “save the NHS” protestors marched on No10 Downing Street.

Unite national officer for health Sarah Carpenter said: “These figures are truly dire and are a searing indictment of the austerity-obsessed Tory failure to properly fund the NHS since 2010. Patients are waiting for hours on trollies or in ambulances with anxious families in despair”

And she warned dedicated paramedics were at “breaking point”.
A total of 257,028 patients waited 12 hours or more in hospitals from 2016 to 2017, NHS Digital statistics show. That is 39% up on the 185,000 in 2015-2016.
( Alan Selby and Martyn Halle, 18.02.2018 )

Painkillers Taken During Pregnancy May Harm Fertility Of The Unborn Child.

Mothers-to-be who take painkillers during pregnancy could harm the fertility of their unborn child, a study finds.
Paracetamol and ibuprofen reduce the number of cells which later become eggs or sperm in babies, according to research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Painkillers may also affect the fertility of future generations by triggering changes in the structure of DNA which can be inherited, it adds.
Tissue samples of ovaries exposed to paracetamol for one week had more than 40% fewer egg-producing cells, the research found, and after ibuprofen exposure the number of cells was almost halved.

As girls produce all their eggs in the womb, those born with a reduced number of cells could experience an early menopause.
Testicular tissues exposed to paracetamol or ibuprofen in a culture dish had around a quarter fewer sperm-producing cells.
( Sally Wardle, 16.04.2018 )

Shockingly High Sugar Content.

After presenting BBC1’s The Truth About Sugar a couple of years ago, one of the findings that stuck with me was that some bags of Haribos contained up to 39 teaspoons of sugar, yes, that’s right, THIRTY-NINE teaspoons.

I notice its latest ad campaign promoting a 30% sugar reduction claims “less sugar, same great taste”.
Basically, not so much sugar, but still 26 teaspoons of the sweet stuff per bag.
That’s TWENTY teaspoons more than the recommended maximum daily allowance.
( Fiona Phillips, 28.04.2018 )