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Come on Eileen
I’m starting to get a wee bit hacked off.
While I am very happy for my 70+ friends as the white vaccination envelopes come through the letter box (even if some of the locations display a lack of joined up thinking) I am increasingly annoyed that my 80+ vulnerable wife has heard nothing at all from the NHS.
I do not deal in assurances, or even promises. Only delivery matters.
The grownups are back
Home truth
I have a confession. I have been watching #SHOTY, (How did we exist in the pre-hashtag pre-history?) Scotland’s Home of the Year.
However, I’ve tended to watch it with the sound turned down. There have been some spectacular properties on show, and some ‘are they serious?’ entries too. The show is fine in concept, but for me it falls flat because of the judges. (One in particular gets on my tits. I’m not saying who, but there may be a clue in there.)
Each is offered as an expert in the home-making field, but ultimately what they wind up judging is other people’s taste. Why pick a winner? Why not let each home speak for itself? Or better still, why not allow the viewers to make the choice, with a weekly phone-in vote?
Patience, patient?
Nicola Sturgeon, ‘Nippy’ to her opponents, hasn’t got too much wrong over the last ten months. The pandemic has been prudently managed in Scotland.
That said, I have reservations about the way the vaccine programme is being rolled out. We’ve all had a leaflet, at significant cost, that’s a bit of a chocolate fireguard. Its core message is ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you.’ Not unnaturally, most of us want to know when that will happen. We’re not being told; worse, we’re being told not to ask.
I know two people, both in their eighties, one in England, one in Scotland. The former will be vaccinated this week, the latter has been told that there are many people ahead of him in the queue.
The information gap is frustrating, and it contrasts with the English situation. Implementation north of the border has been handed, we are told, to individual health boards. To me, that builds in potential inequalities across the country, a postcode lottery, to resort to a phrase I dislike. I would prefer to see an individual tasked with personal responsibility for delivery. The Health Secretary might argue that it’s her. If it is, she should be front and centre giving much more specific information.
My wife is in group one. I have been told that she’ll be contacted by our medical practice, but nobody is quite sure how. It’s most likely, it seems, to be a letter. That begs a question. How are GPs equipped to issue dozens, maybe hundreds of letters to their elderly patients? And another. In the case of the most vulnerable, who might still be living alone but in need of support, what means are in place to ensure these letters are understood?
Lots of questions but no apparent will to answer them. Come on Nippy, step up.
Selling her book already
Like all of you, I have reflected on the past year and how the invisible enemy, Covid-19, swept across our beautiful country. All Nations have experienced
— Read on www.whitehouse.gov/articles/first-lady-melania-trump-path-forward/
Level up the playing field?
I am indebted to my friend John for pointing out something that should have been obvious to me … or maybe I simply ignored it.
At my suggestion he has started watching Aussie Big Bash cricket on BT Sport. Last time we spoke he had a rant about the amount of advertising that’s jammed into the coverage, and he’s right. They seem to slot an add in after each over, two when a wicket falls, and as many as they can during other breaks. This has an impact on the coverage, as BT is taking the Australian output, but cutting off the expert commentators in mid sentence. There must be close on 100 commercials in a single match broadcast.
That’s further evidence to me of the mendacity of BT. We all have to live with that, but there is one way in which it and Sky might be opened up to really serious competition. What if the BBC was allowed to enter the subscription TV market, in a way that didn’t compete with its core entertainment services, concentrating on sport and premium cinema services? With its customer base, which still dwarfs the satellite operators, it could afford to outbid any competitor. As a bonus, the profit this would generate could go towards reducing or even eliminating the Broadcasting Tax.
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