My reaction when checking today’s “News” …

 

Take your pick to indulge in a bit of outrage: “Strep A Death of Six Children” or ‘Matt Hancock’s Diaries’ –  these are the ‘problems’ facing the nation, according to the headlines in this morning’s dead tree MSM (link). Only The Star is out of step, warning of a Christmas ‘without chipolatas’. It’s all so very cosy, isn’t it, now that “we” have had our fill of ‘Racism at the Court’ and before England playing at yon footie thingie tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the nurses will strike on the 15th and 20th of this month. It’s interesting to note that, so far, the MSM aren’t yet demanding that Sunak ‘do something’, now, while Starmer used his platform at Wednesday’s PMQs to attack the pernicious influence of Public Schools.

I wonder why that is! Are our Westminster opinion makers, the ‘sources’ and ‘experts’, are the peacocks in the HoC afraid to tackle the NHS bosses? There’s a piece leading The Times online this morning, warning that Nurses’ strikes will hit cancer wards and A &E departments (this and all following emphases are mine):

“The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said emergency departments, maternity care and cancer wards would not be excluded from its strike action on December 15 and 20. Only five areas of care will be protected: chemotherapy, critical care, kidney dialysis, paediatric intensive care and neonatal services. The action could leave A&Es potentially unable to treat patients with problems not deemed immediately life-threatening. Pregnant women face disruption and cancer patients are in the dark about whether radiotherapy and surgery will go ahead on strike days” (link, paywalled)

Cynical old me wonders if this means A & Es won’t be cluttered by all and sundry, by those who can’t see their GPs or who are told by the telephone ‘triage nurses’ to go to A & E. In any case, it’ll only be us plebs who’ll be affected, either by having our healthcare disrupted even further or by having to pay even more in taxes to give the 19% pay rise to yon ‘angels in blue’. Better not ask if this would lead to further wage demands, driving inflation ever higher.

Meanwhile, we’re in for more ‘lecturing’ about health and culture. There’s a museum run by Wellcome, one of the pharmaceutical giants whose now retired director, a certain Sir Jeremy Farrar, was heavily implicated in suppressing scientific papers debating the origin of covid, and who loved Lockdown. The founder of this company, Mr Henry Wellcome, was an avid collector of medical ‘curiosities’ and books. In 2007, Wellcome opened a museum to show his collection. Now they’re closing it because it was (my emphasis):

“perpetuating “a version of medical history that is based on racist, sexist and ableist theories and language”. (link, paywalled)

Note the next item on the woke list of which we must be ashamed: ‘Ableist’! Isn’t it thoroughly ‘ableist’ though when people want to be healthy? Isn’t the whole medical profession shamefully ‘ableist’? But rest assured, this collection will be opened to the public again, after they’ve rearranged it a bit. The director of that collection, Sir Jeremy Farrar, and the chair, Julia Gillard, defended closing the collection, writing:

“When ‘Medicine Man’ opened in 2007, we chose to focus on the collector. This was also a choice not to focus on the people, often marginalised and excluded, who made and used the objects collected. We no longer consider this the right choice.” They added that “Henry Wellcome’s vision, of advancing health through science and culture, remains central to Wellcome’s work. It means exploring broader experiences of health than those in Medicine Man. We continue to do this through objects from our founders’ collection, set in their full human context.” (link, paywalled)

Yay! Let’s focus on the ‘marginalised and excluded’! Looking at the elderly would be a good start, but I’m not holding my breath. I’m no longer astonished that the ‘elite’, those who run educational establishments, health services and the ‘information industries’ from their great, woke height, believe that we, the paying but unwashed public are too stupid to evaluate museum pieces on our own. It’s as if this ‘elite’ doesn’t trust their educational establishments and MSM to brainwash us correctly. Thinking for ourselves has become the greatest crime.

People used to be able to think for themselves and superiors not only trusted them to do so but demanded it. This is demonstrated in exemplary fashion in the memo by Horatio Nelson at the eve of Trafalgar. One of the copies of this memo is being auctioned in a New York auction house. The Times quotes from that memo:

“Horatio Nelson’s reputation as a brilliant naval strategist is laid out in a handwritten document in which he told his fleet how they would overcome their enemy. “Something must be left to chance,” he told the captains who would follow him at the Battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. “Nothing is sure in a sea fight beyond all others. Shot will carry away the masts and yards of friends as well as foes; but I look with confidence to a victory …” (link, paywalled)

This is about his plan to sail through the French and Spanish lines, splitting them. Those of us who had a good historical education know what happened next. What intrigued me very much was the interpretation of Ian Ehling, valuer at Bonhams, who explained that:

“ […] Nelson spelt out his radical approach in a clear battle plan. “This is one of the most important documents in naval history, and the purest expression of the ‘Nelson Touch’, […] It shows Nelson’s brilliance and, in particular, his notion of spontaneity in battle. He is giving his captains the freedom to act freely and decisively in response to the changing circumstances of the battle. That was an outstanding tactic, never seen before, which has been used ever since.” (link, paywalled)

Well, it might still be used ‘ever since’ in certain remnants of our Armed Forces but I have my doubts if this approach, of permitting officers of lower ranks to act freely, is going to remain when the educational system is no longer teaching people how to think for themselves.

I leave you with the latest ‘scientific news’. According to a report in the DM, there’s no such thing as ‘man flu’. Wimmin suffer as much as men but are shaking it off more quickly (link). I’m sure this piece of scientific literature will find a prominent place in the rearranged Wellcome Collection! Don’t ask if that doesn’t make wimmin ‘ableist’!

I wonder why I am suddenly reminded of yon old fillum by the Two Ronnies, “The Worm That Turned”. Since it’s Saturday, you might like to watch it – here! – instead of the stuff presented on telly. Have good Advent weekend!