Moan & Groan
The Pathway to Death
To say I’m concerned about a disquieting report recently published in a daily tabloid newspaper would be an understatement. The report highlights an allegation that patients in the NHS and Nursing Homes are being killed off, let me quote.
“Under the so-called ‘The Liverpool Care Path-way’ which is used across the NHS, and in many nursing homes, doctors can withdraw assistance from the terminally ill and sedate them continuously until death.” unquote. One of the ways of doing this is to inject them with morphine, until the patient becomes semi-conscious and gives up the will to live.
I am not talking about euthanasia, where a loved one’s suffering or dependability has become so unbearable that the sufferer has requested assistance in ending their life. Here it may be right that patient, if able, and members within the family circle make a conscious decision to give support to the idea.
What alarms me is that some doctors are taking it upon themselves to decide ‘if or not’ someone will die or live! A national audit found that 28 percent of relatives were not informed that a love one had been entered into the ‘dying phase’ and it is thought that 20,000 patients are killed off this way each year in the UK.
It is in such a Machiavellian way that around 20,000 sick and terminally ill, in the UK have their lives taken from them each year.
When you realize that about 2,800 loved ones a year are kept ignorant of the fact that a family member has had their life deliberately terminated by a doctor, then there is something radically immoral within the system. This may in itself be illegal. It certainly beggars belief!
In order to ‘dumb them down’ patients are given sedatives that they do not need, and fluids deliberately withdrawn to hasten death.
How can the so called experts within the ‘caring system’ take it upon themselves, in a seditious way, to bring about the death of a loved one without their consent or knowledge of the family involved.
I always accepted as true, that Doctors within our National Health System had taken an Oath to prolong life where possible, so why is it that they are now following the so-called ‘Liverpool Care Path-way’ and placing the very vulnerable into ‘The Dying Phase’ for 33 hours without even informing those that really need to know, the family.
It dumbfounds me that a fellow human has the impudence to consider him or herself above that of the Supreme Being.
It is my belief, when death is unavoidable, and with the full consent of family members, that only then should consideration be given to the withdrawal of treatment.
What makes it worse is that the ‘National Care of the Dying’ audit found that a quarter of hospital doctors are not properly trained to deal with the dying, and yet have to deal with it.
Successive ‘Governments’ have got rid of respite care and geriatric wards, so that hospitals are left with a bed crisis. I wonder, if there are instances where the shortage of beds out ways the importance of life.
When it is thought that a patient has genuinely entered into ‘The Dying Phase’ then communication between the patient, doctors, and family has to be a priority.
Having become elderly myself I hope none of these practices are carried out at The Princess Royal in Telford, or the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital! I don’t want to be ‘snuffed out’ before my time, it would be nice to be afforded the courtesy which would allow me to say goodbye to those I love.
One does not want to be sceptical!
The Codger
Hi! My name Sing Ding Ping.
Many year ago I bling wok dis country and learn make gleasey cheap chips. I live Oakengates Telford, and work wery hard wiv wok and pay many triad taxes as takeaway man.
Now no happy Chinaman!
Weason I now no happy is yesterday my day off, so I go Wose and Clown, Ketley Bank for beer. On door it say no smoke on plemises, so finking boss man want me bling smoke in I light cigarette and go to bar.
Boss man he go wery wed in face and say police come. I fink he say please come, so I say ‘Where you want me come?’
He now say Mr Brown and Blitish Govment stop smoking in pubic places
I say Brown unlucky colour in China
He then tell me ‘Go!’
So I say ‘You wery wude man!’
He then fro me out on stweet.
On stweet I stamp on cigarette to put it out. Then man grab me and say he from Reekin Council and say I must pay £60 for putting fag out on stweet.
Now I no fink white!
Boss man from plub laugh and fink it funny. I tell boss man he must be Blitish Govment agent who not want people grow old.
He ask why I fink that.
I say in China all Chinaman smoke and live many year past 100 but China Govment pay no pension. Blitish Govment pay pension so ban smoking so people die before get old so Blitish Govment save money.
I still no happy Chinaman so may up chopsticks take wok and leave Telford Shropshire
Sing Ding Ping
Hypocrisy of immigration policy
The hypocrisy of the Prime Minister’s announcement that the government intends to clamp down on immigration is breathtaking.
His party promoted unchecked immigration. Anyone who questioned that policy was silenced by being branded a racist, but now, while every other aspect of our lives is governed by strict and stifling regulations, foreign workers are exploited and worked like slaves.
Meantime, unemployment and the benefits bill for our own citizens climbs exponentially, but this is only legal immigration I speak of. No-one actually knows how many have arrived in the past 12 years and overstayed their visas.
Without the immigration authorities rampaging around like the SS, it would be impossible to find them and enforce repatriation, and the costs would be crippling. It would be better for all if there were an amnesty, but there won’t be because if there were, the scale of it would bury Labour forever.
Robert Jenkins
Stirchley
Telford
Shropshire
Is it entirely superfluous to suggest that, instead of spending thousands of pounds on initiatives to prevent youths gathering on street corners,
we invest a few pounds in youth clubs?
Instead of closing them or not refurbishing them, it might be a good idea to build the odd new one.
Of course by the time it (this suggestion) has gone through all the various bureaucracy it will not serve the people it was intended for as today’s
youth will be working.
Andy Chetwood
Telford
Shropshire
Village pub for sale
A pub in the heart of a Shropshire village has been put up for sale, sparking fears that the new owner may not keep it as an inn.
There are four pubs in Pontesbury should the Red Lion be sold, councillors are worried it could be turned into something else.
Since the smoking ban pub after pub has had to close in Shropshire and throughout the country!
The Codger
British service men and women back in the country from active service in Iraq and Afghanistan are to be given free entry to matches at Shrewsbury Town Football Club.
It is about time British service men and women were given a few ‘perks’ they are grossly underpaid, and still nowhere near as well equipped as the Americans although they are expected to carry out the same task.
I for one would like to thank all at New Meadow for showing the initiative that other large businesses and clubs could also adopt.
I understand that service men and women are allocated some free travel in order that they may visit their loved ones. However these travel warrants are limited.
Would it not be nice if on return from a war zone such as Afghanistan, our men and women are given as much free travel between base and home as necessary before being posted back into battle again?
The politicians who send our men and women into such conflicts enjoy free travel between home and parliament. Is it too much to ask that the men and women who are willing to lay their lives down for the country receive the same?
Well done to Shrewsbury Town Football Club and Jon Harris for leading the way!
The Codger
You Can’t Bring Me Flowers Any More
Three days ago the Mother of my daughter’s boyfriend had to be rushed to the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford Shropshire with a suspected heart attack. Two days later her son went to visit her taking along a bunch of flowers thinking it would cheer her up.
It came as a bit of a bombshell when he learnt that patients are no longer allowed to receive flowers because of hospital health rules.
Today, during an interview on BBC Channel 1, a female union spokesperson representing nurses said “most hospitals now ban flowers on the wards, simply because of the battle against germs, and MSRA in particular”
However research in the British Medical Journal says the risks have been overplayed, nor is there any record of infection in hospitals being traced to bacteria in flower water.
I fully understand that nursing staff may be over worked, and changing water in vases is time consuming. Having personally received treatment in the Princess Royal Hospital I have nothing but praise for the nurses and the care I received. However! It may be thought that the comfort and wishes of the unwell would be worth the extra effort.
It seems the days when the scent of fresh flowers on our wards could well be a thing of the past, given time no doubt books, and even visitors will be banned also on the same grounds.
Should not the powers that be rethink the whole matter?
The Codger
Feeling flattened by theft
On November 14 I bought an ironing board from Asda at Donnington Wood. It was the first item to go through the check-out and I propped it against the counter while I attended to my other shopping.
It was not until late afternoon I realised I had left it at the store. It had been my husband’s funeral the previous day so I was not thinking clearly.
A very uninterested member of staff on the customer service desk told me nothing had been entered in the returns book and Asda could not be held responsible.
I returned to the store the next day and spoke to the duty manager who was a bit more understanding but her reply was “there are a lot of dishonest people around”.
I hope the person who stole my ironing board sleeps well at night but dishonest people have no conscience so have no problem sleeping.
Mrs Maureen Reynolds
Wrockwardine Wood
Telford
Sorry to hear about your loss Maureen, and about the lack of understanding from the staff at Asda. If everyone were treated as being dishonest then Asda would be customer-less. However it appears the large Superstores seem to be very much alike see above posting by KayBee Tesco (Wrekin Retail Park Telford) Perhaps a good reason to shop at your local family rum business when possible
Best Regards
The Codger
I have just watched Julie Walters play the part of Mo Mowland, it was all very sad but Julie Walters did Mo credit
Thank you Julie
TESCO WREKIN RETAIL PARK TELFORD
On 27th of January 2010 at approximately 9.00am with a baby in tow, I began my normal shopping for my families weekly provisions at the above shop, and at around 10.10am I was at the till paying for the goods in my trolley.
Having inserted my Visa Electron card into the machine (to pay for my shopping which was in excess of £100.00) the till operator asked me if I had an alternative method of payment, Because I knew there were sufficient funds in my bank account to cover the purchases made. I asked why?
The till operator then said this was what the till had requested. I told her there was not a problem with my card funding, and asked her to try again and add a £30.00 cash back to the total which was now £140.00.
Again I was told that my payment required an alternative payment. Annoyed, I again pointed out that there were sufficient funds in my account to make the purchases. I asked if it was okay to go to the cash bank outside the shop to draw enough cash to pay for my goods. She then called for an assistant who took my goods to the Customer Services counter.
On drawing £110.00 from the cash machine I noticed that the £110.00 and £140.00 had been deducted from my bank account.
Feeling very agitated I went back to the Customer Services counter I told the young lady that the two amounts had been deducted from my account. Perplexed she then telephoned my bank who confirmed that indeed the two amounts had been deducted.
The young lady said she would have to called for her Manager (after waiting10 minutes) another lady said she would again call for the manager (by this time my young baby was becoming very restless) after waiting a further 20 minutes a lady Manageress finally arrived at the Customer Services counter and informed me that the transactions had not been deducted.
Extremely annoyed at this point, I asked her why my bank had confirmed to the Customer Services that the deductions had been made. The Manageress then rang my bank who verified that the payments to Tesco had been made.
I was getting nowhere with the Manageress (now my baby was crying with hunger) Tesco had now taken from my bank account £250.00 for goods valued at £110.00 that I had not got.
Completely exasperated, I let the Manageress know that I would not be paying for the goods yet again, even though I had enough cash on me to do so.
I went on to let her know that I would be returning the next day if the situation was not resolved. She replied placidly it was OK, and not a problem.
The matter at Customer services had lasted about 30 minutes. Fuming I returned home and rang my bank who once more confirmed that the two transactions had in fact taken place.
Upon explaining the circumstances, the Bank told me providing I had not taken the goods from Tesco the Bank were prepared to stop the payments if I wanted!
So I asked them to stop the payments. Having halted the payments to Tesco my bank account was then credited back with the two amounts.
Almost two hours spent at Tesco, ending up without goods equals’ trauma!
The whole experience was annoyingly inconvenient and rather distressing for both my baby and me.
As a regular shopper at Tesco (Wrekin Retail Park Telford) with a weekly spend in excess of £150.00 per week and due to their recent lack of care and support, from now on, the majority of my grocery shopping will be purchased at Asda at Donnington, there I find the staff more helpful!
P.S (The Customer Services assistant at Tesco although polite did not get involved when the manageress eventually turned up)
I wonder if anyone else has experienced a problem such as this with Tesco
Very dissatisfied former Tesco Customer on her way to Asda
K.B
Just Who is The Fool Mr.Iain Veitch?
April 1st
Desperate for something to read, I purchased the only tabloid left on the stand. The Daily Express (Not my usual daily read) “however not to digress” On the leading page was a photograph of a great grandmother whom had recently been tagged, fined a £1,000, and given a criminal record for selling a goldfish.
There are times when the blood pressure tablets I take fail me, and my whole body seems to go tense, a surge of blood heads directly to my nose turning it bottle blue, and a sense of rage over comes me. This was such an occasion.
What scumbag of a misfit would take it upon themselves to persecute a mature lady for merely selling a goldfish?
Well it turns out to be a certain Mr Iain Veitch head of public protection (Whoever dreams up these titles at Trafford Council deserves a medal)
It appears that the local Trading Standards Office set out to stitch her up by sending a fourteen old youth ‘who looked much older than his years’ into a pet shop which she owned to purchase a goldfish.
Apparently under the Animal Welfare Act of 2006 it is illegal to sell pets to children under the age of 16 unless they are accompanied by an adult.
We now live in a country where political correctness has created a class of dim-witted bureaucracy that has nothing better to do then hound an old lady who has never been in trouble with the police before.
I am glad that certain M.P’s have taken up her case, the sooner this conviction is over turned the better. The magistrate concerned must have been as dense as Mr Iain Veitch.
Everyday constrained by quotas, fishing boats discard a large part of their dead and dying haul, back into the sea. I trust Mr Iain Veitch bears that in mind when he next orders his cod and chips from his local chippie!
Heroin and Cocaine habits are not a crime just an illness!
Having parked your pride and joy lawfully at the kerbside you ensure that all windows are tightly closed and the car securely locked, then you retire to your ‘Pied de Terre’ for a relaxing glass of plonk, and a bite to eat before hitting the sack. It has after all been a swine of a day at the office!
The two glasses of cool Chardonnay has its effect, the head hits the pillow and you drift off into a much welcomed sleep.
Bang! Crash! You leap from the bed, not fully awake, quickly you scan the room for any sign of intruders; the brain slowly activates and it dawns on you that the racket has come from the street outside, in fact, just below your bedroom window.
A quick dash to the window and you look down to where you parked your car, phew! It’s still there. However you notice a dark hooded figure scurrying up the road.
The stairs are taken three at time, within seconds you are through the front door and out onto the darkened street. Some thirty yards away the street lamp gives just enough light for you to see the obvious damage to your car. ‘Some ones little darling’ has smashed the glass on the front side passenger door and your CD player has been ripped from the front dashboard of your car.
An approaching lurcher warily crosses the road eyes fixed on you until it has passed by. You suddenly realize you are standing in the street at 2 am on a Sunday morning in an old worn pair of striped flannelette pajamas’. Quickly glancing up and down the street to ensure no one has observed you, you dart back in doors.
The phone seems to ring for ages before the automated answering machine kicks in only to inform you that ‘This police station is now unmanned and you need to ring the following number’. This you do and having explained to ‘Police Constable Dum de Dum’ just what has happened, he gives you a crime number and says someone from the station will be in touch with you during the following few days.
You, the reader, will no doubt know the scenario and may wonder just where all this is leading ?
Well it’s to do with drugs, and just how drug crime affects us all. I am not going into the rights or wrongs of drug addiction. Addiction is an illness, and to be ill is not a crime.
Some women sell sex to financially support a drug addiction, that option is not available to the average heterosexual male who will turn to theft such as breaking into cars and houses, or shoplift to fund a habit.
Take the theft out of the equation and you are left with an illness that solely needs treatment.The question is if ‘druggies’ are not to steal to fund their addiction, then just how is it funded?
I am told that Portugal has recently declassified Heroin and Cocaine as a (class A) drug. The addicts enroll upon a program in order to receive free drugs from the state. Drug crime has decreased greatly and the addicts are getting the help they so badly need.Under such a program the benefits both to the druggie and to society out way the costs.
1. Less drug related crimes therefor the police are freed up to deal with more serious offenses.
2. Insurance Companies have fewer claims against them so Insurance becomes cheaper.
3. Shoplifting becomes less prevalent to allow the shopkeeper to become more competitive.
4. Muggings and car crime decrease.
5. The Prison service is freed up of convicted druggies
6. Addicts get the help they badly need that guides them on road to recovery.
7. Drug dealers would have no one to sell to, so gun related crimes decrease.
These are just a few of the advantages of such a subsidy. It’s time this country and the politicians became less blinkered and cured a section of our population of their illness, and freed the public of the crime it is associated with.
It’s been a fine week
It had been a demanding few days at my place of employment. As reward for suffering my grumpiness throughout the past six days, I made a decision to treat my wife to a first-rate Sunday lunch at our favourite eating place.
You know the thing, roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and all the trimmings. Everything went well until we tasted the cabbage which was over cooked and rather soggy. We opted not to mention it to the waitress, and left the cabbage on our plates to be taken away at the end of the course.
At the end of the meal I asked for our bill only to realize that the meals had cost considerably more than advertised. Taking the waitress to task over the matter I was told that we were being fined because we had not eaten all our meal.
OK so I lie!
But this is true of a certain Emma Clark and Davyd Winter-Bates who were travelling home to Southampton but decided to disembark at Eastleigh to visit friends. They were fined £114 for getting off the train before their destination. They were told their tickets did not allow then to vary their journey; therefore they each had to pay an extra £57.
What a scam! I have had a sneaking suspicion that the whole country has gone bloody mad for awhile, now I’m convinced it has. Time to call in the white coat men!
We have watch dogs for this and that, who’s sole purpose in life is to protect the consumer. Do they do it? do they heck!
Perhaps one of our first class travelling all expenses paid politicians will take up the cudgel for us. But I doubt it!
The Codger
Telford and Wrekin Borough Council ‘I heard it on the grapevine’ are about to make some of their rat catchers redundant and do away with the free rat catching facility, In future, everyone will have to pay for this service, with fewer services for the same local Community Charge = an increase in local taxes!
No doubt the new charges will have a with profit factor built in = another tax increase!
They tell me, that no matter where you may be, there is a rat within three feet of you.
Conceivably those in charge at Wrekin Councils offices in the Telford Town Centre should consider calling in the rat catchers whilst they can.
Whilst on the subject of rats, we are encouraged to recycle as much of our waste as humanly possible. Last year having gone to the expense of purchasing a composting bin, I thought I would do my bit for the environment and took up composting with gusto. Within a few short months I discovered my bin had become a rat hotel. No more composting for me.
Who’s a dirty little rat then?
The Codger
The Right Honourable David Cameron Prime Minister
11 Feb 2011
Ref: VAT
Dear Dave;
It is understandable that you may be extremely busy and therefore unable to reply to this communiqué immediately.
We have been relentlessly advised by your good self and side kick, The Rt Hon. Nick Glegg that when entering office as Prime Minister you found the country to be in dire financial Straits.
Apparently the predicament Her Majesty’s subject’s now find themselves in was brought about by (Call me prudent) ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessor the ex Prime Minister Tony Blair (The man who started a war in Iraq and became a peace envoy to the Middle East)
In order to balance the books and bring the country back from a financial abyss you (Rightly or wrongly) increased the VAT threshold from seventeen and a half percent to twenty percent. This has in affect reduced Her Majesty’s subject’s standard of living overnight.
Though we may understand the dilemma you found yourself in when you opened the purse and found a note telling you there is nothing left, we do not appreciate having our pockets fleeced of the few shekels we put away for a rainy day.
Please set our minds at rest and confirm that as soon as you have steadied this country’s economy you will reset the VAT threshold back down seventeen and a half percent.
Awaiting a prompt reply
Your obedient servant and Queens Subject
The Codger
The Right Honourable David Cameron Prime Minister
16 Feb 2011
Ref: Shares
Dear Dave;
You may recall your predecessor (Now the not so prudent) ex Prime Minister Gordon Brown, took it upon himself to bail out quite a few banks with tax payer’s money, and it was said that we had all become shareholders of the recipient banks.
Since the recent VAT increase I am finding it really tough making ends meet money-wise. I appreciate how challenging it is getting the ledgers to balance in these most trying times, and consequently I feel it would be extremely selfish of me to ask for an increase in my state pension.
Since his departure from number ten Downing Street it seems Gordon has gone walk about. Therefore I have no means of contacting him direct. For countless weeks I have taken it upon myself to watch Prime Ministers question time on the tele hoping to catch a glimpse of him on the benches. (I must say you look eminently practiced at the box)
Sorry I digress! The truth is I’m wondering if ‘Old Gord’ has him-self fallen upon hard times and has sold the shares he selflessly purchased for me out of the tax revenue’s I had paid to him when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer? Which brings me to wonder if he has done a runner with my money?
If, by chance you catch a glimpse of him lurking in some dark corner of Westminster tell him to stop sulking and send me my share money. I need it to purchase a couple of litre’s of petrol. And by the way I am still awaiting reply to my letter dated 11thFeb 2011Ref: VAT.
Once again I remain.
Your obedient servant and Queens Subject
The Codger
Dear David Cameron it’s turned out quite a “mock-up”.
When advised to vote for you we didn’t expect this “cock-up”.
We know the purse was empty from Gordie and gang
And the game was over when the fat boy sang!
But you and your side-kicks don’t seem to have a clue,
Each day you wake up, you seem to turn the screw.
Those “that have” aren’t suffering, the rich don’t feel the pinch,
But the poorer ones amongst us, you and your cabinet might lynch.
So hands off the N.H.S, reduce the vat,
If you ignore the electors, “you’re really out your tree”
If you keep making cuts on things that you are keen,
I’m afraid heads will roll, and you’ll face the guillotine.
So listen to your public, or your government may fall,
And suddenly you’ll be facing the cruelest cut of all!
Chris.C
The Food police have been at it,
and now they have agreed.
Only pasties made in Cornwall,
are the real ones it’s decreed.
So if it’s made in Ireland,
manufactured perhaps in Skye,
will it have it’s name of origin?-
and be know as just a pie?
And if some ‘Cornish Pisky’
who for Pasties is quite famed,
have to call ‘em turnovers,
or something stupidly named?
EU Madness
The implication of the new EU ruling on Cornish Pasties leaves me somewhat exasperated! What it basically says is that a Pasty can only be called Cornish if it is made in Cornwall using a strict traditional recipe.
Being Cornish born and bred, I now live in Shropshire. Throughout my Cornish childhood my Cornish mother taught me how to make proper Tiddy-Oggie’s (Pasties) and I feel I do the Pasty justice when I make one.
If a Cornish man living in Shropshire can no longer call the pasty he has just baked a Cornish pasty then what does he call it?
I also wonder what the EU will do when someone complains about the brand name ‘Mars Bar’?