This blog is not closing down and will return to normal output shortly.
The heart problem that put me into hospital after New Year was “paroxysmal atrial fibrillation”. This seems likely to have been the cause of the lack of energy I had complained was afflicting me towards the end of last year. It can be controlled by drugs and I was in hospital for six days while they got it controlled.
On discharge I was ordered to rest awhile, but had three speaking engagements I was determined to honour. On 23 January was the Sam Adams Award at the Oxford Union, including a live videolink with Julian Assange, and a debate there the next day on “The American Dream”. In the daytimes I researched Burnes documents in Worcester College Library. Then the next day I flew overnight to Accra, arrived the morning of the 26 January and that night did the Immortal Memory at the Burns Night for Accra Caledonian Society.
I had picked up a sore throat in Oxford which I put down to too much public speaking. But by Sunday morning in Accra I felt absolutely terrible, and have been in bed the last four days with a flu, quite possibly swine flu (certainly the nastiest flu I can ever recall). For someone recently out of hospital with heart problems, that has been a bit scarey.
This morning I feel human again. I have quite a lot of work I simply must do in Accra, as I have no other way to feed my family, and funds are very low. But I intend to be home again on the 5th, as I have an echocardiogram appointment on the 6th.
I do intend to have the blog fully functional again as soon as I can, and stop these bloody health bulletins. I apologise for giving so much personal detail but I feel a need to explain why the blog has been cold.
Yes, get well soon & look after yourself, don’t worry about blogging till you’re fully recovered! We’ll all still be here!
Our best recuperations from Norfolk, we have been a wee bit worried about your incessant schedules.
Maybe you should consider appointing a board of deputies who decide to fill in when your not well.
I would like to suggest this as a default, as we are all capable here to dig up Werritty if we find the spade and where to dig, but it would be good to know that we have a contingency plan of sorts.
The Canaries were thrown out of the cup by the hatters, in the 80th minute, what a humiliating defeat that was.
Norfolk county council leader Derrick Murphy will have to stand up to the standards committee tomorrow morning and I shall be there for it. Hopefully the Tory stranglehold over Norfolk affairs will be changed in May.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/pressure_builds_to_hold_derrick_murphy_standards_hearing_in_public_1_1832499
get better soon, the Sam Adams award was hardly covered by the papers, but you were mentioned here, in a debate on torture, Ivonne is present but so are others you know, yours truly mentioned some 29 minutes into the debate.
Takle good care, we need ya…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qgn3x/The_Big_Questions_Series_6_Episode_4/
Take it easy Craig, and get yourself properly well.
Good to hear you back to your old spitting self, Komodo, you must have been ‘enthralled’ with Murphy’s Kevingate….:)
Craig
Best wishes for your health and prosperity. Having had several bouts of atrial fibrillation in the aftermath of a heart-bypass last January, I know how debilitating it can be, but also how well it responds to drugs.
Once you’re back in the UK, let’s catch up on politics, the FCO [I was speaking to Michael Wood at the launch last night of the Sir Arthur Watts Senior Research Fellowship in Public International Law], Ghana etc. Many friends regularly ask for news of you and I generally point them towards this website, so it will be good to have you back in full flow.
I’m afraid Kevingate passed me by completely, Nevermind. I’ve been a bit engrossed in other things lately…having reported on District Council meetings, I admit, it’s difficult to work up any enthrallment, too. Googled it – Murphy is plainly insane, and what was he doing in the Turks and Caicos at taxpayer’s expense? Mentoring local government types? Amusing.
When I referred earlier to the Vice Admiral going on to the local PCT board, I meant to say District General Hospital Foundation Trust. Primary Care Trusts and Strategic Health Authorities are being abolished and from April, services will be procured by Clinical Commissioning Groups under the aegis of National Commissioning Boards. The services can be provided by existing publicly owned organisations or more likely by private organisations whose ultimate motive is to produce profits for the shareholders. Community hospitals are already being closed up as the emphasis is to provide care in the home.
You will have noticed that whole hospital closures are being announced and departments closed down like A&E and Maternity as there is a double attack on the NHS by budget cuts.
We will be lucky to have the NHS as we know and love it in five or so years’ time.
Yesterday I read that Lord Owen was registering this bill to amend Lansley’s Health and Social Care Act 2012.
Lord Owen, who is now a crossbencher, said that the 2012 act had to be changed because it removes the democratic and legal basis of the NHS.
The secretary of state’s duty to secure or provide health services is key to a free at point-of-use, comprehensive and democratically accountable NHS and has been in force since 1948.
However, the 2012 act removes this responsibility from the secretary of state, which means that the government is no longer directly responsible for meeting all healthcare needs free of charge.
http://www.hsj.co.uk/news/lord-owen-registers-bill-to-overturn-key-lansley-reforms/5054242.article
One little fragment of an Act that contains hundreds of densely worded pages. The Wikipedia page that attempts to explain it is exceptionally long too. The British people have been tricked and betrayed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_Social_Care_Act_2012
@ Komodo : OK, but even if 99% is optimistic, then say 90% or 80% or whatever; the point I was trying to make was that it’s mistaken – and probably judgement-warping – to assume that these examples pf corruption and so on are the rule rather than the exception.
Do you have a comment on what I said about pantouflage?
Finally, Komodo : I think you knew perfectly well what I was trying to say with the 99%. But you chose to quibble about the figure itself and started off your comment with a joke of constipation. Yet you’re no doubt part of the contigent on here who deplores the inability or inability of Habbabkuk to debate, his feigned ignorance and his propensity for insults and attack. Think about it.
Dear Craig, get well soon. It’s good you told us about your health. Prayers.
Get well soon Craig! Hope you’re back to your old self in no time!
This was the Galloway question and the reply
George Galloway (Bradford West) (Respect):
Following yesterday’s announcement, will the Prime Minister adumbrate for the House the key differences between the hand-chopping, throat-cutting jihadists fighting the dictatorship in Mali whom we are now to help to kill, and the equally bloodthirsty jihadists to whom we are giving money, matériel and political and diplomatic support in Syria? Has the Prime Minister read “Frankenstein”, and did he read it to the end?
The Prime Minister:
Some things come and go but there is one thing that is certain: wherever there is a brutal Arab dictator in the world, he will have the support of the hon. Gentleman. [Interruption.]
and there was this humorous one earlier
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab):
On the subject of food safety, can the Prime Minister confirm that traces of stalking horse have been found in the Conservative party food chain?
The Prime Minister:
Somewhere in my briefing, I had some very complicated information about the danger of particular drugs for horses entering the food chain, and I have to say the hon. Gentleman threw me completely with that ingenious pivot. The Conservative party has always stood for people who want to work hard and get on, and I am glad that all of my—all those behind me take that very seriously indeed.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/commons/todays-commons-debates/read/unknown/101/#c101
Stop pushing yourself so hard you prat !
I will come down and see you in a week or so…
On Karimov’s 75th birthday and who or what follows..
Uzbekistan: Reflections on Karimov’s 75th Birthday
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/66469#
Choihona
[..]
Kislov is not the only journalist marking Karimov’s birthday. Danish filmmaker Michael Andersen is even preparing a little present: He is translating his 2012 documentary, “Massacre in Uzbekistan,” into Uzbek and Russian, which he then plans to distribute online for free. A trailer for the 80-minute film about how Uzbek troops shot and killed hundreds of largely peaceful protesters in the eastern city of Andijan in May 2005 has been viewed online over 100,000 times.
“The level of support and interest we have had for our film shows that even in Uzbekistan, eventually the Internet will prove stronger than the oppressive regime,” Andersen said in a statement marking Karimov’s birthday.
[..]
Take care Craig, it’s good you’re on the mend. I had some of that AF too a few years ago but they only see me once a year now and it’s usualy just a sounding and a wee chat on how I’m feeling. I was diagnosed with too much iron in my blood at the same time, and as I had the iron-rich blood taken away my AF seemed to go with it.
None of the doctors in either department would accept that there was a link, but there is a lot of information on the internet that says that iron overload will cause AF among other things.
If you have not already done so, get your blood/iron level checked as your Murray genes put you in the risk category for it.
Best take it easy Craig, lest you end up with Frazer in your ear.
Cura Ut Valeas
Craig, it’s good to hear from you and thanks for posting.
Does everyone realise who the person wishing him well is, just above Craig’s own comment above?
Nice to see him pop in briefly, haha. He doesn’t get out much…
Hope the health improves soon Craig. My wife has a similar condition and as such I understand what you have been through. You must rest when possible and give things a chance to find a balance. The drugs work if you let them………
Dear Craig – do whatever it takes to get fully fit asap; I think of you every time I pass through W Runton – and occasionally get out at! Good thoughts/prayers/vibes from me.
Arbed, 30 Jan, 7:17 pm, are you saying that you know that the comment:
is from Julian Assange?
Mr Assange, if that’s you, respect to you, and best wishes.
@Arbed: Julian uses a smiley face?! I smile too 🙂
@Craig: Be well, take care.
@Julian: Dude! Yo! Hang in there!
Best wishes to all from Southern California.
Welcome back, Craig, and no apologies needed! We’ve missed you but we also want you to take care of yourself so we will be able to read you for many years to come.
Is everyone ignoring the Israeli strike on Syria or is everyone under the table or in a Bunker?
Anon Doug Scorgie and I did on the previous thread. It’s yet another Israeli outrage which the Western powers will ignore. Israel knows no law.
@ Mary, 5.21pm
That George Galloway quote from PM’s Question Time is a corker. Was reduced to helpless fits of giggles. Thanks, I needed that 🙂
“Yet you’re no doubt part of the contigent on here who deplores the inability or inability of Habbabkuk to debate, his feigned ignorance and his propensity for insults and attack. Think about it.”
No, I think you’re a chronic nitpicker who mistakes hammering at a selected point for the deployment of awesome debating skills. I suspect you do it to stall discussion of other topics, too. But just this once, I’ll take the bait.
Yes, I know what you meant. You meant – or for whatever reason pretended you meant – that the people in power do not promote, reward and issue sinecure “jobs” to those offering them or their cabals money and influence, and they don’t systematically erode the income of those not entitled (by virtue of tentacular contact networks) to equal treatment.
You’re saying they don’t; that the majority of people are decent and honest…I say, whether or not that’s true, the minority who aren’t decent and honest are in power. That’s how they got to be in power, for Christ’s sake. That’s the only way to get power under this system. Ask a truthful district councillor, (as I once did) why he wanted the job, and he’ll tell you in one word (as he did) – “Power”
This from today’s Guardian (Hugh Muir is one of the good guys):
… happy days, it seems, at broker Tullett Prebon, which will apparently allow some execs to delay receiving bonuses until April to take advantage of a cut in income tax for top earners. Most unfortunate, though, for a government keen to get tough on fat cats. Particularly irritating, perhaps, for business minister Michael Fallon, until last September a non-exec director at Tullett and a past chair of its remuneration committee. Who else is there? Angela Knight, a non-exec director, member of the remuneration committee, the ex-boss of the British Bankers’ Association and once the Tory MP for Erewash. Always hard to fall out with friends.
Just so.
Thanks for that eloquent explanation of our District council, Komodo, I have known Fuller and Mooney for 2 decades and their connivance has not changed since.
Worst egg is kemp, he’s is devious but there are many other Spratts that evaded the otter for far a long time.
Come May this will hopefully change.
I hear Agent Cameron is making an unannounced trip to Tripoli. Even walking through the streets. Wow! Any arms salesmen with him along for the ride? He has Robinson of the BBC embedded and another from Sky and some others I guess.
yes he is Mary, with snipers on every roof and a press black out, nobody in Libya knows he’s there, bar those who have been briefed and he’s not standing still, always moving on, very security conscious.
Another wee sippet on The Coward Cameron Vs Galloway incident.
George Galloway’s reply in his letter to Cameron:
Dear Prime Minister,
I’m sure on reflection you will realise that your answer to me today was beneath you and unbecoming for a British Prime Minister. I will deal with the complete absence of a substantive reply in a moment. But let me deal first with the vulgar abuse.
I do not support any Arab dictatorship, unlike you. It is you who is selling weapons to the dictatorship in Saudi Arabia and providing military training there. It is you who is supporting the Bahraini dictatorship. It is you who supported the Mubarak dictatorship until its last hours. Ditto the late dictatorship in Tunisia, Yemen etc. It is you who has the warmest possible relations with the dictatorships in the Gulf.
I could go on, believe me. I, on the other hand, have spoken, written and broadcast against all Arab dictatorships. Perhaps your staff, in preparing your reply, will provide you with the evidence of this. I also read Frankenstein until the end.
I told one of your predecessors, Lady Thatcher, on the eve of the triumph of those whom your party routinely described as ‘Afghan freedom fighters’ that she “had opened the gates to the barbarians…. And that a long dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan”.
I warned repeatedly against the folly of the creation of the Arab-Afghan force which became Al Qaida. Immediately after 9/11 I said in the House that “I despise Osama Bin Laden, the medieval obscurantist savage. The difference is that I have always despised him. I despised him when you (pointing at the Tory benches) were giving him guns and money”.
I find it genuinely inexplicable that you are doing it all over again. This is a tragedy which begins to look farcical when one considers the issue which I raised today with you. We are now killing Al Qaida in Mali and helping Al Qaida kill in Syria – killing Christians, killing Shiites, killing Kurds, killing Druze, killing Sunnis who won’t join their jihad, and soon, trust me, they will be killing each other.
There may be “key differences” between Al Qaida in Mali and their counterparts in Syria. I asked you to explain these to the House today. You refused. But it is a question which will not go away before a puff of vulgar abuse.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
George Galloway MP