Oh yeah: I'm well familiar with the "screening appointment" to get folks off the observable waiting list and on to that thing-which-doesn't-actually-exist-at-all, the internal waiting list.

When I worked on Teesside this was a source of considerable tension between 3 of the patch team leaders, who wouldn't run internal waiting lists, on the one hand and the other patch team leader, supported by the service manager, on the other, who did actively run screening and an internal waiting list and also happened to be the partner of the service manager...

When I jacked it in in 2013, we'd had a new "system" forced on us, which we were forced by management to misuse in order to get folk off the visible waiting list and on to the invisible internal list. This was about the third time up here we'd had managment enforced internal lists, which some of us had refused to go along with - I was threatened with disciplinary action and reporting to the NMC, but I called **** For Brains' bluff (why, yes, I actually DID have a manager called **** For Brains)...And had a hard time for several years as a result. I did out last **** For Brains who was made redundant, along with the next 2 up the line, during some Stalinist purge.

I know, poor Boris coming home mid-afternoon after a hard day at the Covid-face not able to put his feet up because someone insists on plying him with booze, cheese and cake.

Heads must roll for this cruel and unusual punishment. :rolleyes:

The Haunted Pencil (JR-M) appointed "Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency" whatever the hell that means. Talk about made-up job titles.

Minister for BrOG(u)E - how apt ;)

Perhaps he could also be on the lookout for bigfoot, unicorns and Brigadoon...:rolleyes:

It should be known to anyone with any understanding of management, whether in or outside the NHS. Targets make people modify their behaviour to meet the target exactly as specified, rather than to improve performance in the way the target was intended to.

Dave

But.. but... but... how do I make my nice Power Point presentation if I don't have a single percentage to show! No one wants to listen to the detail...

Exactly.

I see absolutely nothing of substance in Javid's "proposals", just a load of vague blether.

No acknowledgement of the role the Cameron/Osborn regime played in hacking NHS and related budgets to pieces; no acknowledgement of the role played by the Tory decision to cut training places on subsequent staffing issues; no acknowledgement of the loss of senior clinical staff of all disciplines as a direct result of austerity cuts (loss of leadership, clinical experience and expertise, service culture, training supervisors and all the rest is hard to quantify, but is very real). It's just like all this appeared overnight and wasn't already problematic BEFORE Covid hit.

And even then no real ideas about what will be done to improve matters, but the same useful idiots who voted for them over the last 12 years will still carry on voting for them because reasons...

Since the NHS has so obviously failed we must privatise it!

And WTAF are these "NHS reservists"?

No such thing.

Does he mean folk who retired and are supposed to be offered part-time work following retirement? Which doesn't always happen anyway - I wasn't offered this option, but that might have something to do with me telling HR that I would not consider it without a written apology for certain actions of some specific managers and the head of HR for nor proerly, i.e. according to policy, investigating my complaint about one of those managers. That and I wasn't prepared to accept the ridiculously low banding they tend to offer: you want that level of experience and the rest, then pay me.

Nadine Dorries has made a suggestion while defending Boris:

Just to take that at face value (I know, I know): who has been in charge of the NHS most of the time since I began work as a nursing assistant back in 1984? Who was responsible for the bulk of the major management changes? Who kept changing those management structures after a year or 2 without ever evaluating the efficacy of those changes? Who was responsible for consistentlyu reducing funding during that time? I could go on...

What we can conclude is that...Well, we all know what the answer to that is...

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...s-crumble-away

And I didn't spot Javid addressing any of the above either. But getting any government to take MH seriously is nigh on impossible - the last Labour lot were better than any other of my experience, but they still weren't great, just a bit better than all the useless ones.

Oh, look! An ex-Tory (well, kinda) involved in harassing Starmer and spreading lies - https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...-resistance-gb

The last paragraph of that piece is especially telling: “It is nonsensical and alien to the concept of personal responsibility for us to be blamed for any of the tens of thousands of comments hosted by tech platforms.”

Can't blame us for spreading misinformation! The big boys did it and ran away! How exactly do you define "responsibility"?

This is the nature of public services. Of course they are political footballs that do 180s in their long term plans every time the wind changes and spend vast sums only to self defeatingly tighten their belts to help get somebody elected. It's been that way since Bevan first stuffed the doctors mouths with gold. It cannot be otherwise.

That's exactly what happens. Also finding the best way to circumvent a risk minimisation process.

Edited by Agatha:

Please limit copypasta to one or two paragraphs, enclose it in quote tags and provide a link (which was provided)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politi...d-who-26172523

The slow-motion coup continues.

Channel 4 News
Record breaking profits have been announced by oil giant BP. But exclusive research for this programme has revealed their north sea oil operations paid zero tax for five years.
In fact, they've actually received money from the taxpayer.

It's OK. I despaired to the max a year or two ago.

Meanwhile, BlowJob, who is happy to make statements which would be slanderous if he wasn't cowering behind parliamentary privilege, is making threats about legal action because someone wrote something far less deliberately nasty about Poor Carrie - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b2010170.html

I'm sure there's a word for someone who behaves like that...

Drip drip drip

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politi...boris-26181071

Cummings says that there are more and worse

The release was timed to be during PMQs, so BJ had no warning. Apparently someone did ask a question about the photo and he denied it existed.

To be fair, that question said the picture showed him 'surrounded by alcohol and food'; which is...somewhat of an overstatement.

Given that there's so much to surround.

Dave

IMO the problem is that this has been going on for so long that most people don't care any more. Yes Boris Johnson broke the rules and lied about breaking the rules but that's what the public expect of him.

There was an initial shock and outrage but Boris Johnson knew that if he could survive the week after the initial scoop, then people wouldn't care any more.

There could be a picture of Boris Johnson taking a dump on Captain Tom's grave and the response from the right wing press, the majority of the Conservative Party and the majority of the British electorate would be "Poor Boris, getting caught short like that...." :mad:


edited to add....

Poking at this a little more..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60318610

I think he's right about people not caring but of course the Conservatives won't do anything to address what "really matters" either - just make things much, much worse.

Northerners should accept lower wages because 'London is London', top Rishi Sunak aide says
Tim Leunig said “the only way towns and cities that are less well connected can compete to attract firms is to accept lower wages".

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...wages-23031350

I sort of get it, living costs outside London are lower so companies outside London could ensure that their employees have a similar, or even higher, standard of living whilst paying lower salaries.

However, he goes on to say:

Why not ?

One of the largest IT companies in the world is based in a tiny village in Baden-Württemberg and Omaha manages to be a financial services hub.

Perhaps the lower density of Michelin starred restaurants?

"The Haunted Pencil"? :D

I also liked Chris Brookmyre's "steampunk C3PO".

Boris Johnson's ethics chief is investigating the Prime Minister's new Commons Leader over racism allegations, it has emerged.

The former Chief Whip was handed a promotion in Tuesday's reshuffle, when it was already known he was at the centre of a Cabinet Office probe into claims made by Tory MP Nusrat Ghani that she was sacked because of her "Muslimness".

Now Mr Spencer, who will begin attending the Prime Minister's Cabinet meetings in his new role, has confirmed ethics chief Lord Geidt - whose job it is to probe breaches of the Ministerial Code - is investigating him.
Ms Ghani said last month that she was told by the then-Chief Whip she was sacked as Transport Minister in 2021 because her Muslim faith "had been raised as an issue” and made colleagues uncomfortable.

The Commons Leader - who is responsible for representing backbenchers and upholding standards in parliament - identified himself as the whip involved in Ms Ghani's complaint, but denied the claims, which he said were false and “defamatory”.
No10 originally claimed a broader Cabinet Office probe would "establish the facts" but Mr Spencer himself has now confirmed Lord Geidt is leading the probe.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politi...ating-26183040


Well, that didn't take long.

Boris is like Trump, everything he touches turns to ****.

THAT was the one I had been trying to recall. Thanks.

My girlfriend likes "haunted pencil"

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/b...y-b981697.html

Looks like the new party on 15th December is now going to be investigated by police

It was the virtual quiz apparently

Scurrilous lie!

They have already fixed the NHS problem - had headlines yesterday and today, energy prices - that was solved with £200 quid each headlines, and jobs... well 2/3 headlines isn't bad. (I'm sure they can announce some target to deal with the jobs problem and get a good headline or two.)

See all fixed. And if it isn't fixed that is because of the mess labour made of everything when they were in power a couple of years ago....

If any government really wanted to "level up" the country they would relocate all the major government departments to different places around England (and the UK) and only leave the FO in London.

I think Sir Humphrey dealt with that in a series of documentaries I saw back in the day.

Michael Fabricant tweeted
@Mike_Fabricant
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with personal responsibility for its 7,000 staff and approximately 800,000 prosecutions undertaken by it every year - and for decisions NOT to prosecute.

Quote Tweet
Molly Giles
@mollygiles2015
Sorry but this is a game changer. I hadn’t appreciated that, from the dispatch box, Keir has repeatedly used his time at the DPP as evidence of his success and leadership skills. Pointing out the failures is therefore totally fair game. Absolutely no apology is necessary.

It will come as no surprise to find that he's lying.

"He was not the reviewing lawyer in charge of probing the Savile allegations."


Reuters fact check

etc...

And none of it seems to stick.

For anything to stick you need a conscience and the concept of shame. Boris Johnson lacks the former and doesn't understand the latter.