ah The Goodies - what larks!

great

Met a senior surgeon in a Sussex hospital a while ago and they were absolutely all over coping with the pandemic too, coped with 'hot' areas for Covid and 'cold' to keep the other treatments going - mindblowing that it was such a postcode lottery. managers yes also intelligent innovation from medics

totally agree with the implication here - it's the whole experience isn't it? some of that is 'soft' but some of it is actually very relevant to recovery as well - eg spending an entire day yesterday trying to get someone very frail discharged and safely home - well managed "extras"

after gruelling 4 days in and out of St Mary's with my ancient mum, the ICU/high dependency bit is amazing + well staffed - the bits that let the whole thing down are eg wheelchair transport/the pharmacy/the things that actually do affect health/block beds but are non medic/nursing

yeah so agree

the principle is widely supported Venetia - not really the same thing - for example, look at what Luciana Berger is doing on an amendment to protect young people, and many others on trying to spot and prevent coercion and improper influence. The Commons did a bad job and what could be higher stakes?

blowhards, blah blah, in harmony, blah blah, out of tune and harsh, blah blah, hot air, *dies quietly*

I'd also like updates on this please! Agree with Gavin, far to little tracking and joining up of dots on this AND awful right/left coding on the wider lockdown conversation distorts the entire thing

I prescribe Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf - a great series. He's a total duffer.

Get Through It (as in Blur)

ironic since this is what so many anti-monarchy republicans do too! thanks for these posts, very interesting

this has been initially upsetting and then interesting but I'm now leaving if that's ok - the rest of the day calls

so true - both are fundamental

oh god, good luck with that - it's a trade off - for me, having her right here rather than worrying the entire time is a massive plus, and she's now safe, but I appear to be accidentally running an offsite care home! all best.

yes it's all mad - I'm extremely keen on multigenerational living as it happens as it would solve a whole bunch of modern problems at a stroke - childcare, eldercare, loneliness and its attendant health disasters, etc etc - plus add to social glue. And anyway Simon I'm sorry I snapped at you!

My parents did downsize which is handy as all the £ was then needed for Dad's at home dementia care, now we've downsized mum again, we're doing our bit but the end result is no spare rooms anywhere either for us to live as a family or have a carer - and frankly the whole thing is killing me