If you tolerate this your children will be next

I think I'm in rant mode today. Not only has it been ages since I've had a rant; but there's so much to rant about today!

Finally Dr Liam Fox resigns! Durh: come on – it took him eight days to work out that taking your best mate to work and giving him privileged access to your employer’s information was possibly the stupidest thing anyone could ever do. Okay, maybe you could get away with it once on “bring your mate to work day” (similar to “bring your daughter to work day” but I don't think that they’ve been invented yet); but every day! Can you imagine if you worked for Apple or Barclays ...or anyone really; turning up to work every day with your mate; allowing them to sit in your meetings; letting them have access to company information (even if you didn't give them express consent, clearly they would have access to everything that you left and secured on your desk or your PC). How long do you think you'd be able to get away with that? Perhaps one day, maybe two. I'm pretty sure your senior manager would call you into their office and asked you what the hell you thought you were doing and promptly sack you. Oh but Dr Fox's senior manager is David Cameron and perhaps he didn’t think that there was anything wrong with it either. Are they really asking us to believe that for the last 18 months the Tories were unaware that this is what was happening? I am surprised that it took the Labour Party so long to bring it to our attention.

Moving on: Wow things have gotten rough in the UK! If you never quite believed that ordinary people do not matter to those in power with money and influence; what could say it even more clearly than the treatment offered to the most senior members of our community when they are at their most vulnerable. Moreover our obsession with remaining young really only ever had one outcome; if I recall they made a film about it. It was called Logan’s run. We may not quite be there yet, but as the song says “if you tolerate this your children will be next”.

Elders of the community used to be respected and valued for their wisdom because we recognised that having lived longer they had experienced more and therefore knew more. Now that you can experience a lifetime of knowledge at the click of a button by asking Google; we have erroneously convinced ourselves that elders have nothing of value to offer. Of course not all elders are wise and all of us, I'm sure, can think of cantankerous unfriendly old people who we would rather not engage with. However, I was taught to respect those older than me. Even if these days the younger generations think that they know it all; do we not owe our parents the same love, care and compassion that they offered us when we were unable to provide it for ourselves.

The treatment of elders in the NHS is primarily the result of the lack of resources that is put into this part of the service. It takes a lot of love and compassion to wipe up human excrement, to feed and bath someone who may be abusive and unappreciative due to dementia. It takes a lot of love and compassion to be kind and caring when you are stressed out of your mind due to the pressures of your own life and this is compounded by being overworked underpaid and undervalued. Is it any wonder that many nurses operate as if they are totally disconnected from the human being at the end of the service they deliver?



And on the street tonight an old man plays
With newspaper cuttings of his glory days

And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
Will be next
Will be next

Manic street preachers: If you tolerate this your children will be next.

What would you rant about today? Please share your views I look forward to reading them.