Just take it.

I don't have any horses. Not one. Therefore, for me to pay for a stable, hay, oats and a stable lad would be a ridiculous waste of money. Thus I do not pay for these.

I am thankful that my health has always been good, however the time may come when I need to make use of the National Insurance contributions that are taken from me, without so much as a by your leave, every month. I'd be very annoyed if I needed the service having paid all this money, only to be told that I was prohibited from using it.

Dick Puddlecote has highlighted the following:

It's been coming for a while, but NHS West Kent have become the first health authority to actively pursue a comprehensive policy of restricting treatment based on social criteria.

The policy document states that:

From this month, patients who smoke and need planned surgery will have to complete a NHS Stop Smoking course before their operation.
  
Patients who are clinically obese or with a BMI (body mass index) of more than 30 will also have their surgery delayed and will have to carry out a weight loss programme. Health bosses said that losing the weight would reduce the length of hospital stay and lessen the risk of complication.

It's a good job I don't live in Kent. . .

Oh, bugger.

That's alright, though, there's no way that anyone else in the county would do the same. It isn't as if savings have to be made to accommodate the legions of non-surgical management and outreach diversity equality community bollock juggling officers is there?

Oh, bugger.


I would raise merry hell if he were denied treatment. Leave aside the anti-smoking dog whistle for a moment. I pay my NI contributions because I am forced to. If I were not forced to, I would take out a cheaper, better, private healthcare package. I would pay a premium for this as I would declare my smoking.

As a smoker I also pay a premium on top of the NI contributions to cover my NHS treatment in the form of the duty on the tobacco I buy.

So I pay for a service, and am then told that even though I pay for it, I am to be denied treatment? There's a word for that, it'll come to me in a moment. . .

Ah yes. Fraud. That's it.

Oh don't worry, I am but a filthy smoker, I deserve everything I get, I am untermensch. If you drink alcohol, or eat food that does not fit the dictated standard, they'll do the same to you, too.

Yeah, OK, snort with derision. Don't believe me, I really couldn't care less. When they go after the drinkers, they don't mean you, you who sit there with your glass of Chianti classico riserva with your dinner, they mean the chavs who get dosed up on slut petrol before hitting the vertical drinking establishments on a Friday night. When they go after the fatty food eaters, they don't mean you, you who eat your filet mignon with duck fat chips, they mean the pram faced single mums who serve up fat and salt ridden microwave meals to their multi-coloured offspring in the estate on the other side of town seven nights a week.

Sail on, it has nothing to do with you, you're a good boy or girl, you do what you're told. I am evil, I deserve to be turned away. I should probably be chained to the hospital gates to act as a warning to the others like me.

Scum, scum, scum. I'm scum.

Fine. Well, Leg-Iron has hit a nerve with me, and I'll act like fucking scum. You'll not like it, but then I couldn't give a toss.

Don't take my money, eject me from the game and still expect to play nicely. It ain't gonna happen, chum.

The One That Can't See The Difference. . .

So this is how one brings about the 'post-democratic' age then.

The Electoral Complaints Commission, responsible for overseeing the Presidential election in Afghanistan has thrown out ballots from 210 polling stations after uncovering what it claimed was 'Clear and convincing evidence of fraud'.

I can't say I'm surprised. It was all so predictable. The ballots thrown out now mean that Karzai has only a 48% share of the vote, so a run-off with the imaginatively named Abdullah Abdullah is sure to take place.

You can bet your arse that electoral fraud will be perpetrated again. No doubt the commission will get involved again, no doubt people who have voted properly will get their papers thrown out again, no doubt some kangaroo court in Afghanistan will have its say, no doubt American troops will be stood outside the courthouse as deliberations go on.

To make it even less democratic, these elections are being held with foreign troops running around and people not turning out because some nutjob has threatened to kill them if they do, assuming that is, that the same nutjob hasn't blown up the polling station the night before.

This is hardly a democratic process. It isn't going to work. It was never going to work. It will never work as long as other countries are propping up and dictating to the regime in 'power' and Taleban fighters are running around the country.

'Well, we tried' will be the refrain, if it isn't drowned out by whichever cheating vote rigging bastard happens to do enough to influence the result of this election being held up as a convincingly and resoundingly elected President given a mandate from the masses.

More to the point if this fraud has been carried out by any of the parties and politicians involved, then why the hell aren't they under lock and key, or at least barred from standing for election ever again?

This is ridiculous.

Democracy? Don't make me laugh, it is a pretence, there will never be democracy whilst we are in Afghanistan (or Iraq for that matter) as there will be this mortal fear that people will vote the 'wrong' way, just as the Palestinians did with Hizbollah. You can be certain they wouldn't have won if American or British troops were on the ground there.

The problem being that the people we want them to elect are self-serving, venal, money-grabbing, corrupt toads out to grab what they can with the big boy standing behind them scaring people off if they want to make something of it. Whereas the people they might want to elect are self-serving, venal, money-grabbing, corrupt toads out to grab what they can whilst putting the fear of God into everyone.

Looks like a lose-lose situation to me.

The One That Is Ordering Up A Big Bag Of Popcorn. . .

James Cleverly reports (via Guido) that former London Dep-Mayor Ian Clements is due up before Westminster Mags on a fraud charge over allegations of fiddling expenses.

Guido is of the opinion that he won't be the last politician to be hauled before the beak.

Wouldn't it be a terrible shame if he were only the first of many? Wouldn't it be an even bigger shame if this was at its height during a General Election campaign?

One thing is for certain, there'll be a number of politicians moaning about how such a situation would be unhelpful and perhaps even against the national interest, especially if they are perched atop a slim majority.

I think it was Harrison Ford playing the President in Air Force One who used the line 'Your turn to be afraid.'

Well folks, payback is a bitch and next May (assuming that is when it finally comes) is going to be so much of an Elephant hunt, that I'll be watching the election night coverage wearing khaki drill and a pith helmet.

Bring it on.

Nihilistic? Me?

The One That Isn't In The Least Bit Surprised. . .

So insurance fraudsters and crap illusionists the Darwins have been sent down.

Serves them right, silly buggers.

John Darwin apparently wanted to be a millionairre by the time he retired, he went about this by going into snail breeding, his family claim that he was obsessed with materialistic. . . hang on. . .

Snail breeding?

Please explain, when embarking on a fool proof excercise like snail breeding, how he managed to run up such large debts? With such a good idea, and exellent planning, how on Earth were they rumbled?

A tip of the hat to one who is surely a financial and criminal mastermind.




Bloody snail breeding?