Wednesday 1 August 2007

The new EU Constitutional ‘Treaty’ is virtually a ‘cut and paste job’

The official English translation of the New EU Constitutional ‘Treaty’ is now out – It has not gone unnoticed that they waited until Parliament were off on their 10 week summer break.

They have taken out the actual word 'constitution' and have avoided enshrining legal status to the EU flag, motto and anthem.

They have done a Find/Replace on ‘Foreign Minister’ and changed those references to ‘High Representative’. Mmmm - ‘Catchy’. They must have been reading Lord of the Rings again.

Conservative foreign affairs spokesman, William Hague, pointed out:

"We can see clearly what a cut-and-paste job this is from the old EU constitution. Virtually everything that was in the old EU constitution is in this treaty."

William Hague is pretty much spot on there. It also includes a handy replacement ‘ratchet clause’ lifted more-or-less word for word from the constitution allowing the EU to scrap national vetoes and sidestep referendums. All the rage with the european elite these days.

So much for Gordon Brown and his smokescreen ‘red lines’. How does he look at himself in the mirror each morning when he shaves?

UK Drs reduce home visits by half in 10 years

The latest official figures on UK GPs show more consultations are now carried out by telephone and nurses see one in three patients. More damning, home visits carried out by GPs has halved in ten years.

Figures also show they are putting in on average seven hours less work per week yet also doing more consultations.

One wonders if they can fit the extra consultations in because they are reluctant to do home visits.

Ten years ago if your child had a temperature of 103 °F (39.5°C) chances are your Dr would come out to do a home visit. These days (certainly out of hours) you are told to take them to the nearest NHS direct facility, probably a few miles away.

It’s OK if you don’t work, but most Drs are effectively office hours only and getting a non emergency appointment is not always easy.

Seems that GP’s practices are taking some of the workload hospitals used to carry too, maybe this is having an impact.

It is all probably done so it looks good in Government ‘targets’, but is it actually good for the patients?

Many would say the difficulty in getting a home visit from a Dr from your own practice, or even from someone at all, outweighs any theoretical gains.