The NHS is a pain in the..................

My Mum has been undergoing dental work for some time now and had her final tooth out last Wednesday in preperation for sparkly gnashers to go in. When I saw her yesterday, she had pain and swelling from the extraction so we resolved to find her a dentist.

As it is bank holiday her dentist (and all others it seems) will not open till Tuesday, so I contacted the Dental Hospital in Manchester. The Answerphone told me to contact the Manchester Royal Infirmary giving the appropriate telephone number which I phoned. A few rings later I was greeted by a sullen receptionist who, once I had explained the situation, said nothing further but my phone started to ring somewhere else - yep, back to the dental hospital that had referred me in the first place to the sullen receptionist.

I rang the MRI back, got a different, slightly less sullen receptionist, who, once I had pointed out the circular direction my enquiry was going in transferred me to Accident and Emergency.

A much more helpful gentleman in A & E informed me I could bring Mum to them but they would only issue painkillers. He gave me a further number to ring to try to find the emergency dentist that lurks around Manchester.

I rang the number, answered lots of questions, the postcode seemed quite important even though I would have to take Mum to where the dentist was, but by this time I would have even offered to have my Iris scanned to stop Mums dramatic moans of agony.

Once our lives had been logged on some database or other, I was informed that there was an appointment left with the emergency dentist but we had to be assessed by a dental nurse from NHS direct to decide if we were worthy to be seen and we would receive a call in the next hour.

About 20 minutes later the phone rang. A message had been left by NHS direct to say they would call back in 15 minutes. I'm not sure why it went to answerphone as I tried the phone on my mobile which rang no problem, I can therefore only assume the NHS Direct rang me as I was on the phone to the emergency dentist line .

15 minutes came and went, no call. After 45 minutes I rang back to be told that NHS Direct had closed down the call. They would put another one through and someone would call me in the next hour............but there were no longer any appointments left with the dentist!

Now the reason Mum relies on me to take her to the dentist, is because 3 years ago, my fully mobile mum had been admitted to hospital for something like Norovirus, but whilst in hospital,

broke her hip, after trying to get out of bed because she had been waiting for a bed pan for so long that she was afraid she would wet the bed.

After protestations from my sister that Mum was complaining of pain in her hip, they reluctantly carried out an x-ray (so they say) and confirmed that there was just some bruising. They continued to treat Mum as a moaner for the next 6 days - just a bit of bruising, keeps going on about it and so on. Day 6 my sister managed to persuade them to x-ray the hip again. Oops, the hip had been broken but missed when they checked the first x-ray (if one was ever done) but no apology for leaving Mum in agony for the last 6 days.

So, that's the end of my semi - rant at the incompetancy of the NHS but I also want people to know how my Mums been treated because at the end of each of their incompetant processes, their sullen attidtude and their crap computer systems, there is someone in pain.

Iran goes to the Dogs

I don't agree with invading other countries nor with trying to impose any other system or culture onto them that they don't want but I have just come across the exception to this rule.

Iran needs invading. Not because they are Muslim, not because they have (or are in the process of getting) nuclear weapons but because they have now declared a 'fatwah' on pets, and specifically dogs, calling them 'unclean'.

Dog owners are apparantly 'imitating the West' and devotion to pets will result in 'evil outcomes' because many people in the west love their dogs more than their wives or children.

Yet this is the regime whose people despise it, whom the regime shoot down if they dare to protest, and the regime that will carry out any terrible atrocity in order to consolidate it's authority. It's no wonder that the Iranian people are taking refuge in the wonderful world of dogs (and other pets).

Dogs don't declare fatwahs on innocent people, they are devoted to their family, they give unconditional love and, should Iran be ruled by dogs, it would be the best country in the world.

Keep up the good work Iranians. Keep your pets, and keep to your dream of a society without Ayatollahs . Totalitarian regimes can only survive if the populous allows itself to be bullied and you are doing a pretty good job of showing that you won't be.

Corporate Communism

Humiliation techniques are a well known method of making people adhere to the tenets of communism. People made to write apology notes for misdemeanors, made to sit in the airplane position, made to wear a notice saying 'capitalist pig' around neck - you know the story. However, it would appear the capitalists have adopted the same methods.

Being capitalism, the reward isn't being welcomed with open arms into the Populist Peoples Party after seeing the light but merely receiving a pay cheque.

This weeks winner of the Corporate Communism award goes to ASDA - Wythenshawe (and possibly all Asdas).

Not content with the completely pointless humiliating post of 'Greeter' (Hello, Hi there, Hi, have a good day and so on), in todays humilation corner was a man who looked well past statutory retirement age (if there still is one) made to stand opposite the tills with a placard saying 'there's space here'. His job was to move to the least empty till with his ridiculous placard shaped like a hand with a pointing finger and stand there and...................stand there.

How thick the moronic Asda management are, who think the Brits can't work out the best till to queue at, is anybodys guess. I can tell you though, that there is little to choose between being humiliated into accepting communism just to survive and being humiliated by Asda just to survive.

Deluded

I made the mistake of buying the MoS today. Peter Hitchens was in full rant.

According to the great Hitchen, children suffer terribly if their mothers work and most of societies' social problems are created by the absence of mothers.

No explanation though, of why the children who have children, who live on benefits and spend all their time with their delightful offspring, are the ones whose kids have asbos, criminal records, no aspirations and follow their wonderful child mothers into child motherhood themselves.

All my friends work. They've worked while they brought their kids up and, sadly, we are all now at that age where the kids have grown up and are at University or actually working. Now according to the Hitchens logic surely they should be delinquents who refuse to contribute to the 'Big Society'.

So why the Hitchen attack on working mothers?

Could it be that as a committed Tory (he protests far too much!) he is using his media role on behalf of the government in order to demonise working mothers? Then, in the knowledge that come October, the Comprehensive Spending Review will mean there will be so many unemployed in this country, that the best way to plug the gap will be to oust women from their hard earned jobs.

It may sound like an easy solution but when the country is overloaded with feral, Staffie walking, amoral and violent youngsters, bred off the forced out of work mothers living on a diet of Jeremy Kyle and Netto burgers, then remember how it all came about.

Cameron becomes new UKIP Chairman

Bloody hell. Another special relationship? Mr Cameron has called the countries' relationship (USA and UK) but has he not realised that President Obama said the same about Mexico?

Does that relationship include when Obama slags us off for the BP oil spill, Lockerbie bombers, and make no mistake, America won World War 2 on its own, even before they set foot in Europe - now that really is impressive.

Cameron has just proved his Blair 2 credentials. Arse lick the PC President of the USA, accept that the UK is the root of all evil, and of course, confess that the British presence in WW2 was just as a complimentary shoe shiner for the US.

In fact, Cameron is such a thick brown noser he should really be the Chairman of UKIP. Now all he needs is a Range Rover Discovery with tinted windows..........................