Um-bongo-bongo

Interviews, compare and contrast

I listened to two interviews today. I had the misfortune to hear the spin, evasion and deception of the health secretary, Rhyming Slang Hunt. I ten had the good fortune to hear the Notts openers Alex Hales and Michael Lumb.

The politician:

“We've given,” they said, “£500m to A&E Departments”.

I'm not going to Google 'given' for an online dictionary definition. The word has a plain and simple meaning in normal English. If you're given something, you then have something you didn't have to start with. The £500m comes from savings and efficiencies (both are tory for 'cuts'). What has happened is that a small portion of the money cut from the NHS has been surrendered by the treasury and returned to assist ailing (oops, sorry) A&E Departments that are not hitting their targets.

Here's a Hunt-ism:

“90% of A&E patients see a doctor or a nurse within fifty minutes.”

Deconstructing the spin: “doctor or nurse” will invariably mean nurse, as in triage nurse, with a further interminable wait for a doctor.

I don't want to minimise the good work triage nurses do, but they are used to massage statistics, and they generally confirm that, yes, you need to see a doctor, and soon. Which is probably why you've pitched up at A&E, isn't it? In simple English, a redundant exercise.

Contrast the whole pile of steaming rubbish with:

The sportsmen:

Lumb and Hales were open, honest, engaging and articulate. They gave interesting answers without a trace of evasion, spin, or agenda. Great stuff and a complete contrast to what you get from the chattering classes at westminster.

Bongo Bongo Land

While Cam-moron and Rhyming Slang take with one (hidden) hand and return (part only, strings attached, with a huge fanfare-hand), another politician reckons we need to stop giving financial aid to Bongo Bongo Land.

A €84,000 a year MEP with the five year old's brain. What a bargain to the taxpayer that is.

I think I'd rather live in Bongo Bongo Land than here, where we're 'represented' in the European Parliament by someone like Godfrey Bloom. Honestly. His name's Godfrey. If this is what democracy gets you, I want no part of it and will continue to find something more interesting and useful to do on voting days, like wash the lawn or mow the dog. Why waste your time? What do you get? If a pre-pubescent came out with such garbage you'd slap them down and try to get some sense into them.