The NHS

The other day while out and about, I managed to inflict a head wound upon myself. It was pretty deep and bleeding quite a lot, so after a bit of persuasion by my friends we went back into school and got it checked out by some clerks.

What followed was a series of conversations between me, my dad (over the phone) and the clerks at reception, and in the end I was sent to the unofficial sixth form common room to wait until I could be taken to the minor injuries place. I didn't particularly care at this point, I'd never made much of a fuss over injuries, but a senior staffer saw me and due to the fact that Ofsted were in that day, wanted me out of there. Yeah, it would have looked a bit bad if students were walking around with gaping head wounds, I understand.

So one of the clerks drove me to the minor injuries centre run by the NHS in the local town. We entered the waiting room, I gave the receptionist my details (strangely my religion was asked, to which I replied 'atheist' which was received very strangely: everyone seemed very shocked) and we sat down. I was promised that we would be moved to the top of the waiting list, but in the end I had to wait two and a half hours to be patched up. Yeah, with a bleeding head. So much for being a priority.

So you'd expect me to be critical of the NHS after this little episode. But I'm not. I think it's great that medical treatment is free in this country. Now, it's a bit different for me because a lot of people would have made a lot more fuss if they were in my situation with a bleeding head wound, but to me it is just a trivial matter.

All in all, I'd stupidly injured myself and been fixed for free. That's all that counts really, as long as the competence of the NHS staff doesn't interfere with the way the wound heals, and it didn't, so there is no reason to complain. Yes, the NHS needs to improve, it is certainly not without its faults, but I much prefer this system to one where I would have to pay every time I injured myself.

When you examine the situation in this country, the distribution of tax money, it really makes you wonder. We have millions of pounds being given to people who are simply too lazy to work or are exploiting the benefits system by becoming pregnant at an early age. This money would be better spent if it was directed to the National Health Service, it's as simple as that. They are under-staffed and underpaid, and they simply need more money which the government is busy handing out to those who simply do not need it.

Overall though, the NHS is doing fine. Exceptionally well for a free organisation. So my message is this; do not be so quick to criticise an institution that is neglected by the government and is free of charge to the masses; they're doing a bloody good job.

You're such a queer

Here's a realisation. One that I've come to after 5 and a bit years of going to a C of E comprehensive school in north Kent. Homophobia is commonly used in insults and is deemed nowhere near as offensive as a remark that is 'racist'. The same goes for other prejudiced insults. I wonder why this is.

Certainly, there are more people in the school from ethnic minorities than people who are gay, so this may have an effect.

What makes the whole situation even worse though is the fact that this school is a Church of England school. They're supposed to be peaceful and loving and endorse pretty much everything, yet there appears to be more prejudice there than at any other school I've visited. It's rather ironic really.

I think mainly, insulting someone with a homophobic remark isn't a clear sign of prejudice, more an attempt to degrade the victim because gay people are commonly more feminine than heterosexual men. However, there is still a lot of prejudice around - there probably always will be - and I think it is unfair that certain forms of it are treated far more seriously than others.

Sure, there is a history of racism and slavery worldwide, but if we are trying to achieve equality here, all prejudiced remarks need to be treated with the same attitude.

Eventually, I would like to see any insult - whether it is based on physical appearance, mental state or lifestyle choice - treated exactly the same. With light heartedness. Slowly, we are banishing viewpoints that see other people are inferior to the majority, and eventually I think there will be very little prejudice, but it would be great if the whole thing was taken a little less seriously.

For example, if somebody with a particular hair colour is insulted based on that particular trait, not much fuss is kicked up, but if somebody is insulted based upon their race or ethnicity a huge fuss is kicked up. But there's no difference. It's an insult based on appearance, that's all.

There are regular stories of primary school children being supposedly racist because they insult people in their classes who are from a different race than the majority in the class are - but they're not racist. They're simply acting as humans do. They exclude the one who is different, that they do not understand. There's nothing deeper than that, it's simply physical difference, the same as hair colour, eye colour, foot size, whatever.

So to conclude then, I think that we should treat all prejudiced remarks the same now - seriously - to banish prejudiced viewpoints, then we should work to ensure that insults are all just taken light heartedly. I don't see why it's such a big shock to people who immigrate here that they meet prejudiced remarks - it would be the same anywhere. As long as we all stay human, we will always be insulting each other, using character traits in these insults, so we should attempt to treat them less seriously and attempt to treat all insults, based on anything, the same way.

Anyway, just a thought. Thanks for reading.

Health and Safety

Ever since health and safety has become a business opportunity, it's become progressively more over the top. Regulations have become so strict in some cases that you are no longer allowed to replace the tank on a water cooler, instead you must wait until somebody who has been taught how to lift a water tank safely arrives and does it for you, because if they didn't, you would definitely break your spine if you tried to lift the tank.

Who are these people taught by? The all powerful master of water cooler tanks?

With all these regulations in place, it's a wonder that accidents still happen. Every few years rivers in the UK break their banks and flood entire areas and cause huge amounts of damage. Where were the health and safety checks for areas with a flood risk? The inspectors were probably looking around tower blocks in London winging about hazard assessment and faulty supply cables while their wives are in bed with postmen.

So, when health and safety checks are required and are perfectly reasonable, no attention is paid, and as a result of this, much more severe accidents happen than the ones which are being prevented constantly by teams of health-Nazis who get in the way of busy people while they are at work.

Nobody cares about petty injuries apart from the health and safety squad; if something breaks and a minor injury is caused, nobody usually minds. But if their house is flooded by several thousand tonnes of water and waste, usually they care.

Attention needs to be paid where attention is required, not where the most amount of money is offered. Preventing towns being flooded is more important than ensuring Percy doesn't staple his tongue to the printer again. So here's a message to any health and safety enforcers out there: pull your finger out and do your work where it's bloody required.