Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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Spin, not
face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the Government's
chosen method of communication. Ordinary
people are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question
which throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member
might reveal himself or herself to be a human being like
us, and not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she
might tell the truth.
Ann Leslie - Daily Mail, September
16, 2004
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After
a clear vote against them, we still got eight non-elected
Regional Assemblies. When we vote against the EU Constitution,
we'll get them anyway. Letter from P.Cove, Aylesbury,
BUCKS.- Daily Mail, January 31, 2005
THE
TIMES slavish support for the Government worries some
members of the paper's staff, not to mention any perspicacious
readers who are left. Political editor Philip Webster
was questioned about this when he addressed colleagues
as part of an in-house 'masterclass' exercise. Small wonder.
One of his Blair-worshipping subordinates wrote a news
story yesterday poo-pooing the row over Labours anti-semitic
poster mocking Michael Howard, saying it was merely £5million
worth of 'free publicity' for the party. Ephraim Hardcastle
- Daily Mail, Febrauary 2, 2005
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When
our nurses had time to care
Royal
College of Nursing General Secretary Beverly Malone says patients
in hospital these days are older, sicker and frailer. I wonder
where she got that idea from. When I trained in the Fifties, there
were two geriatric wards (now called 'care of the older person)
with 24 beds each. Patients admitted to these wards were rarely
returned to the outside world and could hardly have been older,
sicker and frailer.
But
they rarely - if ever - developed bed sores, because of the excellent
nursing care they received. They were kept clean and well fed,
and were never made to feel that they were a burden on the nursing
staff. They had devoted nurses caring for them, who had chosen
to be there. The patients were familiar with nurses caring for
them. There were no unfamiliar agency nurses confusing patients
in those days.
Older,
sicker patients can still be found in hospitals wards, but too
many are discharged long before they are sufficiently recovered.
We now see frail elderly patients going through 'conveyer belt'
treatment, being discharged from hospital only four days after
hip replacements in order to keep to targets.
Huge
numbers of sick, old, frail people are now being cared for by
nurses and others in the community. Their carers are overwhelmed,
trying to cope with a severe lack of staff and equipment. Only
about 20% of care is actually given in hospital.
I
agree with graduate education for some nurses, but let's bring
back the state enrolled nurses (SENs), whose choice, in many cases,
was to remain by the bedside. We need 'tissue viability assessments',
'Waterlow scores' and the other assessment tools now used by nurses,
but its no use just having them on paper - someone needs to be
putting it all into practice.
As
for bed linen shortages, Dr Malone, we did sometimes have them
back in the old days. I distinctly remember washing sheets and
drying them in the sluice, in preference to using the paper ones
provided for emergencies. Mrs Peggy Pryer, RN, SCM,NDNCert,
RHV, Canterbury, Kent - Daily Mail, 8/2/ 2005.
Encouraging
laziness
After
a particularly bad attack of colitus, I was admitted to hospital
for a week of complete bed rest, which meant I was not allowed
out of bed at all. During that time, I saw everything that happened
on the six-bed-ward.
A
young girl in her 20s was admitted for 'tests' the day after me,
and over the six days of her stay, she did not have a wash, brush
her teeth, or comb her hair. The water in the vases of flowers
was green and could be smelt across the ward.
The
flowers died, and it was left to visitors to throw them away.
Cleaning was almost nonexistent. Other patients on the war complained
that there were never any toilet rolls or soap, and one nurse
even took to carrying her own soap with her.
Nurses
were often sitting chatting at the nurses' station, and were never
around when needed. They did only what was absolutely necessary,
and that didn't include caring for patients.
Surely
the situation can only get worse as nurses are expected to get
a degree. There must be many young girls who would make good nurses,
but are not academically gifted. Name and address supplied.
Letter to the Daily Mail, 8/2/ 2005.
Bad
nursing model
What
hope is there for a return to acceptable standards of hygiene
and care in NHS hospitals when the General Secretary of the Royal
Nursing College, Beverly Malone, instead of directing her attention
to discipline, supervision and individual accountability, blames
'deplorable nursing practices' on 'system failures' (letters)?
Instead
of accepting that a lack of a 'hygiene environment' is the responsibility
of senior nursing supervisors and ward nurses, she implies that
it is something that simply has to be borne by them. When something
goes wrong, no individuals are to blame - it's all down to 'the
system'. No wonder the nurses of yesteryear are appalled at today's
nursing standards. Malcolm Cummings, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcs.
- Letter to the Daily Mail, February 8, 2005
Nurses
can't be nurses
I've
been a qualified nurse in various capacities since 1972, and as
an 'oldie', I was proud of the fact that I kept myself up to date
and was more than a match for younger nurses in terms of new knowledge
that might help my patients. I hold advanced life-support certificates
for adults and children, but never had a degree or any intention
of getting one - I thought that would benefit only my CV, and
not the patients.
Sadly,
I'm now leaving nursing as I hate the way it's gone.
People
are now made to feel inferior if they're not continually chasing
promotion, attending meetings about things that seem bizarre or
researching into something that has no practical use. I've never
had a post higher than sister because I'm a nurse, not a manager,
and this is looked down on by young, ambitious types.
I
recently left a busy intensive care unit at a leading London hospital,
where the building was state-of-the-art but, sadly, the unit was
not. I was upset by the endless jumping through hoops needed to
keep up with the latest trend in nurse training.
On
paper, there was a huge number of staff. But they were organised
into meetings, office time, study time, project time and teaching
sessions, which were not very relevant, so there were days when
few of us were working with the patients. Many staff were more
concerned with pursuing the latest 'nursing models' than pulling
together to get the job done. I've seen junior staff near tears
about their workload, while on the same unit, another nurse and
a tutor calmly chatted about assignments.
I
spent many 13-hour shifts with only water and coffee to sustain
me because I felt I had to be there for the patients. It's galling
when you know another person of the same grade would have spent
most of her shift 'supervising' rather than doing anything - and
you can guess which one was the favourite with senior management.
I'm sad to be leaving. I've met some wonderful people, but I can't
cope with the red tape, the 'initiatives', the dog-eat-dog attitude.
As
one lovely male Australian nurse told me after only six weeks
here: "We eat our own." How true and how sad. Judith
Thompson, Doncaster - Letter to the Daily Mail, February 8, 2005
A
few nursing myths
Much
criticism of the state of nursing (Letters) might be true, but
it needs balance. I was surprised to read the claim that bedsores
used to be unheard of. That's not how I remember it.
When
I started in 1979, bedsores were plentiful. In those days, they
weren't even covered and dressed but simply coated with a ghastly
substance called mecurochrome and left to the fresh air. Unfortunately
it wasn't only the fresh air that settled on those open sores.
In those days, for a leg ulcer to heal was almost unheard of.
Geriatric
wards stank of urine, the arms and legs of patients often all
over the place after strokes which were considered impossible
to rehabilitate. Some wounds were treated with egg white and oxygen
without the slightest basis in science. Things were done simply
because 'Sister said so'.
In
many ways, educating nurses in medical theory has been much needed
so they can question some of the unscientific practices which
were routinely carried out in the name of nursing. Although educated,
most new students, many of them mature people, enter the profession
with a desire to care for the sick. Why assume that education
and compassion are mutually exclusive? Can't we have both - must
nurses be kept dumb in order to express care?
I
qualified under the much-maligned Project 2000 scheme, but I had
already spent 15 years as an auxiliary and certainly don't consider
myself 'too posh to wash' - a nice catchphrase but, in most cases,
very far from the truth. P. Congrave, RGN, DipHE, Atherston,
Warwickshire - Letter to the Daily Mail, February 8, 2005
For
the health of our democracy, we, the people of the United Kingdom,
must find a way to force Mr Blair to resign
Such
defiance of the democratic process and the will of the majority
of we people of the UK, must be exposed by voters as a matter
or urgency, and not just in the two by-elections we have had this
July and the European elections in June 2004. But how can this
be done?
The
most effective way of getting our deceitful PM to resign would
be to mobilise the army of Labour MPs currently in the House of
Commons and get them to demand it, the loss of their seat to be
a penalty if they did not. All voters in Labour-held constituencies
need to write a letter along these lines to their local Labour
MPs:
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Dear
Despite
his absolute and unequivocal assurances over the past year
of the serious risk to our security of Saddam Hussein's
'weapons of mass destruction', Prime Minister Blair
has admitted, that the threat was non-existent. For that
critical error of judgement and for his gross incompetence
in handling this very important issue, I ask you to take
immediate steps to ensure that Tony Blair does the honourable
thing and resign without delay..
I
would therefore be much obliged if you would propose and
help mobilise a Parliamentary vote of 'No Confidence' in
Mr Blair which, despite Labour's huge majority, would leave
the PM with no option but to resign.
If
I get no reply to this letter, I shall assume you will continue
to support Mr Blair as our Prime Minister. In such circumstances
I shall not vote for you in the forthcoming General Election.
Signed:
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Simple,
non-violent, protest letters along these lines on a variety of
issues could be the basis for re-vitalising our democracy and
increasing voters' interest and participation in politics. Download
a printable copy of the above letter here.
There
is another way for the voice of the silent majority to be heard,
a voice that made sure broken promises would not only be revealed,
but punished in subsequent elections.
In
the year available before the General Election expected in 2005,
many topics are available as ammunition, each one asking questions.
A weapon for our purpose will be the results of Opinion Polls
in individual constituencies using ICM, NOP, Gallop, Mori
or YouGov.
Questions
suggested for this purpose are listed here.
CAST
YOUR VOTE ON A VARIETY OF OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES HERE.
Current
and prospective Parliamentary candidates of all Parties running
for election could share a platform at public forums in every
constituency. They would be presented with the results of
polls on this issue expressed by the majority of voters in that
constituency.
The candidates could be asked if their own views and that of their
Party manifesto corresponded with the polls, and if not, how they
intended to represent the will of the majority of local voters.
Local and National Press, Radio and TV coverage would be arranged
and the results published on this web site.
Here
is another powerful strategy for using your vote effectively in
the forthcoming General Election. Send your sitting and prospective
MPs a letter defining your requirements if they want your vote.
This example deals with the proposed
EU Constitutional Treaty.
Your
letters would end: "If you do not answer
this letter, I shall take it that you intend to follow the Government
line. I shall act accordingly in the forthcoming General Election.
Or
why not create a questionnaire that you send to all the candidates
in your constituency, getting them to give yes/no answers to questions
of your choice, and ending it with the same paragraph(above).
Download
a printable example of the questionnaire.
It
is high time for the people of this United Kingdom to stop allowing
themselves to be manipulated by politicians. We need our representatives
in Parliament to genuinely reflect the view of the majority in
their own constituency, even if this means going against their
personal and/or their party's policy. While they may argue their
case, hoping to change the minds of the majority in their constituency,
they should ultimately be obliged to reflect the majority view
of those who elect them.
It
will be argued by politicians of all parties that most voters
don't have the knowledge necessary to express an opinion on important
subjects at issue, and that our vote is a form of delegated democracy.
We should argue that it is their duty to ensure that we voters
do have ready access to such information as is necessary to form
an intelligent opinion. That, after all, is one main purpose of
Opposition Parties in our Parliamentary Democracy.
Most
important of all, such proceedings would rekindle in voters their
latent interest and obligation to cast their vote, knowing that
the candidate of their choice would be more likely to act in accordance
with their wishes. A much higher turnout in elections would be
the result.
Contact
your local Party Chairman. Gain his support for setting up public
forums in your constituency on these, as well as any other relevant
topics, well before the next General Election expected in 2005.
You should then, depending on the integrity of the candidate of
your choice, feel fairly certain that your view on any subject
being debated in Parliament will more accurately be reflected
by your representative in that assembly.
