One Doc for 200,000 patients - cool.

Yes that is the story in local papers - and, to my horror, in a national, the Daily Express. There's a photo of my careworn face, saying, "Don't worry, 1:200,000 is no prob." So I have to write in to set the record straight. It's not one, it's two doctors for 200,000. So that's all right then. Better than in Mozambique. Possibly. No but the point is that most of the 200,000 are asleep. Except of course the ones who are ill. Oh never mind. If you really want to know what is going on in North Somerset, click here . I'm off to join the other 199,999 in sleepyland. Just don't get sick, ya hear?.

Tally Ho!

Well, no sooner said (see yesterday) than done. Take a look at this! Well done Mike, good to know that someone reads the Mabinogogiblog.

On a more serious note, the British Isles today are convulsed in a political frenzy that makes 2/11 (aka Votergate) look like a mild disagreement among friends.

Parliament Has Banned Fox Hunting. No more will the unattractive large six legged Redcoats predators be legally able to gallop across the English countryside until their baying hounds tear an attractive small four legged red coated predator to bits in front of they eyes of minors. No more will said minors be "bloodied" by having their face smeared with the ripped off brushy tail (marmalade cat colour with a fluffy white tip).

That would be the same Redcoats who tried to supress the colonial insurgents and terrorists who fought the War of Independence, Redcoats licensed by their monarch to enjoy this sport in order to stop them joining the French Revolution. According to George Monbiot anyway.

The Green Party is 100% anti-hunting, therefore I am too, except that I am not quite 100%. As a country dweller I can empathise with the gathering of the hunt in the fresh morning air of the Cotswold countryside, sharp with an October tinge of mist, ears aglint to musical braying of the hounds and county ladies, the smell of horseflesh, the ring of hooves on cobble, the soft slip of foot that rests on horse dung or hound poo. And then the Up Up and Awaaaay!! as the hunt gallops off into the . . . [that's enough hunting Ed.]

Hunting certainly is an exercise in sadism, but as a doctor I have to be in favour of exercise. And we must remember that sadists are people too.

Hey Mike!

Hey Mike (Yes, you, Michael Moore, Mr Fareinheit 9/11)

What is going on? One measley ageing link on your site to the Votergate scam?

Here am I a Brit physician trying to get on with the Index of Governance only I can't because the great Michael Moore is joining the rest of the media pundits in giving Votergate the Big Ignoral.

It's all here: www.greenhealth.org.uk/PolBushFraud.htm

Read. Then save us by speaking out, o mighty one!

Thanks a lot. Then we can all stop worrying.

Richard

Hey Ho, Eh?

The day starts with a note from the OSCE, saying they will do a final report on 2/11 in a month (they had oversight of the US election). Reply encouraging them to do their thing without fear or favour.

Then a message from Vera Gottleib with a piece from the Toronto Star* setting out the case for GWB to be tried for war crimes, so I shorten it and put it up.

So. Private Citizen does his bit towards overturning (a) the US election and (b) the most powerful person in the known universe, and all before 9 o'clock in the morning. Great things, these computers. Hope government officers don't try to kill me. Or hijack my browser.

*I really like Canada and Canadians. Not just the hugeness of it (and them), and not just because the Toronto Star seems to print the stories that other papers cross the road to avoid, but also because in Canada, octogenarians play ice hockey. When I heard that, I went straight down the road and started playing skater/roller hockey. (In the UK there is one ice rink per 900,000 head of population (I made that figure up) so ice time is too precious to allow 58 year olds to go play on it).

With the result that I am now Getting Fit. Booring.

Go quickly said the bird

Jacques Chirac (President of France) says yesterday he is "not at all sure" the world has become safer with the removal from power of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Damn right it hasn't. As I was saying in the letters page of the Guardian only the other day, if Tony Blair was in any other branch of the public service he would be working to targets. So where do you stand with regard to your terrorist targets, Mr Blair? At a rough glance I would say that since you and your boss declared war, there has been more, not less, terrorist activity. Much more. Mind you, this is only an impression, and for anything to exist it has to be measured, as any fule kno. Someone Should Be Measuring Terrorist Activity. Bombs. Bodies. Abductions. So That We Know When We Are Winning.

If the Government is counting and measuring terrorism, they certainly will not share it with us, not until the terrorism response rate begins to fall - which may not be for 25 years.

Why do I bother to write this? Why do you bother to read it? Because this, too, is part of our reality. Go, go quickly said the bird, for humankind cannot bear very much reality.

I'm going.

The freedom not to ask questions

The day starts with the news on Radio 4 Today. For non-Brits, that is a serious political talk show renowned for giving politicians the Rottweiler treatment; but despite the barking, it usually fails to bite. The killer questions are not put. Questions like -

"Are we winning the war on terror, and if so, what would losing be like?"
"If we are so keen on imposing democracy out of the barrel of a gun, ought we not to make sure that the systems we have in place are impeccably democratic?"
"Since the Government claims to have been freezing the assets of terrorists, how come they only froze al-Zaqarwi's assets after he shot to prominence by taking Ken Bigley hostage? Did they not know about him, or could they not be bothered?"
"Is Tony Blair naive or cynical?"

That's enough unasked questions for the moment - just a few off the top of the head.
Oh no - one more: "Why the media silence on the Bush election fraud suspicions?"

Writing this, I realise that I am effectively closing the door on my chances of doing radio broadcasts again, since the media can put up with just about anything except criticism.
Better the freedom of daily expression in BlogWorld than the constrained and edited forms of expression that pass for a free democratic press in the UK.

Launching Out

Everything that exists has to start sometime, with the possible exception of the Singularity that preceded the Big Bang, and what better, or worse, time to start than November 2004, at a time when the forces of Resident GeorgeW Bush are tearing into the heart of a third world city in a frenzied and misguided attempt to kill the Hydra of hatred that originates in his own unregenerated heart, in delusional pursuit of bringing democracy to a country 2 weeks after he himself has been "re-elected" in a procedure whose democratic rectitude is far from clear.

So as the monkey part of our nature kills and maims in one world, a different part grieves and pines for just a little tiny bit of rationality in another world.

Three decades ago I launched into politics thinking that there was a debate to be had. I still cling to the notion that reason might be of some use to us in the 21st century, but the hand that clings is the hand of a drowning man, and rationality is a straw.

Still, I have always held that green politics is like a parachute on a hang glider: it may not save your life, but it gives you something to do on the way down.

Today I have two parachutes, which is not a good idea. One is the investigation into what went on inside the computers on 2/11. The other is the Index of Governance.

Enough said for one night. Except that I forgive you, America.