In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep,
though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Where is Newcastle?

It's quite incredible that the Department for Communities and Local Government doesn't seem to know the difference between Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Newcastle Staffordshire.

It transpires that this beacon of government excellence gave £2m of our taxes to Newcastle Borough Council by mistake, when it should have gone to Newcastle-upon-Tyne City Council for encouraging local businesses. Quite why it should be rewarded in this way for doing its job is another issue.

The interesting finale to this fiasco is that the government is only asking for the return of £970,000 of the £2,000,000. So I wonder what has happened to Newcastle, Staffordsire's unexpected windfall of over £1m. And, if the government had informed Newcastle-upon-Tyne that it was due this £2m, why they didn't question its non-arrival.

Here's a tip for the civil servants. You can tell the difference by phoning the two councils, if the person answering the phone seems to be talking a long forgotten dialect of Swahili, that is Newcastle-upon-Tyne. If you don't need an interpreter that is Newcastle, Staffordshire.

NHS Waste

Here is a link to a plea from one NHS hospital trust for the return of crutches by ex-patients, the internet is littered with them, pleas not abandoned crutches. In a small hospital like Cromer 12 pairs of crutches are lost each month and each pair costs at least £20.00. The Mid Yorkshire NHS Trust buys over 200 pairs per month. That is a lot of money over a year.

I'm particularly interested because this weekend I returned a pair of crutches to my local hospital, nearly a year after I needed them after a fractured calcaneum (heel). If Cromer hospital loses 12 pairs a month, I can only wonder how many are lost nationally each month and what it must cost the NHS. Surely a returnable deposit could be asked for. Or is that going against one of the sacred founding principles of the NHS? I often think it's a shame prudence wasn't one of the NHS's founding principles.