Yesterday is the day when our domestic help normally calls around but I had forgotten she was not due intil Friday this week. I particularly wanted to discuss my sister's state of health with her and to solicit advice on the best way forward. As our domestic help also works in a residential home, she is well aware of the range of provision currently out there 'in the market'. My sister appears to be in the best of hands at the moment and even has her own small room which I think is tremendously good given that she is a standard NHS patient. The unit in the Harrogate District hospital is called the 'Acute Frailty' unit. I found the following very informative information on the NHS website: 'The NHS Long Term Plan states that all hospitals with a 24 hour A&E will provide an Acute Frailty service for at least 70 hours a week, with the aim to complete a clinical frailty assessment within 30 minutes of a patients arrival in the Emergency Department. Identifying and assessing frail patients within a few hours of their arrival to hospital enables them to be treated by multi disciplinary teams in a timely manner. This means they can be discharged to their usual residence sooner, especially if a hospital admission would offer no additional benefit. Early identification and assessment of frail patients allow services to adapt their vulnerable adults’ care.' I had not heard of these units before but they sound a very sensible innovation as the NHS evolves and, of course, it may help to alleviate the perennial problem of bed-blocking. Today has turned out to be rather a peculiar kind of day. We had not anticipated going out as we thought that our domestic help would turn up today so we stayed in this morning. But some deliveries (a couple of blankets) arrived from Amazon which I could put to an immediate use. This morning, by an unfortunate accident, all of Meg's beaker of tea was split all over my bed so I needed to wash all of the bedding, including the duvet cover and this was quite a task. But it did give me the opportunity to build up the layers of bedding on my camp bed, ending with a newly purchased double blanket which will serve to keep all of the others in place. This morning, I assisted the manager get Meg up and dressed - this non-appearance of workers and my helping out is occurring more and more regularly these days. Moreover, when the second worker does not turn up is often first thing in the morning which means that as well as my normal running around to get things in place, I also need to act as a second helper.
After lunch today, Meg and I watched the second half of the Klu Klux Klan program, on YouTube and the two part work is entitled 'An American History' The second part brings the history of white attempts to dominate the political agenda right up to date and so although the Klan does not exist in its prior incarnation, it has spawned a whole ecology of fringe right wing groups who made their presence felt when the US Capital building was stormed and will no doubt again in the forthcoming election which is now less than a month away. Returning to domestic politics, there seems to have been a major and unanticipated upset in the elections being held amongst Tory MPs for their next party leader. After yesterday's vote in four candidates were reduced to three, it appeared that James Cleverley on the basis of some impressive conference performances and speeches had all of the momentum and was a clear front runner. But in today's election he came third (by one vote) and was therefore eliminated from the two names that go forward to the party membership in the country. Kemi Badenoch topped the poll followed by Robert Jenrick and so the wider membership will be asked to choose between two right wingers. The Labour party are reported to be rubbing their hands with glee because a more right wing leader of the Tory party will not appeal to the centre ground and undecided of the electorate when we get to that stage. In the meantime, we are left with a result that few predicted. The Tory party has been described, when it is in an electoral mode to choose a new leader, to be the most duplicitous electorate in the world which is one description whilst another is to make a compassion with a pit of snakes. What happens when the electorate is only 120 MPs, is that all kinds of games come into play - and these sometimes backfire. It may well be some of Cleverley's supporters, feeling him to be way ahead and almost secure in getting one of the two places will 'lend' their vote to another candidate in the hope of engineering a situation in which one of the other candidates is given votes in the hope that they are more 'beatable' in the final run-off. We shall probably never know the machinations that took place when the MPs voted this afternoon but Kemi Badenoch seems to be very well favoured by the Tory party membership as a whole as she seems to be a standard bearer for the right of the party and her speeches are full of the rhetoric that the Tory party needs to return to 'true' party values. Kemi Badenoch is so extreme (to many) that very recently she suggested that some 5%-10% of civil servants should actually be in prison for leaking official secrets. It is said of Kemi Badenoch that she is so naturally pugnacious that she would actually start an argument if she were to be put in a room by herself. In her defence, it said that she has a sharp brain (with a background in Engineering) and may be able to unify the various factions on the right of the party as well as appealing to some moderates. But one cynic has argued that the most right wing but white candidate may well secure the leadership but Badenoch has been a clear favourite with the Tory party membership for some time now so perhaps this is already a done deal. But already recriminations over the voting has started. It is reported that the Cleverly campaign is 'livid' with former defence secretary for leadership campaign 'mess-up One of our panellists on tonight's edition of Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge is Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie, who has the inside scoop on the blame game under way in the failed James Cleverley leadership campaign.
© Mike Hart [2024]