The Spectator's notes

Wednesday, 17th October 2007

Charles Moore on what really did for Ming Campbell

Now that a small hurricane is plucking at the walls of Gordon Brown’s ‘big tent’, spare an uncharitable thought for those who recently crammed inside it. Digby Jones, the former head of the CBI, now made a peer and a minister, has to defend the abolition of taper relief on capital gains, the first move by this government that seems to have united absolutely all shades of business opinion in opposition. Lord Malloch Brown was persuaded to leave the comfort of the United Nations in return for a title, Cabinet rank (though not Cabinet membership) and some idea of saving Africa. He also managed to wangle a grace-and-favour residence in Admiralty House, but I wonder how long envious Labour MPs, disappointed in the hopes they placed in Gordon, will permit this. They may ask whether the country could not be run just as well if Lord MB lived in a house of his own. Finally, there is poor, dear Quentin Davies, who surrendered the safe Conservative seat of Grantham and Stamford in favour of a promise from Mr Brown to find him an equally safe Labour one. Is there any Labour constituency so abject in its loyalty to the now-tottering regime that it will contemplate Mr Davies, with his Toryish red face, pinstripe suits and fondness for his own speeches, and select him?

‘Did you sleep well?’ It is a kindly question for a host to ask of a guest, but nevertheless it always makes me uneasy. In my case, the answer is usually ‘No’. The combination of drinking not wisely but too well at dinner and then sleeping in an unfamiliar bed often makes me wake up at four in the morning. Obviously, this is my own fault, but if I were to answer truthfully I would worry my host, to no benefit. So I have developed politely evasive answers like, ‘The bed is wonderfully comfortable, thank you.’ Perhaps hosts need to find more indirect ways of asking the same question, so that they can tactfully gain useful information about their guest bedrooms. ‘Was the plumbing too noisy?’ for instance, allows you to say something like ‘There was a bit of a rumbling in the pipes.’ ‘Were you too cold?’ permits you to indicate that actually — a far more common problem nowadays — you nearly died of heat.

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MK

October 18th, 2007 11:07am Report this comment

Your statement about nurses is crude, insensitive and harsh but actually fair. In fact you could also include us doctors! Sadly you have missed the point about hospital infections. Medical staff unwittingly contribute to the problem. Male doctors should probably never wear ties and smart trousers. Jackets and long sleeves have already being outlawed in some hospitals! It will be too expensive to implement full uniforms and changing rooms for NHS staff so the infection rates are unlikely to drop dramatically. MRSA, C.Diff, VRE, MREC etc. are not just excerbated by bed pressures and targets. The hospital environments are not properly cleaned(this really started in the 1980s) and the designs of these new PFI hospitals(early 2000s) are grossly inadequate with too few private, "side" rooms and too few disposable curtains. The spores of C.Diff can remain in the environment even when chlorine-based agents have been used. Once you have dealt with C.Diff, you then need to consider that there will be more and more resistant microbes emerging which have evolved as a result of modern farming practices involving blanket antibiotic use. Ordinary Joanna Public carries some of these resistant superbugs around her even when feeling well. This government is quite cluelesss about hospital infections and should have imported the more expensive but "safer" methods of providing healthcare used widely in continental Western Europe. Both main parties are responsible for the current mess. Michael Howard's 2005 election bullet points are beginning to look more and more sensible each week......

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