Home Secretary Theresa May has announced that she is suffering from type 1 diabetes. I had an inkling that she was ill. A friend of mine lives in her constituency and she sees her regularly at civic functions. She'd commented on the recent weight loss and asked if I'd picked up any hints. Strangely enough, I had heard one thing. A reasonably influential Tory, who I know had been at lunch with Ms May and had commented that she "seemed to be on a faddy diet". He had drawn all of the wrong conclusions. Interestingly enough, when he told me of how she was seemingly avoiding random items on the menu and being fussy, I too had drawn the wrong conclusion.
My own experience of diabetes is limited to my mum's ex partner. He has suffered with the disease for many years. He has managed it reasonably successfully most of the time, but his desire to keep his blood sugar low, caused many scares when he'd simply keel over. He broke his neck on one such occasion. On another occasion, my mum frantically called me. He'd gone to get fish and chips and disappeared. I found him outside the King Neptune, in the car with the Engine running, completely gaga. A bit of lucozade and he was right as rain. I couldn't understand why he took such risks, keeping his blood sugar on the very minimum it could safely be. He explained the long term risks of letting it get out of hand, and I realised that he wasn't simply being awkward.
I also hadn't realised that Councillor Robert Rams is a diabetic. He has published an open letter to Theresa May on his blog. If you are a diabetic, or live with one, it is well worth a read - http://robertrams.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/dealing-with-diabetes-an-open-letter-to-theresa-may/ - I believe that the more we discuss our health issues and strategies for dealing with them, the better we can deal with them. There is much I disagree with Cllr Rams about, but this is an insightful and useful blog on his part.
Perhaps the most interesting line in the blog is this - "Don’t ever go private! The best diabetes care is on the NHS – and my doctor is proof of this!" - like many people Councillor Rams has recognised the true value of the NHS when the chips were down. I think that ultimately the reason why rabid rightism will never truly destroy our society is because like Councillor Rams, we realise that if we need medical treatment, the NHS is the best option.
I hope that Cllr Rams takes a step back and considers an interesting point. As he concedes that the NHS delivers a better quality of care for his diabetes than the private sector, giving him peace of mind, maybe he should also consider the peace of mind of the many people in Barnet struggling with the effects of outsourcing on their lives and the lives of disabled and special needs relatives. The Your Choice Barnet fiasco has thrown into sharp focus the effects of the outsourcing on vulnerable people in Barnet. Councillor Rams is more than happy to have the peace of mind that the publicly funded and delivered NHS gives him. I thank the Lord that they do. All I ask Councillor Rams, who has shown that he can see the wood from the trees, when it suits him, that he afford other people in Barnet the same respect. I don't believe that a civilised society should force anyone to lose sleep over the care of them or their loved ones. When Robert Rams implores us "Don't ever go private" on his blog, for once I thoroughly agree with him. I sincerely hope the Home Secretary takes his advice and I would be even happier if the rest of the coalition heeded it as well.
Last week, one of our local Tories was teasing me. They know that Councillor Rams and myself share a degree of antipathy, perhaps only matched by Brian Coleman. They said "What would you do if Robert Rams had something sensible and useful to say". They suggested that hell would freeze over before I would commend him. Well how wrong they were. The Barnet Eye is always prepared to praise people when they say sensible things. In fact it is far more powerful when someone like Robert Rams states that the NHS is superior to a private health service, because he is clearly being honest and pragmatic. Lets hope that he gets lots of praise for his intervention and that he realises that if you are honest and talk sense, people will respect you and listen to what you have to say.
Showing posts with label theresa May Mp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label theresa May Mp. Show all posts
Tuesday, 30 July 2013
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
Why Gary McKinnon should not be extradited *** Updated
*** Updated 16/10/2012 - 13:55 ***
Home secretary Theresa May has withdrawn the extradition warrant against Mr McKinnon. I say credit where credit is due. Well done to Ms May. This case should never have been entertained. It is often said that the job of Home Secretary is perhaps the hardest of High Office as there is very little upside. Theresa May has demonstrated sound judgement in this issue. This is perhaps the first time that the coalition government has shown itself to be capable of making the right decision. It is of course ridiculous that the case has gone on for ten years.
In recent weeks, there has been much speculation about a possible successor to David Cameron, with Boris Johnson being touted as the natural replacement. Given his lack of High office, I think that would be a very risky appointment. William Hague at the Foreign Office has already been rejected by the electorate, George Osborne has shown the sound judgement of a lemming. Theresa May has certainly shown that she can take tough decisions with fairness and compassion. That is something many of us would like to see a little bit more of. I for one would say that this shows Ms May is a contender.
It is not often that this blog has had cause to praise Conservative ministers. This is one case where it is appropriate and deserved
***** Ends *****
There are some cases where the right and wrong of a case are so obvious that there really should be no argument at all. The case of Gary mcKinnon is one. The US Government wants to bang him up for 6o years for "allegedly" causing a million pounds worth of damage to their "top secret" military computer systems.
Let us imagine for a second that Mr McKinnon was not a hacker. Just imaging for a minute that he was a car enthusiast. Just imagine that he heard that he was on holiday in the USA and he had just bought a pizza. Just imagine that whilst he was walking down Sunset Boulevard in LA, he'd seen the Presidents brand new Ferrari, all nice and shiny, unlocked, with no one around and the keys in the ignition. Just suppose that, as he has Aspergers Syndrome, Mr McKinnon's love of cars and curiousity had got the better of him. Just suppose, he'd gone and jumped in the car, sat in the drivers seat, turned on the engine and revved it up to 4,000 revs. Just suppose, at that moment he saw the resident and his entourage coming from around the corner. Just suppose he'd jumped out and legged it.
Just suppose, that on returning to the car, the Presidents security detail found a slice of his pizza under the front seat and realised that the security of the president of the USA had been horribly compromised. Just suppose they reviewed all the relevent CCTV footage, did a massive review of how a lone nutcase could jump in the presidents car and rev the engine. Just suppose that they calculated that Mr McKinnon had used 17c worth of petrolrevving the engiune. Just suppose that a small amount of cheese from the pizza had stuck on the carpet under the presidents driving seat. Just suppose that to clean this at a professional steam cleaners had cost $35. Just suppose that the Secret Service had then spent £1 million on a complete review of the arrangements for the presidents security, retraining staff and making sure the procedures were in place, so that had McKinnon been a dangerous terrorist who wanted to plant a bomb in the car, rather than a young man with an interest who happened to let his curiosity get the better of him.
Now just suppose that the enquiry had only identified Mr McKinnon after he returned to the UK. The US government then issues an extradition order on the basis that Mr McKinnon had caused £1 million of damage to the system. Can you imagine that sucha case would be heard?
Sadly though, because most people dont' understand IT and what Mr McKinnon did, the fact he did the same thing in the comfort of his own front room means he is being dragged through an awful process that has ruined his life.
The harsh truth is that any damage Mr McKinnon could possibly have caused the US military was facilitated by their negligence. Secure IT systems did not have proper firewalls or password protection. If, as they claim "Data was damaged" then they didn't have proper back ups in place. If the cost of working out how he obtained access and fixing any corrupt records was really £1 million, then that indicates that the systems were not being properly managed. In the UK, you can be charged withs tealing electricity, if you hack someones computer. In Mr McKinnons case, this is aroud 17cents. Any other damage was caused by the negligence of the US government. They should thank Mr McKinnon for highlighting their own failings, rather than chasing him through the courts. If I was the US military, I'd employ a team of Gary McKinnons to stress test my computer systems and insure they are as damn near impregnable as possible.
If Theresa May does anything other than dismiss the claim, out of hand, she will have made the UK the laughing stock of the world. The rioght wing press prints millions of words denigrating how the UK always caves in to the EU over the mist trivial issues, but never say a dickeybird about the way our government lets the US push us around like a kids in a playground. Her Majestys government should put the interests of Her Majestys citizens first and tell the Yanks to sort themselves out before they start hounding people who haev merely had a curious look where they shouldn't.
More on the Story at the BBC website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19957138
Home secretary Theresa May has withdrawn the extradition warrant against Mr McKinnon. I say credit where credit is due. Well done to Ms May. This case should never have been entertained. It is often said that the job of Home Secretary is perhaps the hardest of High Office as there is very little upside. Theresa May has demonstrated sound judgement in this issue. This is perhaps the first time that the coalition government has shown itself to be capable of making the right decision. It is of course ridiculous that the case has gone on for ten years.
In recent weeks, there has been much speculation about a possible successor to David Cameron, with Boris Johnson being touted as the natural replacement. Given his lack of High office, I think that would be a very risky appointment. William Hague at the Foreign Office has already been rejected by the electorate, George Osborne has shown the sound judgement of a lemming. Theresa May has certainly shown that she can take tough decisions with fairness and compassion. That is something many of us would like to see a little bit more of. I for one would say that this shows Ms May is a contender.
It is not often that this blog has had cause to praise Conservative ministers. This is one case where it is appropriate and deserved
***** Ends *****
There are some cases where the right and wrong of a case are so obvious that there really should be no argument at all. The case of Gary mcKinnon is one. The US Government wants to bang him up for 6o years for "allegedly" causing a million pounds worth of damage to their "top secret" military computer systems.
Let us imagine for a second that Mr McKinnon was not a hacker. Just imaging for a minute that he was a car enthusiast. Just imagine that he heard that he was on holiday in the USA and he had just bought a pizza. Just imagine that whilst he was walking down Sunset Boulevard in LA, he'd seen the Presidents brand new Ferrari, all nice and shiny, unlocked, with no one around and the keys in the ignition. Just suppose that, as he has Aspergers Syndrome, Mr McKinnon's love of cars and curiousity had got the better of him. Just suppose, he'd gone and jumped in the car, sat in the drivers seat, turned on the engine and revved it up to 4,000 revs. Just suppose, at that moment he saw the resident and his entourage coming from around the corner. Just suppose he'd jumped out and legged it.
Just suppose, that on returning to the car, the Presidents security detail found a slice of his pizza under the front seat and realised that the security of the president of the USA had been horribly compromised. Just suppose they reviewed all the relevent CCTV footage, did a massive review of how a lone nutcase could jump in the presidents car and rev the engine. Just suppose that they calculated that Mr McKinnon had used 17c worth of petrolrevving the engiune. Just suppose that a small amount of cheese from the pizza had stuck on the carpet under the presidents driving seat. Just suppose that to clean this at a professional steam cleaners had cost $35. Just suppose that the Secret Service had then spent £1 million on a complete review of the arrangements for the presidents security, retraining staff and making sure the procedures were in place, so that had McKinnon been a dangerous terrorist who wanted to plant a bomb in the car, rather than a young man with an interest who happened to let his curiosity get the better of him.
Now just suppose that the enquiry had only identified Mr McKinnon after he returned to the UK. The US government then issues an extradition order on the basis that Mr McKinnon had caused £1 million of damage to the system. Can you imagine that sucha case would be heard?
Sadly though, because most people dont' understand IT and what Mr McKinnon did, the fact he did the same thing in the comfort of his own front room means he is being dragged through an awful process that has ruined his life.
The harsh truth is that any damage Mr McKinnon could possibly have caused the US military was facilitated by their negligence. Secure IT systems did not have proper firewalls or password protection. If, as they claim "Data was damaged" then they didn't have proper back ups in place. If the cost of working out how he obtained access and fixing any corrupt records was really £1 million, then that indicates that the systems were not being properly managed. In the UK, you can be charged withs tealing electricity, if you hack someones computer. In Mr McKinnons case, this is aroud 17cents. Any other damage was caused by the negligence of the US government. They should thank Mr McKinnon for highlighting their own failings, rather than chasing him through the courts. If I was the US military, I'd employ a team of Gary McKinnons to stress test my computer systems and insure they are as damn near impregnable as possible.
If Theresa May does anything other than dismiss the claim, out of hand, she will have made the UK the laughing stock of the world. The rioght wing press prints millions of words denigrating how the UK always caves in to the EU over the mist trivial issues, but never say a dickeybird about the way our government lets the US push us around like a kids in a playground. Her Majestys government should put the interests of Her Majestys citizens first and tell the Yanks to sort themselves out before they start hounding people who haev merely had a curious look where they shouldn't.
More on the Story at the BBC website - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19957138
Saturday, 29 January 2011
The very best Matthew Offord Soup waiter jokes
Earlier in the week, MP for Hendon Matthew Offord explained on Twitter how the Prime Minister mistook him for a soup waiter in the House of Commons restaurant. We commissioned a team of the Barnet Eye's finest joke writers to come up with a few other possible conversations :-
To William Hague.
Q: Can we give Peace a chance?
A: No, I had the peas yesterday, I'll have minestrone
To Theresa May
Q: I can give you super sex.
A: I'll have the soup please, I don't sleep with the servants
To Vince Cable
Q: Are you still considering the nuclear option
A: No, the bread and soup option will do fine
To the member for South Norfolk
Q: Hello Bacon
A: No, I'll have the Tomato soup today
We'd suggest that if he really wants to make a career of this waiter business, he nicks his old mate Mike Freer MP's catchphrase "I know nothing". It propelled a certain waiter from Barcelona to international superstardom.
(Please note the above conversations are purely inventions of the Barnet Eye jokes department, and have been specifically written to help cheer up our local MP as he recovers from his eye operation).
To William Hague.
Q: Can we give Peace a chance?
A: No, I had the peas yesterday, I'll have minestrone
To Theresa May
Q: I can give you super sex.
A: I'll have the soup please, I don't sleep with the servants
To Vince Cable
Q: Are you still considering the nuclear option
A: No, the bread and soup option will do fine
To the member for South Norfolk
Q: Hello Bacon
A: No, I'll have the Tomato soup today
We'd suggest that if he really wants to make a career of this waiter business, he nicks his old mate Mike Freer MP's catchphrase "I know nothing". It propelled a certain waiter from Barcelona to international superstardom.
(Please note the above conversations are purely inventions of the Barnet Eye jokes department, and have been specifically written to help cheer up our local MP as he recovers from his eye operation).
Monday, 2 August 2010
Allowancegate latest : Theresa May and the Tories show their true colours in Barnet
I live in the London Borough of Barnet. I actually love living here. That is why the antics of our greedy local Tory councillors sicken me. There is just such a lack of respect for the Council Tax payers, the Council Staff and the people they owe a duty of care to. They think we are stupid and blatently lie to the local press, often contradicting themselves in the same article. For instance, Council Leader Lynne Hillan said in the same interview
Sadly we are stuck with Hillan until her fellow Tories get sick of her or the next Council election in just under four years time (whichever happens sooner). My one hope for resolving the problem, for the benefit of the people of Barnet was that the National Conservative Party would put pressure on the local party to sack Hillan and reverse the rise. I nearly threw up my lunch when I checked the Hendon Times website today. Not only does it seem that National Party don't want to hang Hillan out to dry, it seems they are rallying to her cause. They actually sent one of the most senior Cabinet members to Barnet in a show of support. These things do not happen by accident. This is a clear message that the local Tory party must get behind Hillan and her cronies and ride out the storm. To add insult to injury, Theresa May attended a "citizenship ceremony" with Hillan (full story here) -
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8306838.Home_Secretary_visits_first_citizenship_ceremony/
So Theresa May believes that Lynne Hillan is the calendar girl for Citizenship in Barnet. It is 100% clear to me that the Conservative Party, far from being ashamed by the actions of Lynne Hillan, are actually backing her. I don't want to hear any excuses, such as the visit was planned ages ago. For Theresa May to photgraphed with Lynne Hillan at a citizenship ceremony is a massive two fingers up at everyone in Barnet from a party which is clearly out of touch and clearly doesn't care. There is an old saying that if you sleep with pigs you catch fleas. I suspect (and hope) that Ms May is having a damn good scratch right now.
'had been looking to adopt' the new pay scheme 'for some time'She then says in the same interview
'we hadn't really discussed it' ... 'only after the election councillors started saying we needed to look at something different'.
Sadly we are stuck with Hillan until her fellow Tories get sick of her or the next Council election in just under four years time (whichever happens sooner). My one hope for resolving the problem, for the benefit of the people of Barnet was that the National Conservative Party would put pressure on the local party to sack Hillan and reverse the rise. I nearly threw up my lunch when I checked the Hendon Times website today. Not only does it seem that National Party don't want to hang Hillan out to dry, it seems they are rallying to her cause. They actually sent one of the most senior Cabinet members to Barnet in a show of support. These things do not happen by accident. This is a clear message that the local Tory party must get behind Hillan and her cronies and ride out the storm. To add insult to injury, Theresa May attended a "citizenship ceremony" with Hillan (full story here) -http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/8306838.Home_Secretary_visits_first_citizenship_ceremony/
So Theresa May believes that Lynne Hillan is the calendar girl for Citizenship in Barnet. It is 100% clear to me that the Conservative Party, far from being ashamed by the actions of Lynne Hillan, are actually backing her. I don't want to hear any excuses, such as the visit was planned ages ago. For Theresa May to photgraphed with Lynne Hillan at a citizenship ceremony is a massive two fingers up at everyone in Barnet from a party which is clearly out of touch and clearly doesn't care. There is an old saying that if you sleep with pigs you catch fleas. I suspect (and hope) that Ms May is having a damn good scratch right now.
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