Looking back at my most recent posts I find that not as many as I thought are about the antics of Esperanza Aguirre. Clearly something needs to be done to redress this situation, so let’s take a look at the latest advances in health care in Madrid. It was announced last week that Espe, being the formidable defender of individual freedom that she is, has signed an agreement with the Catholic Church in Madrid which will permit priests to belong to the ethics committees in public hospitals in the region. These committees have to take important decisions on issues such as palliative care for the terminally ill, or on the issue of abortion. I can just see it now, the priest taking his time and looking at all the arguments to decide on whether to support an abortion or not. It's a policy development that might have been considered a tad reactionary even in the time of the Black Death.
I think following this decision there is definitely a gap in the market for an insurance policy promising immediate evacuation from Madrid in the event of serious illness. It’s bad enough being sick without having someone overseeing your case who decides that as Jesus received no palliative care on the cross then it will be spiritually enriching for the rest of us to die in agony too. That’s assuming they don’t have to operate. If you need surgery in one of Espe’s new privatised hospitals you’d better hope that the person who drives down to collect the sterilised medical equipment from one of the remaining public hospitals hasn’t taken the day off sick themselves. Rumours that priests will also soon be involved in carrying out police investigations or in deciding tactics for Real Madrid’s next game are not so crazy that they can be safely discarded in Espe’s empire. Those of you who live elsewhere in Spain may feel safe, but remember that Madrid is just the laboratory where La Lideresa practises for what she hopes will be bigger opportunities to come.
I think following this decision there is definitely a gap in the market for an insurance policy promising immediate evacuation from Madrid in the event of serious illness. It’s bad enough being sick without having someone overseeing your case who decides that as Jesus received no palliative care on the cross then it will be spiritually enriching for the rest of us to die in agony too. That’s assuming they don’t have to operate. If you need surgery in one of Espe’s new privatised hospitals you’d better hope that the person who drives down to collect the sterilised medical equipment from one of the remaining public hospitals hasn’t taken the day off sick themselves. Rumours that priests will also soon be involved in carrying out police investigations or in deciding tactics for Real Madrid’s next game are not so crazy that they can be safely discarded in Espe’s empire. Those of you who live elsewhere in Spain may feel safe, but remember that Madrid is just the laboratory where La Lideresa practises for what she hopes will be bigger opportunities to come.
5 comments:
Graeme, If I may ask, how old were you in the 1970s?
No such thing as indiscreet questions, only indiscreet answers...
Forgive me for going Galician and answering a question with another question Colin - but where is the connection between my age in the 1970's and a post on religion and health care? If you want your answer you have to give your reasons.
I'd like to know whether you actually experienced the pre-Thatcher years. At an age when you could put them in perspective. Then and now.
This is not because I think Mrs T got everything right or is free from criticism for significant errors but because I believe it's helpful in assessing her to really know what came before.
Then it's possible to assess whether Espe is in the same box.
Without having anything like your grasp of her policies for the Madrid AC, I have some doubts about this.
Feel free to allay them -:)
Apologies if I used the wrong post to ask my original question. It was just the top one on my machine. My time-related query didn't strike me as time-dependent but I suppose it was.
A propos . . .
I've just read this from a Times columnist:- "The question that centre-left progressives like me will have to answer is whether we're bothered [about Brown's looming demise]. Tony Blair's mission, unexplained even to himself perhaps, was to make it not matter whether the Tories came back, as they would be hemmed in by Blairism just as Labour was by Thatcherism."
As I implied earlier, some of us think that Mrs Thatcher's real achievement was to change the rules of political engagement - or however you like to call it - and so made way for Tony Blair and a true centre-left party. Opposed by a true centre-right party, under Cameron.
Well there's a lot there to deal with Colin. I did experience the pre-Thatcher years, I was in my late teens when she came to power. I neither look back on it as being a dark, awful period nor do I feel it justifies what Thatcher went on to do. I don't want to overplay the Espe-Thatcher comparison, it's not my invention. I don't know if you have ever read the account of when a trembling Aguirre finally met up with her heroine at a book signing in Madrid. It would be almost touching if it wasn't for the repugnant nature of the principal characters. Sort of Mary Poppins crossed with Nightmare on Elm Street. My point is that the the link between Aguirre and Thatcher comes from her camp, not just fromm bloggers like me.
Your suggestion that Thatcher paved the way for a true centre left and true centre right party would probably in itself be enough to send her mad, if it wasn't for the fact that she seems to have reached that stage already. Actually, I don't believe it to be the case with New Labour, I certainly don't think its the case with Cameron and Co.
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