As one who loves a futile gesture, I certainly did, and indeed, the total is hovering around 3 million as I speak. Unfortunately there was a petition a couple of days ago, signed by 16 million people who wanted to stay, and that wasn't enough, and this won't be either. Feel free to sign it if you, like me, like closing doors days after the horse got the hell out of there. My mind is now full of things like maybe Labour (sans Corbyn) could win the next election and orders another referendum, or even just cancels the result, but these thoughts are like the desperate mental bargaining that goes on when your favourite girlfriend leaves you and you're desperate to get her back.
Like nearly half of the population, I am waking up feeling like I've been kicked in the stomach and the feeling isn't going away. Here in Cardiff where I live, there was a sound majority to remain. Given the 150 year history of ethnic blending that has been going on here, that isn't surprising. But Wales as a whole voted to leave, a pretty astonishing result when one considers that the Principality has been a net receiver of funds from the EU to the tune of a quarter of a billion pounds annually, as parts of it are among the most economically deprived in Europe. To my knowledge there has been nothing said about making this shortfall good by the leavers, or wreckers as I am now calling them. Lots of international companies have based themselves here because of the highly advantageous subsidies they receive from the EU. They are now set to live in their droves, and Wales is facing a surge in unemployment which will make the steel job losses look like very small beer.
Sunday, 26 June 2016
Friday, 24 June 2016
And here's the result: racism 1- tolerance didn't
I've been on this earth for 65 years, and I can't remember ever feeling this bad about a political decision. I suppose our disastrous decision to attack Iraq in 2003 comes close, but even then I don't recall such a sense of impending doom as I do the morning.
On Wednesday, along with a fair fraction of the British public, I secured a stash of euros against the possibility of Brexit, yet I can't feel good about it. All I can think is that the far right has scored an unprecedented victory, and soon we will be seeing a government which will make the current lot seem like a bunch of trots. Boris in charge, Gove his captain; the prospect is chilling.
Who is to blame? Is it Cameron and Osborne, whose lack-lustre campaign must have convinced absolutely no one? Or is it Corbyn, who was so unenthusiastic about his endorsement of Remain that nearly all the northern labour heartlands completely ignored him? They are all factors, but I think bottom line it shows the strength in depth of racism in this disgraceful country of ours. Enoch Powell would be proud.
On Wednesday, along with a fair fraction of the British public, I secured a stash of euros against the possibility of Brexit, yet I can't feel good about it. All I can think is that the far right has scored an unprecedented victory, and soon we will be seeing a government which will make the current lot seem like a bunch of trots. Boris in charge, Gove his captain; the prospect is chilling.
Who is to blame? Is it Cameron and Osborne, whose lack-lustre campaign must have convinced absolutely no one? Or is it Corbyn, who was so unenthusiastic about his endorsement of Remain that nearly all the northern labour heartlands completely ignored him? They are all factors, but I think bottom line it shows the strength in depth of racism in this disgraceful country of ours. Enoch Powell would be proud.
Tuesday, 21 June 2016
The human body: stranger than you can imagine
In my last blog I wrote about some recent discoveries that shed new light on the role of bacteria in human beings. When I was a medical student we called bacteria that lived on or inside the body "commensals"- harmless and therefore insignificant. Now we know they are anything but insignificant. Bacteria, far from being the villains for which the immune system is there to destroy, actually work in harmony with the immune system to fight truly dangerous microbes.
It's a lot stranger than that. You may not have heard of a single celled organism called toxoplasma gondii (the practice nurse at my surgery hadn't), but it's one of those organisms that infects many people, but only causes disease in a few; the old, the very young and those with defective immune systems. Not long ago a microbiology professor in Prague decided to work on it and to begin with, looked for it in his own body. Like anything up to 25% of the population, it was present. Now our professor was one of those people addicted to high-risk sports, hang-gliding, rock climbing and so on. His next task was to test all his students. Acting on an instinct he also inquired into their lifestyle, looking for evidence of high risk activity, not only sports but driving at excessive speed, getting into bar-fights etc. To his astonishment he found students with toxoplasma in their bloodstreams were 2.6 times more likely than the controls to engage in high risk activity. So far, no explanation has been offered for this extraordinary correlation, but the findings are out there.
Once when I was working as a psychiatrist we had a patient with really florid schizophrenia. She believed herself to be Marie-Antoinette and was in constant fear that someone was going to come into the ward and chop off her head. She also reported other vague, non-specific symptoms of unwellness, though these were dismissed as part of her psychosis. Then one day someone went into the loo after her and noted the hideous stench and also that her motions were difficult to flush away. It was a lightbulb moment. We decided to test her for coeliac disease, and it turned out she had a quite severe case. We instituted a gluten free diet and pretty soon her bowels regularised themselves and she reported feeling a little better in herself. At the same time, her symptoms of schizophrenia disappeared. Within a month she was discharged completely rational and a little embarrassed about troubling us with her bizarre delusions. Again, no explanation was ever offered for what had happened; it was just "one of those inexplicable things". Just one of those things indeed...
It's a lot stranger than that. You may not have heard of a single celled organism called toxoplasma gondii (the practice nurse at my surgery hadn't), but it's one of those organisms that infects many people, but only causes disease in a few; the old, the very young and those with defective immune systems. Not long ago a microbiology professor in Prague decided to work on it and to begin with, looked for it in his own body. Like anything up to 25% of the population, it was present. Now our professor was one of those people addicted to high-risk sports, hang-gliding, rock climbing and so on. His next task was to test all his students. Acting on an instinct he also inquired into their lifestyle, looking for evidence of high risk activity, not only sports but driving at excessive speed, getting into bar-fights etc. To his astonishment he found students with toxoplasma in their bloodstreams were 2.6 times more likely than the controls to engage in high risk activity. So far, no explanation has been offered for this extraordinary correlation, but the findings are out there.
Once when I was working as a psychiatrist we had a patient with really florid schizophrenia. She believed herself to be Marie-Antoinette and was in constant fear that someone was going to come into the ward and chop off her head. She also reported other vague, non-specific symptoms of unwellness, though these were dismissed as part of her psychosis. Then one day someone went into the loo after her and noted the hideous stench and also that her motions were difficult to flush away. It was a lightbulb moment. We decided to test her for coeliac disease, and it turned out she had a quite severe case. We instituted a gluten free diet and pretty soon her bowels regularised themselves and she reported feeling a little better in herself. At the same time, her symptoms of schizophrenia disappeared. Within a month she was discharged completely rational and a little embarrassed about troubling us with her bizarre delusions. Again, no explanation was ever offered for what had happened; it was just "one of those inexplicable things". Just one of those things indeed...
Friday, 17 June 2016
Kate Moss: the nation needs your poo
Heard of the phrase "micro biome"? It is the word used to describe the diverse and prolific community of microbes that live on and inside our bodies. In the modern, "civilised" era we spend a lot of time trying to eradicate our microbial population, but we need them- we need them to live.
Gradually we have come to learn their value to us; hence the use of live yoghurt to improve the flora in our gut and help our digestion. But recent research is showing it's far more complex than that.
A proper balance of bacteria in the mouth is essential to maintain the health of the mouth, by fighting off pathogenic, or disease inducing ones. In the gut it gets even stranger. A bacterium called Khristinella matuta has recently been shown to affect our appetite, restricting it in fact. And people lacking the bacteria are significantly more likely to be obese than those who harbour it. And this had led, bizarrely, to the idea of "faecal transplants", from thin people who possess the bug to fat people who don't. Incredibly, in many cases it seems to work at least as well as the highly invasive bariatric surgery which is the currently accepted best way of treating morbid obesity. So, Kate, if you'd just like to collect your poo, there's someone out there who needs it badly. More on this fascinating area to follow...
Gradually we have come to learn their value to us; hence the use of live yoghurt to improve the flora in our gut and help our digestion. But recent research is showing it's far more complex than that.
A proper balance of bacteria in the mouth is essential to maintain the health of the mouth, by fighting off pathogenic, or disease inducing ones. In the gut it gets even stranger. A bacterium called Khristinella matuta has recently been shown to affect our appetite, restricting it in fact. And people lacking the bacteria are significantly more likely to be obese than those who harbour it. And this had led, bizarrely, to the idea of "faecal transplants", from thin people who possess the bug to fat people who don't. Incredibly, in many cases it seems to work at least as well as the highly invasive bariatric surgery which is the currently accepted best way of treating morbid obesity. So, Kate, if you'd just like to collect your poo, there's someone out there who needs it badly. More on this fascinating area to follow...
Monday, 13 June 2016
fat and heart disease shocker
Would you adamneve it? After decades of nagging patients about their cholesterol levels and prescribing statins for thousands of them, turns out it was all bollocks.
A major review published in the British Medical Journal has cast serious doubt on what has been received wisdom in the medical profession over the course of my entire career. "Lowering cholesterol with medications is a total waste of time", the article concludes, having found NO direct association between raised lipids and premature death from heart attacks and strokes, despite what I and every other doctor have been telling their patients for over thirty years.
This is a huge deal. The statins we have been prescribing by the million often have significant side effects including muscle pain, abdominal troubles and a host of other less common but highly exotic problems. Once a patient came in in a terrible state having mixed his meds with a drink of grapefruit juice- the two interacting in an alarming and sometimes dangerous way. And I hadn't even mentioned the risk to him, assuming (wrongly) that he would have read the instruction leaflet. I was lucky he didn't sue me.
Like all medical reviews, this needs to be taken with caution (and not grapefruit juice) while we await confirmation from other sources. But I have a feeling that we have not heard the last of the cholesterol debate. I have often thought doctors, under pressure from NICE guidelines, exaggerate the risk of a mildly raised cholesterol level, and when in practice I tended to under rather than over-treat. Now it looks like in the future doctors will confine themselves to treating only those patients with levels in the highest range, where it has long been known they are in real trouble if neglected. For the rest of us, perhaps we should revisit Woody Allen's words:
"Everything your grandma said was good for you is bad for you."
Will he now have to modify that to read?
"Everything your grandma said was good for you probably is."
A major review published in the British Medical Journal has cast serious doubt on what has been received wisdom in the medical profession over the course of my entire career. "Lowering cholesterol with medications is a total waste of time", the article concludes, having found NO direct association between raised lipids and premature death from heart attacks and strokes, despite what I and every other doctor have been telling their patients for over thirty years.
This is a huge deal. The statins we have been prescribing by the million often have significant side effects including muscle pain, abdominal troubles and a host of other less common but highly exotic problems. Once a patient came in in a terrible state having mixed his meds with a drink of grapefruit juice- the two interacting in an alarming and sometimes dangerous way. And I hadn't even mentioned the risk to him, assuming (wrongly) that he would have read the instruction leaflet. I was lucky he didn't sue me.
Like all medical reviews, this needs to be taken with caution (and not grapefruit juice) while we await confirmation from other sources. But I have a feeling that we have not heard the last of the cholesterol debate. I have often thought doctors, under pressure from NICE guidelines, exaggerate the risk of a mildly raised cholesterol level, and when in practice I tended to under rather than over-treat. Now it looks like in the future doctors will confine themselves to treating only those patients with levels in the highest range, where it has long been known they are in real trouble if neglected. For the rest of us, perhaps we should revisit Woody Allen's words:
"Everything your grandma said was good for you is bad for you."
Will he now have to modify that to read?
"Everything your grandma said was good for you probably is."
Sunday, 5 June 2016
Living in the past
I've always admired Joan Collins, not only for her beauty (other than Elizabeth Taylor she is the most beautiful Englishwoman of the 20th century), but for her relaxed style of acting and laconic sense of humour. But in last week's Mail on Sunday she was expounding her Brexit views under the banner of:
I WANT OUR BRITAIN BACK
"This tiny island will sink with so many people" she gushes inside, and over two whole pages she basically longs for the return of a Britain where there is still a branch line for every village, the hedgerows are full of twittering songbirds, fruit still tastes of something and, most importantly, not a black or foreign face is to be seen. Maybe in Brixton or Bradford, but elsewhere, not really.
Poor Joanie! Surely she must realise those days are long gone, whether we leave or remain. Neither Britain nor any other country can ever go back to where it was. The world is infinitely more complex than it was when she was a young woman, and we have to move forward to a better world, not hark after a lost one when Britain ruled the waves and people stayed in the countries where they were born.
As the time for the (completely unnecessary) referendum approaches, increasingly wild claims are being made on either side. But it is emerging that if we leave, thousands of jobs will be lost, the pound will plummet and I'm not quite sure why this is so important to me, but it is, we will look like complete dicks from Alaska to Argentina. I love you Joanie, but get real. It's 2016, not 1959.
I WANT OUR BRITAIN BACK
"This tiny island will sink with so many people" she gushes inside, and over two whole pages she basically longs for the return of a Britain where there is still a branch line for every village, the hedgerows are full of twittering songbirds, fruit still tastes of something and, most importantly, not a black or foreign face is to be seen. Maybe in Brixton or Bradford, but elsewhere, not really.
Poor Joanie! Surely she must realise those days are long gone, whether we leave or remain. Neither Britain nor any other country can ever go back to where it was. The world is infinitely more complex than it was when she was a young woman, and we have to move forward to a better world, not hark after a lost one when Britain ruled the waves and people stayed in the countries where they were born.
As the time for the (completely unnecessary) referendum approaches, increasingly wild claims are being made on either side. But it is emerging that if we leave, thousands of jobs will be lost, the pound will plummet and I'm not quite sure why this is so important to me, but it is, we will look like complete dicks from Alaska to Argentina. I love you Joanie, but get real. It's 2016, not 1959.
Saturday, 4 June 2016
RIP Muhammed Ali
In the late 90s the Sunday Times ran a poll among sporting journalists to find the greatest sportsman of all time. Ali came out on top by a large margin. But he was, of course, so much more than that: poet, loudmouth, campaigner for black person's rights. The list is impressive, yet in his own country he was reviled as a traitor and barred from fighting during what should have been the peak of his career. I was watching a biopic of Martin Luther King on PBS the other day when the TV crews were on the street garnering reactions just after he'd been shot by James Earl Ray. One white man offered this opinion:
"What with all the unrest and conflict between blacks and whites he was responsible for, I'd say he got what he deserved".
Even today I was horrified by his bigotry. But this man would doubtless have been one of those people who probably figured he got off easy after refusing the draft in 1967, and should perhaps have been given the death sentence. But these attitudes were highly pervasive in the America of the 1960s, with everyone from senators to car mechanics believing in segregation and legalised apartheid. These views are not uncommon even today, though less publicly expressed.
In his autobiography in 1975, Ali revealed he had visited and been refused service at a whites only restaurant in Ohio following his return from Rome with the gold medal for the heavyweight title. He was so distraught he hurled the medal into the Ohio river. In 1996 the IOC presented him with a re-strike of that medal, and then in 2014, incredibly, the original medal was retrieved during a big cleanup.
I have always felt that Ali was graced by God with the amount of talent usually doled out to a dozen people, and that people like him are born perhaps only once in a hundred years. Mr Ali sir, you will be greatly missed.
"What with all the unrest and conflict between blacks and whites he was responsible for, I'd say he got what he deserved".
Even today I was horrified by his bigotry. But this man would doubtless have been one of those people who probably figured he got off easy after refusing the draft in 1967, and should perhaps have been given the death sentence. But these attitudes were highly pervasive in the America of the 1960s, with everyone from senators to car mechanics believing in segregation and legalised apartheid. These views are not uncommon even today, though less publicly expressed.
In his autobiography in 1975, Ali revealed he had visited and been refused service at a whites only restaurant in Ohio following his return from Rome with the gold medal for the heavyweight title. He was so distraught he hurled the medal into the Ohio river. In 1996 the IOC presented him with a re-strike of that medal, and then in 2014, incredibly, the original medal was retrieved during a big cleanup.
I have always felt that Ali was graced by God with the amount of talent usually doled out to a dozen people, and that people like him are born perhaps only once in a hundred years. Mr Ali sir, you will be greatly missed.
Thursday, 2 June 2016
The case of the whispering Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn has said he is in favour of Britain remaining in the EU, but so discreetly you may have missed it. Elsewhere in this blog I have mentioned how he is doubtless torn in two directions over this issue. the realpolitik situation he faces right now with the UK facing unprecedented dangers should we vote to leave on the one hand, and his hard-left roots on the other, which historically have led him to oppose EU membership. He has refused to appear on the same platform as DC and Osborne, which I would have thought would deal a death blow to the Brexit camp, and again you can hear his militant mates saying "If I ever see you on the same platform as that fascist I'll pull the trigger myself", or words to that effect.
I agree that as far as strange bedfellows goes it would be about the strangest I've ever seen, but strange situations sometimes need strange solutions.
As was pointed out on the Today Programme this morning, one serious danger here is that if we vote to leave, Cameron may be ousted and we end up with an even worse leader, BoJo, for instance, or God help us all, IDS.
So I say to Jeremy: if you really want us to remain, come out and say so, loudly and unambiguously. Offer to appear in public with anyone who agrees with you, because that's how we can win this.
One final word. Why are we having this God damn referendum at all? I know the first answer to occur is that the Tory leadership needed to give a sop to the anti- EU wreckers in its own party , but what if they wanted, say, to invade Poland? Would we have to have a referendum on that too? David Cameron recently said that Brexit would substantially increase the risk of World War III. OK, so if the stakes are that high why on earth take the risk of a referendum in the first place?
I agree that as far as strange bedfellows goes it would be about the strangest I've ever seen, but strange situations sometimes need strange solutions.
As was pointed out on the Today Programme this morning, one serious danger here is that if we vote to leave, Cameron may be ousted and we end up with an even worse leader, BoJo, for instance, or God help us all, IDS.
So I say to Jeremy: if you really want us to remain, come out and say so, loudly and unambiguously. Offer to appear in public with anyone who agrees with you, because that's how we can win this.
One final word. Why are we having this God damn referendum at all? I know the first answer to occur is that the Tory leadership needed to give a sop to the anti- EU wreckers in its own party , but what if they wanted, say, to invade Poland? Would we have to have a referendum on that too? David Cameron recently said that Brexit would substantially increase the risk of World War III. OK, so if the stakes are that high why on earth take the risk of a referendum in the first place?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)