Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Siberia SE1

One of the hazards about working in South London is that it's very near to Westminster. This means that politicians looking for a quick photo opportunity can jump into their chauffeur-driven cars and head down to some place they couldn't find on a map to show how down with the people they are.

An old Etonian prime minster who wants to show he cares about education? Why not come to a perfectly good South London school you wouldn't dream of sending your kids to and pretend you have spoken to more than a couple of black people in your entire life? Hosting a visit by the President of the United States? Why not come down to another school you wouldn't dream of sending your kids to and play table tennis?

Want to show that you care about the NHS while you plot to hand over chunks of it over to your donors in the private sector? Why not come down to Guys Hospital, after all it's just over the river? God help any conscientious 'public servant' who should object to any aspect of such spectacles. So spare a thought for David Nunn, a surgeon at Guys who dared to interrupt a media blitz on a ward there with messrs. Cameron & Clegg standing around the bed of someone who was presumably too sick to run away. The surgeon has now apparently voluntarily requested indefinite leave, in the same way no doubt that many voluntarily confessed to trotsykist-fascist-deviationism in the days of Stalin (OK I exaggerate for effect - I know that Guys isn't the Gulag).

It put me in mind of the Thatcher period when her habit of turning up at the bedside of disaster victims led to the distribution of spoof 'Thatchcard' donor cards saying: 'In the event of an accident, the holder of this card wishes it to be known that he/she does not wish to be visited by Mrs Thatcher in any circumstances whatsoever'.




(image of Thatchcard from Max Atkinson's blog)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes, yes, an excellent post, except for the comparison with Comrade Stalin. The Cameron regime is far worse as the Gulags are right here in the capital.

John Moonbow said...

Quite brilliant!

But we must remember the old New Labour were also not adverse to turning up each week on the Haygate, using different areas to give the impression that Blairy Boy was visiting ‘the destitute’ on different estates in time for evening news bulletins