No, Andrew Neil, the UK doesn't have a 'sickie culture' problem - it has an NHS lack of treatment problem

July 16, 2023 Eleanor Scott

Skeleton mosaic from house floor, Pompeii (Source: Ashmolean Museum Oxford). Trust me, Andrew, I’m trying to *carpe diem* but it’s hard when you’re being stuffed full of an iatrogenic chemical soup

Andrew Neil, writing in the Daily Mail, bemoans the ‘sickie culture’ of this country.

Welcome to Sick Note Britain, a country whose people are succumbing to all manner of medical ailments almost as quickly as they are losing the will to work.

Oh Andrew, you so very nearly ‘get it’ when you mention the NHS waiting lists, before segueing into all the immigration stuff. But you know it’s not that simple. Have you got any idea how fucked up the NHS is for people genuinely seeking treatment for the most common medical problems that keep them off work, even when they do get an appointment?

How about we look at back pain and arthritis? Are you aware that most of the patients developed these problems at work in the first place?

Ed Balls Should Stick to Dad Dancing - Debate with Prof Stock is Beyond Him

May 30, 2023 Eleanor Scott

I admit that I suffer easily from vicarious embarrassment, which is why I avoid a lot of breakfast TV and sometimes have to look away from live parliamentary broadcasts when Desmond Swain is speaking.

Ed Balls is in a league of his own.

Penny Mordaunt Seeks Out Her Prime Directive

May 14, 2023 Eleanor Scott

The Coronation is over, and one of my abiding memories is Penny Mordaunt cos-playing Game of Thrones while the beautiful 6th century Augustine gospels were relegated to bit-part status. I watched a fair bit of the Coronation in the end, switching from BBC to ITV when Huw Edwards kept talking over one of the few things that was truly majestic, the music.

Social media was unforgiving and occasionally bonkers in its comments about Penny Mordaunt’s ability to walk, hold a sword, and wear and hat & frock combo at the same time, in her ceremonial role of Lord High Embellisher of the Pointy Thing. Views ranged from the drooling adoration of parliamentarian stans to the iconoclastic take-downs of British satirical culture.

Personally, I’d like to know how many thousands of pounds her custom-made fancy dress costume cost and who’s paying for it - I’m presuming it’s being claimed for on expenses, so I’m guessing that’ll be the taxpayer.

The 'Support of Penny Mordaunt'? I'd Rather Trust a Fifth Columnist

August 4, 2022 Eleanor Scott

Who does Truss trust? Has Mordaunt done enough by coming out in ‘support’ of the clear race favourite to have wheedled her way onto the list of future secretaries of state and ministers? Could Mordaunt - god forbid - be re-appointed as Minister for Women and Equalities, as she possibly desires?

If Liz Truss has any political and common sense left at all, after a deranged start to the Conservative leadership contest, her response to Mordaunt’s offer of ‘support’ will be, ‘thanks, but no thanks, now feck off’.

Margaret Foster, Friend of the 'Hancock Dynasty', and Jacqui Hancock To Be Voted on as Honorary Aldermen

July 18, 2022 Eleanor Scott

A close friend of Hancock's wife, former councillor Jacqui Hancock, Margaret Foster was found to have conducted herself in a manner which fell far short of the standards expected of her in the council chamber.

The Unease Around Penny Mordaunt: A Mumsnet Explainer

July 13, 2022 Eleanor Scott

At the time of writing, a #PinnochioPenny is trending on Twitter, and she’s getting an absolute pasting on one of the biggest talk board websites in the world, Mumsnet. To understand this, it’s worth looking at a bit of the history involved.

Penny Mordaunt is most famous on MN for her disastrous webchat in 2019, where she badly fucked up her answers to questions about (a) women, (b) children, and (c) our exit from the EU. So, that’s most of the population and current politics of the UK she couldn’t deal with, then.

Mike Hancock and his 'Category X' Parliamentary Pass - His Victim ‘Annie’ Says ‘Enough’

May 8, 2022 Eleanor Scott

**Mr and Mrs Hancock (Source: Daily Express). ‘Have they got any red sauce, Mick?’**

It’s been a busy old week in politics, and in the midst of it Mike Hancock, disgraced former MP and alleged ‘pro-Putin’ ‘Kremlin lobbyist’, has reared his head again. The Liberal Democrats are no doubt thrilled to be reminded of their erstwhile colleague. Better than that - they can still take tea with him in the Mother of Parliaments! The Mail on Sunday has reported that 7 years after the man left Parliament, and 8 years after the Lib Dems were finally forced, red-faced and squinnying, to sideline ‘Mr Teflon’, Hancock is still able, if he chooses, to swan around the parliamentary estate courtesy of his special ‘Category X’ pass.

From Greenham Common to Clapham Common - Two Generations of Women's Vigil & Protest

March 15, 2021 Eleanor Scott

**Clapham Common, evening of 13th March 2021 (Photo Credit: Mads Street @StreetMaddy)**

I had travelled from a rural island of familiar faces and low crime to a world where women were shockingly vulnerable and denigrated. Within a few short years I would travel a journey through fear of the Yorkshire Ripper, a Reclaim The Night march, Greenham Common and miners’ strike galas. And two evenings ago my daughter was at Clapham Common.

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