Mike 🇬🇧 🇪🇺

I live in Central England
I'm a retired NHS professional with a BA(hons) French & Art History

I cycle, sketch, try to grow stuff on our allotment & play petanque (badly)
I'm a perpetual beginner at TaiChi & Quigung
I twiddle with amateur radio as GE4SDZ
Fair weather cyclist

My disabled wife & I enjoy travel especially by public transport

Mental health is a personal & family challenge

NO DMs

#allotment #cycling #petanque #TaiChi #AmateurRadio #audaxuk #Leicestershire #sketching #Oddfellows

Location: Leicestershire, England 🇬🇧
Occupation: Retired Healthcare Scientist & Health Service Manager 🔬
Politics: Leftie tree-hugging rejoiner 🇪🇺
Travel Blog #interrail: https://gaylers.me/travel

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Published at

2026-07-25T01:59:47+02:00

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Last Notes

2026-05-18 09:05:38 CEST

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I'd be interested - in an academic sort of way - what the legal position is if there's no administration for any period of time.

2026-05-10 11:01:12 CEST

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As much as the NHS 'internal market' is an abomination the existing mechanism could be used for both transferred patients from private care and for medical tourism.
If the initial treatment wasn't provided for by the Trust giving the later care (and there was no agreement in place to provide that care) then the cost of the later - emergency - care falls onto the initial provider. If the first treatment was overseas it would end up being the patient, or travel insurer. Within the UK the private hospital or ultimately the private healthcare insurance company would have to pick up the bill.
This would increase the cost of private healthcare insurance (small violin) and travel insurance but it potentially puts a big chunk of money into the NHS.

2026-05-10 10:24:31 CEST

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When I first came to Leicester it was to work in the laboratory inthe Regional Cardiothoracic Unit back in the early 80s.
We did a lot of clever cardiac surgery including some 'breakthrough' research.
But I was shocked at how many patients were transferred to the NHS Intensive Care Unit from the local private hospital which did much more routine cardiac surgery - which of course was performed by exactly the same surgeons, usually on a Friday evening or Saturday. There was no overnight medical cover at the private hospital, so anyone with a hint of a problem was dumped on the NHS.
It still happens today.
Medical Tourism is another modern equivalent.

2026-05-09 09:36:58 CEST

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Ive seen an analysis (possibly in The Guardian) looking at votes rather than seats which suggests that the GPEW did much better than the results (by seat) would suggest at first sight.
Equally, there was a chart here earlier - which I didnt boost due to lack of AltText - pointing out that the nature of these staged local elections show that overall & nationally the number of Reform ltd seats on English councils isn't that much greater than Green seats, and in overall numbers both are well down the table.
It's not great, but it's not all gloom & doom

2026-05-08 15:48:42 CEST

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I'm not a member of any party, but my inclination is towards the Greens.
Your view that the GPEW has not been strong enough may be flawed, but only in some respects.
Local elections are atypical - younger voters are disengaged from local politics, and local issues can sway some local elections enormously.
However, there are probably a lot of lessons to come out of this week.
Some of them may include
•Less reliance on the perceived charisma of a single leader
•Getting younger people out to vote
•Being more savvy about the media and how it attacks
•Funding - it's always about the money sadly.
My further hope for the General Election is for strategic alliances to prevent 'vote splitting' in certain areas. This would mean swallowing a lot of pride, and quashing many egos.
In this I would include Labour, Lib Dems and perhaps the National parties (who I know very little about).
Other than that - I dunno!

2026-05-07 09:02:46 CEST

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I trust the GPEW more than any other English political party at the moment, but I worry that they are inadvertently building an edifice built purely on the sand of one personality,
I have no knowledge or understanding of the underpinning structure of the Greens (or any other party) but this laser focus on the leader seems unhealthy.

2026-04-25 12:13:55 CEST

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Very minor point: I'm not sure that it's "mostly" nurses who are Advanced Practitioners.
There's a awful lot of the so-called Allied Healthcare Professionals who are in these roles - Scientists, Therapists and Radiologists to name but three groups.
Your point applies to these professionals too.

2026-04-05 19:12:36 CEST

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I suppose that includes me.
I'm 71 and although I have worked extensively with computers during my career, IT was never part of my core job.
I do have a very early paper published where I'm a joint author on the development of an HTML 'database' which I'm proud to say has now morphed into a fully maintained international web resource.
Does that make me techie? 🤔😁

2026-03-07 22:25:44 CET

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I wouldn't completely write off Your Party although I feel they are destined forever to be minor players.
I predict that some of the left independents will align with Your Party and they, along with a small number of inner city constituency MPs will be YP members.
This could be facilitated by the Greens doing a deal with YP in areas where there are strong independent MPs +/- areas where there's a danger of the progressive vote being split.

2026-01-21 15:42:44 CET

I've just woken up from a nap.
Not really sure how long I've been out though.

2025-09-19 08:43:23 CEST

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I agree with you about the difficulties of finding language learning buddies, particularly online. My experience (of a few years ago) was the same as yours - we ended up communicating in English!
You may be similar to me - I have a wide range of interests and that makes it harder to find a community to settle down into.

2025-05-29 13:26:00 CEST

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I believe it is available for model railways.
[@Erased_Citizen](https://cupoftea.social/@Erased_Citizen ) will know

2025-05-09 11:19:16 CEST

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Removing a non-means tested benefit (PIP) that allows disabled people to live life how they choose and forcing disabled people onto the means tested Universal Credit where they will hover on the borderline of poverty.
Dreadful.

2025-05-02 19:13:32 CEST

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The Greens don't seem to 'get' communication, media, and publicity.
They are almost scared of their own shadows when it comes to putting themselves in the spotlight.
This needs to change and change quickly.
Unfortunately there is no Green politician - that I'm aware of - that has the presence / charisma to attract media types in the way that has been successful on the right in both English and American politics.
I rather despair of progressive politics in England today.

2025-02-16 13:18:58 CET

Allotment visit done.
Brought home the last leeks & beetroot. There's nothing in the ground now apart from the fruit.
I managed to move one gooseberry bush which has been a job that I've been putting off.
The plot next to mine is coming vacant shortly as my neighbour has got a job in the North-East (partly due to the cost of housing). He's offered me anything I want off his plot - he's got some splendid strawberry plants but not much else apart from a few bricks.
#allotment

2025-02-06 10:33:04 CET

I think this week - with the bathroom fitters having the outside doors open a lot - has been a financial experiment in having the central heating on as usual against trying to keepour living room warmish with the fan heater in the fireplace and the central heating off most of the day.
If I'd been prepared I'd have been a bit more scientific about it.
Based on the three full days of this week our gas usage has barely changed, but we are using about £1 a day more in electricity - which is surprising to me (gas in particular).

2025-02-05 09:37:37 CET

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While Labour continue to vascilate the Reform Company are laughing and picking up voters.
Even if you hate the British far right you can agree that their leaders are charismatic and speak the language of the people in the streets. The politicians of the traditional parties are dull and suck the life out of the electorate, they talk the only language that they know - the language of politics. It's no wonder they are losing ground, and no wonder that they can;t see themselves in the mirror.
The alternatives are there for the taking - and, yes, it does involve growth. But growth that ordinary people can see - make jobs for people not for the billionairres. Every extra postman, street cleaner, nursing assistant, or bus driver is paying taxes and buying stuff - and they can be paying tax and spending next week, not in a decade. Every person off benefits will feel the weight of oppression lifted from them.
Make it our growth, not "theirs"!

2025-01-31 11:14:10 CET

For no good reason I was thinking about our daughter's long stay in the psychiatric hospital.
There were a lot of patients on the ward (possibly about 2/3) who never got any visitors.
Where were their families, spouses, parents, children? Not to mention freinds?
The ward staff were delighted that our daughter had visits and support from her parents, brother, neices and work-collegues - she was certainly the exception among the patients.
I like to think that our support helped in her recovery, I definitely think it made her stay there more bearable.
If you know of someone receiving long term hospital care - psychiatric or otherwise - please don't abandon them. Make an effort. It won't always be easy, but doing good isn't always the easy road.
#MentalHealth #hospitals #Carers

2025-01-25 18:55:36 CET

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My feeling is - don't forget I'm 15 years retired - is that the removal of nursing bursaries and some of the changes in medical schools may have had serious knock-on effects on the numbers & calibre of entrants to health staffing.
Retention of staff appears to be a huge problem - this is related to, yes, management style, but if the 'system' (education, research, buildings, IT, social care & other support services) is not supporting the clinical staff (at the 'sharp end') then who can blame them for wanting to get out.
A lot of the systematic issues are finance related, but I question whether political interference is helping those with a grasp on the situation deal with those problems.
The NHS is a hugely complex organism - tinker with one bit and you'll never know what the effects will be!

2025-01-25 17:56:08 CET

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I would dispute that there are staffing issues in the NHS as a result of poor management (I would say that as a retired NHS manager!).
I feel that there are fundamental issues with the NHS that can't be solved *purely* by throwing money at it.
I support the long term view that prevention of ill health and having a healthy population is uppermost - but that has to be a 20 year plan.
But today - the NHS has become all things to all people with little focus on doing anything excellently. Mental health care, emergency services, and primary care are all beyond creaking at the seams.
I think in the short term the use of the private sector can't be avoided. The financial rules around procurement & disposal of capital equipment are looser in the private sector but the sector is parasitical on NHS training & expertise.
If parts of the NHS were ultimately given more financial freedo, reliance on private providers could be reduced.

2025-01-19 15:44:25 CET

There seems to be a lot of posts today with images that have no alt text associated.
Alt Text is captioning images to make them inclusive for people with visual disabilities or those on very restricted bandwidth.
There's a number of guides how to alt text your images (& memes) but you don't need to overthink it - just a few words to describe what the image is.
There are a few bots that can help you with this.
Someone will hopefully reply to this grumpy toot with links to guides and the alt text bot addresses.
There are a number of mastadonians - and I'm one - who won't routinely boost image posts without alt text.
#alttext #images #alttextbot

2024-11-28 09:20:20 CET

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Point of order!
It's the passenger railway services that will be returned to government control - as I understand it freight remains in private hands.
This shouldn't be an issue for the electorate directly, but it's an important point and shouldn't be overlooked.

2024-11-27 11:42:04 CET

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All good stuff - some of which would be dealt with by reintroducing a fully funded, full time School Nursing service in all schools.

2024-10-16 17:20:42 CEST

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My TheArchers post had 'footba** ground' in the alt text - that's how it came to light - my sports filter too.
It's a cricke* ground and I've now deliberately misspelled it in the alttext.