Comment With…barry Speker

As the annual winter health crisis is upon us again, with the rival political parties vying as to who will give the NHS the biggest number of billions, the shape of services is constantly changing. The traditional call for your GP to make a home visit is already a rare event. But now doctors want it removed. The Kent Local Medical Committee suggests that GPs no longer have the capacity to offer home visits.

They have proposed a motion for debate at the BMA’s annual conference that the General Practice Committee England ‘remove the anachronism of home visits‘ from doctors’ contracts. They suggest this is a task for paramedics. No more Dr Findlay, Dr Foster or Doc Martin arriving to see patients at home. Anachronism indeed! “Just get get yourself an Uber to the surgery – and don’t call 999 unnecessarily!” and “Don’t trouble us with your anachronisms” or “Why not speak to your friendly local pharmacist?” or “Just see how you feel in the morning”.

Irrespective of your religious persuasion or belief in reincarnation, rebirth, heaven or nirvana we may have a belief in life after death. It may be disappointing that Doris Stokes, who spent her life persuading us of life ‘on the other side’, has sent not a single message to tell us how things are going in heaven. Eddie Cochran said there are Three Steps to Heaven, whilst many have been singing about Knock Knock Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.

Now the magicians of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) have cast icon actor James Dean, (who died in 1955 aged 24 and was famous for Rebel Without a Cause) as a star in a forthcoming Vietnam war movie called Finding Jack. Of course Dean was not even alive when the war happened. Permission from Dean’s estate was obtained.

There is some concern from Hollywood actors seeking starring roles that they even have to compete with the deceased.

This is consistent with the rising trend of using CGI to create hologram shows featuring the likes of the late Whitney Houston who will be touring the UK next year. No risk of her cancelling due to a sore throat. Similar shows will feature Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. Could it be that a CGI Elvis will feature in a tour of Britain – at last?

If James Dean wins an Oscar they can create a Me Too hologram of him to turn up to accept it. When asked to see the film ‘The Good Liar’ I assumed this was a televised debate of political party leaders or a compilation of Brexit canvassing. In fact it is a riveting thriller with comic elements starring Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen and Jim Carter – but far from Catherine the Great, Gandalf and Downton, this features some great twists. Well worth seeing but no spoilers from me.

Our four biggest supermarkets, Tesco, Morrison’s, Asda and Sainsbury’s have suffered a slump in sales. They attribute this to two four-letter words – Lidl and Aldi. The two German-owned retail chains account for the British shoppers’ search for good value leading to Christmas, and will be greeting us all with ‘Frohe Weihnachten’.

There was scepticism as to the potential cost of Labour’s spending plans – £1.2 Trillion. The fears were palpable and not only because the concept of a trillion is much misunderstood, or rather is beyond comprehension. Whilst our political pundits have woefully failed to explain anything in the last three years and it is still less predicted what will happen about Brexit, they can not even agree what a trillion is. The eurozone’s bailout fund now stands at 1 trillion euros or $1.4tn.

In old fashioned counting, a million million used to be a billion in the UK, but now, as in the USA, a billion is ‘only’ a thousand million 1,000,000,000. We now agree that a trillion is a mere thousand billions 1,000,000,000,000. That at least gives Jeff Bezos the chance to be a trillionaire and it seems enables J Corbyn the chance to claim he will spend £1.2tn, and not worry where it comes from. As to a zillion, quattuorzillion or vigintillion …….. why worry?

Unless you are perplexed that Astrophysics Professor Greg Laughlin of the University of California has devised a formula to determine how much worlds are worth and states that our own planet has a price tag of $5,000 trillion or $5,000,000,000,000,000.

Of course, the value may be decreasing due to global warming and unchecked population growth.

Not something we should be worrying about in the festive season as we carve the turkey, give out the presents and open the next bottle of wine.

Happy Christmas to you all!