Who says the BBC are dumbing down?

Perhaps a new low for BBC News.

On BBC Breakfast a few minutes ago, a plea to viewers to send them pictures of their overgrown paths.

Seriously.

The 12:20 to Pluto is now arriving

If the probe flying by Pluto today arrives on time this will mean that a space craft flying to the edge of the solar system is more reliable than British trains….

Just think about that

It’s my right to be ill at the weekend!

Yes, guys and girls, your weekends are not actually your days off. They are legitimate work days and you are all skiving.

So says the Government.

For the first time in my life I had to fill out a self certificate for illness. I was off ill for 6 work days.

But, apparently, not so.

According to the law, I was actually off for 8 days, which means an unnecessary trip to the GP to sign me back.

See, it is based on calendar days, not work days.

In effect, they are saying that your weekend off is legitimate work days.

So, it isn’t actually a self certificate for 7 days illness, it is actually for 5 days.

Perhaps those that are actually really ill might be able to get an appointment with their GP at some point before 2 weeks that everyone gets quoted by the receptionist if 7 day self certificates were actually for 7 work days.

What a complete colossal waste of everyone’s time.

And, Mr Cameron, my weekends are my own to spend how I choose. We should all rise up in a Red Army revolution and reclaim our weekends.

The flippin cheek of it!

I received an outrageous letter from the World Society for the Protection of Animals last week. Each month I give a donation to the charity. I whole heartedly support what they do but that is not what I found incredibly cheeky.

In an effort to raise more funds they were informing me that they were altering my direct debit to take MORE money from me. If I didn’t want to do it I had to contact them and opt out.

Ahem.

Dear WPSA, it is a voluntary donation I give you. It is not your automatic right to take me for every penny I have. As it is a donation it is extremely cheeky to up it and require that I opt out.

If you had asked me to increase the monthly donation I probably would have. As you’re trying to fleece me in an underhand and dishonest way I will most definitely be opting out.

A few years ago they phoned me and asked if I would up my £10 a month to £45! That was rather cheeky as well!

Thing is, charities forget that when we decide to make a regular donation they are receiving money from a finite salary. Donaters giver a lot of thought as to which charities to support on a regular basis. Red Cross last year told me that only 8% of the UK population regularly donate and it is the same people giving to multiple charities. £10 might not seem like a lot but if you multiply it by several charities it does add up.

 

NICE refuses to fund £90k breast cancer drug: But are certain people more deserving of it than others?

Story on BBC Breakfast about NICE refusing to fund £90k breast cancer drug.

Firstly, NICE aren’t really the problem. It is Roche that make it. The price tag is disgraceful. Although, I am starting to get the feeling that NICE are only here to ensure that everyone in the UK gets mediocre health care.

But, what I was rather annoyed about was the woman on who is currently on the drug. While I agree with many of her arguments, they are purely from her own perspective. And the argument that really annoyed me was when she said that she deserved the drug because she was a mother.

The basis of her argument up to this point was the, very understandable one, of how can you put a price tag on a person’s life. I don’t think anyone would argue with that. But, she then invalidated her argument with her suggestion that she was more deserving than other women because she was a mother. Women without kids are just as important as you, m’dear. Their lives mean just as much to them, and to their families, as yours does.

We can’t have people thinking that they are more deserving than others. If you go down that route, where do you start? What about those who are caring for someone who is not a child? Do they go above or below mothers? Do we decide that those with disabilities are less deserving? Women of child bearing age but no kids go above those past the menopause? It is a slippery slope.

The only decision that should be used is a prediction of who is healthy enough to tolerate the treatment and who will benefit.

Dear to-be-mother, we require more notice of your delivery date

Those Sugar Puffs are dangerous! I nearly choked on them again this morning when a spokesperson for the College of Midwives announced, in reference to emergency closures of maternity wards, that this does happen because people require their services with very little notice

HILARIOUS!

If there is one thing that has a long notice period – in fact, NINE MONTHS – it would be going into labour.

If you can’t plan with that kind of notice no wonder the NHS is going to hell in a hand basket