Elective memory

• Posted by Tom Bodden at 9:55 AM | add or read comments (1)

Elective surgery is often described as something which is non-urgent, as if the poor patient really had a choice.
The suggestion that patients in North Wales might elect for a nine hour round trip to Cardiff or Swansea for 'non urgent' brain surgery rather than the three hours to Liverpool seems bizarre.
A bit like the idea that those patients might elect a politician who suggested it.

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• Tags:
• assembly
• edwina hart
• health
• neurosurgery
• nhs

Pamphlets

• Posted by Tom Bodden at 8:52 AM | add or read comments (1)

The political pamphlet is making a come-back on the interweb.
Sacked Labour deputy minister Huw Lewis rose to the challenge of defining his party's future in Wales via a website.
Now mega-blogging Lib Dem politician Peter Black attempts to define 'what the Welsh Lib Dems are for' on-line.
Both aim to ignite a debate within their respective parties and, like the 17th century pamphleteers, have discovered a cheap, readily available method of mass production.
UPDATE: Asked on BBC Radio Wales whether he was a potential challenger to Assembly Lib Dem leader Mike German, Mr Black replied: "It could be me, it could be someone else."

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• Tags:
• huw lewis
• labour
• lib dems
• pamphlets
• peter black
• politics

High Noon

• Posted by Tom Bodden at 9:46 AM | add or read comments (2)

Back to blogging after a Greek break - even hacks have a holiday - and one thought had dominated my mind as High Noon approached...
It took a fair amount of agonising but in the end as someone aptly said, "my head ruled my heart" and I voted Yes (along with the 59.27% majority) in the fans' ballot over Everton's move from Goodison Park to a new stadium at Kirkby.
But while Evertonians ponder the result, and Yakubu's £11m-plus transfer from Middlesborough, they might also reflect on a real 'life and death' issue, the terrible, inexplicable shooting of young Rhys Jones, aged 11.
The club has responded here.

• Tags:
• crime
• efc

Cheeky Mayor?

• Posted by Tom Bodden at 3:48 PM | add or read comments (1)

Lembit Opik - probably the only Welsh Liberal Democrat with the public profile to do it - says he is flattered to be linked with a bid to become Mayor of London.
It raised the prospect of an intriguing clash with other political eccentrics Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnston.
They could always have a play-off on Have I Got News for You instead.
Lembit's Tory rival in Montgomeryshire Glyn Davies says he wasn't going to be fooled by any of the hype.
Mega-blogger Lib Dem AM Peter Black seems less amused.

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• Tags:
• cheeky girls
• lembit opik
• mayor