All-purpose news and politics thread: One Step Beyond!

[Charles RB]

There's signs of growth, they're just too small to make much of an impact in the short term. It'll be years before that level of growth has an (accumalitive) impact, which would be fair enough if the country was in such deep shit that this was the only growth we could have - and we're not.

Must be nice to have a choice about whether or not you pay tax.

HMRC is notably less gung-ho with large corporations than with people who can't afford good tax lawyers.

I lost a lot of respect for Chris O'Dowd when he was defending Jimmy Carr on Twitter - "You wouldn't pay tax if you could help it!".

He's right, most people wouldn't.

And then the police, the emergency services, the hospitals, the schools, the flood defences, the telly, the pensions, the fucking roads and power would be fucked because of it, which is why the law is supposed to not let people opt out of paying anything.

[Charles RB]

NATO's approved of sending Patriot missiles to Turkey's border, with a very blunt statement from Secretary-General Rasmussen:

"To anyone who would want to attack Turkey, we say, 'Don't even think about it!'"

German and Dutch soldiers may be sent to Turkey to help run the missile system. And it's not going to be used to help attacks on Syria at all, oh no (it almost certainly will be).

Meanwhile, violence keeps leaking into Lebanon.

[Charles RB]

Egypt's facing strikes and thousands-strong protests outside the presidential palace, all against the upcoming consitutional referendum, which they think is too soon; and eight daily newspapers suspended publication and private TV stations will suspend broadcast in protest at what they see as inadequete free-speech protections. (The draft constitution makes it illegal to "insult" prophets but also states "reedom of opinion and thought is guaranteed. Every person has the right to express his opinion orally or in writing, pictures or other means of publication and expression.")

Egypt hasn't had a constitution since the fall of Mubarak and it's causing major legal hassle, and the Egyptian public can vote this draft one out if they want; when do the protestors want a vote, if not as soon as doable?

[king mob]

There's signs of growth, they're just too small to make much of an impact in the short term.

Which is what people have been telling Osborne that relying solely on SME's to grow the economy without support or growth policy from the government is fucking mental.

[Charles RB]

Let's hope Governor Carney says that too and it sticks.

[Charles RB]

The Daily Mail has been horrified that the Liverpool Care Pathway, a framework for end-of-life care, is being used on children and babies. This means they might go home to die or to a hospice, like we do with adults and people said should be done more because it's horrible to die in a ward. But no, in this case it is actually a monstrous thing because:

One doctor has admitted starving and dehydrating ten babies to death in the neonatal unit of one hospital alone.

Writing in a leading medical journal, the physician revealed the process can take an average of ten days during which a baby becomes ‘smaller and shrunken’.

HOLY SHIT! That's monstrous! Did he really say that?

The voice on the other end of the phone describes a newborn baby and a lengthy list of unexpected congenital anomalies. I have a growing sense of dread as I listen.

The parents want ‘nothing done’ because they feel that these anomalies are not consistent with a basic human experience. I know that once decisions are made, life support will be withdrawn.

Assuming this baby survives, we will be unable to give feed, and the parents will not want us to use artificial means to do so.

Regrettably, my predictions are correct. I realise as I go to meet the parents that this will be the tenth child for whom I have cared after a decision has been made to forgo medically provided feeding.

....

They wish for their child to die quickly once the feeding and fluids are stopped.

They wish for pneumonia. They wish for no suffering. They wish for no visible changes to their precious baby.

Their wishes, however, are not consistent with my experience. Survival is often much longer than most physicians think; reflecting on my previous patients, the median time from withdrawal of hydration to death was ten days.

Parents and care teams are unprepared for the sometimes severe changes that they will witness in the child’s physical appearance as severe dehydration ensues.

I try to make these matters clear from the outset so that these parents do not make a decision that they will come to regret. I try to prepare them for the coming collective agony that we will undoubtedly share, regardless of their certainty about their decision.


...

It is draining to be the most responsible physician. Everyone is looking to me to preside over and support this process.

I am honest with the nurse when I say it is getting more and more difficult to make my legs walk me on to this unit as the days elapse, that examining the baby is an indescribable mixture of compassion, revulsion, and pain.

Some say withdrawing medically provided hydration and nutrition is akin to withdrawing any other form of life support. Maybe, but that is not how it feels. The one thing that helps me a little is the realisation that this process is necessarily difficult. It needs to be.

Oh.

That sounds like a completely different story to what the Mail is saying then.

And I found that BMJ quote because the Mail quoted it in their article. Y'know, when The Sun tells a porkie about what someone said, it doesn't quote them in lengthy detail so we can all see it was a porkie.

The Mail also says:

Medical critics of the LCP insist it is impossible to say when a patient will die and as a result the LCP death becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. They say it is a form of euthanasia, used to clear hospital beds and save the NHS money.

except it you check the LCP's own documents, it requires a "multidisciplinary" team to be absolutely sure death is imminent and it's not to "hasten" death. It's also been audited recently and passed

This took me two minutes on Google to find out. Neither the Mail or the Yank bloggers salivating over their story have Google, I guess.

[bringthenoise]

Remind me how having end of life care is WORSE than, say, refusing to cover with pre-existing conditions or lifetime benefit caps?

[Charles RB]

Because the people salivating believe the Mail's obvious, easy-to-prove lie that the LCP is a deliberate cull. Despite this being disproved by the Mail's own quoting of the BMJ.

They want to believe that doctors will murder sick babies.

[Iangould]

Yesterday I had to debunk a Murdoch press story claiming the Curiosity Mars rover had found evidence that life used to exist on Mars.

Today this.

We should simply stop pretending any of the Murdoch papers have more credibility than the Weekly World News.

[bringthenoise]

I agree with your general point, but the Mail isn't owned by Murdoch.

[Iangould]

I agree with your general point, but the Mail isn't owned by Murdoch.

Ah, bugger.

[Spike-X]

They wish for their child to die quickly once the feeding and fluids are stopped.

They wish for pneumonia. They wish for no suffering. They wish for no visible changes to their precious baby.

Their wishes, however, are not consistent with my experience. Survival is often much longer than most physicians think; reflecting on my previous patients, the median time from withdrawal of hydration to death was ten days.

Parents and care teams are unprepared for the sometimes severe changes that they will witness in the child’s physical appearance as severe dehydration ensues.

But we can't possibly allow any kind of medically-assisted end to a life that is going to end anyway. That would be inhumane.

[Charles RB]

Remember, the coup in Mali was because the government Wasn't Doing Enough against the insurgency. The army took over because Not Enough Was Done. The insurgents then took more of the country but the army were still clear they were Going To Do Something.

Now they're having direct talks with both Taureg and Islamist insurgents, the Ansar Dine ones being the guys who've been murdering, drug-dealing, and shrine destroying. (Most Malians seem to be hoping for a military intervention)

[the4thpip]

While Fox"News" continues to salivate about each individual case of lay-offs since Obama's re-election, the economic recovery continues:

U.S. banks are enjoying their best profits in six years and are lending a bit more freely. The gradual improvement suggests that the industry will sustain its healing from the worst financial crisis in decades and help strengthen the economy.
The industry earned $37.6 billion from July through September -- a 6.6 percent increase from its earnings in same quarter last year.
For the first time since 2009, the stronger earnings were due mainly to higher revenue rather than to less money set aside by the banks to cover losses, data issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed Tuesday. And loans to consumers rose nearly 1 percent from the July-September period of 2011.

http://www.newsday.com/business/u-s-...fits-1.4290076

[the4thpip]

Corruption is on the rise in Greece and other crisis-worn countries.

Greece, in its fifth year of recession and crippled by rounds of austerity, fell to 94th place from 80th -- ranking it below Colombia and Liberia, according to the group’s Corruption Perceptions Index. Ireland, Austria, Malta and Italy were also among member states in the single currency to slide.