Sorry, could you say that again?

Once, when I was working, a parent asked for a meeting. He started off by telling me he had tinnitus, and "I might not be able to concentrate for long." I'd heard of this condition but had no idea what it meant, so his warning was useful. He lasted about 15 minutes and then asked to stop. I got us coffee and waited for him to say whether he wanted to go on. It was a difficult conversation in more ways than one.

I've had a cold since about 22 December. It has gone through all the stages: head cold with sneezing, sniffing and coughing. Then a chest infection and antibiotics to combat the chest infection. Then headaches and earache caused by the "congestion." Now I've got both postviral fatigue and - new to me - tinnitus caused by the bunged up ears and nose.

This must be a version of what that parent described. Let me tell you, it's a form of hell. I'm a visual/aural person but my eyesight isn't that good so for me hearing is crucial. Sometimes I need to lipread. I keep having to say to people: 'Sorry, what did you say?' and 'What was that?' and I am sick of it already.

Last Thursday A and I were doing a run for Glasgow libraries, delivering books to clients in Govan and Ibrox. I was driving. A had lost his hearing aid (for his right ear) somewhere at home and I was totally deaf on my left side from the 'congestion.'

You can picture the scene: I'm driving and A is on my left hand side. Neither of us can hear much at all. We couldn't even agree what our route should be. Or maybe we could but just couldn't hear each other to agree the route. I was ready to chuck it after about 30 minutes - and we had 3 hours ahead of us.

My grandfather was blind from WW1. He could tell the difference between light and dark but nothing else. He often said being deaf would be much worse. He made radios - cat's whiskers - from the 1920s on and loved the contact radio gave him with the outside world. I'm sure that's why I have listened to the BBC World Service and lots of European stations since I was in my teens.

My GP assures me the tinnitus will go after a few weeks. I hope that's true. Because Pop MacDonald was right. Loss of hearing is awful. Especially since it's not a visible  'handicap' and you have to keep on explaining to people what the problem is. At least the vision-impaired have a white stick. Maybe those of us who are deaf should have a label round our necks reading: "deaf - assume I can't hear you."

After you, Cecil

My parents had a great routine when they were out together. As they approached a door, dad would leap forward and hold the door open saying 'After you, Claude!" and my mother would say as she swept past him 'No, after you, Cecil!' I think the routine came from a radio show of the 1940s. They said the names with phoney posh English accents and I've never been able to take these names seriously since.

I thought of them today when I read Cecil Parkinson's obituary.

My father also had a motto about politicians: Tories are done down by sex - it's all that boarding school education - they just can't cope with real life, while Labour get found out over money - they can't resist the temptation to put their fingers in the till. The difference between Labour politicians who have gone to jail for fiddling money and Cecil Parkinson is this: he was a dead-beat dad, was Cecil.

That's not what they called him 30 years ago when he had an affair with his secretary. He tried to make her have an abortion and then abandoned her and the child, slapped an injunction on them to stop them talking to the press or the press talking about them, and - most awful of all - he never met his daughter.

This affair wasn't a one-night roll in the hay - it lasted 12 years, during which he promised to leave his wife and marry the secretary. I think after the first 5 or 6 years, she might have twigged it's not going to happen.

Cecil was Margaret Thatcher's best - maybe only real - friend in politics. That tells you a lot about her judgement of people. Not that he was very posh. Neither was she. Unlike the jumped-up, lick-spittle wanna-be aristos now lording it over us on the Tory front bench in Westminster, Thatcher and Parkinson had fairly ordinary origins. While the Cameron/Osborne lot just ooze a sense of entitlement, Thatcher and her pal oozed naked ambition: they had something to prove. Both of them over-reached themselves, Thatcher thought only she knew what to do and isolated herself within her cabinet and Parkinson thought he could do what he liked because Thatcher would protect him.

It's arrogance, isn't it? And it's horrible to watch. Especially when a blameless child is involved.

Let's talk

This blog entry isn't about abortion. It's about women.

There's an anti-abortion campaign underway in Scotland right now. There have been articles in the press and letters in newspapers about this campaign and the one thing I've noticed is that so far all but one of the people involved are men. There's probably always a campaign like this on the go but this one is being influenced by activists in the USA who seem to be exporting some of the tactics used there. Activists are going to be praying throughout Lent outside the part of the new Southern General where women go for - among other things - abortion advice and sometimes abortion medication. This is the gyne/maternity building. I was there for a day procedure last year and I'm not sure how I would have felt about walking past anti-abortion activists, even if they were praying. Will they have placards? Will they be lighting candles? Will women going in have to run the gauntlet of the media? Apparently, they don't accost women going into the building and yet activists claim in the USA to have persuaded women to give up their plans to abort. How did they do that then?

It's a very one-sided campaign. The Scottish Government says there are no plans to change the abortion law. There doesn't seem to be much support for such a move among the Scottish public either.

The problem with campaigns like this is that they give the impression that, while they are run by people with sincerely held beliefs, they tend not to put the women involved or their partners, children and parents at the top of the list of issues. The 'dead baby' comes first.

Women still don't tend to talk about stuff like this in public, whether it be contraception or abortion or any other aspect of their sexual health. It was till fairly recently a very secretive area of women's lives. Les Dawson's skits about women discussing problems 'down there' in hushed voices was pretty close to the truth for my granny's generation. That's why so many of them lived with medical conditions like prolapses and uterine cancers that could maybe have been treated. And sometimes had quite unnecessary procedures like hysterectomy or mastectomy.

We are different now. We have taken control of our reproductive cycle and got over the worry that using contraception at all means defying the instructions of our religion. We go for breast screening, though more of us could go for cervical screening. We just get on and do what is right for ourselves and our families. It's 50 years since the abortion law was changed and I don't think we're planning to try to turn the clock back.

And yet, I think it may need women to take a more open role in this campaign or we'll be railroaded without proper discussion into making changes that we don't want. We make enough noise on behalf of everybody else. Maybe it's our turn now.

Where's the fire, man?

My next door neighbour set off the smoke alarm making toast the other morning and started a full-scale fire alert. 8 minutes later, an engine pulled up outside our sheltered housing complex and three strapping guys got out. We are always pleased to see the Clarkston fire boys. Us old gals take our pleasures where we can.

I got a visit from a fine young man - six foot four, full head of hair and OMG the uniform! just checking all was well chez moi. Could he come in and do a wee safety check? Well, I had that door open before he could say Fireman Sam. 

Now I read on one of my favourite Facebook pages, UK Cop Humour, that fireman are only 'average-looking. I want to scotch that rumour straight away. I suspect there may just be a touch of professional jealousy involved here. Some of you may be served by this lot: 

But here in G46, we can expect a visit from this guy - and several similar-looking colleagues:

Our warden, while appreciating the fun - which she always joins in - has suggested maybe we need to make less toast...

Hello!

Yes, I'm awake at 06.30. That's am, people. I have been awake all night.

This is mainly due to labyrinthitis. I should start by apologising to my library buddy, Alex, because there's not a hope in hell I'm going to be reporting for duty at Cardonald tomorrow. I've had a cold which turned into a chest infection. Antibiotics didn't shift it. Three weeks later, I'm deaf in one ear, a bit dizzy (only a bit? you ask) and absolutely pissed off with the whole affair. Bring me sunshine...now!

So what have I had to occupy my mind tonight?

I watched Call the Midwife. This is usually a pretty mindless programme, needing no great personal involvement. But tonight was about the birth of a Thalidomide baby and I found it very moving. Maybe it was the acting, which was superb, as it always is. The dilemma of the parents was not glossed over. The father's reaction in particular was very true to life. The midwife and her assistant, a C of E nun, were also convincing.

The Thalidomide horror happened 50 years ago. It took a long time for Thalidomide survivors to get a decent financial settlement from Distillers (now Diageo), and I believe not many Thalidomide children of that generation are still around, although sadly, there's a new generation of Thalidomide kids in Brazil.

From tonight's news, it seems one poor soul in France has died and others are very ill as a result of
a drug test. All properly organised and supervised. It's hard to know what to do: keep going despite the risks or abandon tests of new drugs? I'm thinking of friends who really would benefit from new drugs for MS, Parkinson's and Motor Neurone. I don't know, but my thoughts are with the people involved and their families.

Muckles and mickles

I'm not getting into an argument with anybody over whether Scots is a language. I think that argument is already won: Scots is a language in its own right, with quite a few dialects.

But I am interested to know why so many Scots are black-affronted at the very idea that Scots might be a language and prefer to think of it as the bastard offshoot of 'proper' English or a dialect or - worst of all - slang. People get so annoyed, in fact, that they feel the need to write to the newspapers condemning - for example - Matthew Fitt's contributions to the National newspaper.

I accept that language is power, but what power do these indignant souls get from telling those of us who speak Scots that we should stick to 'standard' English? Especially since standard English is itself a dialect.

Maybe it's our history: the Union did for Scots as the language of official life in Scotland. So many Scots were so anxious to do well in the new world of the United Kingdom, they dumped Scots, even when they were living and working in Scotland. Ambitious aristos starting sending their boys to schools in England and middle class imitation aristos sent their boys to imitation English schools in Edinburgh so they would acquire the right language, though we never quite gave up the accent. Listen to Malcolm Rifkind if you want to hear the true Embra middle class voice.

That left Scots as the language of the lower middle class and the working class, both rural and city dwellers. And it is an incredibly rich language. For example, in the west of Scotland, the regular traffic between us and the north and south of Ireland has brought linguistic richness to both areas.

But in schools, Scots was treated with the disdain handed out elsewhere in Scotland to Gaelic. It was not to be heard in the classroom, although it certainly was present in the playground and at home. My generation grew up bilingual: able to switch between English and Scots as required. I'm not sure that's still happening. Although I imagine Scots is still hanging on outside the cities, in Ayrshire, Fife and the north-east counties, in Glasgow it seems more and more to be about 'the banter,' a quaint set of stock phrases heard in the pub or on the bus.

Most of all, I think this is about self respect. South Africans don't think they speak bad English, although you can see the influence of Dutch on the language, and they fight to hold on to English in their schools as an equalising factor in education.

Gaelic has a similar problem with varieties of Gaelic: the Gaelic of the southern islands is quite different from northern Gaelic. Southern Gaelic is closer (though not much) to Irish Gaelic. But they all live together. Strength of numbers means that northern Gaelic is the language of education, TV and books, but nobody would tell people from Islay or Mull or Colonsay that they don't speak proper Gaelic.

On Facebook and in a host of blogs, there will be fights going on right now - because there always are - with one faction demanding we create a 'standard' Scots language and teach it in schools, while another group demands that we ignore anything produced in the Glasgow area because it is so debased it's not Scots. And so it will go on. And the Scots language will continue to die out because we can't agree how to support it.

The NHS

Spending on health care provision in 2014, according to the World Bank (in US dollars):

UK                $3598

NZ                $4063

France           $4904

Germany      $5006

Sweden        $5680

Canada         $5718

Australia      $6110

USA             $9146

Switzerland  $9276

Norway        $9715

At the same time, the 2014 Commonwealth Fund ranked the UK health service as top in almost all health outcomes.

Remember these figures the next time you read in a newspaper what a mess the NHS is in and see government ministers trying to justify paying hospital doctors less for working longer hours.

The NHS produces good outcomes for patients despite spending very little money. Makes you wonder how it would perform if we spent a bit more on it so we had enough doctors, nurses and tech support. 

Grow up, 'Scottish' Labour

About an hour ago, I posted on Facebook a blog entry by Derek Bateman:

http://derekbateman.co.uk/2016/01/13/dear-jeremy/

I thought Labour supporters would like these comments about Jeremy Corbyn. They're pretty optimistic. Encouraging even. They suggest what Labour needs now is a unifying idea that will bring together the Blairite faction in Westminster and the rest of the party out in the country. It seems from what I've been reading in today's Guardian online that Labour party membership has leapt up since the general election and Corbyn's election as party leader. That's got to be good. 

The very next post that appeared on my Facebook page was by someone called McGarvey. I'm sorry I don't remember his first name. Is it Gerry? I don't know him. He seemed to be writing about English Votes for English Laws(?)* His post is liked by several people I respect and admire. 

It is however childish in tone and language. It's not about EVEL at all. It's about Pete Wishart and it is utterly insulting: 

Mr McGarvey writes: 

"...deliver us from Evel because it will only form part of the grievance platform the SNP uses to distract from their appalling record in public office."

...an astute line in a good article, but George Laird is bang-on the money with his, (not my) observations about the SNP's Pete Wishart, although they don't come as any surprise to those of us who have followed his career from mediocre keyboard player to Perth & North Perthshire's...erm...'passionate' (and I'm being charitable with that description - which also serves as a great euphemism) politician.

Ex-SNP member, Mr Laird isn't so kind.

"Mr. Wishart is a joke MP, he says things which are nonsense, and down the line says the opposite equally with false indignation to make out he is a serious thinker.

Although he is just swept along by events, he does have a certain comic value which can be amusing.

Can you think of anyone else who has spent as much time as him making ridiculous statements in the House of Commons?

...Wishart says that the Westminster government is "driving Scotland out of the door".

This is the same guy who campaigned for independence to voluntarily leave the Commons and wasn’t exactly a stalwart for change from what I have seen."

 

Mr McGarvey's comments are followed by contributions from - I assume - Labour supporters: 

-  Pete's a twat 

- I doubt I'd be so kind in describing Wishart though

.- gloves off time on their record and divisive destruction of Scotland to fill the void of their infantile governance

- the SNP have a track record on anti-union activity. It was Salmond who led his MSP's across the picket line in the last major public sector strike

Is this what passes for debate among Labour supporters in Scotland? I've got used to parties like my own (Scottish Greens) being totally ignored by Labour. I've even come to accept that Labour in Scotland don't seem to have a new idea to bless themselves with. But the comments above come close to trolling. And I thought trolling was the domain of the SNP.

This attack is also cowardly. Labour won't have a go at Mhairi Black who has won over Facebook, Twitter and Youtube and is amazingly impressive on her feet. Nor will Labour go for Philippa Whitford who has spoken so authoritatively to the Commons health committee or for Tommy Sheppard who is an excellent representative of the SNP on any and all TV political programmes. 

Most of all, Labour in Scotland seem to be unable to engage with the issues, preferring to insult personalities. That, I suspect, is not Labour's way back to power at Holyrood but - hey - why would I worry? My wee party is probably going to do quite well at the next election, if this is what we're up against. 

*Note to self: if you can't even remember what the last L stands for in EVEL it must be wine o'clock! Cheers, y'all!

Breath-taking

Every so often, I take a wee notion for some M&S grub. Today I fancied smoked salmon and cream cheese parcels and I thought a bread roll would go well with that, along with a wee side salad. I headed for the bakery bit at the back of the food hall, where I found a young woman customer standing in front of where the paper bags are kept. I waited patiently. She was doing something to the pink donuts. Her nose was about three inches from the food. It took me a minute to realise she was digging under the top layer of donuts. She had actually destroyed a few donuts in order to get to the next layer down.

She realised I was staring (and not in a nice way either, let me be honest). She straightened up, donut on the end of her tongs, and said with a smile: 'I don't want one somebody else has breathed on.' Well, what can you say? I said: 'The only person breathing on the food here is you.' She glowered and stalked off to the checkout.

I don't blame her. Well, I do. She was behaving like a pig, poking about in the food with no thought for other customers. But really the blame lies with the supermarkets who display their food this way.

And it is only supermarkets: go to your local deli or to a branch of Gregg's and you'll find the food under glass or on the other side of the store away from the customers. Environmental Health insist on that. For some reason, most supermarkets want us to think we're foraging for our food. Who knows how often your 'fresh' bakery produce has been coughed and sneezed on before you pick it up 'hygienically' with a set of tongs?

Supermarkets also want to save money on staffing, so service is now a dirty word. I was in Asda Toryglen on Saturday where more than half the checkouts are now self-service. There are people in the bread area of most supermarkets. (I cannot bring myself to call this area a bakery). These people are there to bake stuff - that's the lovely smell that wafts through the store - not to serve you and me.

At least Lidl are honest: they don't staff their bakery area. The baking is done by an automatic machine. The staff just have to place the goods in the baskets. But if you have a gluten intolerance, avoid Lidl's baked goods. I don't know what kind of flour they use but it's bad news for anyone with a dicky gut.

I'm in the lucky position of living near Whole Foods, where I can actually see the bread being kneaded by real bakers. And, more importantly, I can afford to buy the baked goods in Whole Foods.

Mind you, a long time ago I worked in a bread factory and I know what goes into a plain loaf - a helluva lot of saltpetre since you ask - and I am also prepared to buy that.
 

A slow news week

This is Ellie Harrison. Ellie is something in the arts, an installation artist maybe? She's also an academic. Very few people, including me, had ever heard of her, but poor Ellie made the mistake of publicising her grant of £15,000 from Creative Scotland and, in a week when the only other news in Scotland was how Tunnock's were dropping the lion rampant from their teacakes, she set off the proverbial sh$tstorm on social media - aka, Facebook. Cue: lots of trolling of Ellie by eejits, some of whom know nowt about art, and others of whom know nothing about anything but feed off a stooshie the way the rest of us feed off, well, Tunnock's teacakes.

To be fair, I've only read the outline of Ellie's project on websites and in newspapers. She will stay in, not Glasgow but the 'greater Strathclyde' area for a year. I'm not sure where that covers, maybe anywhere from Tiree to Lesmahagow, or Motherwell to Girvan - all part of the old Strathclyde Region of blessed memory? I'm told chips figure on her Facebook page, but I don't know why.

I'm none the wiser about what Ellie will produce at the end of her year. If she wants to highlight the poverty of experience people have in this area, fair enough. Not very exciting. We already know that some of our fellow citizens live limited and poverty-blighted lives. Dr Harry Burns showed this very effectively when he was the chief medical officer - you can google and read his presentations on poverty - and we should remember his comment:

'We need compassion, not judgments about poor people' 

If Ellie wants to show the opposite: the richness of life in this area, that'll be worth hearing about. I can recommend a pub in Govan where quiz nights and music nights are a joy. We could send her to the footie so she can listen to the banter. She can come to one of our family nights, where we send each other up mercilessly, drink prosecco and watch the weans running wild.

I used to teach in Glasgow and worked in education in Argyll, East Ren and East Ayrshire altogether
for 35 years. I've encountered children being taken out of Glasgow in a minibus for the first time in their lives, expressing amazement at the countryside: 'Look at they big dugs!' - cows in a field. I've taken kids out of their village for a day (they were doing a presentation on their school's contacts with schools in other countries) who were visiting a hotel for the first time, eating in a restaurant for the first time - and who found these events much more exciting than the video links we set up for them with Germany and the USA. I've also taken very privileged kids on factory visits to a glassmaker in France, where they were horrified at the hot, nasty and sometimes dangerous way the glassmakers earned their wages.

Good luck to Ellie. And the trolls should maybe reflect that £15,000 of Creative Scotland's budget is chickenfeed if it leads to better understanding. Isn't that what all art is about?

Ah, Silverburn...the sales...heaven

The sister and I went to Silverburn today. Decided to leave home about lunchtime, hit the M&S sale with our Xmas vouchers and be home while it was still light.

It was fine getting into Silverburn. A wee queue, nothing much. We toyed with the idea of trying to park outside M&S's back door but in the end decided to head for the multi-storey, getting there just in time for the top floor to be opened up. For some reason, this seems to be a parking area that is totally verboten at any time except the New Year sale: normally the signs all indicate 'upper floor closed.' 'Upper floor suddenly open' is Valhalla for one wumman with arthritic knees and the other with torn ligaments: get a parking spot right at the door, the lift to the ground floor and bob's yer proverbial.

On our way round M&S, we heard a woman say she was there because she just wanted to 'get out for a wee while.' She had the whole family with her. Obviously, cabin fever had set in. This was not a professional shopper.

I've long since accepted the idea of supermarket shopping as a day out for the family. Normally I don't do in-store shopping: I shop online, with the occasional visit to the shop to see if the range of goods has changed any. Beats me why two adults need to force one toddler into a shopping trolley and drag the other child around by the arm in order to end up with nothing more exciting than chicken nuggets and Pampers. Given that a lot of supermarkets now have cafes (not always gourmet cafes, I admit, but they do sell chips) couldn't one parent spell the other? Is 'all in it together' now part of the wedding vows?

Sales shopping has to be approached as if you're a caveman dragging a mammoth back to the cave to feed the family. You need a list. Economy of movement. A sharp eye. The occasional snigger at what M&S thought people would buy. Really - those dresses? that top? No wonder they're down to 8 quid and still nobody is buying them. The sis and I scoured the rails, she ending up with 8 tops and me with 6. Trying them on left her with 3 and me with 3 to take home. Success.

We had a sandwich in the M&S cafe. I thought we might have to stare at some poor benighted man till he felt obliged to give up his table but no, we got seated right away and had the pleasure of watching two other women of advanced years do the 'is this seat taken?' routine. After a rest, we spent a happy half hour in the food hall.

Then we tried to go home. I reckon we live about 12 minutes by car from Silverburn on a normal day.

Just why exactly does Silverburn have only 2 entrances and two exits? So you can queue to get onto Peat Road or onto Barrhead Road? Either way, you're queuing. The Peat Road roundabout is to be re-drawn because it can't cope with the volume of traffic. Now that Silverburn has a multiplex cinema and a food court, why are people still having to park at the other end of the shopping centre and walk miles? Okay, no one knew it was going to be so popular when it opened but someone must have realised more shops + more restaurants + a cinema = more parking needed.

Can we get a grip here? It is cheaper now to run a car than it has ever been: road tax down, car prices down, fuel prices down. There are more people on the road than ever. And they are happy to travel longer distances for a night out.

If only the management of Silverburn could keep up, we could all enjoy it.

If music be...

Anybody else like watching Gavin Malone, the choir man? Gavin is one of my heroes. He's done a lot to encourage choirs in schools with no interest in singing, and in locations like army barracks, universities and the workplace and in towns where there's apparently no interest in music.

The thing about Gavin is he's a born teacher. He seeks out decent singers (they don't need to be trained or brilliant) and he gets them performing. He doesn't always go for the obvious recruits in a choir but he is prepared to work with anyone he thinks has a good voice. He does not accept poor performance. He corrects people if they make a mistake and they accept his corrections because they recognise he knows what he's talking about. He knows what makes a good performance and he demands high standards and gets them. He has a great 'ear' and a tremendous knowledge of what songs choirs should work on. He has done a lot to encourage a cappella singing.

Years after he started choirs off, they are still going. So music is still influencing people's lives long after Gavin has visited them.

Gavin is a brilliant teacher and for another teacher that's a pleasure to watch.

When I came back to Glasgow in the 80s after a long time in Islay, I found myself quite at sea, with a disaster of a department that was far from the kind of community school I was used to. The only advice I got was from a depute head who told me to 'copy' what another PT was doing. The PT in question ran a department of 3 teachers teaching S3-6 only, whereas I had 7 teachers teaching S1-S6 in 3 languages plus 2 foreign language assistants and 2 learning support teachers. But to save my sanity, I started to wander other areas of the school just looking and listening and found myself eventually in the Music Department.

I'm sorry if it sounds creepy but I used to hang about in corridors listening to music teachers who I now see showed the same characteristics as Gavin Malone. They were called Ena Millar and Jean Thompson. This is Ena, who died at the end of 2015.

A few years later, we all produced Oklahoma. We had a cast of thousands - well ,maybe hundreds.That was my idea: all kids should have the chance to appear in a school show. They won't remember the hours they spent in class doing Maths but they will remember being in a school show. Mrs T took it upon herself to instill discipline in these kids so they left the school show with at least a sense of rhythm. I can still see them marching round the school hall as Mrs T clapped out the beat. Backstage, Leslie O'Neill ran the props, lighting - everything technical - and on Friday night when the leading man couldn't go on because he'd lost his voice, Leslie went on in his part, steered by the elbow by a 4th year boy.

But Ena Millar pulled it all together. From day one, she knew what she wanted musically. She did not compromise. Kids rose to the level she wanted. She and Mrs T laughed a lot. It was a great show.

I am very grateful to have known them all : Ena, Jean and Leslie.

Front Page Lies

This is about politics. If you're not interested, feel free to move on!

I get the Herald delivered 7 days a week. There are things I like about the paper: some good columns by people like Iain McWhirter and Fidelma Cooke. Good arts and book reviews, and excellent restaurant reviews. I like the Diary, although just lately I suspect the Diary editor is reading the same Facebook entries as I am.

The editorial page claims the Herald is not affiliated to any political party. It may even claim to be 'impartial.' That may have been true at one time but not now: the Herald has swung sharply to the right. In particular, it seems to be solidly unionist (except on Sundays). The Herald has pet subjects: the NHS, education, anything to do with Holyrood, the SNP. It is now so anti the Scottish government, it's hard to get past the lies to find out what's actually going on. Its letters pages over the past few weeks have been openly hostile to the Scottish government, though I can't claim bias without knowing how many letters the editor gets from readers and how he chooses which ones to print in the paper.

Today's front page headline is about the NHS. It claims 'junior' (that is, hospital) doctors are left overnight in charge of over 100 patients.

One junior doctor left to care for 100 patients in hospital amid NHS nighshift (sic) staffing turmoil

So many questions occur to me - and none of them are answered by the Herald:

- Does this ratio of 100+ patients to a doctor apply now, during the holiday period with doctors wanting time off to spend with their families, or is it all the time?

- Is over 100 patients a lot for a doctor to be in charge of overnight, compared to other parts of the UK or even other parts of the world? Are the figures the same for all wards: general medical wards, acute care wards, children's wards and neuro wards?

- Is there a protocol, setting out how many patients a doctor should be in charge of in each type of ward? If so, are our hospitals breaking those protocols?

- It seems to be hard to get medical staff to cover. Again, is that just now at Xmas and new year or all the time? Is that due to a shortage of junior doctors? If so, exactly how many junior doctors should we have and how short of doctors are we?

- How exactly does this amount to turmoil?

What's missing here is context. Oh, and maybe evidence there's a problem. This article is just a jumble of figures, with a big figure in the headline to get the readers rummeled up.

Last week, the Herald's item on the NHS was about the move to the Southern by several hospitals. It seems they got hold of the minutes of a meeting at which 38 consultants expressed concern about the move from the Sick Kids to the Southern, before the move. There was no information about how the same consultants felt the move had gone or how things are going now. I'm no journalist but I know that's not a story.

I could, of course, cancel my order for the Herald. And get what instead? The Scotsman? Please! The Daily Record? Please again! I do have an online sub for the National but where the Herald is rubbish at politics, the National is weak in every area except politics. And I have a local reason for keeping my delivery of the Herald: we've gone from 3 local newsagents to 1 here in recent years and I want to support a local business.