Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

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Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy and right hand man, flew to Scotland on a mysterious peace mission in 1941, which has never been convincingly explained, to meet unidentified politicians who wanted to end the war. The truth has been covered up for generations because to reveal it would somehow undermine the honour and constitutional fabric of the United Kingdom. Who was plotting against Churchill? What were the peace terms on offer? What happened to Hess? Was he killed in the War? Was the prisoner in Spandau a double?
There are many questions to which in the modern day one man, Saul Benedict has all the answers, because his parents were players in the drama involving Churchill, Hitler, leading politicians and an important Royal. Saul is an author and declares his intention to write a book to reveal all, but he is shot dead, apparently accidentally by a poacher. But was it an accident? Rick Coleman an investigative journalist determines to find out and in doing so to uncover the mystery.
Taking place in the modern day but with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, the novel is a fast moving and compelling read based on the family knowledge of the author whose parents had connections to both Hess and Hitler and to British Intelligence.  

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Almost every time people tune into the media nowadays there is news of some or other part of the NHS in financial difficulties. There are three reasons for this. The first is that the management structure is absurd. Not only are there managers, but there is an array of quangos and data collectors which according to one harassed NHS Trust CEO now exceed fifty in number. The second is that you cannot offer an infinite service on a finite budget. The more patients the NHS sees and the greater the demand on its services, the fewer the resources available to provide them. That is a mathematical nonsense. Third, instead of being joined up, it is ever more fragmented and has almost ceased to function as a national structure.

To remedy these problems quite a lot needs to happen. The weird twilight zone in which doctors are employed, part self, part not, has to change to an exclusive employment like any other servant of the state from mandarin to general to minister. Hospitals must operate three shifts of eight hours with the full complement of medical services to eliminate waiting lists. A tax structure to fund the system has to be developed which expands with demand. At present the UK spends less as a percent of GDP than many other developed countries on healthcare. At one point around 2009 it rose to 8%  but it is now falling.  This has to rise to 10% as medical treatments expand and longevity increases. The current actual cost of running the health service properly is approaching  £150 billion, which is way beyond its allocation.

Finally and most important of all is that the people of Britain have to come out of their state of denial that healthcare can be done on the cheap. It cannot. And to pay for it taxes will have to go up.