Looking from all angles
The advantages of a long trip away are not just to experience new places, cultures and people but to achieve a certain distance and perspective on your own country when you return after 6 weeks. Listening to the various news media, a dominant story has been the crisis in the National Health. One can imagine the news team sitting round a table anxious to find a tragic story of someone 24 hours in A & E on a stretcher without attention. What is not discussed is that free health care has now been delivered to point of care for almost 50 years often in times – particularly at its inception -when the country could not afford it. Labour uses the lack of funding in National Health to castigate the Tories as uncaring and only looking after the privileged. The Tories react by throwing more money at it. But it is not money but thousands of devoted nurses, doctors, surgeons and ancillary staff who work long hours and are supremely dedicated people who sustain it. In India just 1% of GNP is spent on health.
Another observation I noticed is the amount of airtime celebrities are given to air their views. Acceptance speeches at award ceremonies are normally notable for their drivel. Claire Foy, the award-winning actress in the Netflix The Crown production, said the Queen was an example of how well women would do in power and “We could do with more”. The Queen is a figurehead and holds little constitutional or actual power. Lets see how the person in power Theresa May fares with delivering Brexit. So far, not so good. Another beleaguered leader, the first Minister of Northern Ireland Arlene Foster, embroiled in an energy scandal over the Renewable Heat Initiative that could cost the Northern Ireland tax payer £490m, responded she was being maligned and targeted because she is a woman.We are going to get more playing of the sexist card from those who make misjudgements or cannot take the pressure of government.
No one really knows which way and how well the UK will go post-Brexit. Unlike 3 of the countries I visited – Thailand, Vietnam and China – we are neither a military dictatorship nor a one-party state: the level of corruption is low in political life: the pillars of a free democracy, the press and the judiciary, are robust. Political correctness may be irritating but it has created a more tolerant society.
Unlike many countries in Europe we do not have a far right party capable of obtaining power.
In sports we have Sir Andy Murray, Lewis Hamillton, Rory Mcilroy and Chris Froome, relatively young men at the top of their game in every sense. British rock has been a global force for 50 years. It really is not a bad place in which to live.
