Good point re the polarisation of opposing sides and the quality of studies used or quoted. The need to improve care and provide balanced research that would bring that about may well suffer from budgetary restraints.
One problem I see immediately is that research into affirmative surgery is that it becomes experimentation on people until they get it right, if ever. I understand and agree that trans people exist, but I am against surgery of any kind to facilitate a physical change. Seems like it's changing the hardware to fix a software problem.
I share your difficulty with surgery, but I'm careful about being definitive on the whole Gender subject, I don't have enough experience to do that All new medical procedures are a kind of 'experimenation on people', its different when you make the person aware of the risks & benefits and they choose to take the risk There's also a Triage phase, where experts need to assess the likely medical balance of risks & benefits, before its offered There's also a previous Test phase which minimises risks as far as possible, but as you say this is more limited when you're talking Surgery & Psychology, however living as a different gender for a period must form part of this This is simpler with adults, Introducing new procedures for minors, introduces a whole raft of issues on consent, risks and benefits and we need to tread very carefully I think its interesting that in the past many people realised they were gay (or different?) at a young age but didn't come out till much later More 'liberal' attitudes, especially with the young, mean they can come out earlier now It's a similar situation to Gender until you get to the Medical aspect This is a complex topic, but we need to be able to talk about it I wouldn't do it anywhere online except here
Common sense TRADE union laws breach workers rights and legitimise bad conduct by bosses, the UK’s highest court has ruled. Five Supreme Court justices unanimously ruled the UK has breached its duties on the right to join lawful industrial action. It follows the case of a care worker suspended for joining a pay strike in 2019. Yesterday, Lady Simler found the law had no protection against sanctions short of dismissal intended to deter union members from striking. She said it “encourages unfair and unreasonable conduct by employers”. Unions called it a “monumental victory”.
You can see why the same lunatics who want to take us out of the ECHR also want to abolish the Supreme Court.
Guardian reckons the Governments plan for dealing with Thames Water is.... Nationalise Thames Water, pay off £15bn debt with taxpayer money, resell. Honestly if that were to happen we should go after every Conservative MP, Lord, donor and member, remove their passports and proceed to empty every asset they own back into the public purse, then leave them all destitute and trapped. Rishi's family alone could make a nice chunk of that.
I’m no economist but this guy, professor of accounting at Sheffield University, reckons that he has the answer.
Two cracking ideas from the government, over the last few days. 1) Target people with mental health problems and stop them from being able to claim PIP by taking the process for being signed off sick, with a mental health issue, away from the GPs and give them to…… Who? I have seen mention of getting “other” health workers to do this, yet there is a shortage of mental health professionals available and there are currently 1.9 million people with mental health issues on the waiting list, whose mental health will continue to deteriorate without treatment!!! Rishi Nosac kept on speaking about the need to get these people back into work, “as it would be beneficial to them”, which might be partly true, but totally untrue if the cause of the mental health issues are work related. I have had a job that I couldn’t resign from because of economic reasons - it paid reasonably well and I wasn’t able to secure another job at the time - but it was giving me so much stress that I had to seek help from the doctor. For a while I was on anti depressants, which eased the problem slightly, but I still remember the days when I arrived at the car park and sat in my car for several minutes trying to get my thoughts together and control the nausea that I felt, before feeling able to enter the workplace. Leaving that company and type of work was an instant remedy to my mental anxiety and I have never felt like that since. Attacking people with mental health issues and trying to deliberately stigmatise them is just another low being set by an inhumane political party. 2) Rail companies are consistently failing to achieve a variety of targets, such as customer service, ticket office, toilets available, cleanliness etc, all that are linked to the bosses of the companies receiving bonuses if they achieve their goals. The government response, apparently, is to reduce the percentage scores needed to achieve the goals, thus making the bonuses more achievable, instead of rinsing the companies and perhaps making them pay a punitive fine (probably not in the contracts, but if not, why not?).
I have no personal experience of PIPs but the fact that assessors have targets and are generally not doctors is a concern. They aren't on bonuses as has been bandied around quite a lot though. Any illness that can't be physically assessed is always going to be difficult to diagnose and because of that it's probably seen as a good route for the dishonest claimant. But if anyone is best placed to make an informed opinion on mental health it is surely a doctor? Presumably, the DWP think doctors are favouring the patients too much and have put in another qualifying stage between a doctor's diagnosis and receiving the benefit. I think it is a difficult area to deal with because people with genuine illness should always be treated with sympathy both medically and financially. But, although rooting out the cheats is sometimes challenging, I'm not sure that current PIP assessment is the right way to go.
I think Nosac stated that the doctors, in an attempt to maintain a cordial relationship with the patient (not sure of the exact words but the video is out there), are just signing the patient off sick, which is extremely patronising to the doctor and also calls into question their professionalism. The PIP assessment itself should be totally down to the medical profession, people with the proper expertise and not someone at the end of a phone following a crib sheet and ticking boxes. Especially, as you say, an illness that can’t be physically assessed is difficult to diagnose. The only positive about the speech is that it is something he wants to bring in “during his next government”, so is likely not going to happen.
Some interesting stuff in the news today, other than the post about Jill Dando I put in the Goodhand Arms thread. The increase in what Thames Water wants to charge its customers for putting their system right could be equal to 60% by 2030, when inflation is factored in. Flights to Rwanda are set for June, apparently. Smart motorway information signs have suffered 397 failures from June 22 - Feb 24, meaning that there are no warnings about broken down cars ahead, in the inside lane. A Tory Parliamentary employed as a researcher by Alicia Kearns, chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and with close links to Tom Tugendhat, Security Minister, has been charged with spying for China.
Can’t find money for Nurses or the NHS. Can’t find money for Teachers. Can’t find money for enforcing the border properly Can’t find money for the police Can’t find money for nuclear power stations Can’t find money for stopping sewage going into rivers Can’t find money even for ****ing potholes…. Magically find £75billion for bombs to drop on random countries. I really ****ing hate politicians man. Utter utter pricks
