Stu. Amen to just about everything you've said, especially about the NHS. The last time I was detained in hospital the staff were so shorthanded and so overworked and charging around from bed to bed at such breakneck speed that I thought they must be on roller skates.

That is no way to run a public health service. "Nurse, I'm dying!" "Sorry, I'm too busy to attend to you right now. If you're still alive in about three hours, I'll sort you out then."

Needless to say, this is not the fault of the front line staff, for whom the term angels of mercy should have been coined. The blame lies at the door of the most cold hearted, unfeeling, insensitive, dog-eat-dog government since Thatcher.