Just a slight diversion. I spent most of today in A&E in North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple. I have a recurring condition that needn't concern anyone and which probably won't kill me. I was there for over five hours, not just waiting around (though there was a fair bit of that) but also being triaged, tested and treated. I have to go back tomorrow for a scan, but that should be a bit quicker.

From starting to get worried on Saturday afternoon and doing the 111 thing, to being sorted out today, took less than 24 hours. I received the friendliest, most sympathetic, most thorough and most professional treatment I could have wished for. At the same time, with my eyes wide open, I saw a hospital which was understaffed and which was under extreme stress.

I salute the amazing staff at that hospital (at which it's been my misfortune to have to have attended many times in recent years, including for the death of my mum, for which the fantastic nurses bent the lockdown rules a bit so that I could be at her bedside and hold her hand as she passed away). I've never had a negative moment there, not once.

So when I hear Johnson and co claiming the credit for all the amazing good calls they've made, well shit on them. And I hate the fact that this last paragraph is here, but it needs saying in m' humble...

Wish me luck for tomorrow! :-)