"Where the skeletons are buried…"

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Nick Turse, A Truth-teller for Our Times
"We killed her… that will be with me the rest of my life"
Lawrence Wilkerson's Lessons of War and Truth

Nations in flux are nations in need. A new president will soon take office, facing hard choices not only about two long-running wars and an ever-deepening economic crisis, but about a government that has long been morally adrift. Torture-as-policy, kidnappings, ghost prisons, domestic surveillance, creeping militarism, illegal war-making, and official lies have been the order of the day. Moments like this call for truth-tellers. For Truth and Reconciliation Commissions. For witnesses willing to come forward. For brave souls ready to expose hidden and forbidden realities to the light of day.

Mind The Gap!

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Tell me this is a fucking joke, please.  

If it's not then I'm going to take some close up photos of my gnashers and post them here with a PayPal button. If she gets £800 I should be well on course for several thousand quid!

No light at the end of the tunnel  for Trixy. "Most Shaggable Blogger 2008"
I really haven't been so scared and desolate in a long time. I can't afford £800 for specialist root canal treatment to remove an infection which is eating away at my jawbone. Because it's the second time around it only has a 60-70% chance of success so there's another huge risk that should that not work I'll have to fork our thousands of pounds to have a replacement tooth fitted, should I choose not to have a large gap in my mouth like some extra in Eastenders.

I've written to the Health Secretary and copied in the Prime Minister and my MP (who is a good bloke who actually cares about his constituents which is probably why the Tory party were allegedly trying to replace him) because they really should know what a fucking mess they've made of this country and our health services. They have provided a breeding ground for lazy, stupid gangs of knuckle scrapping fools who are, day by day, proving Darwin wrong.
Scared and desolate at the thought of losing a tooth. Baby, you ain't lived yet, obviously. Jeez!

(And just for the record, when exactly was the last time you were "scared and desolate". Did you ladder your tights or something?)

NB: The NHS charge for root canal treatment is a maximum of £44.60  Mummy and Daddy DID register you with an NHS dentist, didn't they? An infected jawbone is classed as a dental emergency and would be treated at any NHS dental hospital. Full dental implantation of a single tooth is around £1,200 with a private dentist. Root canal work is available privately from around £180. Where does the £800/£Thousands comes from?

Via DK who is chief collection-box rattler.

Tracy and Damien: Buy it, study it and learn how to paint!

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Emin bids to save £50m paintings (with OUR money, of course)
Tracey Emin will today deliver an artists' petition to Downing Street in a bid to save two paintings by the Renaissance master Titian for the nation.

The National Galleries of Scotland and London have until the end of December to raise £50 million to keep Diana And Actaeon in the UK, with the option of buying the second painting, Diana And Callisto, for a similar price in three years.
Our multi-millionaire Trace and her dollar-billionaire chum Damien could finally do something of lasting worth to the cause of art in Britain and buy these two Titians with some of the money they've received for their overpriced tat from gormless art speculators the world over. Instead they and their artist pals want the money to come from the rest of us. Lorry drivers, nurses, cleaners and anyone else who pays tax or VAT or fuel duty or duty on fags and booze. Grrrr!


Chuckie with the bound feet

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Will Self: Prince Charles can’t have his say and his seven boiled eggs too
If, as Chuckie has said through his mouthpiece Jonathan Dimbleby, he wishes - like Irish presidents Mary McAleese and Mary Robinson - to have a public say on matters affecting the nation, then he should abdicate forthwith and like the two Marys stand for direct election by the people who so clearly long to hear his views.

I bet he won't, though - because then he couldn't have it all. I dunno, you would've thought a weekly audience with the prime minister of the day, plus meetings of the Privy Council, would be enough political influence for any not-terribly-bright sexagenarian toff, but it seems that Freud had it right, and not being loved enough as a child will turbo-charge a man unto the grave.

Personally, I hope the Prince does have it all and shoots his mouth off like a machine gun - it'll be his own unbound feet he'll be hitting, and as he keels over, so will the monarchy.

Structures and process! Solving the world's problems through more paperwork.

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Plans to boost child protection
Every area of England is to be covered by a Children's Trust Board (CTB), the government is to announce.

The boards, which aim to prevent abuse by co-ordinating child protection workers, will also be strengthened.

The initiative follows the failure of social workers in Haringey to prevent the abuse and death of Baby P.
News?

This measure came out of Laming and the legislative framework for CTBs was laid out in the 2004 Children Act. Some Trusts are already up and running. But this announcement comes around the same time as research which indicates that they have little effect on childrens' services including child protection. The children's trusts created by the government after the death of Victoria Climbie have made little difference to children's services, a report says.
...Audit Commission says they often lack clear direction and have made slow progress.  ...The Audit Commission study is the first independent assessment of the trusts since they were formally created by the Children Act 2004.

The report found progress was "less than was anticipated" for the impact of children's trusts on children's services, including child protection. It said there was "little evidence of better outcomes for children and young people" and too much time was being spent on "structures and process" at the expense of improving the lives of children.  But it reported that "on the ground, professionals are working together, often through informal arrangements outside the trust framework".

"You're all going to die! Death awaits you all!"**

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Malthusian snobs pray for cure to overpopulation
So, it's official: at the Beeb it is unacceptable to make crude jokes about having sex with someone's granddaughter, but it is perfectly OK to wish death upon large swathes of mankind.

Make a rude call to Andrew Sachs' answerphone and you will be accused of dragging the BBC's good name through the dirt. Spout misanthropic nonsense about the need for a speedily contagious disease to come and wipe out mankind and nobody will bat an eyelid.
**The immortal words of the Rev. Otto Witt in 'Zulu'.


A major advance...30 years ago

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Learning the lessons, again
The allocation of single named social workers to at-risk children and the integration of children's services are indeed major potential advances.
Really? Children on the 'at risk' register have been allocated single, named social workers for at least the last 3 decades and this requirement has been clearly outlined in all the 'Working Together' guidelines, the first of which predates the Laming Report by many years.

It might help us all if leader writers at least did some basic research or knew something about the subject on which they pontificate.