The media this week has been full of such shocking stories that even the most hard-hearted amongst us have surely been finding it hard to keep going.
The tales of the hardship endured by ‘British families stranded abroad’ just keep on coming. These people, or ‘victims of the volcano’, as the papers like to call them, have been forced to endure the torment of a whole extra week in such hell-holes as Madrid, Florida and - yes, I know, I can hardly bring myself to type the words - Hong Kong.
Airline bosses are now complaining about the cost of meeting the hotel bills for their stranded customers. One in particular has complained that a passenger paying only 9 euros for a plane ticket to Barcelona shouldn’t expect to be reimbursed 800 euros for a week’s hotel and food bill. I must say, having been to Barcelona recently, that the only hotels available for under 100 euros a day would involve quite considerable suffering - although possibly not as much as a flight with the airline concerned.
Interviews with ‘victims’ show a definite separation into two camps. The first camp includes those who have heroically managed to drive overland to a channel port (as usual the French have put the cherry on the gateau by having a nationwide train strike) and found it an enjoyable adventure, including one redoubtable 81-year-old Yorkshire woman travelling with her family who couldn’t remember having such a good holiday. In the other camp, those who stayed put and are busy blaming the government for not sending the army or navy to rescue them. These people are evidently unaware that the army and navy are kind of busy somewhere else and that the minister for volcanoes is busy canvassing in Basingstoke.
Or perhaps it’s a cunning plan just to keep certain people out of the country until after 6 May…
How quickly we take things for granted. Only 30 years ago it was a rare and exciting adventure to go abroad on an aeroplane - now it’s just boring. Thirty years ago healthcare was still a valued privilege - now it’s our right. Today’s trainees are horrified at the concept of working for 24 hours every fifth night, yet only 15 years ago that would have seemed the most amazing luxury to many of us.
Perhaps it’s good to have the occasional reminder of what amazing things we now have access to. Flying at 30,000 feet half way round the world to a country of which we probably know nothing and don’t speak the language will occasionally - just occasionally - not go exactly according to our detailed itinerary. Especially since the travelling bit is often regarded as almost incidental.
It’s good to be reminded how big the world is. It’s analogous to couples making detailed birth plans, forgetting that babies, like volcanoes, aren’t predictable and happen at the most inconvenient times. Perhaps we also need to be reminded how precious the NHS is - I hope that we don’t have to get to the brink of losing it before we realise just how precious.
Tags: Election
‘I hope that we don’t have to get to the brink of losing it before we realise just how precious’.
I suspect we already have, Katherine.
I don’t think we should be too dewy eyed about the NHS. In the past, it was a cheap, if a little sub-standard, way of delivering healthcare to the masses. Now it’s a relatively expensive, slightly sub-standard, way of delivering healthcare to the masses. I accept I’m in a minority in the profession, but I genuinely believe a £20bn rationalisation of the NHS might just save it for the longer-term.
As long as it doesn’t completely screw my department’s budgets…