Can't get your whites white enough? Why not try new 'coalition white'!!

[Stillhomewardbound]

Whether you're of the right or the left matters not, this clip, while perhaps not surprising, sums up the level of media corruption and manipulation we are subject to on a daily basis

It's no surprise, either to me, or to most people on these boards.

What is surprising (and glorious) is when the Elders of the White Fathers are caught, at it! And what a smug bunch of cheese-makers they do they appear!

Cameron, Lansley and Clegg ... don't think you'll ever walk on to a ward with your sleeves rolled up again. This unnamed consultant has you bang to rights!

And shame on the NHS Hospital trusts that support this farrago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13771099

[Richard Tarleton]

I thought the problem was that the camera crews were improperly dressed, not the politicians? But still a lovely example of the mask slipping.

[Lateralthinking1]

I have thought for a long time that this whole business of politicians having photo calls in hospital wards should be ended. If it ever happened when I was in a hospital bed, I would view it as harassment and say so. It isn't as if many patients are in a fit state to walk away. The same applies to visits from the royals and celebrities. What is the betting though that in taking this stance, I would find myself in trouble with the hospital rather than supported by it for not putting up with the whole insensitive circus?

Full marks then to this particular medic who put his foot down. Guy's, where I had a couple of unusually difficult wisdom teeth removed, suffers particularly from this kind of invasion because of its location. One also wonders about its senior management. The escapade of Sally Bishop, Founder, Action For Kids, involved what she called an abseil down Guy's Hospital Tower. Is there a day when it is allowed to be a hospital and not a constantly filmed pleasure park for those who aren't ill?

[eighthobstruction]

I wonder if there is a way that the words 'washing-machine, spin dryer, and daily wash '....might be inserted into this subject....

[Stillhomewardbound]

I thought the problem was that the camera crews were improperly dressed Not the politicians?

Yes, the louts behind the camera had failed to take off their ties and roll up their shirtsleeves in accordance with Coaliition Standing Orders for 'We are the people's party - I feel your pain' hospital ward media appearances.

[french frank]

Yes, the louts behind the camera had failed to take off their ties and roll up their shirtsleeves in accordance with Coaliition Standing Orders for 'We are the people's party - I feel your pain' hospital ward media appearances.

I'm not sure what your point is here, Shb (other than that the Coalition deserves all the insults it gets ). Hospital rules were plainly that the visitors had to take off their jackets and roll their sleeves up. Or as Cameron put it, 'We've had to take our trousers off ... '

Edit: Apparently he said 'ties' not 'trousers'. I thought he was being whimsical.

[Lateralthinking1]

I think the doctor was a hero. Definitely my person the week. If only more professionals made it clear about the boundaries and stood up to them in this way.

It was also a fantastic metaphor. Cameron's "no no, no no" and particularly the standing back and pushing him away hand gesture was a treat plus the highly irritated yet perplexed expression on Clegg's face. It was like a rabbit being caught in the headlights and I felt that we were just a moment away from him saying something very inopportune.

Incidentally, I watched half an hour of the debate yesterday. The chamber looked half empty and during that time every person who was called to speak was Conservative or Labour apart from Andrew George.

[3rd Viennese School]

Did they use the Alchohol gel?

[Lateralthinking1]

It was dripping off Cameron's hairpiece - a requirement in the Conservative Party manual.

I last used it when I visited the swans at Abbotsbury. They made a lot more sense to me and had good reason to feel dignified.

[french frank]

"To be fair to the journalists, it transpires that they had asked whether they should roll up their sleeves and wash their hands like Cameron and Clegg and had been told by the ward sister it was not necessary."

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/80350,people,news,im-not-having-it-surgeon-interrupts-pms-photo-op#ixzz1PM6k2EDx

He seems to have rather a short fuse and doesn't much like politicians of any stripe

[Lateralthinking1]

As a matter of interest, what point were they trying to make by being there? (I assume that the guy in the bed wasn't one of their closest friends and they just decided to take him in a bunch of grapes to cheer him up.)

[french frank]

As a matter of interest, what point were they trying to make by being there? (I assume that the guy in the bed wasn't one of their closest friends and they just decided to take him in a bunch of grapes to cheer him up.)

They were doing what politicians always do - showing that they are caring people in whose hands the NHS is safe.

But surely, surely, I can't be only person with a suspicious mind about this incident? .

[Lateralthinking1]

He seems to be the real thing to me:

Mr David Nunn
MBBS, LRCP MRCS, FRCS Eng, FRCS Ed, FRCS Ed Orth

Qualified in 1978 at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, University of London
Extensive general surgical experience, followed by orthopaedic training at St George’s Hospital, The Royal London Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital
Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon to Guy’s Hospital since 1990
On Specialist Register of General Medical Council
Fellow of the British Orthopaedic Association
Fellow of the British Hip Society
Member of the American Academy of Orthopaedics
Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

[french frank]

I wasn't for a moment suggesting he wasn't the real thing (the one who stormed out of an operation because the nurses didn't understand him). But it's a bit odd to make straight for the camera and stop right in front of it, so that the camera is between me and the people I want to speak to (and with the prime minister conveniently in shot behind me).

[Lateralthinking1]

Yes, you know I respect your opinions frenchfrank. However, would that be any more odd than to walk in to a hospital with umpteen cameramen and speak with the utmost concern (or appear to) to a bloke in a bed who you've never met before and are never ever likely to want to meet again?

The fact is that the visit must have been pre-arranged. Otherwise, they would have been arrested like any other human being would be. The patient meanwhile is a metaphor for us all - silent/silenced, just having to put up with it, and arguably being used in his vulnerability by politicians as just another object. Some might call that the greater conspiracy. It was certainly a set-piece if ever there was one while the motives of the surgeon can at most be simply doubted by some.

Genuinely I would like to see an end to these ridiculous visits. They don't prove anything to anyone and just get in the way of people doing constructive work. (It doesn't look from the film as if they even thought to give him an apple or a banana).