I started this blog four years ago on the 8th April 2010 as a bit of fun but then it slowly developed in to something more involved. At the time of writing, these little essays have been read over 22,100 times by people from the UK and far beyond. The Americans have been my second biggest readers with Germany and Russia coming third and fourth respectively. I have been read in Papua New Guinea, all bar one of the South American countries, all the European countries and some countries whose location was not immediately obvious to me. I have enjoyed writing these pieces but have enjoyed the feedback far more. Some have been political, some local, some amusing and some reflective. I have enjoyed them all.
During my time as a medical student which is slowly drawing to it's close, I have found writing to be a great release from the endless learning. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! With qualification just around the corner, the time has come to bring "betweendenbighandkeele" to an end. It will be a great relief to be moving closer to home and bringing to an end my late flirtation with being a student. I have spent ten years now as a student having previously graduated in medical biochemistry. Aside from the obvious implication of achieving my objective, the most rewarding aspect of this last decade has been the way in which I have retrained my brain to deal with learning. When people suggest that we're never too old to learn, they are quite right.
This is the 400th and final piece in four years. I have learned that readers decide which posts they like. Many is the piece I have written which I felt would be widely read and strike a universal chord only to be sadly disappointed. By contrast, many of my most well read pieces have been written in no time with no great expectations. Last July, I wrote a piece entitled "A twitch upon the thread" which I consider to be my best. It only attracted the attention of 35 readers. By contrast, a rather tongue in cheek piece written about the managerial legacy of Alex Ferguson reached nearly 300 reads. It goes to show that the writer frequently predicts the reading habits of others at their peril.
Of the various communities with which I have become involved, the one which continues to inspire me is the "Health care in the UK" community so ably run by Dr John Cosgrove. It explores aspects of our current healthcare system as viewed by a variety of health care professionals. Although the GMC remains anxious to curb our forays in to social media, I remain in favour of it because it is such a potent vehicle for change because it also promotes healthy discussion and takes in to account views from both sides of the argument. At a time when the future of our health service has seldom come under more scrutiny, communities such as this one are vital for people to express their views. Better to seek their views than to suppress them.
Many of my pieces have focused on medical education and I have offered my own proposals for improvement based on my personal experiences. As a medical student, I have experienced the doctors who I would be proud to emulate and the ones who I would be ashamed to emulate. I am pleased to say that the former outnumber the latter but not by nearly enough.
Next week, I have my final exams after a decade of study and I approach them with a certain fear. Not a fear of the exams because we become normalised to them after such a long time in the system. The fear arises at the thought of passing them and all the responsibility which that will bring. Many of my friends have been reminding me to just think of the money. That is the last thing on my mind.
I have become increasingly concerned at the political direction of our country. In simple terms, there appears to be two distinct factions. Putting aside subjects such as the EU and immigration, the real divide in our country today seems to exist between the realists and the rest. At some stage in the near future, a UK government is going to have to address the size of our public sector and the way in which it is funded. That has to include pension provision which remains as unsustainable in 2014 as it was in 2010 when I started writing these pieces. Put simply, it is no longer a choice to ignore the reality and yet successive UK governments have shirked their responsibilities in this area. It is a sad fact that for many in the UK, a career in the public sector has become the aspiration. If that were more for altruistic reasons then fair enough. The fact is though that the public sector has become bloated and out of touch. It is a shadow of it's predecessor of fifty years ago. The need for a vibrant private sector being propelled by a new generation of skills based apprentices has never been greater and yet too little is being done in this regard.
The power of the UK supermarkets for the first time shows signs of weakening. It is difficult to know whether this is being driven by income or a public weary of yet another retail con. My instincts point me to the latter. Every recession serves to remind us all of what our priorities really are as opposed to what we would like them to be. Even if they are on the downward curve, the presence of these retail giants has had a devastating impact on many of our town centre high streets. This damage is going to take a long time to reverse and can only be helped by a growing private sector. At the heart of any such reversal must be the local communities which have been so badly battered in recent years following some misguided decisions by local government.
If the Scots decide to go their own way later on this year (and I still expect them to do so), the union will be gone after 300 years. This will be a good outcome for the Scots but a bad one for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It will then only be a matter of time before Wales and Ulster want to follow suit. The writing is on the wall and there will be hard times ahead. That said, if the Scots do vote for independence, it will all but guarantee a Tory victory next year and with that we will be accorded our say on a straightforward in or out EU referendum. For many of my generation, we have waited a long time for this.
A new blog will doubtless emerge in due course but under a different moniker. In the mean time, I would like to thank everyone who has read these pieces and hope they have at the very least been entertaining.
No comments:
Post a Comment