Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

He sounds like an ok bloke to me Haystack.

Yep me too. Is he into fish and chips?

Yep me too. Is he into fish and chips?

Meanwhile, our working class hero is up to his usual tricks.



Tony Blair will advise on controversial gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Italy

The project was initiated by the autocratic Azeri president, Ilham Aliye


Jamie Doward


The Observer, Saturday 2 August 2014 11.09 BST



Farm workers harvest olives in Puglia. Photograph: Alamy



On one side are Tony Blair, a powerful consortium of energy interests, including BP, and the autocratic ruler of a former Soviet bloc country. On the other are the olive growers of Puglia and a comedian turned political maverick.

News that Britain's former prime minister is to advise the consortium behind the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the final leg of a 2,000-mile gas pipeline that will run from Azerbaijan across much of central eastern Europe, has sparked uproar among people living close to its ultimate destination in the heel of southern Italy.

Anger towards the pipeline – the pet project of Azerbaijan's controversial president, Ilham Aliyev – has been building up in Puglia for several years, with thousands attending public meetings and demonstrations opposing the project, which is due to start in 2016. Plans for the pipeline to come onshore in Brindisi were ditched following local opposition. The new route will strike land in the less populated municipality of Melendugno.

However, environmentalists claim that Puglia, which boasts two Unesco world heritage sites, will still suffer as a result of the pipeline's rollout. There are fears – which are rejected by the consortium – that the pipeline will contaminate fresh water supplies.



More, and read the comments:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/02/tony-blair-gas-pipeline-italy

Former Radio 1 presenter Mike Smith has died at 59 from complications connected to major heart surgery



R.I.P Mike Smith.

We've just been told by the newby postman, that our regular postman, who is in his late 50's-early 60's, has just had a pretty bad heart attack but is still alive.

He is a fairly slim guy and obviously quite active because of all the walking he does. We chatted with him occasionally and are now wondering if we will ever see him back at work.

Hmmm?

You never know when your number is up....


http://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/24/science/the-doctor-s-world-james-fixx-the-enigma-of-heart-disease.html

Posted by a wag on afn.


corrientes
3 Aug'14 - 10:18 - 150006 of 150009 0 0


On a recent trip to the US, Tony Blair addressed an audience of native American tribes.

He spoke for almost 2 hours of his success in bringing about a lasting peace settlement in the Middle East, likening it to the US Government finding a suitable agreement with the North American tribes.

At the end of the speech, the crowd presented him with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name- Walking Eagle.

A very chuffed Tony Blair departed in his motorcade, waving to the crowds.

Later, a news reporter asked the Indians how they came to select the new name given to Tony Blair - Walking Eagle. They explained that Walking Eagle is the name given to a bird so full of shit that it can no longer fly.

If your times up its up.

All this talk of healthy food and living longer in my opinion is over hyped.

My grandfather smoked 50 cigs a day and had during the week at least 4 pints per day (teatime) down his local. Used to eat all the wrong food dripping and raw tripe, bacon sarnies etc etc, and he lived to 96. Was on my mothers side of family. Fit as a fiddle.

Last week after a 15 day wait I got to see my GP , cheeky git asked me where I had been hiding. Anyway it was to get a cholestorol check, 4.1 was the result and he said Im in good nick very good nick, but then stupidly I said "thank god for that all my dads side of the family have died early of heart related problems".

He sprung to his feet , "ohh mick that makes it a different proposition then, historicaly you have a 28% chance greater than your results suggest of having a heart attack". Im going to have to prescribe you statins. Take them for 2 months and then see the nurse for a blood test to check you havent had muscle problems with taking them.

I now wish I hadnt said a thing.

Mind having said that ive found thier is a plus, you last at least an hour longer in bed with her indoors.

Warwickshire man nose-pushes Brussels sprout up Snowdon

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-28621775

Result gf, that's a total of 1 hour 3 minutes :0)

Fishfinger,

I would be very wary of taking statins in your situation. I'm not going to clog the thread with my reasons, except to say that it's in GPs best interests to prescribe them to as many people as they can get away with, and the evidence to suggest they do actually work as prevention against heart attacks is flakey at best.

If you are able to lower your cholesterol level naturally through diet, cutting down on dairy (particularly hard cheeses) and shellfish over a two or three month period, as an alternative to starting statins, that may be more preferable. Statins do have side-effects and, once you start them, you'll be on them for life.

In a way, Hilary is reasonably correct

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) made a draft recommendation to general medical practioners in February this year. It is actually a kind of 'update' to what has previously been similarly recommended.

Some critics accused Nice's guideline group of close ties with the pharmaceutical industry.

Prof Mark Baker, the director of the centre for clinical practice at NICE, strongly defended both the decision to offer the drugs to people with a lower risk of heart disease than previously recommended and the independence of those working on the guideline. At the launch of the guideline on tackling the risk of heart attacks and strokes he explained the how this group carried out their work "in the face of some completely unjustified attacks on their integrity."

He went on, "I must remind you that nobody gets into our guidelines group if they have any significant vested interest, particularly a financial interest." He also said, "All the interests of the group members were declared, unlike those of some of the critics."

Appointees to the group are required to have had no financial involvement with pharmaceutical companies for at least the previous year.

So there we are then. It's the group from NICE who tell the MDs what to do. After one year of telling them, members of it can then go on to earn kick backs from it. This is not good policy and arouses suspicions amongst critics very easily.

The MDs have to do as they are instructed - otherwise they would be seen to be going against what they have been instructed to do. That wouldn't be good either.

NICE now says GPs should first discuss lifestyle measures – a better diet and more exercise – with people who have a 10% risk of a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years. They can then offer a statin if they think it appropriate. Previously, GPs were advised to intervene when their patient had a 20% risk.

Changing the advised risk level means an estimated 4.5 million more people will be eligible for statins, in addition to the 13 million currently eligible. NICE says half those patients will probably not be offered them or will refuse. Somewhere between five and 10 million are thought to be taking the drugs at present.

The drugs are now off-patent and therefore cheap. NICE says if 80% of the 4.5 million newly eligible take them, the cost to the NHS will be £52m, which is small in the context of the savings from heart attack and stroke treatment.

If two million – less than half – of the lower-risk group accept statins, NICE estimates that an extra 4,000 deaths from heart attacks will be saved, and 8,000 strokes and 14,000 non-fatal heart attacks prevented.

Most of the side-effects attributed to the drugs are not necessarily caused by them and are very common. Indeed, the occurrence of things like muscle pain has little or nothing to do with whether people take statins.

One severe type of muscle pain had been reported, but it was very rare. It is thought that some patients and GPs had wrongly assumed the severe reaction was as common as the mild one.

So if you were to ask someone who takes statins if they have experienced muscle pain and they replied, "Yes" then you would logically blame the statins. This conclusion is quite wrong.

Opposition to statins for the lower-risk group surfaced in the British Medical Journal last year. The journal has retracted statements in two papers it published. Independent experts have been asked by the BMJ's editor, Dr Fiona Godlee, to advise on whether the papers on the subject should be retracted and amended, in response to a call from Professor Rory Collins, joint head of the clinical trials service unit at Oxford University.

NICE's guidance was welcomed by many senior scientists, but some pointed out the importance of trying to change people's lifestyle in preference to handing out drugs. "We should not simply use pharmaceuticals to treat the results of unhealthy conditions," is the policy, which is now re-iterated by the likes of Sir Michael Marmot, director of the Institute of Health Equity at UCL.

Is there an election in the offing?




Homeowners could win compensation if garden cities built nearby, says Clegg

Deputy PM suggests affected households could receive council tax rebates or sell their homes to the state at guaranteed prices



theguardian.com, Sunday 3 August 2014 11.16 BST

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/03/garden-cities-compensation-homeowners-nick-clegg



Nick Clegg announced plans in April for a new generation of garden cities to ease the demand for housing in the south of England. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/PA



Homeowners could be compensated by the state if the value of their property falls as a result of the building of new garden cities, to encourage them to accept development in their area, Nick Clegg has said.

The deputy prime minister suggested that affected households could receive council tax rebates during construction, or may be able to sell their homes to the state at guaranteed prices.

Clegg announced plans in April for a new generation of garden cities to ease the demand for housing in the south of England. It is expected that up to three cities of at least 15,000 homes will be built in the southeast, though no locations have yet been selected.

Clegg told the Sunday Telegraph he wanted a shortlist of potential locations published by the end of the year.

Speaking to BBC1's Countryfile, he said it was important to safeguard house prices in areas chosen for projects.

"We could maybe give deductions on their council tax for the period of time during which the garden city's being built," he said. "We could possibly also say to those homes where they think the price of their home will be affected, we will guarantee the price of their home by buying it, if you like, upfront."

Clegg promised that ministers would "go the extra mile to allay those concerns of people who feel that their property or the price of their home might be affected", adding: "We don't want people to lose out."

Publishing the government's garden cities prospectus in April, the deputy prime minister said there was an "arc of prosperity" stretching from Oxford to Cambridge where many people wanted to live but were unable to find or afford houses. He highlighted Bicester in Oxfordshire as one area that had expressed interest in a large-scale development, although he did not say whether it would be a new garden city.

He said then that he wanted a revival of the "vision" that led to a number of new towns, including Milton Keynes, Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield, built in the years after the second world war.

Clegg told the Sunday Telegraph: "Many people will want to live in world-beating garden cities. The point of them is that they must be well-designed, support jobs, contain top-quality green space and services – the best of town and country in one place.

"But we also need to make sure that no individuals lose out during the development."

Some 109,370 new homes were completed in England last year – the lowest figure for four years and well below the 200,000-250,000 that experts believe the country needs to meet its needs.

Twenty-seven new towns were built across the UK after the war, including Stevenage, Harlow, Milton Keynes, Corby, Cwmbran, Newton Aycliffe, Peterlee and Cumbernauld.

Anyone fancy a masseuse?

NOTE: This lady is definitely NOT recommended by Russel Brand and Jemima Khan!

GF,

If you are a diabetic which some previous postings suggest you would be a fool not to take a statin of some form, if suggested by your doctor, unless there is some other underlying medical condition which makes so doing inadvisable.

The hairy one is again shooting her mouth off and her opinion should be dismissed.

I suggest you look at the meta analysis of taking statins and ignore the hogwash spouted about financial rewards to doctors for proscribing them. Also, check the variants of statins available and the manufacturers.

Well given that surveys in the US have shown that statin users experience an approximate 10% increase in blood sugar levels, and that the FDA issued a warning on that very matter, I guess there's a valid argument for diabetics to proceed with caution when it comes to statins, but I'm sure Old Bollock Chops knows best.

rewards to doctors for proscribing
clearly doctors are at last being rewarded for preventative advice :-)

Nick Clegg to call for tighter controls on immigration from new EU states

Lib Dem leader's intervention means all the major parties will be competing to prove they would reduce immigration from EU



Rowena Mason, political correspondent


The Guardian, Monday 4 August 2014



Nick Clegg's speech will mark a significant change in tone for the deputy prime minister. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images




Nick Clegg will call this week for much tighter controls on immigration from new EU states, as people have lost faith in the government's assurances following the arrival of 60,000 Bulgarians and Romanians.

In a significant change of tone, the Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister said immigrants from new EU countries should not be allowed to move to other member states by registering as self-employed during the transitional period of up to seven years when restrictions are in place. He will also suggest giving member states the right to "put the brakes on" immigration from new EU countries beyond the transitional controls "if people begin arriving in numbers too big for our society to absorb successfully".

"Is it any wonder, when people have been repeatedly told one thing only to then see another, that so many have lost faith in government's ability to manage the flow of migrants from new EU states?" he will say.




more unbelievable rubbish here: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/aug/04/nick-clegg-tighter-controls-immigration-new-eu-states