How to recognise a shagged sheep

I get told things by my crofting neighbours and I can never be quite sure if they are pulling my leg.

However - I have been told that the sheep I see in the fields just now - with coloured bottoms - have been shagged - mated.
The ram, or tup as they call him here, has done his job.

I think it may be right.
A quick Google tells me that putting coloured paste on the underside of the tup before he mates, is called raddling.

I suppose it is quite clever really. How else would you know which sheep had been left out and still  needed attention?

 I wonder if it helps the tup - for the same reason

The Last of the Ducks

I wrote earlier (Duck Shooting 22/10/2013) about the sadness of the tame ducks being shot on the loch with the unpronounceable Gaelic name.

The snow has come here and the weather is dreich, so I set off up the hill to see how they were faring.

To my surprise I found 20 of them up the path, just seconds away from the croft, cowering in a hollow.

Today - just a couple of days later, there were none.

A walk right up to the loch found only one alive – wounded and dying.

It was a place of slaughter, with the odd dead bird on the ground and one even hanging in a tree. The ground was littered with empty cartridge cases and litter.

And they call this Sport?

Bank Debt

Do you find it difficult to get your head around bank debt? .
I do.
There was the initial lunacy - when they were all passing around parcels of debt - like children playing pass the parcel at a party. Who gets stuck with it when the music stops playing?

It seemed beyond belief that banks had been buying and selling - passing around all these complex parcels of  debt  - without understanding what they were.

In my naivety, I thought that all debt was bad. Why on earth would anyone sane want to buy a parcel of debt?

Well the music stopped playing and some banks had to own up to the horrific amount of debt they had.
Others (I gather) have still not been totally honest about it.

Apparently some of this is goodish debt, some bad and some very very bad.
What does this mean

I go shopping with Deborah and she sees a jacket she likes, but realises she has left her money at home. I lend her the money to buy it. She is a good friend. She is honest, has a well paid job and no debts. She agrees to repay me next day. That is a good debt.

I go shopping with Tracy and the same thing happens. I know she has money problems and a reputation for not paying back loans. This is bad debt
Whether it is good or bad depends on  how likely you are to be re-payed.

Who are all these people who owe money to the bank?
Are they little people from the UK who can't pay back their mortgages?
Are they little people from  the UK who have taken out loans and can't pay them back?
Are they small /medium size UK businesses who have taken out loans to make their business work?
Or are they huge faceless multinationals?
Or are they other countries?
Or - perhaps - they are massive debts incurred by the bank gambling with our savings?
Or - perhaps - it is all those nasty parcels of very toxic bad debt from all round the world

If Tracy can't pay me back, I lose that money.
What happens if someone can't pay their bank back? The bank loses that money.

If someone or something goes bankrupt, what happens?
If I went bankrupt Tracy would still owe me for the jacket.
But - If I died then Tracy would breath a huge sigh of relief.
If Tracy goes bankrupt she no longer has to pay her debt to me.

What happens when a company goes bankrupt?
I suspect that those who owe money to that company will also breath huge sighs of relief

But what happens if a bank goes bankrupt?
What happens to those who owe money to the bank?
and
What happens to those who have had all their life savings deposited in the bank?.

If I have a huge mortgage and my bank/ mortgage provider goes bankrupt  - does it mean that I no longer have to pay back my mortgage and that I now own my property?

When RBS (based in Scotland) was on the verge of bankruptcy, it was saved by the UK government tax payers putting in huge amounts of money and becoming major share holders.

If Scotland had been independent it would have gone bankrupt trying to that. What would that have meant?

RBS would have had large parcels of bad debt - money owed to the bank
It also would have had huge debts - money it owed to all those who had deposited their savings with it.
Would  those with bad debts who owed money to the bank have their debts wiped out?
Would the savers - the people it owed  money to - have lost all their money?

Was it insured in some way? Would insurance companies have had  to to pay out?
Would Scotland ultimately have had to pay?
At present the UK government backs all personal savings in UK banks up to £85,000

Why didn't the government allow RBS to go bankrupt?

Iceland's main bank went bankrupt and, as  a result, the whole country went bankrupt - because the debt of the bank was larger than the GDP of the country. (As was the case with RBS)

Did Iceland honour its debts?

I don't know - I have a feeling that it told everyone to xxxx off and started again. This is not a very business like way of behaving and must perhaps exclude Iceland from international business for a while.

It's shredded reputation now means poor ratings from the credit rating agencies.
Does this matter? Well yes - because it means that no other country will lend Iceland money, or if they do, the interest rate will be exorbitant.

Why might Iceland want to borrow money? Well for anything really - collecting the rubbish, running the hospitals, education, pensions etc.

Most  countries in the West borrow huge amounts of money and have massive debts - Britain and America being two of the worst.

Which is the main country lending everyone all this money?
The answer to that is - China
China - quietly - now owns most of the world

Last week, it was announced that RBS would not be split into a good bank and a bad bank.

When this was first announced I understood it to mean that ;-
The bad bank would be the one that gambles with our money  - the investment bank.
The good bank would be the old fashioned sort as managed by Captain Mainwairing in Dads Army.

I thought that an excellent idea. I don't want my bank to gamble with my money.

But apparently the bad bank, was to be one, into which all the bad debt was put. That would make it a very bad bank.

But - The new plan is not to split the bank up, but to open a special department in it, into which all  the bad debt can be put - hidden away - ignored - forgotten about - perhaps no longer even  mentioned in the every day accounts?
But most importantly - not counted as the type of debt that the bank needs to hold capital to balance.

Hence the bank can begin to loan more to the public.
It can be seen as a good bank with healthy books

It can loan more to all those people buying houses in this new government led property bubble- at exorbitant prices.

Is this a new game  -  pass the parcel and blind mans buff combined?

Interest rates will go up and the whole thing will implode - again

But I still don't really understand bank debt

Perhaps we could sell all the bad debt to the Chinese?
But perhaps they would be wise enough to ask -
(what our banks should have asked)
Why would  anyone sane buy bad debt?

What would China do about Tracy who still owes me for that jacket?
Perhaps they would just execute her.

PS - I miss you

My mother (now very frail and well into her 90's) is a terrifyingly practical lady -
a terrible thrower outer of anything and everything not in everyday use.

When I was a child I got a comic each week called Sandra. It was all about girls at a ballet school. I loved it. But each copy would disappear as soon as I had read it.

In my teens I graduated onto The Beatles Weekly. I had almost every copy and guarded them carefully. When I went away to University I hid them in the attic thinking they were safe - Sadly not. About 10 years later I went up there to have a quick read and they were all gone. That really broke my heart - especially knowing how valuable they had become.

Her recent throw out was the box of family postcards. In retrospect it is quite extra-ordinary that she hadn't done it years ago. There were postcards to us all, dating back to well before I was born.

I was horrified and said so. I had loved having the occasional look at them.

On my next visit they had miraculously been recovered. They had apparently reached the bin of items to be burnt, but had not actually  gone into the fire. I was amazed that she had saved them for me.

So of course I sat down with her to look through them with a renewed feeling of preciousness and discovery.

One of the first cards I found was one that I had never seen before. It was an ancient black and white card of Athens  -crowned by the Acropolis.
It was from my father (now dead more than 30 years) to my mother.

It said very simply that - He had arrived safely, had eaten and was going to have an early night - Love Dad Then it said
PS - I miss you

Oh my goodness. So simple and yet - such emotion - I wanted to cry

I read it out to my mother

Without pause for thought - she said
" I am still missing him".

I told her that she ought to put it somewhere special,
But she didn't seem really interested.

I get the feeling she is slowly letting it all go .
She doesn't need to throw it away

She will soon be going and leaving it all behind

Croft boundaries

There was a meeting of crofters on our side of the glen.
The man from the ministry was not happy about the boundaries.

If you look at our properties from the other side of the glen (see photo) the boundaries are quite obvious. They are delineated by burns and therefore bushes.

The hillsides here run with water at most  times of the year. This water  finally channels itself into a few burns. As a general rule there is a burn on each side of each croft's property. There certainly is with ours.

The burns - over time - make deepish gorges for themselves where the ground is soft . In a few places they hit harder ground and are more superficial and  meander a bit to get around the obstacle.

The man from the ministry cannot understand why the lines down each side of the properties are not  nice and straight. This would  makes it easy for him, in his office in London or Brussels to calculate acreage and things.

Hence the meeting

It had to be explained that the crofters have animals grazing in these fields and these animals have to have access to the burn to drink. There are only certain parts of the burns where that can happen  - and the old boundary was made so that animals from each side could both get good access to the burn at suitable places.

He still didn't really  understand

Sloe Gin crisis

What has gone wrong this year?

My husband makes sloe gin every year. This is a very serious business and it  has to been done just so.

It all starts with going to admire the sloes - at about this time of year.
Those who make sloe gin know where the best sloe bushes are - information that is never shared with anyone.

Then it is a matter of waiting and choosing just the right time to pick them.
Apparently they have to have softened a bit and  have a bit of a bloom on them.
Then you have to be really patient and wait till after the first frost - for some reason.

So - out we went - for the inspection - full of expectation - as the press  has had many reports of bumper apple and berry crops this year.

What do we find - NOTHING - not one

What on earth has happened? Last year there was a bumper crop and the bushes look quite healthy.

Is this Global warming?

Worse - Has someone found our bushes?

It is a crisis!

Crofters rights

I met a different crofting  neighbour today.
His croft is at the bottom of the hill and ours is more than half way up the hill, so we are more likely to be in our cars when we pass each other by

But today he was out with his camera. He is apparently the chief cameraman for-  The South Side (of the glen) Common Grazing Association.
The hill above our croft is MAMBA (miles and miles of bugger all) but - since time immemorial the crofters have had the right to graze their animals on it - and they do. Goodness knows what the animals find to eat.

Well - as I mentioned in a previous blog "Duck shooting"- the sporting rights on the hill have been sold to a rich man from Essex, who has brought in 1,000 or so ducks and is now happily shooting them all.

The ducks live on the Lochan with the unpronounceable Gaelic name. To get there, he has not only almost destroyed the existing track, which the crofters use to access their animals on their quadbikes, but he has built new tracks all over the place, so that his paying guests can go On Safari. They don't seem to like walking.

He has not asked permission from or even first notified the crofters. Gates have been left open so that animals can escape and new gates have appeared, were none were before, so that animals can't be accessed.

Crofters don't like this sort of behavior. Oh no! They have their rights - Crofter's Rights.

But - The rich man from Essex has the sporting rights and he his rights too.

Whose right takes precedence?
Well - the crofters - usually - but the rich man from Essex doesn't know that yet.

Hence chief cameraman crofter was off to photograph the damage

I almost feel sorry for the rich man from Essex.
Once the crofters are aroused en masse - he doesn't stand a chance.

However I don't feel sorry for him
He left a rude note on our car, asking us not to park in the place by our croft where we have always parked and no doubt the horse and cart was parked by our ancestors before us.
He then turned up wanting to buy our croft house from us.

Unfortunately voting for Scottish Independence would not stop this sort of thing. The sporting rights can be sold to anyone from anywhere
 But no Scottish Highlander would have been stupid enough to buy them on this hill.

Anyone could have told him that there is nothing to shoot here and never will be except rabbits.
Ducks will not breed up there on the Lochan with the unpronounceable Gaelic name and he has just shot the few remaining grouse. Pheasants were tried a few years ago with no success and there are no red deer just a few roe deer.

Sadly Mr Rich man from Essex - you have bought a lemon - with some very disgruntled crofters attached.
and  the disgruntled crofters always win.

Male sell by date

I am in mourning. The tup has gone - gone to that great place in the sky where non prime meat is processed into unmentionable things.
The poor old chap was past his prime, past his useful life - and had to go.
He was no longer considered suitable for frolicking with the ladies and passing on his genes to the next generation

I wasn't quite brave enough to ask neighbouring crofter, whether this meant that he was no longer capable, or that his sperm were no longer capable - I mean the tup- not the crofter.

I don't think life was always easy for him.
I remember one year - when the snow was so deep - that  he couldn't get his essential bits above the snow level to do what was expected of him. Poor fellow - just imagine - his dangly bits must have been deep frozen.

I remember well the day he arrived - it seems like yesterday. I met neighbouring crofter in his car, towing the trailer. We all stopped in the middle of the road - which is the way of things up here- and  he was shown off to me with such pride. I seem to remember he had an exotic name such as Maclennan of Achiltibuie.
Poor old Mac - so much was expected of you - and now you are gone.

Neighbouring crofter said that six years was quite enough for a ram - after that you are better with a new one.
Imagine if we took the same attitude!

Fat is OK and sugar is evil

The experts seem to have turned the advice upside down .
An article in the BMJ by cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra explains -

http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f6340

I think the bottom line is that eating fat from meat (dairy) does not cause high cholesterol as previously thought.

When your blood cholesterol is measured, you are given a result for your total cholesterol.
Within that you will be given a result for your LDL cholesterol.
It was thought that this was the bad boy
This was the one that caused nasty muck to gum up your arteries.

Well - it seems that within that LDL there are two subdivisions
Large particles and small particles.
The large ones are of no concern
The small ones are the bad guys

Now
What happens to these small ones depends on your sugar and refined carbohydrate intake.
If you stuff your face with sweeties and candy and cakes and biscuits and fizzy drinks and bad breakfast cereals etc etc - then those small particles of LDL cholesterol will cause problems - such as gummed up arteries and the metabolic syndrome (diabetes)
If your are not stuffing your face with the above mentioned stuff, then you shouldn't have a problem.

So -meat is OK and butter and cheese and full fat milk.
But don't add sugar to anything and avoid foods where it is added - especially fizzy drinks
Eat unrefined carbohydrate such as whole meal bread
Go canny with processed meats - bacon and sausage and pies

I am heartened because that pretty well sums up what I was 'trying' to do before
but I frequently fail -especially when presented with cream cakes such as chocolate eclairs!

Duck Shooting

Sitting in our little croft house, miles from anywhere or anyone in Sutherland, I can hear ducks quacking.

These ducks are a long way away from the croft - up the hill, down the other side, up another hill, around a corner and then along to a small Lochan with an unpronounceable Gaelic name. 

The reason I can hear them - in between tunes (my husband is practicing his bagpipes) - is because there are so many of them. I don't know what the correct word is - not flock or swarm - whatever- the water is barely visible - there are so many.  

These ducks have been bred and taken up there to be shot. 

Not by us. 

They are gorgeous. When you walk up there  - they waddle up to you trustingly, expecting to be fed. They are fed once a day and the excited quacking at the approach of their meal can then be heard for miles. Some of the more adventurous even appear down at the croft, looking hopeful..

But what a nonsense - what a travesty. It does not make sense to me.

To grow ducks with great care - and then have fun shooting them!

Where is the sport? These birds are TAME. 

I remember a cartoon I saw, in which a duck hunter is talking to a sitting duck.

"Please fly" he says

"I am not allowed to shoot you otherwise"

Instinctively it seems very wrong to me and I certainly couldn't do it myself

However - playing the devils advocate -

I do like to eat duck - I sometimes buy it in Tesco.

I assume that Tesco ducks are bred in nasty artificial circumstances, like hens, and never experience the wild - the glory of a Lochan in the mountains with an unpronounceable Gaelic name.

Perhaps it  is better to be one of the ducks on said Lochan than a Tesco duck

Oh it all gets awfully confusing.

These are two of the ducks who followed me most of the way down the hill

These are runaway ducks arriving at our neighbour in search of food - and safety!

If we divorce England - we will have to marry Europe

If Scotland divorces England then it will have to marry Europe - if they will have us!

Scotland needs to be married to someone. It is way too small on it's own.

We would be divorcing from a very long marriage which has benefited us all (Wales and Ireland as well)

Yes - we all grumble a bit - like all old couples who have been married a long time
But-
the thought of marrying the EU is terrifying.

We would lose all our spouse's heritage. Granny and Grandpa  from that side of the family (England, Ireland and Wales) would be cast off and not available any longer for babysitting or loans.

Instead we would have to embrace the heritage and relations of a new and very different spouse (the EU and Berlusconi) - not easy when you have been married for such a long time - you get set in your ways.
It will all seem a bit foreign and not what we are used to.

If we thought that our last spouse was a wee bitty too domineering - we will find that our new spouse is totally dominant.

If we thought that our last spouse sometimes didn't  listen to anything we said - we will find that our new spouse doesn't listen at all.

If we thought that our last spouse didn't let us govern in a way that was beneficial for Scotland - we will find that in the Euro the  rate of exchange will make us weaker and Germany ever stronger and we will be powerless.

Married to England we could vote and get changes - but in marriage to the EU there is no democracy.

I suspect that I would quickly long for the way it was. I would want my old, familiar, long suffering spouse back - with the parents-in -law and all the old stories that used to get so boring with constant repetition. I would be prepared to put up with the annoying habits - such as the snoring.

I would want it all back to how it was. I now realise I was quite happy with how it was - and - like most Scots - I really don't like change.

But is it too late?

New male cancer - of the throat

Throat cancer has always existed - but mostly caused by smoking.
Now there is a very frightening new throat cancer.

Frightening because it affects young men as well as  middle aged and old men.
and frightening because it is a fast growing epidemic

It is caused by the HPV virus.

HPV is the herpes virus - the same one that causes cancer of the cervix in women.
For some reason  - in men - it causes cancer of the throat, tonsils and base of the tongue.

Is it sexually transmitted?

Well - yes - in so far as someone who has never had sex (either oral or otherwise) will never have been exposed to the HPV virus. It is generally assumed that by about the age of 20 most people will have had exposure and will be HPV positive.
Some people will have a particular genetic make-up, that then causes the cancer to grow.

If caught early, in most cases, the cancer responds well to radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
The difficulty is catching it early. There are no tests like cervical screening for cervix cancer or PSA testing for prostate cancer.
Because it is occurring deep inside the throat/neck there are no early symptoms or signs.

A young man I know, recently developed a lump - like a big gland - under his jaw. Everyone thought it was just a cyst until he got into hospital. There, the surgical team immediately knew what it was. They are seeing so many cases, that treating them is becoming a factory process.

This young man had immediate radiotherapy and chemotherapy which did not work. Radical surgery was then needed, leaving him with a scar from his ear down to his chest and the inability to lift his arm on that side due to nerve damage.

 However he will recover from that surgery just in time for his wedding - next week.

Do spread the message to all men - that any lumps in the neck or any other symptoms must be checked out.
Be aware that many doctors and nurses outside hospital have not yet heard of this problem.

All young girls are now vaccinated against HPV before they reach the age of sexual activity. This prevents cancer of the cervix
So -
Why are boys not also being vaccinated to prevent this horrible cancer?

I don't understand Americans

I just don't understand Americans.

There is this feeling that they are the same as us British - perhaps because we speak the same language - but the reality is that we are quite different.

British people believe passionately that everyone is entitled to certain basics such as health care.  No-one should suffer because they can't afford medical treatment. We see that as a basic human right.
How could one human being stand by and know that a fellow countryman is suffering because they can't afford treatment.

As a doctor (retired) I could never have refused the best  treatment to a patient because they couldn't pay. To me that would have been morally unacceptable.

But in America it seems quite acceptable.
If life has dealt you a tough hand - well that is just too bad.

How do they feel when they read that infant mortality in the US is half as high again as it is in the UK and that it is twice what it is in Sweden?
I suspect they subconsciously think that all those dead infants belong to families of black people and immigrants  - not people like them. I hope I do them an injustice.

Our NHS is not perfect by any means but -
In America - taxpayers pay more tax per head on Medicare and Medicaid than the UK taxpayer pays for the whole of the NHS.
Medicare and Medicaid only covers the poor and the elderly. Everyone else has to then also pay for health insurance on top of that.

One does not have to be a genius to see that either far too much money is being spent on health in America or way too little is being spent in the UK.
The realty is both.
and both problems need to be addressed.
Finding a way to pay less on health care would help America's financial problems.

What do the Republicans have against Obamacare - a genuine attempt to improve access to health care and overspend on health.

Don't they see - that their attempts now to block something that has been approved by the democratically elected Government and ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court, is viewed by the world as acting against the very democracy that the USA is meant to stand for?

Is it all because Mr Obama is black
and millions of narrow minded Americans still can't accept that black people are the same as white people?
I do hope I am wrong, but that is how it looks from this side of the pond.

Does the EU mean freedom?

Two recent events have given me a clearer idea about the EU

1. I read an article about Angela Merkel - explaining how her upbringing in East Germany, under the communists, has very much affected how she thinks.
For her, the EU is all about freedom

2. I have just come back from a week in  Prague having spent a week last year in Budapest. I also have a Polish cleaner. My ongoing exposure to  Eastern European countries and people makes me see the EU project differently.
I see that  for them it is about freedom

At heart, I am against the EU (as it has become) and I am very against the idea of a Federation of Europe .

I liked the original idea of The Common Market - a market where we could all trade easily with each other, but yet retain all democratic, national governance and identity. I still think that is how it should be for Britain
But
I can very much see why countries like the Czech Republic would want to be part of a European Federation. Those countries are small and vulnerable, surrounded by neighbours who have invaded and done terrible things to them in the past.

Britain (since 1066) has not experienced the horror of being invaded and occupied.
We don't know what it is like to lose our freedom.
We have never experienced having to learn to work with and get on with your invaders and with those of your own people who collaborated with them. People who may have been responsible for the torture or deaths of family or friends

I remember my mother's horror when she was asked by my father to produce a meal for some Japanese businessmen. He hoped they would bring lots of lucrative business to his engineering company. This was about 1960 - about 15 years after WW2 - when my father was in Borneo fighting the Japanese. My father could bury the past for the sake of his business, my mother found it hard.

Norway was invaded and occupied during WW2. My Norwegian uncle would afterwards talk about the problems of what to do with those Norwegians who had collaborated with the Germans.
Do you shoot them all?
Do you imprison them for life?
The reality was that the population of Norway was too small.  Men were needed to get the country going again. So - the worst -  were shot, but most were  imprisoned for a short while. Eventually they came back into society and society had to learn to accept them. This was not an easy thing especially in small rural communities

What must it be like now for one of those countries once under German or Russian occupation?
How do they cope with German, Russian or Japanese tourists?

We discussed this in Prague with the lovely Cristina - our apartment owner.
She was quite clear that the only way of safety for the Czech Republic was as part of a European Federation with Germany. She wanted the Czechs to be married to Germany (so to speak). Big, powerful, rich Germany would keep them safe and free.
All her friends were very against joining the Euro
She was pro joining the Euro as she works in the travel industry

Yet Norway has stayed out of the EU. Does that mean it feels safe? My Norwegian uncle said that they were always afraid of their border with Russia.

Here in the UK - on our little island -we do not have this same worry about safety and freedom. This explains our different attitude to the EU.

We see that Germany now completely dominates and effectively rules the EU.
Do we mind that?
Is that a good thing or a bad thing for us?
Now that Hitler is no more and there is the lovely Mrs Merkel - perhaps it is a good thing?
But who may take her place in the future?

We see freedom in being outside the Euro and being able to set our own rate of exchange to suit our own economy.

We see the undemocratic Brussels bureaucracy as a threat to our freedom.
When our own politicians behave badly we can hold them to account. No-one holds Brussels to account.

I  - quite definitely  - see the progression to a  Federation of Europe as a threat to our freedom.

Pride in my Irish Great Grandfather

I have been researching my Irish great Grandfather.
He was from Holywood, County Down - near Belfast  - which nowadays is in Northern Ireland.

What I am finding makes me proud of him.

He obviously was a firm believer in trying to get all the religious factions to come together in peace.

He did this through close involvement with Sullivan Schools - started in his time - 1877,
These provided an education for children of all faiths in the one school.
Religion was not taught in school.
There was a heavy scientific influence.

He was trying to do this in 1877!

Once, back in the late 1970's, when we were travelling through New Zealand, we spent time with a couple from Northern Ireland. We talked  long into the night about the problems there.

They were quite emphatic about what needed to be done.
They said
"There will be no lasting peace in Ireland until segregated schooling is abolished.

Catholics and Protestants must be taught sitting side by side"

I think this applies to all the UK.
Segregated schooling should be banned - it is divisive.
Faith schools should be banned unless they can be made to take a properly balanced intake of children to represent all the different faiths in the community.

If you go to school with someone - you realise that they are the same as you - even if they are a different religion or their skin a different colour.

Two of the most divisive issues in UK society at present are
1. Muslim versus non-muslim
and
2. Rich/posh versus poor

The first will respond and does respond well to children all attending the same school together.
The second is - if not caused by - then hugely exacerbated by, segregated private schooling for the rich and posh.

French brains altered to remove fear

This is a follow on to my previous blog -
"Brain altered to remove fear" 21/9/2013

I explained that the parasite Toxoplasmosis has a very clever mechanism in which it alters the brain of its host to lose fear.
The infected mouse loses all fear of cats and becomes an easy prey
The parasite can then finish it's life cycle and reproduce in the cat.

Now

I have recently talked to an eminent parasitologist
He told me, that when lecturing on this topic, he finishes his lecture like this.

It is possible for man to become infected by Toxoplasmosis. This most commonly happens when he eats raw meat.
Which nation is most notorious for eating very raw meat?
 - There is that famous recipe - Steak Tartare?
It is the French.

Perhaps - he postulates - this may explain French driving

March for separation - or not

Last weekend there was a march in Edinburgh - Scotland's Capital - by those who believe that Scotland should separate from England
According to the organisers - the SNP - it was attended by 30,000 people
According to the police it was attended by 8,000 people

Do we believe in fairies
or
the police
or
the SNP  - who are also trying to make us believe - that if Scotland separates from England -
- the Scots will have better pensions and be able to retire at a later age than the English

Well
I know who I believe

Wolves eat sheep

There are mutterings about re-introducing wolves to Scotland.
The logic seems to be this -
1. Wouldn't it be nice if Scotland had all the same flora and fauna as it had thousands of years ago.
2. Wolves would eat deer. There are too many deer and they eat young trees.

Well - I would like to say something to these crazy people.
If a wolf is on a lonely Scottish Highland hillside (such as where our little croft house is) he will have the choice of lots of fat, stupid, slow, tame sheep or the very occasional, wild, highly nervous, fast-running deer.
I know which I would go for and wolves are not stupid

In northern Portugal and Greece wolves primarily or almost exclusivley feed on livestock.

In Greece farmers are paid more than £1 million in compensation for
32,000 sheep and goats
2,000 cattle
2,000 horses and donkeys
which are killed by wolves - each year!

My neighbouring crofters struggle to survive on the income from the sale of their lambs -. Every lamb counts - they cannot afford to lose any (see Blog- lamb sale 27/9/2013)

If there are too many deer and they eat young trees - then do, as has always been done -
Put deer fencing around plantations of new trees and cull the deer.

Duh - stupid!

Someone has contacted  me suggesting that wolves be introduced to our towns and cities.

Well

I don't think Mr Fox would like that.

However - It is an interesting thought.

Would Mr Wolf get rid of Mr Fox 

or would they team up to make a terrifying pack of human baby eaters?

Lamb sales

Our neighbouring crofter was telling us how he had done at this years lamb sales.

Now this is important to a crofter because his main income comes from the lambs he sells.

Our neighbour sold about 125 lambs for about £50 each - a slightly lower price than last year.
Simple multiplication tells one that he made £6250

This has to be split with his son who now runs the croft with him, but has his own house.

After deductions for winter feed, supplements, vaccinations and sheep dip etc then that is their yearly income.

Luckily they both have other jobs.

It is no wonder that the sons of crofters are not keen to carry on for so little money.

My heart's in The Highlands

My heart's in The Highlands
My heart is not here
My heart's in the Highlands a chasing the deer
Chasing the wild deer and following the roe
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go

When I was just 10 years old, I was sent away from my home in the Scottish Highlands to a convent boarding school south of London.

I had learnt that poem by Robbie Burns at the little village school, where I had been up until then, and I loved it. It expressed everything I felt about being so far away from my beloved home
During that first term I was honoured (or so I thought) to be asked to recite the poem in front of the whole school. My recital was given an enthusiastic reception and I felt great pride. It was only a while later, I discovered that the whole thing had been a set up, to hear me talking in my "odd" Scottish accent.

But where are The Highlands?
Scotland has recently been divided into regions by some bureucrat. He has delineated an area which is called Highland and another called Grampian (Aberdeen-shire) and another called Tayside etc etc

We Highlanders know that The Highlands are all that land north of and including the Grampian Mountains and that everywhere else is The Lowlands. Those of us from The Highlands  are Highlanders and all the rest are Lowlanders and I wont repeat here the adjective we used to describe lowlanders at my primary school.
Orkney and Shetland are not in the Highlands.

So Mr Salmond - I think we need something different to what you suggest.
If you insist on separating Scotland from England,
then us Highlanders - with our whisky - want to be separate from you lowlanders
 and
Those Vikings up in Orkney and Shetland - with all the oil and fishing - want to to be separate too.
So
What does that leave you Mr Salmond and your lowlanders?
You can keep all your welfare  problems left over from de-industrialisation

so
Farewell to The Highlands, farewell to the North
The birth place of valour, the country of worth
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove
The hills of the Highlands forever I love

Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow
Farewell to the straths and green glens below
Farewell to the forest and green hanging woods
Farewell to the torrents and loud pouring floods

My heart's in The Highlands
My heart is not here
My heart's in the Highlands a chasing the deer
Chasing the wild deer and following the roe
My heart's in the Highlands wherever I go

Brain altered to remove fear

Now here is an interesting thing.
Suppose it was possible to completely remove our fear of something very very dangerous. Say a hungry lion or a venomous snake or a ticking bomb or a madman with a knife.
It would be a disaster  - for us!
Suppose an evil dictator like Hitler could develop a means to alter our brains that removed our fear of him?
There would be no conflict - we would voluntarily walk into his gas chambers.

This is what happens with an amazingly clever parasite called Toxoplasma gondii.
This little parasite can only reproduce in a cat. It is excreted by the cat in its faeces, but to reproduce it has to get back into a cat again. So it needs the cat to eat an infected mouse. It makes this very easy for the cat by altering the brain of that mouse, so that the mouse loses all fear of the cat.
The mouse voluntarily walks into the gas chamber -so to speak.

The researchers found that the effect- the lack of fear of the cat -  remained even after the mouse has been cured of the parasite infection.

If we could harness this ability for good causes, it would be very useful for all those with paralysing phobias.
But it could be a horrifying weapon if harnessed for evil

Blog reading vampires

I thought my blog had suddenly become very popular  - as the number of hits soared.
Sadly - No
It seems like many others - I am being visited by weirdos.
The main weirdo is
Vampirestats.com.
But there are other similar ones.
Luckily I Googled them before clicking on them.
It would seem that those that have clicked, have ended up with infected computers and worse.
So - other bloggers  be warned - don't.
Otherwise harmless - just annoying.
All one can do is just ignore them and realise that the hit counter is more or less useless

Priests to marry

It looks like it really might happen
Priests will be allowed to marry.

The second in command at The Vatican is preparing the ground by explaining that celibacy was never a rule from God but one invented by the Church
and perhaps - nowadays -it is not such a good rule?

And anyway the church already has all those married Anglicans priests who jumped the Anglican ship when it got choppy.
and
In Africa large numbers of priests who don't like being celibate just ignore the rule - as many others have done elsewhere over the years.

So - could the tide be about to turn  - the waters to part - the unthinkable happen?

Rumpy Pumpy wants EU corruption cover-up

Rumpy Pumpy aka Herman van Rompuy (the European Union President) wants to cover-up all the corrupt spending that goes in the EU.
- Instead of being outraged at reports by Europe's Court of auditors, who regularly have to refuse to sign off EU accounts due to 'irregularities'.
- Instead of demanding an immediate reform of the EU to uncover and address this massive corruption
- Instead of doing those things - he demands that the press should consider 'toning down' their reporting of the problem. He asks for "more nuanced" reporting

David Cameron is outraged
He says
"This kind of nonsense is why he wants to reform the EU"

Quite right
The EU spends £110 billion each year - our money
They are not a democratic body
We can't vote them out.
We can't reform them.
We have given birth to this huge, bloated, corrupt, undemocratic beast which is a law to itself.
It will grow and grow and eventually devour those who gave birth to it

There was a recent move by  the EU nations to block a 1.7% salary that EU officials at Brussels had awarded themselves.
It now looks as if this will not happen.
They will get their pay rise and millions in back pay because an EU official called Yves Bot (who is advocate general at present at the European Court of Justice) wants to annul the decision of our elected nations

Cabers getting bigger

My favourite two events to watch at a Scottish Highland Games are -
Dancing and
Tossing The Caber.
It is quite mesmerising to watch a huge man, with bulging muscles, in a kilt, pick up a caber - a huge tree without branches - and toss it right over onto its other end - so that it then topples right over again.

You don't really believe it is possible until you see one of them doing it.

Well - apparently last year at Pitlochry Games, the men were all so strong,  they all tossed the 17 foot long caber easily - thus spoiling the competition.

So this year a bigger tree has been found - it is a foot longer, weighs 100 lbs (45Kg) - about 12 percent more.

Caber throwers have apparently got considerably stronger in the last 10 years.
Lots of Porridge Oats perhaps !

Happy Glen

         On returning to visit the peaceful Scottish Highland glen of my childhood home, I was amazed to discover it riven by a scandal of such proportion, that  it is now named Happy Glen  - after the Happy Valley set of aristocrats in Africa  - portrayed in the film White Mischief.

It would seem that x went off with y's wife. So y  (feeling peeved) went off with someone else and so did x's wife and then as they all felt a bit peeved they went off with other people and .... I quite lost track of the story except for the end part where one of them - a pensioner - went off with his younger cousin's wife and ended up  marrying her and then having a stroke.

Could this be a warning to us pensioners? Are we perhaps too old for such capers?
So -  new younger wife of cousin is having to look after him.
Could this be a lesson to younger wives not to have affairs with pensioners?

How could this all have started in such a respectable, peaceful place?
The answer according to those I have talked to is this -

Incomers - White settlers

It is said that it was all  started by one man from England with more money than morals!

No No say others. It started before that, when the woman arrived who went off with her gamekeeper.

Dearie me - a Lady Chatterley's lover ?
Yes - and another incomer - not "one of us"

Surely this sort of thing never happened before?
Did it?

I explore the old newspapers -
Shock horror and shock horror and shock horror!

It would seem that the old aristo's where just as capable of such things.
How could I have forgotten Lady Magnesia Freelove?

But - most of the old toffs had  their own rules.
Like the monarch, they did not marry for love but for business. After they had produced the "heir and a spare" they could then seek love and sex elsewhere, as long as they were fairly discreet. Scandal was not good for the family name.  Divorce used to be considered a scandal so not encouraged

But all is different now, as Prince Charles discovered. The rules of encounter have changed.
One of the main differences is that the horror of scandal is no more

The Grievances of a Crofter in 1883

I have spent the last few days reading the newly digitised Napier Report done in 1883 on the state of the Scottish Highland Crofters.
To my amazement I came across evidence being given by my husband's great grandfather, whose little croft house we are in at present.

Reading it makes one realise why the crofters were unhappy. Their crofts were made smaller and smaller to make way for big profitable sheep farms. Many were moved to very poor land which they had to try and improve. Many were evicted with nowhere to go.

Did they hate the Duke?
Well a John Mackay giving evidence later on said
"They would hear no ill talked of the Duke"
The Duke was respected but his factors and groundsmen were hated

Here is what our ancestor had to say

Grievances of Alexander Gunn                                                        

My name is Alexander Gunn; my age is 49. I am a crofter living in the parish of Rogart. I pay £7,16s. for twelve acres of land. The number of stock I have are as follows:—Two Highland horses, two Highland cows, two young heifers, and eleven sheep. The returns from my croft will not supply my family with meal and vegetables more than six months in the year. My croft nearly employs my time in its cultivation, and even when I have a few days to spare from being employed on my croft it is seldom I get employment otherways. The fact is that between returns of other employment and cattle and sheep, etc. sold, I can barely sustain my family ; and even I am often compelled to keep my wife and children from what is termed good clothes on account of my rent. If I had double the amount of arable land that I now possess at fair rent, valued by competent valuators, appointed by landlord and tenant, and guaranteed to defend me against capricious eviction, I do consider that I would be able to educate and bring up my family in a manner more consonant to my mind, and have sufficient to defend me against pauperism in my old age.

My grievance is the smallness of my croft, and the inferior cattle I am obliged to have, and no rule to govern the rise of rent or the threat of eviction, as my case will prove.

When my mother died, twenty years ago, my eldest brother, on getting possession of the lot, had to pay death premium, or £1 of a rise of rent. This rise was put on, on the recommendation of two of the Duke's ground officers, who valued our lot. Three years afterwards my brother died, and I became his successor, and I had to pay a death premium of - 4s. that being four shillings more than the Duke's servants or ground officers valued my croft at. Four years ago I received a summons of removal, when on making inquiry I found out that this was an introduction to another £ l,  ls. of a rise of rent, which I had to pay, and pay still;

The actual fact is that I pay £ 1, 5s. per annum more than what his Grace's own servants valued my croft at, and all the improvements on the lot were done by myself and predecessors.—

(Signed) ALEXANDER GUNN.

Anyone wanting to read more go to

http://www.whc.uhi.ac.uk/research/napier-commission

Childrens's bath time

I read a sentence in the paper which made me pause for thought

" One third of parents have to bribe their child to get them in the bath"

I had to re-read this a few times to make sure I had it right.

When I was a child - bath time was huge fun - we all loved it.

My three children all loved bath time. All those bath toys - yellow plastic ducks, boats, water wheels, sieves etc.  I remember occasional  difficulties getting them out of the bath because it was all such fun.

I have never met a child that did not love bath time
I do remember hair washing being a bit tricky with one of my children (who disliked water getting in his eyes). However it was a stage that soon passed..

So why do a third of modern day children so hate bath time that they have to be bribed?
What has happened?

Parliament has spoken

For once it feels as if parliament has spoken with a voice that really does represent the people. This is despite the fact that Milliband - the leader of the opposition  - was playing cheap party politics.

The people of Britain have not recovered from being duped by Tony Blair and America over Iraq.
All those lies about WMD's ready to fire on us all at a moments notice. I for one was taken in by them and still feel very angry about it.

As a nation it has caused us to lose trust in politicians here and in America.
There were no WMD's in Iraq.

Syria is having the most horrible time. Atrocities are being committed by both sides.
But it is a fight between two Islamic factions Sunni and Shia - similar to the old Catholic against Protestant wars in Europe most recently seen in Ireland.
It is not our war and we cannot be seen to side with one faction over the other. There are evil/dangerous parties in both factions.

We must stay right out of it
It is something they have to sort out for themselves

Wind farm Scandal

How about this for insanity
"Developers have received payments of £19 million not to generate 215 gigawatt hours - enough electricity to supply 50,000 households for a year"
I have just read this in The Times 26 August.

It would seem that when the wind blows and all the wind turbines go round (as they have been designed to do) the national grid cannot cope with all the electricity produced and the turbines have to be turned off. Compensation then has to be paid to the wind farm owners.

Guess who ultimately pays for that?  
Us - through our electricity bills.
It is BONKERS.

Here is what it goes on to say in the paper
" This is equivalent to 3 megawatt wind farms, costing about £90 million to build, standing idle since the beginning of the year.

So
We pay the landowners about £20,000 a year per turbine
 and
We pay the wind farm owners to stop them making electricity
Bonkers - scandalous

Until a means has been found of storing the power made by wind, then it is all a complete waste of money.

No - worse than that - it is a huge rip off

The Scottish Highland Clearances - still happening

I was brought up in an area of the Highlands of Scotland where everything was mostly owned by own family - The Lovats.
Lord Lovat was the head of Clan Fraser and also a WW11 hero and was much loved and respected by all.

In olden times, Scotland had it's clan system. A clan with it's clan head/ chieftain was a huge family all carrying the same name and living in the same area. Some clans were rich and powerful and others were not. The Lovats owned almost all of Inverness-shire and,  where we lived, everyone was called Fraser. They would be known as - Fraser - the post, Fraser - the butcher, Fraser - the undertaker etc.

Near our house lived Fraser - the farmer - two brothers Rod and Simon and their sister Mhairi. They were a God fearing family who followed the most strict of all the Presbyterian faiths. Every Sabbath they would drive very slowly to  church in an ancient huge black car, wearing their best clothes. Their fields were those that surrounded our house and as a child I grew up watching the rotation of various crops and animal stock - always in perfect condition. The farm - like everything else - was owned by the Lovats, but Rod and Simon's family had leased it from them for many generations.
But now
Lord Lovat has died. His son lost the family fortune through gamboling and mismanagement and most of the vast estate has been sold. The remainder is in the hands of a factor whose remit appears to be to maximise profit.
and
Rod and Simon have died.
Simon's son Bryan  had taken over  running the farm for them and had expected to carry on doing so after they died.
NO
The factor has seen that there is more money to be made by clearing Bryan off the land his family has farmed for generations, converting the beautiful old farm steading into houses and renting out the fields to a  neighbouring farmer.

Bryan will leave with nothing. He is grieving his father's loss and at the same time wondering how he is going to survive.

This is happening in many rural areas. Accountants advise on the economics of scale. The larger the farm the more economical it is to run. Farmer's houses and farm steadings are being converted and sold or rented out  as holiday homes or to people from the nearest town. Somewhere there is one very busy farmer managing huge acres of land dotted all over the place. It is the farming equivalent of globalisation.

There is a similarity to The Highland Clearances in the past, where crofters were cleared from their crofts, to make place for sheep and the sheep farmer  -because it made more profit for the land owner.

It is a scandal
AND
knowing Lord Lovat (which I did) I think he would be very upset.
He would never have done this. He looked after his people.

Wind farm companies bribe small communities

In the far away north of Scotland, the big landowners at last see a way of making money from their MAMBA (miles and miles of bugger all). They are paid up to £100,000 per turbine which comes from our electricity bills.
In amongst all this MAMBA there are small communities of people, mostly crofting folk, who meet at the pub and the post office / general store and the school, community Hall and the Church. These people come from families who have lived there for generations. It is a place where nothing changes.

But now their landscape is being changed by the slow march of the Wind farms. Every year brings another one - with more beautiful wild landscape ruined.
The people are not happy. When the last one was proposed they wanted to object en masse but were bribed with offers of money from the company.
They feel cheated. It turns out that the wind farm company cannot pay for anything that would normally be provided by the local council. So their payment consists of a few paltry baskets of flowers in the village and a monthly showing of a film in the hall - an insult.

There is now another wind farm proposed and this time there are lots of objections. Sadly we know that Salmond and Sturgeon - our fishy political leaders - will overule any local opinion in the pursuit of their political ideal
We are told that the huge monstrosities will be removed when they come to the end of their very short lives, but it is not hard to imagine that those concerned will be long gone by then (either dead of bankrupt) and they will remain forever as the dreadful legacy of Salmond and Sturgeon - the politicians that ruined Scotland's landscape in the same way that Beeching is remembered for ruining our once wonderful railway system.

Men packing the car

Why do men feel that they have to be in charge of packing the car - when going on holiday?
Is this just a Scottish thing?
Is it just my pensioner generation?
Or is it just those I have talked to about it?

Why should a male think that somehow he is the only person capable of storing away stuff in the back of a car. He does not feel the same compulsion about storing away groceries in the kitchen after a  supermarket shop - although that is far more onerous.

Is it a left-over from the day when the family car belonged to the man of the house - a time when the little woman  would have no money to buy her own car and perhaps did not drive.

Or is it a left over from a time when there was a clear division of territory - the car and garden shed  being the man's and the kitchen being the woman's?

Is it a left over from those days of the big strong husband carrying the heavy suitcases for the little wife? That is a possibility I suppose - a remnant from the days of chivalry?

Somehow I don't think so.

For a start we don't go in for heavy cases - all those leather things went to the charity shop years ago . We now use various kit bags and rucksacks and carrier bags and boxes.

Fitting it all in is a challenge. However - it is not a challenge of strength, but of intelligence, particularly spatial awareness. It does not require a knowledge of machines or mechanics or of making things work or of mending things  - all of which - I am the first to admit - I am useless at.
No - it requires skills I have to the same to degree of excellence as any male - if not better.
It is therefore most irksome when there is the assumption that the senior male must be in charge
No - I say
It is time for us females to fight back.

Embarrassed by my fellow Scots

Last night we went to to see a well known English comedian at The Edinburgh Festival.
It began at 7.30 pm and there was a performance of something else before it. Hence we all had to queue outside until the venue had emptied. This is the standard Edinburgh Festival routine where event follows event with minimal change over time and to my  mind always demonstrates remarkable good natured  crowd management,
 Behind us in said queue where a bunch of drunken Scots with, it would appear, minimal intelligence and education. Listening to them was a comedy show in itself. One subject they roamed onto was Scottish Independence. Oh Dear - to think that people like that will be voting on Independence is frightening.
We then all entered the hall and the comedian - Milton Jones - was being most amusing and entertaining us all well. At one point he tried for a bit of audience participation by asking what we were all doing afterwards. A drunken women four along from us shouted out the name of a night club.

"What was that " he said
She repeated the name and then added

"YOU ENGLISH WANKER"

I was shocked and horrified and wanted to shout out

"Ignore that - she is drunk - and
"That is not how us Scots think of you"
But
although Scottish, I speak educated (Queens) English which is perceived by the average uneducated person in Scotland as meaning that I am either posh or English  (I am neither). However, saying what I wanted to say would have caused a riot.
So I shall say it now.

English people - we do not think you are wankers - such a horrible term.
It is only the wankers in Scotland who would think such a thing. Sadly, they are a very loud minority especially when drunk - which is often.
To Milton Jones and all other English people in that audience- on behalf of the quiet majority of the Scottish people - I apologise

Genetically modified GM food

Until recently I was quite against messing with genes. I visualised awful things happening.
But - I met - a potato man. No not the toy. He was a world expert in the genetics of potatoes. A quiet unassuming man until he started on his subject and then - wow.
It is always wonderful to meet someone highly intelligent, interested and passionate about their subject.

After a bit I pinned him down on genetics
"Was all this messing around with the genes of plants a good thing - was it safe?" I asked
His answer was quite categorical
"It was a good thing and it was quite safe" he said
and went on
"There are many safe guards that would make it impossible for anyone to do anything that was risky or unsafe"
"Even the giant multinationals?" I asked
"Even them" he said
I told him that I had heard stories of big companies making modified seeds for crops that would then tie farmers into using only specific  weedkillers made by the same company. He said that was all untrue and would not be possible with the present safeguards.
He totally convinced me with expert knowledge, science and fact.
These are things that are very hard to come by.
I then read a sad and terrible and scandelous story
Two scientists - Potrykus and Beyer decided to do something to help the malnourished people of the world
Without any pay or personal gain, they slightly altered the genes in rice so that it contained extra vitamin A and then persuaded companies to waive their patents so they could give the rice seeds away free - a purely humanitarian and wonderful act.
Millions of people in the third world suffer and die from lack of Vitamin A and this golden rice would save them.
All that was needed was for governments and the anti-brigade to accept and do it.
And there it has stuck - for 10 years.
Organisations like Greenpeace are quite blinkered on this issue and will not even look at it.
It is estimated that 20 million children have died in the meantime through Vitamin A Deficiency.
The WHO estimates that 170 million to 230 million children and 20 million pregnant women are vitamin A deficient and, as it weakens the immune system, that 1.9 million to 2.7 million will die of it each year -
That is more than from  - Aids and TB and Malaria.
Come on Greenpeace - take the blinkers off -  look at this properly - accept it  - and get it done.

To take blood pressure medicine - or not

Amongst us old retired doctors there is a great dislike of taking tablets to prevent illness. When we were young we prescribed medicines to people who were ill - to make them better. Now all the emphasis is on prevention. But - we grumble - perhaps all these preventative medicines are worse than the illness they supposedly prevent. It is one thing to alter ones life style to improve health but it is quite another to take daily - forever- a strong medicine. One could say that it is actually just a huge social experiment. It has never been done before. We are living a vast clinical trial with no control.

Medications are responsible for at least 10% of emergency hospital admissions in older people so the less taken the better

We are advised to-
Take statins - to control cholesterol
Take anti hypertensives - to control blood pressure
Take asprin to control risk of clots

Well I have already talked about statins (see previous blog)
Asprin is great at stopping clots but causes lots of  bleeds  - gastric bleeds and bleeds in the brain.

Anti-hypertensives (bloods pressure pills) are strong medicines which also have side effects.  So who do you get to take them? According to NICE everyone with a BP over 140/90. Well I don't know about you but when I am tested (for anything) my blood pressure goes up. Being tested is terrifying whether it is on your times tables at primary school or on anatomy at medical school or by someone in a white coat at the surgery taking your blood pressure.

This is why us older doctors would not dream of taking the tablets unless it had been shown that our blood pressure was raised under normal conditions at home. Under these conditions NICE recommends 135/85 as the upper limit above which those tablets should be taken.

It is easy to check blood pressure at home. Chemists sell inexpensive home blood pressure testing stuff - very easy to use. Test yourself several times at day (at the same times) for several days and take an average reading. Most GP's are quite happy to be shown home readings. If the average is below 135/85 - no worries.
There is always the problem with the nurse and her protocol - beyond which she cannot see. You may have to battle your way past her or him.

Statisticians are terrifying people. They sit in ivory towers, where real people never go, playing around with numbers and coming out with bonkers ideas. Yes - statistically it might  make sense to put everyone over 50 on the above three medicines in order to reduce cardiovascular disease in the country as a whole. But these people are not numbers, they are complex and are likely to get side effects - some very nasty and will feel awful and whose lives will be made quite miserable and who may never ever ever have been likely to suffer from cardiovascular illness anyway.
Now - here is an idea for the statisticians
Lots of people over 50 get breast cancer and prostate cancer. So - to improve the statistics - why not remove both breasts and prostates in all the over 50's in the country?