Some thoughts…

For you from some of my recent magazine reading.

A paradox of freedom

The more people’s choices expand, the more human beings demand a stable space in which to make them. When this is threatened security eclipses liberty, for if order in society can no longer be relied on freedom has little value.

The lesson of the pandemic is that most people will welcome an extension of state power if they think it will keep them safe.

Continuity of Care

In August, the British Journal of General Practice published the largest ever study conducted into continuity of care. Researchers at the University of Bergen had analysed the health records of 4.5 million people – almost the entire population of Norway – and looked at what patients derive from a long-standing relationship with their GP.

Patients who’d had the same family doctor for many years were:

30 percent less likely to use out-of-hours services

30 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency

25 per cent less likely to die

than people registered with their GP for under a year.

The risk of emergency care or dying began to decrease once patients had been with their doctor for as little as two years and continued to fall steadily thereafter.

This ‘dose-response’ relationship (in which the more you have of something, the more you benefit) strongly implies causality. Knowing and being known by your GP really is good for your health.

Billionaire Wealth Surge from the Institute for Policy Studies

$5.5 trillion – Increase in the wealth of the world’s 2,690 billionaires from March 2020 – July 2021.

$4.4 trillion – what it would cost to give a one-off $20,000 cash grant to all currently unemployed workers in the world.

What to see on a winter walk: an experts’ guide to spotting birds, fungi and fossils

With the landscape laid bare, now is the perfect time to explore the stark UK countryside

The Leveller Revolution – Book Review

John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Richard Overton, Katherine Chidley, John Rede, and Thomas Rainsborough aren’t as famous as Benjamin Franklin, Robespierre, Danton, George Washington, St Just, and Thomas Jefferson and yet they should be.

Indeed, the English Revolution isn’t as famous as the American Revolution or the French Revolution and yet it should be.

In England in the 1640s there were two civil wars, a counter-revolution, a revolution and a regicide to top things off, I suppose you could say, at the end of the decade. At the centre of this mayhem were The Levellers, a political movement that only really had one Member of Parliament who was sympathetic to their cause during this entire time – Henry Marten. Their influence increased as the decade dragged on and indeed they were a great factor in the decision to put King Charles I on trial for his life. Without Leveller pressure, Colonel Thomas Pride would not have purged the House of Commons on 6th December 1648 to make sure there was no vote in favour of a treaty between Parliament and the King, even though Charles had been defeated twice by the parliamentary New Model Army.

The Levellers made their message clear by producing pamphlets from secret printing presses on a regular basis, distributing these political sheets to the people on the streets, setting a standard for future revolutionaries to follow. These pamphlets fired the passions of the people and the soldiers of the New Model Army whose presence as an influential group in the future of democracy in England made sure the Putney debates became one of the most important events in the history of the country. Leveller alliances with certain churches were also of great importance to their increasing influence.

In the end, The Levellers were betrayed by Oliver Cromwell and his cadre of grandees who couldn’t make themselves go down the glorious path to true democracy that The Levellers were agitating for.

What were the Levellers demands, well I suppose you could say a level playing field, annual parliaments and the vote for all, not just for those who owned a freehold on property worth at least 40 shillings in the money of the time.

John Wildman said at the Putney Debates:

Every person in England hath as cleere a right to Elect his representative as the greatest person in England. I conceive that’s an undeniable maxime of Government: that all government is in the free consent of the people.

In England, it took over 270 years for this idea to become practised in law, showing how far ahead of their time some of The Levellers ideas were.

Visitors flock to Barnard Castle and other historic sites in England

Former mayor says Dominic Cummings’ trip put town on the map as English Heritage reports ‘stay at home’ boom

Summer breaks: 20 of the best self-catering stays in the UK

Seaside hideaway, Cotswold cottage or luxury cowshed … We pick boltholes from Cornwall to the Highlands which still have availability this summer

Top 10 places in the UK for spectacular sunsets

Where to go – and stay – for the most mesmerising evening skies

Early bloomers: 10 of the best UK gardens for late winter and early spring

Take a morale-boosting stroll around one of these UK gardens, where winter interest mixes with the colours of early spring

The Leveller Revolution – Book Review

John Lilburne, William Walwyn, Richard Overton, Katherine Chidley, John Rede, and Thomas Rainsborough aren’t as famous as Benjamin Franklin, Robespierre, Danton, George Washington, St Just, and Thomas Jefferson and yet they should be.

Indeed, the English Revolution isn’t as famous as the American Revolution or the French Revolution and yet it should be.

In England in the 1640s there were two civil wars, a counter-revolution, a revolution and a regicide to top things off, I suppose you could say, at the end of the decade. At the centre of this mayhem were The Levellers, a political movement that only really had one Member of Parliament who was sympathetic to their cause during this entire time – Henry Marten. Their influence increased as the decade dragged on and indeed they were a great factor in the decision to put King Charles I on trial for his life. Without Leveller pressure, Colonel Thomas Pride would not have purged the House of Commons on 6th December 1648 to make sure there was no vote in favour of a treaty between Parliament and the King, even though Charles had been defeated twice by the parliamentary New Model Army.

The Levellers made their message clear by producing pamphlets from secret printing presses on a regular basis, distributing these political sheets to the people on the streets, setting a standard for future revolutionaries to follow. These pamphlets fired the passions of the people and the soldiers of the New Model Army whose presence as an influential group in the future of democracy in England made sure the Putney debates became one of the most important events in the history of the country. Leveller alliances with certain churches were also of great importance to their increasing influence.

In the end, The Levellers were betrayed by Oliver Cromwell and his cadre of grandees who couldn’t make themselves go down the glorious path to true democracy that The Levellers were agitating for.

What were the Levellers demands, well I suppose you could say a level playing field, annual parliaments and the vote for all, not just for those who owned a freehold on property worth at least 40 shillings in the money of the time.

John Wildman said at the Putney Debates:

Every person in England hath as cleere a right to Elect his representative as the greatest person in England. I conceive that’s an undeniable maxime of Government: that all government is in the free consent of the people.

In England, it took over 270 years for this idea to become practised in law, showing how far ahead of their time some of The Levellers ideas were.

Visitors flock to Barnard Castle and other historic sites in England

Former mayor says Dominic Cummings’ trip put town on the map as English Heritage reports ‘stay at home’ boom

Some thoughts…

For you from some of my recent magazine reading.

A paradox of freedom

The more people’s choices expand, the more human beings demand a stable space in which to make them. When this is threatened security eclipses liberty, for if order in society can no longer be relied on freedom has little value.

The lesson of the pandemic is that most people will welcome an extension of state power if they think it will keep them safe.

Continuity of Care

In August, the British Journal of General Practice published the largest ever study conducted into continuity of care. Researchers at the University of Bergen had analysed the health records of 4.5 million people – almost the entire population of Norway – and looked at what patients derive from a long-standing relationship with their GP.

Patients who’d had the same family doctor for many years were:

30 percent less likely to use out-of-hours services

30 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital as an emergency

25 per cent less likely to die

than people registered with their GP for under a year.

The risk of emergency care or dying began to decrease once patients had been with their doctor for as little as two years and continued to fall steadily thereafter.

This ‘dose-response’ relationship (in which the more you have of something, the more you benefit) strongly implies causality. Knowing and being known by your GP really is good for your health.

Billionaire Wealth Surge from the Institute for Policy Studies

$5.5 trillion – Increase in the wealth of the world’s 2,690 billionaires from March 2020 – July 2021.

$4.4 trillion – what it would cost to give a one-off $20,000 cash grant to all currently unemployed workers in the world.