These Foolish Things: Who will be next? (1996)

The Scavenger column from the March 1996 issue of the Socialist Standard

Who will be next?

The government’s controversial decision to deport Saudi Arabian dissident Dr Mohammed al-Masari has paid its first dividend. As a direct consequence of the deportation, British Aerospace has won a £160 million aviation contract. 

Financial Mail on Sunday, January 14.

Brain power

Several recent studies have found a link between education and dementia. One published in the British Medical Journal last April reported a fourfold risk of Alzheimer’s disease amongst people with the lowest education status. Another study by Bonaiutu and colleagues found that Alzheimer's disease occurred in 7.2 percent of illiterate people, in 2.8 percent of those whose education had ceased at fifth grade and in 0.5 percent of those whose education had studied in the fifth grade or over.

Not every study has found a link between education and dementia however, and the link between low social status and dementia may arise from poorer physical health and a higher rate of vascular dementia (failing mental powers due to hardening of the arteries, including those which supply the brain with oxygen). 

Alzheimer’s Disease Society Newsletter, December 1995/January 1996.

The Land of Rising Debt

Japan’s budget deficit is now worse than that of the USA. Masayoshi Takemura, the Minister for Finance, proposes to increase government borrowings to Y21,000 billion (nearly £135 billion) in his April budget.

This will raise Japan’s total debt to 96 percent of its gross domestic product.

The old, old story

Exhausted pilots who made basic errors caused the air crash near Coventry just over a year ago, which killed five people including two Britons, a report disclosed yesterday.

The 21-year-old Air Algerie Boeing 737, which had carried veal calves to Holland and France, crashed in fog as it approached the city’s airport—its fifth flight during a 10-hour shift. 

Guardian, 11 January.

That’s the point of it

MONEY—you can’t have enough of it. Do you agree or disagree? I agree. If you’ve known the taste of hard-up days, you'll never forget it was money that gave you the mouthwash. The more I work, the more money I can earn, the more secure I feel. 

Jim Dale, Financial Mail on Sunday, 14 January.

Failing health

A recent survey produced by the Labour Party has analysed the changes in the structure of the National Health Service in the five years between 1989 and 1994. It says there has been a loss of 50,000 nurses and midwives (a cut of 13 percent) but an increase of 18,340 managers (400 percent). In addition, there has been a cut of 31 percent (19,020) in the number of nurses going through training.

Each of the five years saw a reduction of 10,000 nurses and an increase of 3,670 senior managers. The pattern differed strongly across the country: in North West Thames management numbers increased by 1,100 percent; in South Western by 180 percent. Nurses and midwives were reduced by 22 percent in Mersey and North West Thames; in South Western by 5 percent.

The Scavenger