Back in Sweden now, and appreciating the far superior health care here; at least for citizens with non-life-threatening ailments. I’m on three or four separate waiting lists in Hull, all of them several months long already, and with no indication of when I’ll be seen; which is one of the reasons why I fled here. You pay about £20 for each appointment or series of appointments, and various amounts for prescriptions, up to a certain (low) maximum in the year; after which it’s all free. That seems a fair compromise. And doctors here spend far more time with you than they do in the UK – half an hour today with my super young (female) doc. I’m having a kind of bodily MOT next week: blood, heart, scans, etc. After which I’ll know whether I’m (a) really ill, (b) just old, or (c) a hypochondriac.

Of course the ‘NHS crisis’ in Britain is partly deliberate on the part of the present government. Despite protestations to the contrary, they really don’t like the whole ‘socialist’ system, and would rather it were transferred to private enterprise, as in the USA. My suffering – such as it is – is constantly exacerbated by adverts offering immediate appointments with private doctors, who are slavering over the carcase of our beloved NHS like wolves. That’s how the counter-revolution will sneak up on us. I’m lucky – with my dual citizenship – to be able to escape what for me would be a morally difficult and perhaps even deadly choice.

Incidentally: conclusive proof that God is a woman. She only gave prostates to men.

Serious (political) blogging will resume when I’ve settled in again; and hopefully with a clean-ish bill of health.]