There’s a sense among the elderly of having “earned it” that’s pretty universal. Over here (UK) it’s “I’ve paid my national insurance all my life - give me what I want”.

I imagine there’s quite the overlap.

I dunno, I’ve met a lot of healthy middle aged to elderly middle class white people from the countryside who seem to be afraid of everything and everyone unfamiliar.

You even see this attitude here in the UK, with our communist NHS. Just today there’s an opinion piece in the daily mail railing against Public Health England. Why they have so much hatred for the organisation that runs all of our microbiology services, co-ordinates responses to infectious disease outbreaks, and…

Ugh. The lack of empathy is staggering.

As a physician with an interest in international health, I have nothing further to add except fuck this eejit with a big stick.

That’s horrible on several levels. Those parents probably don’t remember making those comments, but that shit sticks with you for life.

Yeah, I just hope we all make it out the other side of whatever is happening on both sides of the Atlantic right now.

The short answer is no.

I do intend to get my ROI passport but have been procrastinating with the paperwork. NI folks have dual nationality and my mum is from the Republic, so there’s no rush for me. There are a lot of Brits who are entitled to an Irish passport, and they crashed the website just after Brexit because so many were trying to…

Corbyn supports a United Ireland (or at least he did when he was clear about what he did and didn’t support). He has shown support for the provisional IRA (the ones that were active during the troubles), but I’m not sure whether he did that deliberately or whether it was a faux pas. He stood in a show of respect for…

Well that would be... interesting. And could result in the complete fragmentation of the UK. Soon it’ll just be England, Wales and Pitcairn Island.

You really think Corbyn will win the next general election? NI is really gonna be fucked then.

I feel like Kerry is to Ireland what Cornwall is to England.

I live in England now and getting to Kerry is far more awkward than it should be :(

You live near the Skelligs? I’m jealous.

Many years ago I brought my English (and one Russian) friends over to visit Ireland and I took them to Newgrange. My main memory is leaving on the bus, there was an American woman saying to her toddler, “Say bye bye! Bye bye tombs!” It was adorably surreal.

Her mother seems like such an awful person. All of her “acting out” just looked like copying her mother’s behaviour with the violent outbursts and swearing tirades and stuff. And the mother lost all interest in improving the child’s behaviour as soon as she realised there was money to be made by exploiting her…

Yeah, I honestly don’t think it’s possible for 12 people to be truly impartial in a case this harrowing (that would include a panel of medical professionals, which we use to determine medical negligence in the UK) knowing the eventual outcome. I’d hope that a doctor looking for signs of sexual abuse would look for…

You’d think the abusers wouldn’t take her to a doctor explicitly asking him to look for signs of abuse (of any sort) if there were signs of the abuse they inflicted present. On the other hand, maybe they were planning to scapegoat the mother’s boyfriend? Or maybe he was also an abuser.