The increasing cost of cancer

by | May 14, 2010 | All, Industry News, Longevity

Research published recently suggests that the cost of treating cancer in the US has doubled over the last 20 years. This surprised me – I would have expected a much greater increase. The research finds that the increased costs arise mainly from an increase in...

Excalibur and the election

by | May 9, 2010 | All, Events

Last night, as there was nothing better on TV, we settled down to watch a DVD. The film we chose was “Excalibur”, an epic retelling of the Arthurian legend. The film begins with a battle: Uther Pendragon, father of Arthur, fights the Duke of Cornwall to...

Socrates and Greek debt

by | May 4, 2010 | All, Learning

I’m on holiday with the family in Northumberland this week, and today we were in Alnwick (pronounced “Annick”, in case you’re relating this story and you want to sound knowledgeable). The castle here had a starring role in the Harry Potter...

My pensions manifesto

by | Apr 22, 2010 | All, Pensions

There have already been a number of pensions manifestos, demanding commitments from the main political parties to sign up to their demands. I think it might be a little presumptuous to make the same demands for my manifesto, but if any politicians do take some...

Curing the NHS

by | Apr 20, 2010 | All, Investment

I had to take my daughter for a hospital appointment today. Nothing serious, just a consultant follow-up and blood test that she needs to have every few months. The appointment with the consultant lasted 10 minutes, the same amount of time it took to take blood (which...

Care of the elderly

by | Apr 16, 2010 | All, Pensions

There are a lot of promises being made about care of the elderly in the current election campaign. A particular concern seems to be that people do not have to sell their houses to pay for residential care, as this is seen as unfair. The alternative, which is currently...