Tractor Tuesday Snowed off

But at least a chance to catch up on the Land Rovers. Would have preferred a shot of the rear as there is a Union Jack stuck on the glass but today it was covered in snow and I wanted to include the Ottobeuren Basilica in the background. I know the driver, she is German but her husband is a Brit who I have never met. Like us they have horses at home, an Ifor Williams horse trailer, bees and a remote house which I have Bliped some time in the past. She must work in Ottobeuren, possibly part-time and I think possibly connected with the health business in some form.

This evening a documentary on the state of the German hospital situation. Yes there is a 2 class system but they reckon it only applies to the "comfort" parts of a hospital visit i.e. the room, the food, the politeness of nursing staff, the theoretical benefit of being treated by the head consultant  but in the operating room there is no difference. The other problems discussed were the overcapacity of hospital beds, the economic pressure on doctors to carry out money bringing operations and on personnel in general to cut corners eg cleaning staff/MRSA. Interesting but not more or less than generally known. Far worse was the investigative programme that followed which included a bit on the obscene practices of the medical drug companies, at an enormous cost to us all. One of the worst areas being with cancer related drugs sold at enormous prices with very little effect.

Good news though tonight - a researcher has been awarded with an influential prize for work on spinal nerve cells and why we can't repair them. Seemingly one or more of these "cancer" drugs may help to crack the problem and allow "fresh" victims of accidents a chance of not spending the rest of their lives in a wheelchair.

Other good news - German unemployment in February lowest for 25 years with 780,000 more employed than one year ago, over 600,000 unfilled vacancies and around 50,000 vacant apprenticeship places .20% of the unemployed are foreigners: 2.4% EU Med countries (ESP, ITA, GRE, POR) 4% new Eastern EU, 6.6% refugees,  and 8.5% others which I guess is Brits, French etc. Majority of the 2015/16 refugees still aren't in these statistics as their status hasn't been finalised. Official employment outlook remains "stable".

Germany can financially handle 1m new residents but the big problem is the integration and matching wishes with reality. last night a non sensationalist report on a young Afghan refugee found an apprenticeship job in a timber yard. First day doing boring plank stacking, same as every German apprentice. He threw in the towel on day 2 saying he was too tired after 8 hours to be fit for evening football.

However these issues are almost secondary to solving the causes of the refugee and then economic migrant issues.

Makes this mornings rather heavy overnight snowfall a poor joke - Angie's train journey took 3 hours instead of 90 minutes - apparently not snow connected though. However loads of morning jams and minor car accidents. Although generally snow has little effect on life, unexpected snow still catches people out and in effect this was the first real snow of the year which makes it worse.

Blipfoto changes happening - I did have a problem yesterday with finding my "One Year Ago" Blip but I guess this will be resolved in 4 years. Exciting times.

PS Forgot to mention yesterday - Germans are nowadays more prepared to pay the price for good food especially an "Organic" premium. This cheddar cost over 20 Euros/kg. Just checked Tescos Organic Cheddar -  about 8 Euros/kg. However generally they have been known to give the least of their GDP for groceries.