I've Lost Two Brothers

I'm very sad to report that two porters at the John Radcliffe Hospital have died of COVID 19 disease. Healthcare service providers are by far the highest risk group for any contagion because anything at large in the community ends up concentrated in hospitals. Hospitals are like vacuum cleaners for bacteria and viruses. You might think the title of this article is misleading. The two men who died are not literally brothers of mine. They are not related to me at all. However all hospital porters are my brothers and, in some instances, sisters. In fact they are closer to me than that. I will not post any source links because the media has named the two porters against the wishes of their families, who asked for privacy. I shall grant them that. Rest in peace, MEP&DBP's. I salute you. At the present time thirty-six NHS personnel have died of the coronavirus. I salute them all.

Thank You, St Thomas'

See here for essential background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/04/boris-is-safe.html.

I would like to pay homage to MEP&DB&S Porters at St Thomas' Hospital in London, but also of course the entire civilian staff too, the doctors, nurses, PAM's and civilian ancillaries. You have saved the life of a great man, our leader Boris Johnson. Never in living memory have we had a Prime Minister we can respect. Boris is a strong man, a brave man and a decent man. Without him there would have been no Brexit, no foiling of the New World Order machinations. Boris is a starseed and a lightworker. He is where he is because of the 2016 Effect. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I'd also like to give tribute to the dedicated friends of freedom who have invaded the establishment where the Illuminati have had free reign since time immemorial. To QAnon and all those like him/her/them, much appreciation. Boris was very lucky. He had a near-miss with death. Thanks to you, he came through it safely. Bless you all!

See here for background: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/09/boris-johnsons-speech.html.

And: http://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2019/03/why-2016-matters.html.

And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2018/07/q-anon-livestream.html.

The Nation Applauds

Yesterday evening at 8 PM millions of people stopped what they were doing to clap and cheer in the streets as a tribute to National Health Service workers for healing the coronavirus crisis. I was just starting the live HPANWO Show broadcast when this happened and I heard somebody in my street playing a brass instrument. It is audible on the programme, see: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2020/03/programme-362-podcast-lisa-phillips.html. Signboards across the nation flashed supportive messages and #ClapForCarers went viral on Twitter, if you'll excuse the pun. Shops allowed people with NHS identity badges to jump the queues at the door, which have become the icon of the COVID 19 pandemic. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52058013. It is the first time anything like this has happened before. I am no longer an NHS hospital porter, but I was one for twenty-three years. I am ex-NHS and always will be. Until the day I die this will remain a core part of my identity. I'd like to express my appreciation to everybody who took part in this event. It means an awful lot to me; and I'm sure it does to all other healthcare or former healthcare servicemen and women.

See here for background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/03/coronavirus-livestream.html.

And: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.com/2020/03/programme-361-podcast-coronavirus.html.

And: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-coronavirus-industry.html.

The Real Eleanor Roosevelt

As regular HPWA readers know, I have created a maxim for the St Theo's Day celebrations: "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent." I felt that this was a perfect motto for Hospital Porters' Pride and Dignity, the spirit of St Theo itself. The statement was coined by somebody called Eleanor Roosevelt and at the time I included it I did not know who that person was. Since then I have found out. She was a First Lady of the United States, a title which means the wife of a US President, like the incumbent Melania Trump. Her husband was the thirty-second and longest served ever US President, Franklin D Roosevelt. The role of the First Lady carries no official political office, but it is invariably one of charity work and non-partisan activism. Eleanor Roosevelt became what is today known as a "goodwill ambassador". She worked hard to improve the lives of workers left jobless and poor by the Great Depression and was one of the pioneers in the quest for civil rights for black people. She was also heavily influenced by the first wave feminist Marie Souvestre who had been her schoolteacher. She was rumoured to have had homosexual relationships with a number of famous women, including the aviator Amelia Earhart and the journalist Lorena Hickok. (To be fair, her own husband was reportedly doing the same thing with women, as presidents often do; so what's good for the goose is good for the gander, you might say.) Her support for leftwing causes drew the ire of many American conservatives, such as J Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI. As to be expected in the mid-20th century, Eleanor Roosevelt was accused of being a communist agent. This video is particularly condemnatory: https://www.bitchute.com/video/Cum7gEyObVoT/.

During the 1940's and 50's the United States of America was struck down by an hysterical fear of "communists!". That word had a very different colloquial use to that of today. It didn't necessarily mean an orthodox Marxist; it could be applied to anybody who was not a table-thumping redneck. With retrospect, it turns out that there was some justification for that fear. The Venona project was a counterintelligence operation by the Signal Intelligence Service, later the NSA, that exposed the Cambridge spies; Blunt, Burgess, MacLean and Philby along with the espionage ring within the Manhattan project to develop the nuclear bomb. Yet that was just the tip of the iceberg. The vast majority of Venona intercepts were never deciphered. The agents who sent and received them were never caught. Some may still be alive today and walking free. Even the man whose very name was coined for institutional paranoid suspicion, Senator Joseph McCarthy, has been absolved somewhat, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wljpYZ8wejA. Yet none of these facts legitimize the depths and extremes of the "anti-communist!" obsession of that era. It was even suggested that Superman's red cape was actually a red flag in disguise. A number of films emerged at the time which capture that terrified mania. They are almost funny when viewed through modern eyes, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KWHDNPdoCg, and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8zhmCjV71w, and: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4alzh3. The only excuse I can think of was that this was the early Cold War and the threat of nuclear holocaust had just emerged; something so horrific that it caused mass insanity among the population in a way that those born under the shadow of the bomb could never comprehend. A number of cinema actors, writers and directors were subpoenaed by the House UnAmerican Activities Committee. Most refused to testify and were found in contempt. The "Hollywood Ten" as they were called were blacklisted from America's famous movie industry. These included some household names such as Arthur Miller, Humphrey Bogart and Lionel Stander. This film is a good history of the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ-dKru9RWM. Could Eleanor Roosevelt have been falsely accused of being a Soviet agent because of her leftist biases? Maybe. Was she wrong to be concerned about the legitimate iniquities of the era she lived in? I don't have a problem with civil rights; in fact I regularly defend them for all people. I would not tolerate black people being forced to sit at the back of buses and women not being allowed to buy houses, or any other similar injustices. I have no opinions at all regarding other people's private lives. What I object to is that the civil rights movement has been warped into a mockery of itself through cultural Marxism, for example see: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2019/11/sjw-ufo.html. However, Eleanor Roosevelt was a keen supporter of the United Nations which, as G Edward Griffin has correctly pointed out, is an embryonic one-world government, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwPy7oSs6Yc. In fact she was the United States' first ever ambassador to the UN. She was the powerhouse behind the American Youth Congress and National Youth Administration which were definitely infiltrated by socialist tendencies supporting the USSR, such as the Young Communist League. I don't have an answer to this conundrum; I've only just started investigating who Eleanor Roosevelt really was. We can't ask her because she died in 1962. Really, for the purposes of St Theo's Day, does it matter who she was? I am quite willing to repeat quotes of wisdom from many people who I consider deplorable. Winston Churchill was another one-worlder, but he said something truly enlightening, and during my Larry Warren research project I reproduced it in this post without a qualm: https://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.com/2017/02/is-larry-warren-fraud-part-6.html. I am also a big fan of the author China Miéville, see: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-city-and-city-by-china-mieville.html, and he is a raving socialist. In fact, far from being an undercover agent he wears it on his sleeve. Eleanor Roosevelt's quote: "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent." is one that resonates with my hospital portering experience enormously, regardless of the character of the one who said it; therefore I will continue to use it in HPWA publications and the St Theo's Day posters.

See here for more background: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2020/01/spies-of-london-part-1.html.

And: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2019/04/st-theos-day-2019-fliers.html.

And: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2016/08/youtube-comment-im-pleased-with.html.

Porters- Series 2

See here for essential background: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2018/10/porters-returns-to-dave.html.

Following the recent death of the actor Rutger Hauer, see: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2019/07/rutger-hauer-dies.html, I binge-watched the new five part second series of the TV comedy Porters, see: https://dave.uktv.co.uk/shows/porters/. I have unforgivably delayed reviewing it because of other work commitments. (My to-do list is growing longer in proportion to dark energetic universal expansion; I really need to slow down.) Series 2 reunites the same production team and it is largely the same format as Series 1. I'm glad to say it has not replaced the cleverly designed title sequence or the Wurlitzer organ theme music. The script is the similar, with speedily delivered one-liners. Too speedy sometimes and I had to watch a few scenes more than once; not that that is really a criticism in today's age of online players. The difference with Series 2 is that new writers are brought in whereas Series 1 is completely penned by Dan Sefton. One of the Series 2 scriptwriters is Susan Wokoma, Frankie's actress.

Frankie returns to the St Ethelreda portering crew in Series 2 and continues her enterprise in black market larceny. However she has progressed from selling outdated Viagra to Chinese businessmen and now steals perfume from dying patients on the geriatric ward. She has surreptitiously obtained the entire "do not resuscitate" list from one of the doctors' briefcases. She also organizes a women's boxing tournament in the basement. Lucy and Dr Bartholomew become bitter rivals and almost end up killing each other in the ring. Lucy is of course still being ineffectually pursued by her eternally dogged suitor Simon. Hardly a spoiler alert is needed when I say Simon fails to get the girl... and what a terrible waste of comedic plot that would be if he ever did! Lucy is still besotted with the handsome and debonair Helimed hero Dr McKenzie and almost marries him at one point, although Simon does succeed in putting a stop to that. A new porter joins the team called Anthony De La Mer. That is an unusual surname and strangely enough it is the surname of a real porter I knew in the maternity unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital. Coincidence? Anthony is something of an Essex Jack-the-lad type and is one of the most perceptively created characters in the series because he exhibits certain personality traits that are typically associated with hospital porters. He is a prodigious blagger. We used to say about those kinds of porters: "Name a place, he's been there. Name an activity, he's done it." According to his professed persona, Anthony is a former MI6 officer, licensed to kill, and he has dated celebrity patients in the private hospital he used to be at. He clashes violently with Frankie when he tries to muscle in on "her patch!" by trying his own hand at the perfume theft game. Tanya Franks returns as the hospital administrator Jane Bison, another wonderfully accurate character. Like real NHS managers, she cares nothing for the actual performance and quality of the service so long as it looks good. She goes almost berserk with worry when "Ham and Cheese" turn up as patients, two teenage boys who are absolutely archetypal depictions of overrated amateur internet stars. As in Series 1, Mzzzzz Bison is bureaucratic, bullish and aloof. However, she uses her secret weapon against Simon at one point by lifting her eye patch; which must be rather like the scene in Star Wars when Darth Vader takes off his mask. Simon is suitably struck dumb. In the antagonists' camp along with Jane Bison are the security guards, including an enormous Irish woman who looks like a wrestler and has a loose trigger finger when she's wielding a TASER. Simon also falls foul of a series of practical jokes one Halloween nightshift, mostly at the hands of the rather ghoulish couple who run the mortuary. The drill goes live when Frankie is kidnapped by a serial killer. There are many other excellent storylines; for example when Dr Pradeep becomes a porter for a day, Simon damages a surgical robot, Frankie runs into an old friend who thought she was dead and Simon secretly rough-sleeps in the hospital when off duty (Something which all of us have done. I remember many chilly nights in the linen store when I was too tired to walk home from the social club and had an early shift the next day). There is a lot of black comedy in Porters which reflects the gallows humour necessary to survive in real healthcare work. Much of it may be distasteful to some viewers, such as when Simon makes a sperm donation to his own mother and a coma patient wakes up after twenty years and thinks she's still a young girl. A couple of months on A and E will cure those viewers! Healthcare operatives of all kinds make sick jokes; fact! If we didn't we would lose our minds.

I enjoyed Series 2 of Porters almost as much as Series 1. The single disappointment was the absence of Tillman. To be fair, I think I felt it more sharply than I otherwise would have if I hadn't watched the programme in the wake of Rutger Hauer's death. In the story, Tillman leaves portering to journey to Tibet and study meditation with the Dalai Lama. Anthony was deployed in to replace him. I was pleased to see that the character is not completely removed from the programme. Hauer returned to shoot a handful of scenes that give him a continued presence in the show, mostly in the imagination of Simon. There is one outstanding scene where Simon meditates over Tillman's old sunhat and astrally travels to Tibet where he meets the Dalai Lama, played by the prestigious TV and stage actor David Yip, famous for the very popular crime thriller series The Chinese Detective. He is seeking spiritual advice from Tillman, but ends up simply playing golf with the Dalai Lama. I am enjoying Porters more and more as I watch it. As I said in the background posts below, I was dubious about the series at first, but my doubts have now evaporated. Hospital porters have been featured several times in the media, but Porters is one of only two examples I know of in which our profession is portrayed respectfully. The other is my own novel Evan's Land. I hope there will be a Series 3.

See here for background: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2018/11/porters-first-series.html.

And: https://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2016/12/hospital-porters-in-media.html.

And: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2021/02/evans-land-audio-book.html.

Rutger Hauer Dies

I'm very sad to report that Rutger Hauer has died. The Dutch actor was born in 1944 and has starred in multiple television and cinematic roles since 1969. He has worked with top directors such as Ridley Scott and Paul Verhoeven. He is probably best known for playing the Roy Batty "Nexus 6 replicant" in Scott's classic sci-fi film noir, Blade Runner. I first knew him as a child when I enjoyed his series of humourous and surreal TV adverts for a certain well-known Irish dark ale, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIXmHMLPmiM. I am a big fan of Blade Runner and the movie would not have been the same without his extraordinary performance; however, I can now only remember him as Matthias Tillman, the eccentric German patriarch of St Ethelreda's Hospital porters. An old hand with a copious knowledge of golf, karma and his own brand of shock therapy that is guaranteed either to kill or cure. See here for details: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2018/11/porters-first-series.html and: http://hpanwo-hpwa.blogspot.com/2018/10/porters-returns-to-dave.html. He was seventy-five years old and is survived by Ineke, his beloved wife of fifty years. Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49098435. Rest in peace, Rutger Hauer... Tillman is now on Eternal Nightshift.

Happy St Theo’s Day 2019!

On behalf of every serving hospital porter, every former hospital porter, and everybody else who loves, appreciates and supports us, with all the Pride and Dignity of my Extremely Proud and Dignified Brother and Sister Porters, I'd like to wish all my friends and readers, a very happy St Theo's Day. Here is my HPANWO TV video for St Theo's this year: https://hpanwo-tv.blogspot.com/2019/06/st-theo-2019.html.