ALTHOUGH it remains the best place in the world in which to live — unless you are employed by what used to be called Midland Bank, that is — this place’s reliance on what some describe as a ‘speed and greed’ ethos has led to an apparent disdain on the part of that lot in the Big House for those whose endeavour, hard work and love of the Island in the post-war years provided the platform upon which the reasonably comfortable majority now count their annual bonuses, chop the BMW in each year because the ashtrays are full, and buy their other halves large vehicles which they can neither control nor even reverse.

What I am saying is that the continual requirement for some of our elected representatives to join the captains of industry in kneeling before the Altar of the Bottom Line does not fit that snugly into the picture painted at last week’s hearing of the Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny panel.

There, thanks to the brutal frankness of Alzheimer’s Society chairman Mike Tomkinson, the comfortable majority, which thankfully includes this bolshie little crapaud, learned of how our caring, sharing society treats patients suffering from dementia.

Mr Tomkinson called for GPs to be trained in early detection of dementia — a clear indication, it seems to me, that even in this day and age, when Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia are rarely off the national front pages and TV bulletins, there remain some doctors unable with their current level of expertise to identify early warning signs. A quite astonishing state of affairs in a place with so many GPs practising.

As for the assertion that those older people in full-time care feel cheated by the system because some of them are being forced to sell their homes to pay for care for which the average cost — by definition that means that some fees are higher is £850 a week, or almost £45,000 a year, that should make us all cringe in embarrassment.

And we’re talking here about a section of the community which, as I said earlier, laid the foundation of much of the prosperity which the speedy and the greedy now enjoy. I recall Sir Dick from the Docks arguing years ago that old age pension increases should be somehow linked to the wages index to properly reflect a share in prosperity, rather than the retail price index, which, in the humble opinion of this simple country boy, does no such thing. It merely gives a historical snapshot of the price increases of some goods and services over a given period of time.

I wonder if those pulling down obscene bonuses weren’t just that tiny bit ashamed when they read a headline referring to ‘inadequate care for dementia sufferers’?

If it was left to me, I would double GST if I thought that this would address the concerns of Mr Tomkinson. The problem is that it wouldn’t, because we are continually being fed with the line that there is no more caring society than ours.

Those disseminating this myth, for that is what it is, illustrate the point by references to how the public respond in times of disaster — as they did recently with the Broadlands fire and have done so many times and for so many worthy causes since that same public raised within months of the Liberation in 1945 a quite extraordinary amount for the British Red Cross.

The problem is that the caring is invariably provided by the public — a public which feels that it is already being taxed to the hilt — and is not always provided by government. In addition, increasing GST to finance proper care for all dementia sufferers would also unfairly hit those on low incomes and create another matter which only increasing taxation will address.

I don’t know what the solution is to the issues raised by Mr Tomkinson. Perhaps the States should adopt one of the many definitions of the function of journalism, for it can easily apply to government — they should comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.

WHILE there is little doubt that the proprietor of the Havana Club (such is my lack of knowledge in these matters that I really believed it was called Jurassic Park) shot himself in the foot when he grossly insulted a group of women refused admission to his premises, some of the reaction has been almost as over the top as the original insult.

I continually complain of overlegislation, but we shall soon have this sort of nonsense being classed as a criminal offence when, in all honesty, it amounted to an idiotically insulting comment leading, quite rightly, to those on the sharp end taking umbrage, and to the inevitable grovelling apology from Martin Sayers.

But a criminal offence? Hardly, any more than Ha-mon’s in King Street indicating that they want to employ people of their choosing, which presumably does not include 19-year-olds with multi-coloured hair, tattoos and six safety pins hanging from each eyebrow. Hardly? Just wait and see.

AND finally . . . Like Christopher Davey, I too loathe the idiotic knee-jerk instruction to rip out plants in the Parade. Who gave it, I wonder, and where will it end?