I am not sure how to react to all this discussion about allowing people to 'top-up' their NHS medication.

I fully understand the concerns about well-off people being able to have more or better medicine and care than those who are poor - it is not what we wanted from our universal 'free' (at the point of care) system.

However, we already have a two tiered system, as we have the private sector and the public NHS - which by the way is not free but paid for by our taxes!...

Reading in the Observer today a very interesting article by Barbara Ellen (Opinion page 11) about the continuing excessive number of independent school pupils who attend OxBridge. With only 7% of youngsters educated in the private sector, 40% of OxBridge students are from these exclusive schools. The view seems to be that these pupils are brighter, get better grades etc., therefore poor OxBridge tutors have little choice but to give the places to them.

I have personal experience...

I just cannot believe the way anything new on our computers seems to cause havoc!

I definitely get the feeling the machines really do hate us - and certainly the swearing that goes on here sometimes when we upgrade anything suggests we hate them sometimes.

A simple upgrade that in principle should take a few minutes seems to bring the system down and take hours to 'fix'. I am really pleased that some of the computer support systems now include online 'chat' because I...