I had a shock last week in that I was suddenly and unexpectedly taken into hospital. It was a little traumatic but it reminded me that there is another section of society that few of us ever think about.

I suppose I am a crusty old toppie but I was put in a ward with five other very old men and endured a truly horrible night. At least two of the other fellows were off their trollies, so the noise level was considerable throughout the night. The nurses were subject to constant abuse but kept calm and smiling throughout. They called even the most abusive of patients ‘Darling’ or ‘Sweetie Pie’ and spent the night rushing to attend to everyone.

When I arrived in the ward my details and needs – I had nothing with me – were noted down by a lovely Irish lass called Noreen and she told me initially that she was about to go off duty. She was still there and still smiling three hours later!

During the course of my long life, I have spent little time in hospital but this was a reminder of how people – particularly long term patients – suffer and how much the nursing profession does for us all. It seems so sad that the majority of folk out there ignore their needs and instead of helping them – and other caring professions – prefer to spend their time demonstrating somewhat fatuously against climate change, human rights in outer Somalia and similar outlandish causes. All that energy they are expending could be better directed at getting more pay and better conditions for nurses,

After all, if any of those demonstrators, currently holding Londoners to ransom get hurt, they will need the nurses to keep them alive and comfort them in their pain. I have to admit that I won’t really care except for the extra unnecessary work being inflicted on the nurses and doctors.

As for me, I was fortunately reprieved when a big deal consultant – he hardly looked old enough to shave – decided that any further tests could take place without my being incarcerated with the ill and nutty old men.

I breathed a sigh of relief, thanked the young man profusely and fled!

There is so much in the Media about hate crime at the moment. Apparently, most police forces spend as much time, if not more on investigating such offences as they do on criminality, so what should happen to a man who posted on Twitter the following words: ‘I dearly wish a reactivated IRA would successfully blow up that scumbag Johnson and his evil cabinet?’

That must surely constitute a ‘hate crime’ by any definition and given what happened in Brighton in 1984, it has to be especially revolting? 

If you remember that incident, the IRA, by planting a bomb in the Grand Hotel, murdered Sir Anthony Berry, Eric Taylor, Lady (Jeanne) Shattock, Lady (Muriel) Maclean and Roberta Wakeham. 

Many others were severely injured, including Norman Tebbit and his wife Margaret. It was a planned and premeditated terrorist outrage and recognised as such by all but the most ardent IRA sympathisers.

Yet it seems that the constabulary we are led to believe religiously patrol Twitter for signs of political incorrectness, failures to respect the transgender community and so forth are not particularly interested in this particular outrage. It took them more than a month after the offending tweet was posted on August 20, to even visit the author, a Mr Mark Powell who tweets under the name ‘Markhayo.’ 

And there was no heavy-footed dawn raid, of the type so often favoured by the modern constabulary. His house wasn’t suddenly flooded by officers going through his bedroom, as happened to Field Marshal Lord Bramall after a mad fantasist accused him of child abuse.

No, he received a letter from a police person saying, with almost unbelievable feebleness and a clear signal that he was in no danger of prosecution: ‘I apologise for the unsolicited nature of this letter, and do not wish to cause you any undue alarm; however, I do need to discuss some sensitive issues that may concern you. I would like to stress that this letter has not been sent as part of any criminal proceedings, nor are you in any trouble whatsoever.’ 

It sought to arrange a ‘convenient time to meet.’

What a load of pusillanimous claptrap!

Of course, the worthy Powell immediately displayed this letter on Twitter, saying the police had been ‘very civil.’ But he hadn’t been. He boasted that he’d sworn at the officers and refused to withdraw his words. He later apologised for the swearing in an email to the officers concerned but repeated that ‘I shouldn’t be sorry to see this Cabinet of traitors blown up by a rejuvenated IRA.’ He then posted that email on Twitter.

If I had posted some of my strongly held beliefs on Twitter or whatever, I would be quickly hauled over the coals and prosecuted, of that I have no doubt. That is probably why my daily rants are so gentle and surely can’t cause offence – can they?!

A Tory councillor from Aylesbury called Gary Powell (he denies any relationship) did contact Scotland Yard about the matter but was told by a staff officer to Commissioner, Cressida Dick that the National Digital Exploitation Service and the National Counter Terrorism Security Office had deemed the tweet to be an offence. However, because it was a single incident, nothing was done except ‘words of advice.’ So there you are. You can call for the IRA to blow up the Cabinet, and nothing will happen to you, provided you only do it once.

Someone should tell Norman Tebbit, who knows exactly what it is like to be blown up by the IRA and is never afraid of speaking his mind. He might have some words of advice for Dame Cressida ruddy Dick.

What a horrible disgrace to the modern police force – sorry ‘police service’ – this woman is but I am afraid Cressida Dick, who was appointed to the highest coppering post in the land despite a string of well publicised failures is all too symptomatic of the ineptitude that the modern police personify.