The Spirit of Christmas in London and Thousands of Drunk Santas

I've noticed that they do Christmas a lot harder in London than we do in the US. Whether someone says "merry christmas"or "happy holidays" to you in the United States is a political statement. Here though, everyone says merry christmas, I feel like a dweeb reflexively saying happy holidays. I hear at least twice the amount of annoying christmas music than what I'm usually exposed to back home. This struck me as a little odd given that the UK is a much more secular society than the US, and that London in particular is more religiously diverse than Kalamazoo. Then I saw something that snapped all the pieces together.

At about 1 in the afternoon, I saw thousands of young men and women dressed as santa, playing drums, singing, and drinking prodigiously. They loudly proclaimed "merry christmas" and passed out candies as they walked by. I got two chocolate coins, two hard candies, and a sucker! One of the popular chants was "what do we want?" - "Christmas!" - "When do we want it?" - "Now!" People brought out their kids in strollers to watch, and the santas staggered over to put candy into the tikes' hands accompanied by a slurred ho-ho-ho, all of this viewed with approval by the parents. 

Apparently I had witnessed santacon, a world wide phenomena that's been becoming more popular in the internet age of flash mobs. Most everyone I saw seemed amused, except for a few drivers who were unhappy about all the people staggering across the street when the light was green. No one complained about a bunch of santas walking around drunk though - that's what Christmas is about in the UK! Good cheer, free candy, and fancy dress, what's not to like? I think public Christmas displays have become so secular in the UK that outside of homes and churches, Christmas does not have a primarily religious association. 

Make of that what you will, but merry Christmas! 

Cooking With Phil

One of the nice about living in High Holborn is that I get a generously sized kitchen. Even though it can be time consuming, I prefer cooking to relying on a food service system. Here's a sampling of some of my dishes.

The first thing I made, looks less tasty than it was 

Bangers and mash, had to make it! 

I was surprised by how easy this was to make 

A peanut/banana/chicken/broccoli/green onion stir fry

I Visit the NHS

I've used the National Health Service twice in the past week and come away impressed. As a student here for nine months, I'm entitled to full coverage by the NHS. Imagine something like that happening in the United States. I am paying 20% VAT over here though, so I don't feel too guilty.

My stock of medicine from home is running low, so I went into the NHS branch to talk about getting my prescription refilled. My appointment was for 10:30, so SUPER EARLY in other words, and I was embarrassingly 20 minutes late. Despite this, I ended up getting to my appointment in twenty minutes and even though all I had was my pill bottle, there were no problems getting me set up for a refill. The only catch was that I needed to get some blood work done - apparently they have some concerns about my medicine causing liver cancer sometimes or something, which I guess they're not too worried about in the States. I said whatever, it's not my money after all, so I scheduled another appointment to get my blood drawn.

I went into that appointment today, this time only five minutes late, and was seen right away. Getting my blood drawn took no time even though I forgot a paper I was supposed to bring. They had all my records digitized so they knew exactly what was up. Unlike the painfully awkward laptop carts I see them use at Borgess for electronic records, they're process seemed well integrated. The doctor was courteous, even offering a few comforting words to help with my apparent discomfort over getting poked (thanks dad!)

I'll be able to start getting my prescription when I get back from break, and they will cost less than a third of what my family pays back home. Go socialism!

So this is the part where I compare the NHS to the US's dismal system and talk about single payer. It's certainly worth pointing out that the editor of a leading libertarian magazine has written enviously of France's health care system. However, our government already spends more per capita on health care than the UK and other single payer countries! It's just that firms and individuals in the US also spend a ton on health care! I think that if we can get costs down to typical developed country levels, then we could make a smashing public or private health care system. The question is how to get those costs down. There certainly are appealing things about the single payer system in terms of cost control, but I think the issues are so intertwined and deep in the US system that no single reform will have a very large impact, and any major change could have unintended consequences.