Blogger’s Note: The UK has free, universal health which was established in 1948 (a left-leaning Labour government copied the Soviet Health System developed by Lenin). Yes – being a capitalist society, successive greedy governments have taken action to dismantle and destroy this system which “equalises” access to medicalised treatment throughout society. It still exists (my partner works as a Midwife in it) but it is under a tremendous ideological attack from the US – which wants to take it over and “sell” the British public their healthcare. This can be seen in parts of the NHS that have been sold-off – such as Dentistry. We now have to pay US health firm’s extortionate amounts for second and third rate levels of service we used to receive free and at a higher level of care and efficiency.
The right-wing Labour government we now have has no interest in restoring the NHS – only managing its decline. But here’s the thing – Mr Tickle is right when he says under UK law a citizen is not required to declare that he or she is taking medicine. It is viewed as a private matter. (The 2010 Discrimination Act changed the legal terrain somewhat – brought in by Gordon Brown’s Labour government. Prior to this, no one with a disability or illness could join the Police or Armed Forces, for example, but the possibility now exists as new roles accommodating certain limitations have been created, despite discrimination still existing).
However, the US health firms that now run parts of the UK medical system, knowing that they cannot legally gain any knowledge on an individual’s private health, routinely present questionaries to their fee-paying clients – asking for a voluntary declaration of their health status. A Dentist, for instance, has no reason to know anything other than the health of your teeth, so why ask about other health areas they are not qualified to know about? Well, the reason is that the US private health firms deal with selling healthcare for the entire body – and they use whatever knowledge they can find out about you – to fix the price of your monthly premium. The greater your illnesses or disabilities – the more you will pay for more or less the same service everyone else recieves who is not ill or disabled as you present a potential greater risk of requiring treatment. This is what predatory capitalism does – everything has a price. Still, many of my US friends pay around $10,000 to have a baby delivered – whilst my partner delivers babies all day and night long – completely free of charge at the point of use. That is what Socialism does. Just how a horse fits into all this – I cannot tell you – but I suspect a sugar-cube has something to do with it. ACW (25.11.2025)
Devon trainer hit with suspension and fine after horse tests positive for antidepressant
Andrew Dietz – Reporter
Trainer Joe Tickle has been hit with a two-year suspension of his licence, suspended for 24 months, and a £1,000 fine after one of his horses tested positive for banned substance o-desmethylvenlafaxine last year.
The breach was found to be the result of cross-contamination from a staff member and amateur rider who had taken the prescribed medication as an antidepressant.
The case relates to a positive test, which had no performance enhancing aspect, returned by Daany after the eight-year-old finished fourth at 22-1 in a handicap hurdle at Newton Abbot on June 5 last year.
Tickle, who can continue to train, accepted there had been a breach and believes the outcome of the closed plea agreement hearing was fair.
He said: “It’s not ideal to have something like that happen, but I appreciate there has to be procedures in place and I’ll learn from it and move on.
“There was nothing deliberate or intentional about it, but I understand there are rules to abide by and there was a breach of those. The BHA was very fair and the panel has been very respectful.”
The independent disciplinary panel, which was chaired by Philippa Charles, stated that Tickle had accepted the practices at his Devon stable did not take account of the risk of this type of cross-contamination and he has proposed a number of mitigations to avoid such incidents in the future.
“Limiting cross-contamination of medication people can take is a slightly grey area because it’s regarding antidepressants and mental health,” the trainer said. “You can’t stop people taking medication and also people don’t have to declare to you that they are taking medication. You can ask, which we now do, but they don’t have to explain that if they don’t want to, which I fully appreciate.”
With respect to equine medication at the yard, the practices were deemed highly satisfactory by the BHA, with the breach described as “clearly an isolated incident”. The panel found the level of culpability was low and issued a penalty at the low end of the scale.
Daany, who was disqualified from the Newton Abbot race in question, was retested by Tickle at his own expense and once cleared to return to action, the son of Pivotal won his next two races and four of his following seven starts in total.
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 