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Preparing for an evaluation of Australia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic

If enough of us ever get vaccinated to overcome the immediate emergency, it will be useful to take time to reflect on the medium-term implications of the global pandemic for the governance of Australia and the world. There is much to be done and much we can learn. The first of three parts, this piece reflects on some of the global issues it will be useful to evaluate.

PART 1: Globalisation

The pandemic has thrown new light on the benefits and costs of globalisation.

The economic status of Australia and the well-being of its citizens are closely tied to aspects of globalisation. Australia is a relatively small economy with limited domestic demand. The nation has prospered through having natural resources in abundance which, given a worldwide free trade regime, can be sold to countries less well endowed.

However the pandemic has woken Australia to the risks of too great a dependence on globalisation. It is now clear that the single most serious issue for the nation is supply of vaccine. In preparing for vaccination, the Federal Government made errors in commissioning and negotiating supply from other nations. This was compounded by decisions made by some of those other nations which were in their own interests and over which Australia had no control.

The problems posed by the absence of sovereign capacity to manufacture goods and services that become essential when the world faces a widespread emergency were apparent even before vaccination started. There were shortages of items of personal protective equipment and hand washing gel (in the days before we understood that soap and water was best). These were mitigated to some extent by the flexibility of some manufacturers who re-tooled rapidly; and by home-grown household activity, such as mask-making.

Incidentally, perhaps it would be wise to include toilet paper as a bottom-line commodity in forthcoming trade agreements that Australia signs.

On the other side of the globalism ledger, the pandemic led very rapidly to the effective closure of two of Australia’s major export sectors and employers: international tourism and international education. This was caused by interruption of another key element of globalism: the free and untrammelled movement of people around the world.

Fortunately the export of natural resources, particularly iron ore and coal, as well as agricultural produce, seems to have proceeded unabated. The astonishing increase in the international price for iron ore, not related to the pandemic, has done much to shelter Australia from the worst economic effects of Covid-19.

Building manufacturing capacity and finding ways to make existing industries more resilient will have beneficial economic effects. Just as the shift to renewable energy sources is making new industries economic, so will national re-tooling for greater emergency self-sufficiency help to build Australia’s economy and provide employment opportunities.

Moves to mitigate against inadequate supply of goods and services needed in an emergency, and in response to the decline of major industries, provide incentives for Australia to rebuild its manufacturing sector. In the 1960s manufacturing provided one quarter of GDP. By 2010 this had fallen to 6%, providing 8.6% of employment. In 2020 it was 4.2% of GDP and 7% of employment – or 853,000 people.

The Federal Government has indicated that it has plans for what it calls A Sovereign Manufacturing Capability Plan. It will apparently cover business opportunities both small and large, from manufacturing for niche markets right through to the production of guided weapons.

International agencies

As a middle-sized nation which benefits from both international trade and the rule of law, Australia has traditionally been a strong supporter of the bastions of globalism: multilateralism and international agencies. Once the health emergency is over it will be useful to scrutinise the performance of these agencies and to act on lessons learned about their structure, operation and value.

The agency most closely involved in the pandemic has obviously been the World Health Organisation (WHO). The majority view seems to be that the WHO had a poor start due to being slow in declaring the novel coronavirus outbreak ‘A public health emergency of international concern’, its highest level of alarm. Some commentators have attributed this to sensitivity about China’s potential reaction to such a declaration.

Since then, the WHO has been a critical and positive contributor to management of the pandemic. The challenge for the WHO was all the greater given that it was confronted by active opposition from the United States under Donald Trump. He cut funding for the WHO in May 2020.

Some of the WHO’s most important work is concerned with global vaccine equity and thegap between richer and poorer nations – the so-called ‘two-track pandemic’. The scale of this challenge is illustrated by the fact that several affluent countries are already discussing the rollout of booster shots to their populations, while the majority of people in developing countries—even front-line health workers— have still not received their first shot.

This is a matter that needs urgent international agreement and action, in which Australia, as an affluent country, should take an active part. There is much to be done in the medium term to make the world a fairer place before the next pandemic or similar crisis emerges.

The most critical immediate task in world health is to ensure that developing nations are given all necessary support for obtaining and using vaccines. Supply in sufficient quantities is the core challenge and spreading it fairly between richer and poorer nations. One way to achieve this would be to assist medium-sized countries to establish the capacity for producing vaccines. Cost is a key factor and it is to be hoped that ways can be found for the sort of generosity shown by governments and the private sector over the last 18 months to continue to be demonstrated.

Given the massive impact on world trade and damage to the budgets of all countries, including those that are affluent that have been donors of international aid, the impact of the Covid-19 emergency on the people and governments of poorer countries may yet become unmanageable.

Much will depend on the role played by international aid and trade in the new order.

One particular example of successful collaborative international action is COVAX. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world. Among other things it is working to ensure that donations of vaccine to developing countries are synchronized with national vaccine deployment plans.

Apart from the WHO, international agencies concerned with the pandemic include the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank and the OECD.

The IMF is preparing a Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocation to boost the financial reserves and liquidity of its members.

The WTO is involved because cooperation on trade is needed to ensure free cross-border flows and increasing supplies of raw materials and finished vaccines. It is working on negotiations towards a solution around intellectual property, which remains the main sticking point in relation to making medications available at low prices. The WTO is also working on freeing up supply chains for vaccines and other medicines.

The World Bank has provided a $12 million financial facility for vaccination and has vaccine projects in some 50 countries.

In anticipation of an end to the immediate Covid crisis, preparations can begin for evaluation of the way international agencies have performed since the beginning of 2020.

Note: a version of this piece was published in Pearls and Irritations, 19 July 2021 as ‘Covid 19 has revealed the weaknesses but also the importance of globalisation.’

[See Part 2 in Aggravations.org: The Covid pandemic and the Australian Federation]

Poor man’s orchid – please don’t eat the seeds

Since Covid squelched along I’ve been zooming with my brothers’ families in the UK. (‘Every cloud – etc.’) During our most recent get-together David, the oldest and wisest of the four of us, informed me that by promoting the propagation of Schizanthus pinnatus, on account of its prettiness and resilience, I might be exposing myself to potential financial and reputational loss. Put simply, Schizanthus pinnatus is poisonous.

I am therefore writing to inform readers, and those who may be influenced by them (including, especially, minors), of the potential dangers inherent in eating large quantities of the seeds of said pretty flower. My intention is, by these means, to indemnify myself against any legal proceedings, real or imagined, the purpose of which is to have the plaintiff(s) benefit materially at my expense based on any of their action related to the growing or propagation of poor man’s orchid.

Schizanthus pinnatus (the botanical name), known colloquially as butterfly flower, fringe flower and poor man’s orchid, is a genus of plants in the nightshade family, solanaceae. It belongs to the subfamily schizanthoideae.

The name schizanthus is from two Greek words meaning ‘divided flower’. The flower head resembles an orchid, a good specimen having quite an exotic appearance. It originates from Chile, where perhaps it is known colloquially as orquídea del pobre or la flor de la mariposa.

The botanical family solanaceae is one of humankind’s most utilized and important food plants. Its members include herbaceous plants, shrubs, trees and vines that grow in temperate to tropical regions. It includes the potato, tomato, all peppers, ground cherries (tomatillo) and eggplant. Solanaceae is also known as the potato or deadly nightshade family.

As well as those foods it includes a suite of deadly toxic plants including belladonna, mandrake, henbane, tobacco, deadly nightshade and Jimson weed.

Jimson weed (known in Orbost and Bacchus Marsh in the State of Victoria as thorn apple) is datura stramonium. It has been used and abused in any number of ways, including smoking of the leaves, eating the seeds, boiling in a stew, or even by soaking in a bathtub filled with the plants. All methods are extremely dangerous as every part of the plant is poisonous and potentially deadly.

The seeds of Jimson weed are long-lived, with one experiment showing 91 per cent of seeds surviving 39 years after burial. (This may be the inspiration for the t-shirt with, on its front, “I’ve got my stuff together, Man -” and, on the back: “- if only I knew where I put it”.)

Several plants in the solanaceae family are rich in potent psychoactive toxic compounds referred to as tropane alkaloids. These compounds include nicotine, solanine, capsaicin, cocaine, atropine, scopolamine and hyoscyamine. These are chemicals that have been used as healing drugs in small doses; misunderstood or abused as addictive drugs; and employed as pesticides and warfare agents (e.g., sarin) when utilized in toxic doses.

Some pharmaceutical ingredients containing tropane moiety.

Tropane alkaloids are useful as parasympatholytics that competitively antagonize acetylcholine. The bicyclic ring of tropane moiety forms the base of these alkaloids, and the largest number of tropane alkaloids is substituted on the atom C-3 of the tropane ring in the form of ester derivatives. [Synthesis of Tropane Derivatives, Open access peer-reviewed chapter, Abdulmajeed Salih Hamad Alsamarrai, Nov. 2019.]

Toxicity from plants containing tropane alkaloids manifests as classic anticholinergic poisoning. Symptoms usually occur 30-60 minutes after ingestion and may continue for 24-48 hours because of delayed gastric emptying and absorption.

But I digress.

Given the litigiousness of parts of the present human population, I hereby note and declare that, as if by magic, this post on my blogg and on Facebook ensures that I am indemnified against any person who, having seen my recent post about buying $2-00 worth of poor man’s orchid from Bunnings, claims to have been incentivised by said post and its accompanying nice picture to smoke the leaves, eat the seeds either directly or in a stew, or soak in a bathtub full of that plant.

Signed and dated by and on behalf of: Gordon Gregory.

A punter’s guide to the review of Medicare items and the impact on patients’ out-of-pocket costs

How good is a race!

In the Current Health Policy Stakes, Covid-19 is still distancing all other runners. Back in the pack Men’s Health Week has been promoted to a spot on the rails, but it is the stayer Out-of-pocket Costs that takes the eye. His half-brother, Costs Paid by Patients for Surgery, is well placed, while Mental Illness seems to be finding the going tough. Remote General Practice (by Wayside Chapel out of ABC News Breakfast) is surprising her critics. However all of these, which are in effect racing for second place behind the pandemic, have an eye on Changes to Medicare. This experienced old galloper is threatening with a run down the middle of the course.

——–

A complex system

The system of payment for medical treatment in Australia is fiendishly complex. Before we set out on a brief explication, it will be useful to remember that doctors are Business People, specialists are Big End of Town Business People, and insurance companies have commercial interests that span the divide between patient and specialist.

Another significant divide is between those who have private health insurance and those who do not. Only families who might be described as ‘middle-income and above’ can afford private health insurance, which reflects some of the growing inequality among Australian families. Families with low incomes have free access to the services of a public hospital, including for surgery, but are merely bystanders to the private health system.

The proposed changes currently being implemented do not pose a threat to the general principles of Medicare, which are to give all eligible persons the choice to receive, free of charge: the services provided by public hospitals; no-cost or low-cost services from general practitioners and certain medical specialists; and no-cost or low-cost access to medicines listed on the Schedule of Pharmaceutical Benefits. So, experienced though she is, Changes to Medicare should not end up in the winner’s circle.

Medicine means business

Medicare pays a significant amount towards the costs of surgery, regardless of whether the patient has private health insurance or not.

Every particular surgical procedure has a ‘descriptor’ and a standard cost (or fee) struck by the government. Each descriptor defines precisely what the item entails.

The list of descriptors and standard costs is the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). If the procedure is undertaken on a public patient in a public hospital they will have no out-of-pocket costs. The provider (the hospital and surgical team) will in effect earn just the schedule fee.

There are two critical factors in determining how much a patient will pay for surgery. First, each surgeon has the right to charge whatever fee they wish. They are not bound by the standard fee set for the MBS. Second is the patient’s choice of insurer and that insurer’s arrangements with the surgeon who does the job.

So, for example, if the surgeon sets their fee for a particular procedure at 120% of the schedule fee, the MBS will pay 75%, the insurance company 25%, and the patient 20% from their own pocket.

Families with private health insurance are the lucky ones. They would probably be surprised to know that, ironic though it may seem, they are in the hands of insurance companies when it comes to the costs they will pay for surgery. The health insurance companies negotiate commercial agreements with specialists on behalf of patients.

A ‘known gap’ agreement has the insurer entering into a contract with the surgeon so that the patient’s out-of-pocket payment is fixed and known in advance. With a ‘no gap’ agreement the insurer pays the full amount of the difference between the schedule fee and the surgeon’s fee. All of these agreements will need to be reviewed as a result of the MBS review’s recently released recommendations.

Even where there is a no gap arrangement, to avoid what is called ‘bill shock’, the patient needs to find out beforehand what costs associated with the surgery are not subject to the arrangement between the insurer and the surgeon. These unavoidable other costs may include the anaesthetist’s fee, the cost of pathology undertaken as part of the procedure and perhaps medications.

The waiting lists for surgery in public hospitals are much longer than for private patients – those who have health insurance. As well as having less time to wait, private patients can choose the surgeon who will undertake the procedure. (And their hospital room will be nicer.)

For a private patient the MBS pays 75% of the schedule fee. And if that patient’s health insurance company has an arrangement with the surgeon, that company will pay the remaining 25% of the schedule fee (if they have a ‘no gap’ agreement with the surgeon) or a specified amount up to 25% (under a ‘known gap’ agreement).

What has been reviewed?

In 2015 a review of all 5,700 Medicare item numbers began. It was to check on which health service items should continue to be included in the Medicare payment system; how each one is described (the descriptor); and the schedule fee that was to apply for each.

Such a review is sensible and there has been general support for the updating of the standard prices for particular items and of the descriptors. The review involved separate committees for each area of the MBS, and there were extensive consultations.

The government has already announced changes to the items relating to many areas of medicine, some of them in the May 2021 Budget. They have included intensive care, diagnostic imaging, chemotherapy, gynaecology, and pain management.

The final report was presented to the government in late 2020. It contains 156 changes to general surgery items, 594 to orthopaedic surgery, and 135 to heart surgery items.

It is not the substance of the proposed changes that have upset medical interests, but their timing. Even when it is managed effectively it is hard enough for the government of the day to meet the political challenge of making changes to Medicare, given how much it is relied upon and supported by the Australian public.

This time the government seems to have shot itself in the foot. It has announced that, from 1 July, the rebates payable for private orthopaedic, general and heart surgeries will change. This gives surgeons and health insurers very little time to agree new no-cost and low-cost contracts.

Insurers could use the opportunity provided by these negotiations to bring down the level of fees, which would enable them to reduce the cost of their insurance packages. But unfortunately there isn’t a flying pig in the Current Health Policy Stakes.

Why does Victoria top the score?

One of the aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic which will certainly be the subject of inquiry in Australia once things have settled down is why Victoria has had more lockdowns and cases than the other States. And it’s not the first time Victoria has been in this position. How McDougall Topped the Score, written by Thomas E. Spencer, has been re-made and is shown below. It will remind readers of the Swine Flu epidemic of 2009 in which Victoria also set some records.

(Note: I posted a version of the poem, but not the COVID comments, on 9 March but given what is happening in Victoria it deserves another go. I look forward to the time when it is no longer relevant.)

At the time of writing (29 May 2021) there have been 30,073 cases of COVID-19 in Australia, 20,580 of which have been in Victoria. Of the 910 deaths recorded, 820 have been Victorians.

This represents an extraordinary imbalance between States.

A number of possible explanations for the disparity have been canvassed.

One is that the different structure of public health services in Victoria as distinct from, say, New South Wales has resulted in greater effectiveness in the latter. It may be that the pre-existing New South Wales system was more compatible with what was needed for effective contact tracing. New South Wales has decentralised Local Area Health Districts with public health teams embedded in local communities. These teams work independently while being guided by New South Wales Health centrally.

Catherine Bennett, Chair in Epidemiology at Deakin University and a key contributor to public understanding and debate, wrote in The Conversation in October 2020:

“NSW’s system of devolved public health units and teams meant when local outbreaks occurred, locally embedded health workers were at an advantage. They’re already linked with local area health providers for testing, they already have relationships with community members and community leaders, and they know the physical layout of the area.”

“What’s crucial is a nuanced understanding of local, social, and cultural factors that may facilitate spread or affect how people understand self-isolation and what’s being asked of them. It can also make a critical difference in encouraging people to come forward for testing.”

“If local health workers and contact tracers are already part of a community, they can bring that expert knowledge into the mix; they can make sure public health messaging is meaningful for local communities.”

In contrast to the situation in NSW, Victoria has a public health system which is highly centralised, meaning there was a smaller base upon which to build a surge contact tracing capacity. The fact that some help was provided to Victoria from interstate staff and defence force personnel may be seen as evidence on the matter.

The different capacity of these two State systems may also be due to their recent history of funding relative to need. On the other side of the ledger is the fact that a centralised system may be better able to handle large quantities of data.

Another possible cause of the inter-State disparity is the difference in the structure of residential aged care. Of the 910 deaths recorded nationally, 685 have been in residential aged care facilities. And 655 of these have been in Victoria.

Compared with NSW, Victoria’s residential aged care system has a larger proportion of private for-profit businesses, which may have put profit before service. In Victoria 54% of residential aged care places are in the private, for-profit sector (including both family-owned and public companies) compared with 35% in NSW. In contrast, 37% of Victoria’s aged care places are in the not-for-profit sector (including religious, charitable and community-based organisations), compared with 63% in NSW. Much more evidence would be needed to conclude that the profit motive is at the heart of the difference between the two States.

One of the reasons why Australia has done so well in response to the pandemic is that we have been regularly and expertly provided with scientific evidence. This has contributed to the high level of compliance in Australia with the steps that have been necessary.

In my view, two expert commentators have stood out. Norman Swan has been tremendously busy including with the ABC’s daily Coronavirus podcast. Norman came to the business of COVID with an existing good reputation as a well-credentialed scientist and is a very experienced communicator. Another expert who has worked tirelessly and presented with great clarity, dignity and modesty is Mary-Louise McLaws, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of New South Wales.

On ABC’s weekend breakfast TV show today, when asked for her views on why Victoria has suffered more than the other jurisdictions, Mary-Louise said that Melbourne is a very close-knit community. It is a city that’s easy to get around, she said, so sadly it is easy for a virus to spread. Melbourne is the city of most concern in Australia for explosions of case numbers.

This means that enquiries into Australia’s COVID experience will need to include cultural, logistical, demographic, economic and sociological factors.

History repeating itself?

This is not the first time Victoria has stood out as the worst affected part of Australia in an epidemic. On 8 June 2009 The Australian newspaper informed its readers that, at that time, the State of Victoria had the highest recorded per capita rate of H1N1 Influenza 2 (Human Swine flu) in the world. It had the fourth highest number of infections worldwide after the US, Mexico and Canada, but the highest per capita load.

Victoria was being blamed for exporting the virus around Australia.

Eventually the official record showed 37,537 cases in Australia and 191 deaths associated with Swine Flu were reported by the Department of Health. The actual numbers were probably much larger as only serious cases warranted being tested and treated. Sources say that as many as 1600 Australians may actually have died.

How McDougall Topped the Score, written by Thomas E. Spencer, was first published in The Bulletin in March 1898. The cricketing cred. of the poem was enhanced when a piece entitled The Prerogative of Piper’s Flat was given as an encore to the McDougall poem at a public reception for the great, the elegant Victor Trumper in Sydney Town Hall on 19 December 1903.

In June 2009 I wrote a companion piece to Spencer’s, based on the facts as reported in the Australian. So much of the content of the piece seems relevant today that I am bold enough to hope you will get something out of it.

Reminders

Given the time that has elapsed since June 2009 some further background will be useful for those who read the piece. On 23 May the Federal Government classified the Swine Flu outbreak as being in the CONTAIN phase. Victoria was escalated to the SUSTAIN phase on 3 June. This gave government authorities permission to close schools to slow the spread of the disease. On 17 June 2009 the Department of Health and Ageing introduced a new phase called PROTECT. This modified the response to focus on people with high risk of complications from the disease.

At the time Australia had a stockpile of 8.7 million doses of Tamiflu and Relenza. A large scale immunization effort against swine flu started on Monday 28 September 2009. By then Victoria had 2,440 cases and 24 deaths. The Victorian health authorities closed Clifton Hill Primary School for two days (sic) on 21 May (shock, horror).

Tamiflu was a Roche product, Relenza a GSK product. (In 2014 researchers threw doubt on the effectiveness of Tamiflu and thus on the value of governments stockpiling it.) In June 2009 the Minister for Health was Nicola Roxon, Member for Gellibrand, an inner-Melbourne electorate. Coincidentally, in 2015 Tadryn bought a house in Footscray, within spitting distance of Whitten Oval. As well as describing folks from Mexico, the term ‘Mexicans’ is used by people from States to the north to refer to people from Victoria. Australia’s Chief Medical Officer in 2009 was Jim Bishop.

How Victoria Topped the Score

A peaceful spot is Gellibrand – and many local folk

Exist by work in railways, and paper, tyres and rope

The views to sea are legend and the people, quite untaught –

Lean naturally to leftwards, as portside people ought

Still the climate is erratic as the natives always knew

And the winters damp and gusty bring on frequent bouts of flu

But the locals now are Tami-rous as never were before

As H1N1 gets around – and Victoria tops the score.

It’s 90 square kilometres right to Port Philip Bay

Embracing Whitten Oval where the Bulldogs hone their play

Includes Altona Meadows where the views are simply grand

And other lovely places now warehousing used to stand

From Spotswood through to Tottenham employment, once serene,

Depends on heavy industry, petrochemical, marine

The local folks are very proud, be they so rich or poor

But they all might be affected as Victoria tops the score.

It’s Inner Metropolitan (GPs’ incentives: nil –

For the local branch of the AMA this is a bitter pill)

So when a virus came along – exclusion was in vain –

The local health care services got ready for the strain.

Local people everywhere did all that they were asked

And courses sprang up all around on kissing through a mask

A local hero came along: Gellibrander to the core

Who meant to keep the lid on it – tho’ Victoria topped the score.

This hero was a lawyer and a trusted one at that

And in the middle order for young Kevin she would bat

She trained her loyal staffers how to listen and to scout

For useful tips, intelligence, whatever was about

And each succeeding night they worked ’til the light it was a blur

Sometimes our hero struck a thought, sometimes a thought struck her

’Til one day news from Mexico of which she’d hear much more

That swine flu was now all the rage – not too long from our shore.

The national plans were then rolled out – even Bishops were involved

Good health care teams and scientists all helped to have it solved

No stone was left un-x-rayed and surveillance was maintained

And people’s sensitivity was measured when de-planed

A hotline was established but it very soon was broke

And crackling then was all it gave to its inquiring folk

The public mind was set at ease, there sure was nothing more

And New South Wales got uppity, as Victoria topped the score.

Victoria’s reached a thousand and some medics now complain

Even tho’ officially it’s-on ‘modified sustain’

If children want to miss exams and have a full week off

They simply visit Gellibrand and then begin to cough

We all will do whate’er we can to try to keep the peace

We’ll quit the smokes and exercise ’gin morbidly obese

This gentle flu, still not a swine, in countries seventy four

And here it’s still Victoria that easy tops the score

This illness from the Mexicans is causing a to-do

And now is a pandemic if you credit you-know-WHO

But guided safely as we are from right the very top

We’re confident that this will pass, it’s likely soon to stop

So raise a glass – or a long pipette – to our Gellibrander boss

‘Cos even tho it’s not too strong it makes us all la-cross

And there may well be an upside – tho’ it’s touchy this to broach

For you won’t catch a cold at all just now if your shares are still with Roche

So let’s consign to history, make part of national lore

The time when, quite unwillingly, Victoria topped the score

Stirring the plot while gritting one’s teeth – Part 2

This is the second half of a post about ‘distressingly old-fashioned’ musical texts. The narratives of some famous operas have been updated. My purpose is to help 21st Century sopranos and contraltos retain a broad repertoire without having to grit their teeth.

Stirring the plot – Part 2

In his interview with soprano Carolyn Sampson on the Music Show (1 May 2021), Andrew Ford reflects that “If this were an opera – because there are all sorts of problematic opera roles in a similar vein – there are any number of ways in which it could be staged to throw some critical 21st Century light on it.”

Inspired by this observation, and to help Carolyn Sampson and other performers retain access to the full operatic repertoire, I have taken up the challenge of modernising the narrative of some of the best-known operas. For guidance I am indebted to the revised and expanded edition of Stories of Famous Operas by H. V. Milligan, 1955.

Romeo and Juliet

Gounod’s opera follows the same unlikely plot line as William Shakespeare’s, written at some time between 1591 and 1595. In that distressingly old-fashioned version – presumably just for the theatrical schtick it provides – the two lovers die in each other’s arms. A new ending is proposed providing a much more rational narrative.

In the last scene, after the duet “Juliet est vivante!” (“Juliet is alive!”) , Romeo realises how inconvenient it is that, thinking her already dead, he has just drunk liberally from a phial of poison. Juliet picks up the empty phial and gently abuses Romeo for not leaving her a drop or two for herself. They have a brief moment to say farewell in the last of their love-duets “Console-toi, pauvre âme” (“Yield not to sorrow”). Romeo slips from her arms and falls to the ground.

Then follows the updated ending to the opera, in which Juliet sings the new aria “Tant pis: voici le smallprint” (“Oh well: at least he was insured”). Then, remembering the kitchen knife in her pocket, Juliet places it on the ground next to Romeo, and exits stage left.

The Marriage of Figaro

Revised and updated Act 4.

Scene: Garden of Count Almaviva’s home

The comedy is based on mistaken identity. Susanna (the Countess’s maid and fiancée to Figaro) and the Countess Almaviva have changed costumes to catch the Count in his attempted flirtation with Susanna. The Count discovers Cherubino (Page to the Count) flirting with the Countess disguised as Susanna. Then, thinking that Susanna is his wife, the Count chases Cherubino away and comes on to her himself. The Count discovers Figaro (the Count’s valet) apparently chatting up the Countess – whereas it is really Susanna.

The Count then summons the whole cast and sings a new aria “Mio padre è riuscito a farla” (“My father got away with it”). The real Countess comes in and reveals herself. The Count, realising that he has been fairly caught, sings what will surely become a feature of the operatic baritone repertoire “Trovo difficile riconoscere di aver sbagliato perché mi farebbe sentire sminuito agli occhi di chi mi ha sentito” (“I find it difficult to acknowledge that I have done wrong because it would make me feel diminished and humiliated in the eyes of those who heard me”). The Countess responds with the achingly sad new aria “È un peccato perché il mio genere tende a essere disposto a scusarsi in modo da mantenere relazioni sane e senza provare un senso di perdita” (“That’s a pity for my gender tends to be willing to apologise so as to maintain healthy relationships and without feeling a sense of loss”).

The Count professes his love for Figaro and the opera closes with the magnificent new octet “Guarda sempre il lato positivo”.

Aida

Revised and updated Act 3.

Scene: Cairo international airport

Princess Amneris (daughter of the President of Egypt), is welcomed to Cairo by Amonasro (Inspector of Quarantine, and a senior member of the Ethiopian diaspora in Egypt). She intends to spend the night on the tables at the Casino before her wedding to Rhadames (an Egyptian reality tv star). Aida (a Portuguese backpacker) hides in the baggage area hoping for a chance to get Amneris’ autograph.

Having been ripped off herself at the Casino, Aida warns Amneris with the new aria “Non puoi battere la casa” (“It’s impossible to beat the house”). Amonasro re-enters and tells Aida that Amneris’ luggage has been lost “Scusa ma questi incidenti accadono” (“Sorry but these things happen”). In a long and highly dramatic duet, he persuades Aida that she’ll be well rewarded if she finds the lost luggage.

Rhadames enters on a skateboard and Amonasro, embarrassed by the airline’s mistake, hides in the members’ lounge. Aida tries to persuade Rhadames to buy both of them a ticket for the next flight to the Azores “Fuggiam gli ardori inospiti ” (“Ah! fly with me”). Amonasro reveals himself and tells them that Portugal is an amber-listed country so they will need proof that their travel there is ‘essential’.

Amneris and Ramfis (a Mufti) enter bemoaning the loss of luggage “Per favore, trova un abito da sposa” (“For goodness’ sake find us some wedding gear”).

Amonasro and Aida turn their back on the Princess but Rhadames, conscious of the media potential of a Princess in a wicked costume, turns and with a dramatic gesture surrenders his passport to Ramfis “Lascialo a me, vedrò cosa posso fare” (“Leave it with me – I’ll see what I can do”).

Rhadames speeds off leaving Ramfis to turn on the tv on which there is another episode featuring the skateboarder with whom he was just speaking.

La Traviata

Revised and updated Act 4.

Scene: A converted loft in the Jewish quarter of the Marais, Paris.

With business having dropped off, Violetta (a courtesan) has had to sell her Jihong porcelain dinnerware and has become even more nervy. As the orchestral prelude begins, she is stretched out on the classic French chaise-longue by Temple and Webster, apparently asleep. Her faithful manservant, Dannina, dozes by the free-standing wood heater.

Violetta stirs and Dannina opens the faux wood vertical blinds. Dr Sophie Grenvil (Violetta’s Lifestyle Consultant) enters and Violetta reports that, although she hasn’t heard, she is still hoping to be selected for the national downhill skiing team for the forthcoming Winter Olympics.

Dr Grenvil and Dannina persuade Violetta to go to the toilet. While she is gone they sing an informative duet about Violetta’s nerviness. Upon her return, Dr Grenvil tells Violetta that she will soon have good news but Violetta smiles sadly, knowing this is not true. As she leaves, Dr Grenvil whispers to Dannina that she has heard directly from the selection committee and the news isn’t good. It is only a matter of hours until Violetta will be told.

Violetta sends Dannina down to buy the latest copy of L’Équipe. When he has left, Violetta opens her laptop and reads for the hundredth time a letter she has received from the selection committee’s Admin. Officer, Flora Bervoix, an old school friend of hers. Sue writes that she has kept her promise and Violetta will be on the squad. But unknown to Violetta, since writing the email Flora has been embroiled in a financial scam at the National Ski Association and has been suspended from duties.

Dannina bursts in, reporting that he hasn’t found a copy of L’Equipe but in the lift he met a dishevelled women who said she was a friend of Violetta’s and an athletic-looking young man (Alfredo, Violetta’s skiing coach). The dishevelled woman is Flora. She and Alfredo enter behind Dannina. Flora is clearly inebriated. She confesses that she is in trouble at work and unable to secure her friend’s place on the squad. “Tutti i miei beni sono stati congelati e il mio nome è fango” (“All my assets have been frozen and my name is mud”).

Baron Douphol (Violetta’s dad, a stockbroker) rushes in and threatens retribution on Flora for letting down his daughter and his family “Avrò il tuo fegato per le giarrettiere” (“I’ll have your guts for garters”). But Violetta tells her father to cool it. She and Flora confess their love for each other in a tender new duet “Non è mai troppo tardi per rivelare la verità” (“It’s never too late to come out”). Douphol snatches three of his daughter’s blue and white delft ornaments from the mantelpiece and dashes them to the ground. He storms out.

Violetta tells Flora that she will provide for her and asks Dannina to run a bath and find some nice clean clothes for her. Flora expresses her regret about the delft but Violetta says she shouldn’t worry “Dopotutto, erano assicurati” (“After all, they were insured”).

Stirring the plot while gritting one’s teeth

In the first half of this two-part post I try to understand why a 21st Century opera singer is discomfited when singing some early 19th Century text set beautifully to music. Having failed in that venture, the second half of the post contributes to the modernisation of the musical arts by offering updated versions of the narrative of some famous operas.

Stirring the plot – Part 1

Andrew Ford has been presenting Radio National’s Music Show since 1995. It is a great asset – a treasure trove of conversation, performance and analysis of music – ancient and modern and everything in between. But listening to an episode recently had the effect on me, for the first time, of needing to stop the car, get out and shout. You could say I Woke to a new reality.

Andrew was chatting with British soprano Carolyn Sampson about her recent recording of Robert Schumann’s song cycle FrauenLiebe und-Leben (“A Woman’s Love and Life”). She has found a way to program it, he said, “to enable a twenty-first century woman to sing it without gritting her teeth”.

Schumann wrote the piece in 1840 using poems written ten years earlier by Adelbert von Chamisso. The poems describe the stages of love for a man through which a woman passes, ending when she declares that by dying he has hurt her for the first time. (Robert Schumann apparently presented the song cycle to Clara as a wedding present. Clara outlived him by about forty years.)

Here’s a sample of the 1830 text:

Since I first saw him I think I must be blind; Wherever I look I see only him as in a trance. His image hovers before me, Emerging from the deepest gloom, even brighter.

Andrew Ford introduced the conversation by describing the words as “tricky in the 21st century.” Carolyn Sampson reported that several of her colleagues had expressed discomfort singing these texts. But she wants to defend the Song Cycle on the grounds that it still has much to offer and shouldn’t be written off.

“The issue that many people have with it is that it’s a male poet, a male composer, writing about this image of a woman’s life that is distressingly old-fashioned.”

“What we wanted to do by adding songs by Robert Schumann setting other poets, and songs written by Clara Schumann, his extraordinarily talented wife, was just to create an extra dimension.”

“- – we can really get on board with a lot of these songs and the texts; it’s very touching and the song about feeding a baby – I do relate to that; I don’t define myself by being a mother, on the other hand it’s a huge part of who I am. So there is an awful lot to which we can relate. But there are lines that people find difficult, indeed that I [Carolyn Sampson] find more challenging:

‘I want to serve him, I want to belong to him completely.’”

Carolyn says she feels the poems were “written with the best of intentions. And we can’t cut off swathes of song and opera repertoire by only performing things that reflect our 21st Century society.” Amen to that.

Carolyn and her accompanist, Joseph Middleton, have added to the song cycle:

“For example, after the wedding song we’ve then put in an extraordinarily tender song about the first experience of physical love. And then there’s a more stormy encounter; and then we get on to presenting the idea of the pregnancy. So we have just tried to expand it and give her a few more chances to say her piece.”

An article by Carolyn Sampson in the Guardian newspaper (https://tinyurl.com/yjoazztm) attests to the fact that music can trump words:

“Schumann’s song cycle seems to have little to say about the realities of a woman’s life, but its emotional depths and the music’s sheer beauty still touch us.”

“The song cycle is a work that I have loved for many years. I was first attracted by the sheer beauty of the music. It’s somehow simple and charming on the surface, but with hidden depths – often in the piano part – – the music speaks where words no longer can”.

But the Guardian article also sums up what I see as a problematic view of the world:

“How does any self-respecting modern woman perform the song cycle today, in which the female protagonist is defined solely in relation to the man and her role as wife and mother?”

Towards the end of the interview Carolyn says: “We all need to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century”. Credit to Andrew Ford for taking her gently to task for this unkind and over-generalised assertion.

Decline in Fall

Note: this piece was posted to Facebook on 24 April 2021.

Even when retired and without a standard working week, Saturday mornings are still special. Today was no exception. The sun was warm, the sky blue and the autumn leaves motionless.

People at the shops moved comfortably from coffee with a friend to the weekend newspapers. Some in scarves, others still in shorts as if refusing to accept the change of seasons.

As I joined the modest throng it felt like a time to exchange meaningless niceties with strangers. “It’s beautiful isn’t it!” For human connection. “Isn’t it gorgeous!” For familiarity. “Have a good day!”

The barista in the sandwich shop – always cheerful, speedy – took my order: for some reason, a small cappuccino rather than my usual flat white – and I moved seamlessly to the newspaper shop next door.

The proprietorial couple, reliable as ever, were instantly respectful and polite, like head waiters in a fine dining establishment.

With the pink credit card having done what is expected of it, I returned to the sandwich shop to pick up the coffee. Then on and around the corner to the grocery store for a Three Mills crusty white loaf. I thought to playfully remind the woman in front of me “Not to pinch all the good stuff!” But resisted.

Waiting in the properly spaced queue to pay, a quick rehearsal of what was required to make my perfect Saturday morning: newspapers, tick; coffee, tick; fresh crusty bread: in hand.

My turn. $10.50. On a card, a pink card.

“Payment declined. Insufficient funds.”

Paradise postponed.

Singing with a soft voice and a straight face

Singing is valuable therapy for people with Parkinson’s. In Canberra the Bushlarks are proving the point despite symptoms which mitigate against easy vocalising.

______________

Where flowers are concerned my obsession is the cowslip. For authors it is Anthony Powell. His 12-volume series, A dance to the music of time, has long intrigued me and a gift from me of a full set is my fondest way of welcoming new members of the family. (Fergus isn’t reading much as yet but I stand ready to bless him whenever he’s up for it.)

In a piece posted to this blogg entitled Bob Carr, Anthony Powell and me (19 June 2018) I wrote:

“One of the characteristics of Powell’s novel is the occurrence of coincidence at what might be regarded as an unlikely rate. People keep meeting in unexpected circumstances with those with whom they have had previous contact; newly-introduced characters turn out to have links with people and events that have gone before.
I have often defended the notion that ‘coincidence’ is more of a reality of life than is connoted by a normal understanding of the word, which goes to its rarity and surprise. Events do seem to recur, albeit with different personnel, and certain people encountered years ago seem incapable of escaping the ebb and flow of one’s own life.
This of course is the dance to which Anthony Powell refers. Often life has a kind of circularity which eventually brings back the partner with whom one traced figures around the floor when the music began.”

I am reminded of this assertion every Monday morning when three of us travel together to Bushlarks, the ACT Parkinson’s choir.

Alpha and I were married in the registry office in Canberra in 1976. Six persons were present: one Celebrant, two subjects and three witnesses. These three were Bert and Jan, old friends from Armidale, and their eldest child bawling his eyes out in a stroller. (It would be unkind of me to speculate about what was disturbing him.)

Fast forward 17 years. Having moved from Armidale to Canberra I spent just three months in the Public Service. It was the period between working for John Kerin and being employed by the NRHA. In those ‘fantastic’ days, in April-June 1993, my Branch Head was a thoughtful, kind, reformist and spiritual man who I shall now call ‘Robert’.

Jan-the-wedding-witness drives the three of us on a Monday morning to the Parkinson’s choir. Jan was diagnosed about three years ago. And in the front seat is ‘Robert’, diagnosed about eight years ago.

What are the odds against being reconnected thus with a witness at my wedding and the only Branch Head I have ever had?

We make our way to the northern wilds of the ACT to a hall attached to a church that apparently welcomes refugees. Robert progresses slowly to the door on a stick. We sign in with only slight technical difficulty and then sanitise our hands. For some of us there must be a curious familiarity with the act of holding out hands, left over right, to receive something consecrated to human improvement.

We greet our new-found friends, necessarily sotto voce, in the small group that gathers. We are about twenty in all. Five carer-PwP pairs and ten or so still presenting individually.

Meeting up with these people brings me feelings of relief and wonder. It is like searching a mirror held up to one’s face for signs of changes to that face. These are the types I might become myself – or perhaps I am already one of them.

The Bushlarks includes a lot of troubled gaits, soft voices, slow movers. The mum and daughter in the front row provide the best voices – the centrepiece of the choir’s sound: almost competing with each other, singing the high notes with great gusto and accuracy.

Sue shakes all over like a leaf in a storm. Her partner attends to her. Sometimes three or four of us peel away from the singing to find her mobile phone as it demands to be heard from the bottom of her bag. There are a couple of men of my age with that fixed, unsmiling countenance the condition often brings – which makes it difficult to smile for the mirror – or the camera. And all of us stoop and cross the room slowly.

There is a woman whose mobility seems unimpaired but upon chatting with her it becomes clear that she is troubled, constantly on edge. But, she, like the rest of us, is trying to sing up a storm. Speaking for myself: some days I have a voice and can pitch it by design; on other days I am effectively mute.

We are under the control of ‘Dot’, a generous and politicised woman who has honed her musical abilities since the Conservatorium with a range of performance modes, many of them in service to her community. Dot is both Music Director and accompanist. In singing we are encouraged to stick together, in unison, except for the last chord of a piece when we are allowed to venture a third.

We met for nearly a year on Zoom. It was interesting but ultimately frustrating. Given the mess of different latencies, we were all muted and so were only singing to ourselves. Choral that isn’t. Now that we’re back together, we space out, sanitise and wipe down the church chairs. If we’re muted it is symptomatic, not by design.

This Sunday (2 May) Parkinson’s ACT is holding its Picnic in the Park to mark the end of Parkinson‘s Awareness Month. [https://www.parkinsonsact.org.au]

The Bushlarks will perform at the picnic under Dot’s watchful eye. There may or not be other eyes as well. But it won’t matter; we’re in it for the meeting and mixing, the getting out, not for the performance or the show.

‘Picking winners’ for a new economy

The Treasurer says the JobKeeper program needs to end because it’s having the perverse effect of preventing workers “more efficiently moving to other roles across the economy” and because “it can prop up what are unsustainable long-term businesses” (ABC’s 7:30 Report, 11 March 2021).

It is at best ironic or at worst inconsistent that, on the same day, the Government announced a $1.2 billion support package for the airlines and tourism industries. Part of the package will provide 800,000 half-price airfares to (initially) 13 tourism-reliant regions, selected on the basis that they are among the worst-affected by the pandemic.

The new program will commit what market economists regard as one of the greatest sins open to a government: to provide differential support to different places, population groups or industries. The pejorative term is ‘picking winners’.

The sin is compounded when the criteria by which inclusion/exclusion decisions are made are not clear. Accountability is missing. People are already asking about the criteria that led to Darwin and Adelaide being included in the program within 24 hours of its announcement,

Although they are more modest in terms of scope and expenditure, suspicions about how grant programs such as for sports infrastructure and regional growth funds have been managed contribute to the situation in which government intervention is not trusted. One particular issue is the role played by ‘Ministerial discretion’ in the allocations made. The Morrison government is fortunate that the pandemic has given the media and the public bigger fish to fry than assertions about the misallocation of grant funds.

The inconsistency of decisions about JobKeeper and the new tourism package need to be seen in the context of both their immediate effects on employment and their medium-term impact on structural change in the economy. ‘Structural change’ is not a phrase to light up the synapses in many heads, but it is critical.

The economic challenges faced by Australia as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are just the latest emanations of the need for a national economy to change itself in order to better meet the needs of labour and capital. Without warning or prudent preparation, Australia is experiencing the effects of the radical and sudden downsizing of two of its largest industries

With Australia’s international borders shut, the overseas student sector has virtually disappeared, at least for a year or two. Australian institutions are faced with the urgent need to provide new and different services.

Waiting for normal service to be resumed.

The same applies to the nation’s overseas tourist sector. Before the pandemic, tourism as a whole was a $152 billion industry for Australia, with a substantial part of it being through visitors from overseas.

Unlike most structural change, the loss of jobs in these two industries has been at a stroke, and caused by a single event beyond the control of any government. The precipitous nature of the change has made the job losses that have occurred even more difficult to manage.

A new economy has to be fashioned.

Although the speed at which the change has occurred is unusual, the key policy questions confronting the Government are the same as ever. They concern the ‘best’ speed at which structural change should occur; and the modes of intervention that should be employed.

The first of these policy questions is premised on an indisputable fact: through the degree and nature of its interventions, governments can, to a meaningful extent, manage the national speed of structural change in the economy.

The consequence of the speed of structural change occurring can be measured in terms of the number of people who lose work they used to have, and the number who cannot break into the job market at all. The speed of change determines the amount of stress (unemployment, underemployment, social cohesion, anguish and illness) caused. The more rapid the change, the greater the stress and disruption.

The options available for government intervention include an emphasis on education, training and retraining; payments of social support; incentives for the relocation of people or industries; countervailing government investment in the declining industries; and incentives for economic development or business subsidies – potentially per place or industry, as with the current tourism package.

The best option for Australian Government’s intervention in economic structural change is likely now to be different given the sudden limits to economic globalism that have emerged.

Structural change is necessary in any economy if it is to maximise the opportunities for work and returns to invested resources. The government of the day must strike a balance. That balance lies somewhere between intervening too much and so slowing down the rate at which desirable change occurs in the mix of industries in the economy; and intervening too little such that the aggregate cost to persons and communities in terms of the stresses experienced is deemed to be excessive.

There are always various judgements from different individuals and agencies about where this best balance lies. It demonstrates once again that policy-making for a national economy is extremely complex. This is particularly the case when there has been a failure to anticipate events that have very serious consequences for employment and income.

How Victoria Topped the Score

McDougall and Pincher prepare for the match

To people of a poetic and keen imagination, Victoria’s experience to date with COVID-19 was pretty much anticipated in The Bulletin of 1898.

That was when the report of the cricket match between Piper’s Flat and Molongo, curated by Thomas E. Spencer, was published.

The game looked lost for Piper’s Flat until McDougall (“canny Scotsman”) and Pincher combined to turn things around. Brett Sutton – like McDougall – has played the innings of his life and Premier Andrews, just like Pincher, has steadfastly refused to drop the ball.

Standing as a modest link between these two momentous events is a piece entitled How Victoria Topped the Score which detailed the situation with Swine Flu that confronted the State in 2009.

To remind, the background is this. In June 2009 the Australian newspaper reported that Victoria had the fourth highest number of H1N1 Influenza (Human Swine Flu) infections worldwide after the US, Mexico and Canada, but the highest per capita load. It was being blamed for exporting the virus around Australia. Sound familiar?

Working at the time in the health field and seeing the value of a positive outlook in stressful situations, I took the liberty of re-framing Spencer’s piece around Victoria’s plight with H1N1.

Recollection of certain facts will help appreciate the 2009 piece. The Federal Minister for Health was Nicola Roxon, the Member for Gellibrand, an inner-Melbourne electorate. The Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer was Professor Jim Bishop. Tamiflu is a Roche product, Relenza a GSK product. In 2014 researchers threw doubt on the effectiveness of Tamiflu and thus of the value of governments stockpiling it. The swine flu epidemic originated in Mexico; and in inter-State veterans’ hockey the Victorians are known as Mexicans, being from South of the border.

And Wikipedia reports as follows:

“On 23 May 2009 the federal government classified the outbreak as CONTAIN phase except in Victoria where it was escalated to the SUSTAIN phase on 3 June. This gives government authorities permission to close schools to slow the spread of the disease. On 17 June 2009 the Department of Health and Ageing introduced a new phase called PROTECT. This modified the response to focus on people with high risk of complications from the disease. Australia has a stockpile of 8.7 million doses of Tamiflu and Relenza. A large scale immunization effort against swine flu started on Monday 28 September 2009. In Victoria there have been 2,440 cases, including 24 deaths. Victorian health authorities closed Clifton Hill Primary School for two days on 21 May.”

Today we are likely to be less horrified than before at the closure of a school for two days on public health grounds.

How Victoria Topped the Score

Gordon Gregory

(after Thomas E. Spencer)

15 June 2009

A peaceful spot is Gellibrand – and many local folk

Exist by work in railways, and paper, tyres and rope.

The views to sea are legend and the people, quite untaught –

Lean naturally to leftwards, as portside people ought.

Still the climate is erratic as the natives always knew

And the winters damp and gusty bring on frequent bouts of flu.

But the locals now are Tami-rous as never were before

As H1N1 gets around – and Victoria tops the score.

It’s 90 square kilometres right to Port Philip Bay

Embracing Whitten Oval where the Bulldogs hone their play;

Includes Altona Meadows where the views are simply grand

And other lovely places now warehousing used to stand.

From Spotswood through to Tottenham employment, once serene,

Depends on heavy industry, petrochemical, marine.

The local folks are very proud, be they so rich or poor

But they all might be affected as Victoria tops the score.

It’s Inner Metropolitan (GPs’ incentives: nil –

For the local branch of the AMA this is a bitter pill).

So when a virus came along – exclusion was in vain –

The local health care services got ready for the strain.

Local people everywhere did all that they were asked

And courses sprang up all around on kissing through a mask.

A local hero came along: Gellibrander to the core

Who meant to keep the lid on it – tho’ Victoria topped the score.

This hero was a lawyer and a trusted one at that

And in the middle order for young Kevin she would bat.

She trained her loyal staffers how to listen and to scout

For useful tips, intelligence, whatever was about;

And each succeeding night they worked ’til the light it was a blur

Sometimes our hero struck a thought, sometimes a thought struck her.

’Til one day news from Mexico of which she’d hear much more

That swine flu now was all the rage – not too long from our shore.

The national plans were then rolled out – even Bishops were involved

Good health care teams and scientists all helped to have it solved.

No stone was left un-x-rayed and surveillance was maintained

And people’s sensitivity was measured when de-planed.

A hotline was established but it very soon was broke

And crackling then was all it gave to its inquiring folk.

The public mind was set at ease, there sure was nothing more

And New South Wales got uppity, as Victoria topped the score.

Victoria’s reached a thousand and some medics now complain

Even tho’ officially it’s-on ‘modified sustain’.

If children want to miss exams and have a full week off

They simply visit Gellibrand and then begin to cough.

We all will do whate’er we can to try to keep the peace

We’ll quit the smokes and exercise ’gin morbidly obese.

This gentle flu, still not a swine, in countries seventy four

And here it’s still Victoria that easy tops the score.

This illness from the Mexicans is causing a to-do

And now is a pandemic if you credit you-know-WHO.

But guided safely as we are from right the very top

We’re confident that this will pass, it’s likely soon to stop.

So raise a glass – or a long pipette – to our Gellibrander boss

‘Cos even tho it’s not too strong it makes us all la-cross.

And there may well be an upside – tho’ it’s touchy this to broach

For you won’t catch a cold at all just now if your shares are still with Roche.

So let’s consign to history, make part of national lore

The time when, quite unwillingly, Victoria topped the score.