Tannhäuser to B Minor Mass: NHS & Simon Stevens

The Cockroach Catcher managed to get to Tannhäuser on its last night and will be going to Bach's B Minor Mass. What is he hoping for?

The thing that hath been,

it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done:

and there is no new thing under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

Last summer’s entertainment has been that of the alleged ritualistic sexual activity of some well known politician.

Why should so much media time be wasted on such matter or was it a deliberate distraction from something more important?

Tannhäuser in the kingdom of the goddess Venus, by Henri Fantin-Latour. Photograph: akg-images

The sexual exploits of the elite Parisians were no different to that of modern day politicians:

Wagner's decision to place the obligatory ballet in the opening scene also offended the influential Jockey Club, whose members were in the habit of arriving at the interval to see their mistresses dance before going backstage for sex. By the third night, dog whistles could be bought in the streets outside the Opéra for the express purpose of interrupting the performance.

Tannhäuser, Wilde & Freud

But what is most important is the new NHS Vanguard:

Without new legislation or public debate a new NHS is happening or so we thought. The Cockroach Catcher wrote on September 7 2015:

Simon Stevens spent some years in the US. Is Vanguard a re-working of Kaiser Permanente?

I have always admired Simon Stevens and his ability to quickly picked some of the best loved people in the NHS to promote Vanguard. The like of which has not been seen in any State run change since Bevan. But Vanguard is going to mean a good deal more than we were led to believe. I suspect that the people working for him are either not aware or they were told not to divulge it. Like Steve Jobs, the smartest people keep their main aim to themselves. He has picked the people that were very savvy with Social Media and that part of the NHS is exploding with little reference to the plight of Junior Doctors or the bribery of GPs. Nothing should distract now! But is everything about Vanguard new inventions of Simon Stevens?

Remember:

The thing that hath been,

it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done:

and there is no new thing under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9

Simon Stevens: Tannhäuser & Vanguard!