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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/29/investigation-reveals-doubling-nhs-rationing-cataract-surgery/

NHS rationing of cataract operations has doubled in just two years, with patients increasingly denied cases until they are at risk of blindness, an investigation reveals.

Charities warned of “shocking” restrictions, which are in defiance of national guidance.

The figures from across the country show a sharp increase in the number of areas where the NHS is refusing to fund the operations until vision is badly compromised.

It comes despite warnings from the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence that the NHS must not rely on sight tests to decide whether surgery is warranted.

Experts say the rise of rationing is leaving vulnerable pensioners in misery and isolation, and increasing their risk of suffering falls.

The research, published in the BMJ, found that in 2018/19, 22 per cent patients in England referred for cataract surgery were forced to go through tests to establish how poor their vision first. This is a rise from 6 per cent in 2016/17.

And almost 2,900 cases were rejected – a rise from 1,301 refusals two years earlier.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/30/hungary-tourist-boat-capsizes-danube-leaving-seven-dead-21-missing/

Hungarian authorities are preparing to salvage the wreck of a sight-seeing boat that sank after a collision on the River Danube in Budapest left at least seven tourists dead and 21 people missing.

The salvage operation forms part of a massive search and rescue mission following the accident that late on Wednesday night when a small sight-seeing boat carrying 33 South Korean tourists and two Hungarian crew members was struck by one of the massive cruise vessels that ply the length of the Danube.

Concerns were raised on Thursday morning that the tragedy had been an “accident waiting to happen”, as the river had become so congested with tourist boats jostling for space on night tours. Hungarian police on Thursday launched a criminal investigation.

The force of the impact in Wednesday night’s collision sent the smaller boat, the Mermaid, to the bottom of the river but left only scratches on the cruise vessel, a hotel ship owned by Viking Cruises. Seven people were pulled from the water with minor injuries but the fate of the others remains unclear.

In Budapest rescuers have enlisted the help of a river mine sweeper to locate the wreck of the Mermaid.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/father-organised-d-day-nation-rallied-support-largest-assault/

In the early hours of June 6 1944, Allied forces launched the largest combined naval, air and land assault ever assembled.  Nearly 7,000 vessels including battleships, destroyers, minesweepers and assault craft poured across the English Channel to land more than 132,000 ground troops across five Normandy beaches.

In all, 18,000 paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines, while 11,590 Allied aircraft flew in support.  “D-Day” simply denoted the date the invasion would commence. The stakes were surmised by how that name would go down in history.

The success of the invasion depended on the courage of those who were required to sacrifice everything for the liberation of Europe. But those brave souls were the tip of a vast planning operation which had been years in the making and strained every sinew of the British war effort.

Responsibility for ensuring the smooth passage of hundreds of tonnes of vehicles and ammunition lay with one man: Major General Sir Leslie ‘Bill’ Williams.

As head of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC), he was in charge of operations on D-Day and implementing a plan to shift 380,000 tonnes of ammunition and 190,000 vehicles in the two months following.

In advance of the invasion, he rallied those on the home front in Britain to pack 350m items which would follow the troops over to France. Children, members of the Women’s Institute and those deemed unfit for military service were all recruited for the cause. While diminished by serving troops at the time who nicknamed them ‘blanket stackers’, their efforts were later commended by King George VI, who described it as “a remarkable story”.