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An idiot’s guide to the Ministry of Health

Neville Chamberlain on an ill-judged charm offensive. Now I like to consider myself a well brought up sort of chap, and was always taught never to bring up religion, politics or (heaven forfend!) a lady’s name at the dinner table....

The barber-surgeon of Avebury

On a stroll through Neolithic Britain, Seville oranges on a quay in Dundee, marmalade and 14th century coins, Chris Potter unravels the story of a man (a surgeon?) seemingly crushed by a falling 13-tonne stone. But things are not quite...

‘Bare below the elbows’

So it has finally happened. I have reached that stage of reactionary bewilderment known as middle age. As well having my finger nowhere near the pulse of contemporary culture, I am finding the siren charms of BBC Radio 2 and...

Nature or nurture in surgical training

It’s Thursday in the UK, so that means time for another root and branch reform of medical training. If you’re not keen on the Greenaway Report (Shape of Training review) [1], don’t fret there’ll be another one along well before...

Armageddon and surgical outcomes

In the excitement of the festive season I am sure many of you will have omitted to commemorate the 60th anniversary of a highly significant world event. According to a small apocalyptic cult led by a Chicago housewife named Dorothy...

BACO – the early years

The origins of the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology (BACO) are indelibly intertwined in the mists of time with the foundation of the British Association of Otolaryngology (BAO). For further information on the latter I can only refer the interested...

The seven ages of BACO

Chris Potter is a man whose prose style needs no introduction. Here, he gives us a poetic discourse on the different generations of attendees at BACO. Alfred, Lord Tennyson has washed his hair and can’t do anything with it. It’s...

BACO 2015 – Liverpool

Team BACO 2015: Academic Secretary, Peter Andrews; Treasurer, Chris Potter; Master, Ian Mackay and Local Host and Programme Director, Andrew Swift. (Photo taken by Academic Chairman, Shakeel Saeed.) In the height of a glorious English summer, over 1200 of the...

“Oh Manchester is Wonderful”...And other chants you might hear from the football stands or at BACO

Chris Potter is a lad of the North West, and we see him here letting his bleach blond hair grow out to show us his Northern roots. When I was a lad, Manchester was a troubled city in apparent terminal...

Human factors, theatre ethnographics and Girls Aloud

The issue of ambient music in the operating theatre is frequently controversial and has been known to cause ‘Bluetooth wars’, as different team members vie for control of the speakers. Our own Chris Potter gives his personal slant on this...