Category: General

Maybe we are, because otherwise they wouldn’t treat us so. I’m talking about politicians, advertisers, and all the misinformation that we are fed daily. On  Sunday, on the Politics Show on BBC 1, Harriet Harman was put on the rack for two reasons. The first was that at either Central Office, or the local constituency of Crew and Nantwich, a campaign had been decided upon to belittle the Conservative candidate, because he was allegedly a millionaire. Secondly, Mr Jon Sopel pointed out that she herself had a fairly exclusive background. I have been banging on for years that the one advantage of the old political system was that most of the politicians came from wealthy backgrounds and that politics was their life almost from childhood, and because of their wealth they were in an unassailable position, Their livelihood was a separate entity. Today most of our politicians are career politicians, with all the pitfalls that that can engender, especially toeing the party line against their conscience. I found the Crewe and Nantwich Labour approach particularly repugnant, it was childish, simplistic, and totally inaccurate. If there was anything to recommend her to the electorate, apart from the fact that the Labour candidate is the mother of five children, and that she is related to a previous candidate, it was nullified by their asinine campaign.

With this election coming up tomorrow and the General probably at any time, I would like to repeat one of my criticisms and general requests to our Masters. Gordon and his cohorts are constantly repeating how good he was as chancellor, which I take exception to. Firstly because we, the silent majority, were forever warning of the pitfall of the internal debt, but worse were not made aware that our bankers were being allowed to fund similar debts in other countries with our savings. Secondly, the previous multimillionaire PM and the rest of the cabinet didn’t also heed our pleadings. Gordon was allowed free rein when the whole system should have been controlled. Please, plug this hole in our financial system and let British money be controlled in Britain.

I beg you, my readers, to look closely at the advertisements on television. If you haven’t got Sky Plus, you are forced to sit through hours of it, with puppets, painted images and just occasionally famous faces, extolling merits which in many cases have not been substantiated or are overstated. Once one adopts this attitude it is like a game, just to see how many of the adverts are truly honest, and the product is proven to be essential to our interest, and not just to be purchased because the advertisement is scaring the devil out of us by insinuating some dire consequence if we don’t buy the product. Don’t Forget, the spiel we get pushed through the door prior to elections is a form of advertising. As my old Gran used to say repeatedly about everyone, ‘Don’t believe all they say!’

I think some of the remarks which pass across the floor of the House of Commons, and are then transmitted on television, have all the ingredients of ignorance, bad manners, lack of respect, and above all are a bad example to the youth of the nation. If you go back through the ages and look at some of the speeches of people like Nye Bevan, Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, they could make the point with wit and the use of the language that was twice as belittling as the sort of torrent that we have today, which is more the epitome of a sawdust-floored bar room. It was always an in-joke, that when the English were talking to foreigners, they considered shouting would put their point over, even though they didn’t speak the language. Have you noticed the decibels created by David Cameron, when he is at his most vitriolic?

Often, when I’m listening to a TV inquisitor, or reporter in the field, I’m amazed at just how crass they can be, with the implied insults by the very nature of their vocabulary. They make me cringe with embarrassment for them, and for their total lack of consideration, respect, and decorum. They can be so arrogant, it is as if they feel they operate on another plain, with a different set of rules to the rest of us,. Today it seems that nobody in the public eye, even if they wish, can avoid this sort of verbal harassment. I suppose to a certain extent it is the people urgently seeking publicity, accreditation, fame and adulation, who are prepared to expose their lives, their intimate relationships, and their financial dealings, who are responsible for the growth in the myth that the public has an unhindered right to any knowledge, and it is the duty of the media to ferret it out and expose it. The media are not so much interested in the stories, and their consequent ripples and side-effects, they are merely ambitious, self-seeking and above all greedy.

I’m not sure if it’s my white hair, or my age, but I have found that a reasoned, courteous and factual approach, in making complaints, dealing commercially and in general everyday intercourse, is more effective than blasting broadsides – invective is usually totally counter-productive.

Briefly, I have worked in consultancies, contracting, quangos, local government and central government, as a technician in the Navy, or as a civil engineer in the rest.

Let us first examine Local Government as I knew it, At the top is a Mayor and the Councillors. These are men and women who have worked their way up either rung by rung, are astute in business, or have been professionals. Few are young, and in consequence they are experienced in business and in life. Some are ambitious, some have a sense of duty, and some are there because they were persuaded.. Not all are honest, but that can be said of life generally. Local authorities are not given due credit, and are tarred by a broad brush for the mistakes of a small minority.

The next layer starts with the Town Clerk, then the heads of sections, and finally the General Staff within the city or town hall, and once in the waterworks the sewage works, mending roads, collecting rates and doing all the things that local authorities used to do. The heads of sections have generally been promoted from within, having been in the Council direct from school or university, and worked their way up partly through selection by ability, and dead man’s shoes. It is only in exceptional cases, such as the development of a new department that recruitment is taken from outside.

The history of the Council, its work and its records are not just on paper but in the minds of the staff because its their life. Councils employ some people who would not be employed by industry, thus giving dignity to those whose accomplishments are below par. I believe that this aspect, in this day and age, may have gone by the board. The benefit to the public is that they have easy access, to both the councillors and the council staff. The benefit to the staff is that they don’t have to go far to solve a problem, merely upstairs and downstairs, where they can discuss it face-to-face and generally find a solution. Surprisingly Quangos operate very much like local authorities on a smaller scale, and thus have the same advantages.

Central Government as a statement is a non sequitur, it is generally not central, but miles away, such that the public has rarely contact with those governing or carrying out the instructions of those governing – it’s a paper chase. The government is a collection of people either put forward by local wards, or often put forward by political factions. Like local government they are voted in, and sit with their own kind, while there are a few who are independent. We all know the problems of a government with total sway, but unlike local government which only affects individually a small portion of the electorate, central government affects the whole country, so the good or evil that it does affects us all, not just a small proportion. The opposition has a problem, it wants to get into office itself, so has to be critical. but if the government is operating sensibly, the opposition has no foothold, the government has drawn its teeth, so there are times when the House of Commons is pure histrionics. One other problem is that people are put in office for experience as much as need, and with time are shifted about, so the continuity is maintained not by the members of parliament, nor by the senior civil service, who also get shifted about for experience, but mainly on paper, and if there is a change of location, quite often a lot that paper is lost, along with the continuity

The Civil Service, graded from Eton and Oxbridge first-class honours, right the way down to the tea boy are situated in ivory towers and only communicate with one another and the public on paper. Technocrats are rare in the upper reaches of the civil service, with the result that those at the coalface have difficulty in persuading their masters, the senior civil servants, of the necessities of which they’re trying to convince them. By the same token the public can only contact their MP if they have a problem, and the MP has to contact the Minister and the Minister probably has to contact his civil servants to send a reply in writing back down the chain. The MP is sincerely doing the best he or she can, it is just the sterile system which stultifies question-and-answer – communication.

I trust I have made a good case for going back to the old ways where everything that really affected our lives was controlled locally and we had access.

I believe, unsurprisingly, that many of the old ways were best.
Strangely these thoughts came about because I had purchased freezer bags which I discovered to be half the weight of the previous ones, and slightly dearer. Everything today is subject to unheralded change which is frustrating, and in some cases frightening. My early life was like a ride on a big dipper, it had incredible highs and desperate lows, but it was not of the common run. From as far as I can remember right up until the end of WW2, peoples lives were generally ordained by their social standing, their education and their location. Most had a rough idea of what the future held because it would probably follow the route of their forebears. In their intimate lives there was relatively little change, little ambition and the prospects were meagre. They purchased their staples from the same shops that their grandparents had, and there had been little change in all that time in the price and quality. There were a few millionaires, but nobody thought about them, when the weekly basic wage was £3 a week to feed a husband and wife and several children, the gap was too large to be imagined, and there I think lies the problem of today, everyone would like to be a millionaire, and how they achieve it is not too important. It doesn’t seem to matter that the supporters of football clubs are being taken to the cleaners for their entertainment, and the kit for their children, as long as the footballers are getting seven figure sums every year. How can you possibly spend millions every year? If you can’t, do you need it?

Millions are spent every week in the hope of a lucky win, people win millions on a simple quiz show, directors who have made a total disaster of the finances of their company are given a seven figure golden handshake instead of being shown the door. When you read of a Prime Minister who owns two multi-million properties, and is reaping a vast income, while the rest of the country is suffering financially, and in the deaths of some of its young, from his faulty decisions, it becomes evident that society has totally changed. Without restraint there are those, right across the board and around the world, who have been playing Monopoly with our personal finances, to the point where we have no security. These are the outcome of unbridled greed, megalomania and a disregard for probity, all of which is now creeping like a fungus into our daily lives, where products and services are modified to cut costs, without warning of the change, and what we are getting is neither what we used to get nor what we expected to get. We can no longer rely on our government, it makes one statement one day and changes it the next, our media are fined millions for malfeasance, we are taxed in so many different ways that it is impossible to decide what percentage of our income is taken, and we are also fined at every opportunity for the mildest discrepancy.

I believe that the old ways were not the worst ways, and in my next article I propose to demonstrate that Local Government may have had its weaknesses, but it was a hell of a sight better than what we’ve got today.

Joan Ruddock, Minister of the environment, like me, is shouting down a well  and the only voice that replies is her own echo. She talks as if she had just discovered the wheel, when the rest of us have been aware and talking about the waste of our money by the food that we buy, rotting before it is fit to eat for at the least a couple of years. She is perturbed because, from a sample of over 2000 houses in England and Wales, they estimate that 3.6 million tonnes of food is wasted annually, 60% of which is untouched, and frankly there’s nothing she can do about it, because it has now become endemic.

Any shopper understands the logistics of shopping and the problems that face working families today. The car parks of the supermarkets on Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays, bare evidence of the results of working full-time and responsible parenthood – one large shop per week. The shops don’t offer three for the price of two because they think you need three, on the contrary you will need only one but they wish to sell three. The consequences of having to guess the menus for a week are obvious but in today’s climate,, unavoidable. The Minister hasn’t a hope in hell of changing the system, it is ingrained, and our whole life structure is built round the supermarket. Everyone it seems including chefs are jumping on this food- waste bandwagon as if it was a new religion. A lot of us are sick to death of buying products because we look forward to the flavour of them but it was never realised because the product rotted before it ripened. We might of course still be able to learn something from the past, and give credence to the farm and corner shop.

One aspect that nobody seems to have taken into account is the plight of these people in underdeveloped countries who have been persuaded to set up  manufacturing facilities to provide the supermarkets with all this out of season food. It’s all very well for a couple of chefs to scream at one another through the ether, and for politicians to make capital gain out of the waste situation, which didn’t start just yesterday. But before they start lambasting, they should take into account that it was we, the wealthy nations who, without long-term thought set the ball rolling, and now want to retract, and leave those who are ill-equipped to pick up the pieces

In the 20s and 30s, with no refrigerators we made a number of trips throughout the week to the corner shop, and on Saturdays into the high Street for the roast and possibly something special. The Minister is right to be concerned, because she has to deal with the waste that we throw out, and also is probably concerned about the energy lost in the growing, processing and transporting of what we have thrown away. As pensioners I find that we waste very little because we have the time to shop, and are more careful with our expenditure. Unfortunately I don’t think there are any lessons to be learned from what I’ve said here, it’s too late

Not really, more a reassessment in the light of the last few days. I believe that national and international government requires considerable political experience covering most circumstances. This was a feature of the governments of the distant past, and should be borne in mind at a time when political change seems to be on the horizon. In those days also life was slower and there was more time to make considered decisions, not hysterical reactions.

In the latter years of Conservative government one recognized a lot of the names and faces on the government front bench, and the opposition bench. Today I question how many people who are not politically inclined, can name more than a couple on each bench. During the last period of Blair’s dictatorship, plus our current government and opposition, there have been so many changes and so many new faces, coupled with extreme apathy that I suspect very few are known as they were in the days of Major and Hague. The old guard has disappeared, even the bully boys of Tony’s reign, John Reid and Peter Hain.

The current leaders by their age have comparatively little political experience, compared with those even in Tony Blair’s initial ’97 Cabinet, quite a few of whom were either moved out of office or resigned, which says a lot for Tony Blair’s single-mindedness. Now, while I suspect some of the old guard are keeping a watching brief, these three young men will have to tread very carefully if they don’t repeat the mistakes of recent years. Vitriolic rhetoric is not enough, logical and reasonable substance is what the electorate demands. It is noticeable for example that David Cameron was a back-room man from 1988 at the age of 22, until 2001 when he entered parliament. Today he talks mainly in the first person, and the other two have not been exposed sufficiently for the electorate to assess their capabilities, nor the capabilities of all their shadow cabinets, and indeed that of the current opposition.

It is fairly clear from recent events that the current government will behave like silver birches, and sway gently in the wind of popularity, and only make decisions when absolutely necessary, to avoid losing office, in the hope that in the meantime, the new boys will make sufficient gaffes, for New Labour to survive at the next election.

The problem of governing today is complicated by the close scrutiny of the media, which is instant, selective and often biased, the sheer speed of communications and of the daily life of the electorate, this all induces thoughtless reaction by the government, and apathy amounting to almost resentment in the electorate, because a lot of the policies inflicted are both unpopular and sometimes unreasonable. The rise in international conflict, population movement and terrorism, together with the problems hamper budgeting. What is needed is a Parliament, where the balance of power is not completely with one party, where reasoned debate and common ground for action and legislation is achieved, and knee-jerk responses are a thing of the past.

In this country we have developed a new culture, where the silent majority foots the bill for the iniquities of a miniscule minority. It isn’t just one case, it is dozens of cases. Yesterday we were warned by the newsreader that if we did not show the MOT disc on our car windscreen, we would be fined £200. This is because a very small percentage of vehicles are being driven without MOT and probably no licence and no insurance. The reason my savings have gone down the Swannee is because a very small percentage of bank directors, whom we thought we could trust, in an effort to increase their financial situation, have overextended the takeovers of other directors, in other countries, who also took rash decisions. The government, in order to curtail binge drinking by teenagers, has decided to increase the cost of alcohol across the board, which in turn has unreasonably increased the VAT also. I tried to think of how many teenagers I have known who are binge drinkers, and could think of none in 86 years. I tried to think of the number of alcoholics that I have come across in my normal associations in the same period, and it was about five out of what I assume is about 200 people in all. All this business about fining you if you’ve ‘contaminated’ a waste disposal bin in some manner, is another case in point. The majority are being castigated for the few. I don’t really believe there is the level of fuel shortage that has required this hype in the price of petrol, electricity, heating, and in consequence every other aspect of our lives, including a hype in VAT. This business of don’t drink and drive, is not because the whole nation has become totally irresponsible, it is because some drunks, I suspect a miniscule percentage of the population, have killed somebody while under the influence of alcohol. For this, the whole of our social fabric has been turned upside down; where we used to have a convivial evening with a few drinks, and a sense of responsibility, we are now being treated like children, as if we have no sense of responsibility, and the nanny state has to take charge and breathalyse us to make sure we really are responsible. Political correctness is yet another case.

Over the years I have watched this concept, mainly by government, creeping into our existence, yearly tightening the straps on the straitjacket that is now our existence. Fining for so many different errors, in every case has two reasons, one is that it is easy to control in this way, whether it is reasonable or not. The second is that authorities derive income, from yet another source. The worst example of this of course is clamping.