David Vance on the Tangled Blog asks if you think that a culture of risk aversion is creating a cruel society. He quotes an adviser to Gordon Brown, Baroness Neuberger, who says that it is. She claims that as a result of these new social dictates, instead of showing kindness, people prefer to do nothing for fear of being sued.
David Vance analyses whose fault it is that Health and Safety rulings have been allowed to curtail our freedoms and prevent the normal spontaneous expressions of humanity towards our fellow citizens
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Monday, 8 September 2008
Look to the U.S. for a lesson in listening to the people
After her return to Britain from the States, Janet Daley of the Daily Telegraph is struck with glaring clarity by the failure of democracy in this country. Our politicians and pundits give themselves the absolute right to tell the people what they are allowed to think, but in the United States where democracy still survives, they could not get away with it. Read this brilliantly perceptive article.
I would comment that America has not had the ten years of Blairite theocracy when the “right minded” ruled with a contemptuous detachment from the will of the native population - and we are told that a lot of people want him back!
I would comment that America has not had the ten years of Blairite theocracy when the “right minded” ruled with a contemptuous detachment from the will of the native population - and we are told that a lot of people want him back!
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Britain 2028: we need ten new cities, please for new immigrants- Times Online
Camilla Cavendish writes a brave article in view of the denial of the Times editors on immigration. She says that our approach to immigration is unsustainable. We must either cap numbers or introduce a tough guest worker scheme. The huge increase in our immigrant population has been the result of the deliberate policy of the Labour government:for example in 1997 the abolition of the Primary Purpose Rule removed the restriction that required applicants to show that they were not just marrying to enter the UK. In 1998 the abolition of embarkation controls ended any effective record of who came in and out. In 2002 the number of work permits was doubled. In readers' comments JohnW of Oldham, writes: "Another solution would be to ask the British people what they want. after all this is a democracy...but that is not going to happen is it, there is no gain for our political masters in referenda. However when things really hit the fan, and they will, the people will have their say."
In a previous post I said that a parliamentary opposition with any self confidence would would be careful to speak to the electorate of Labour's policy of mass immigration and give them the credit for it that they claim.
In a previous post I said that a parliamentary opposition with any self confidence would would be careful to speak to the electorate of Labour's policy of mass immigration and give them the credit for it that they claim.
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
THE ROLE OF PERFORMANCE TARGETS IN THE MADHOUSE IN WHICH WE LIVE.
A letter in today’s Times gets me going on about performance targets again. People can ask what can be wrong about them as they are measures that give an insight how efficiently a certain area of work is being carried out. That’s the theory and it makes good sense but the last ten years have shown how disastrous the application of such targets is in the real world. When a small criterion becomes the public rating on which salaries and careers are judged, this becomes the sole focus of attention and the wider area of activity is neglected and distorted by pointless rituals to get ticks in the right bureaucratic box.
Millions of patients go through a ludicrous pantomime of frantically ringing their GPs for an appointment in early morning in a scramble to get an appointment that day. If they fail they have to try again on the following mornings. It is impossible to make future appointments because that would show on the performance sheets of the practice that they had failed to offer an appointment on the same day.
A policeman is called to a house where a heated family row is taking place. At length he manages to calm the participants, gives a stern warning to all the parties involved and only leaves when he is sure that his lesson has been learned. He leaves the family to get on with their lives. On return to the police station, he reports on the incident and he is told to go back and make charges against one or more of the parties for violent threats issued in anger. This will give the police a number of extra ticks to be entered in their performance charts. By doing so they will reignite the old issues, risk the break up of the family and give officers hours of work with no possible justification. As in all such cases it is not a human intervention in our lives but a dreadful mechanical bureaucratic tyranny.
In a letter to the Times a sitting Justice of the Peace, confirms an earlier report that police cautions and on the spot fines are leaving the courts with nothing to do. Unfortunately this has more to do with performance target culture than with justice.
Millions of patients go through a ludicrous pantomime of frantically ringing their GPs for an appointment in early morning in a scramble to get an appointment that day. If they fail they have to try again on the following mornings. It is impossible to make future appointments because that would show on the performance sheets of the practice that they had failed to offer an appointment on the same day.
A policeman is called to a house where a heated family row is taking place. At length he manages to calm the participants, gives a stern warning to all the parties involved and only leaves when he is sure that his lesson has been learned. He leaves the family to get on with their lives. On return to the police station, he reports on the incident and he is told to go back and make charges against one or more of the parties for violent threats issued in anger. This will give the police a number of extra ticks to be entered in their performance charts. By doing so they will reignite the old issues, risk the break up of the family and give officers hours of work with no possible justification. As in all such cases it is not a human intervention in our lives but a dreadful mechanical bureaucratic tyranny.
In a letter to the Times a sitting Justice of the Peace, confirms an earlier report that police cautions and on the spot fines are leaving the courts with nothing to do. Unfortunately this has more to do with performance target culture than with justice.
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About Me
- David-Barfield
- Notes on the classics of French literature. During my years of teaching, I wrote thousands of pages for my students. Preferring not to discard all these years of work, I am posting them on the Internet as a resource for teachers and students and I am using my blogsite as the portal in order to give access to the individual books. During my university course, I was an Assistant for one year in Arras and my nostalgia for Georges Brassens stems from these happy days- now long gone- when his songs were first being recorded and he was all the rage among the student surveillants. When I opened this Blogsite many years ago, I used David Barfield, my maternal family name, as my Internet alias. My actual name is David Yendley and if any of my past students come across this site, I send them my best wishes. They were great company to be with.
