There have been some excellent observations made about the three main party leaders and the various manifestos they have cobbled together by various writers and bloggers (in fact political bloggers have come into their own this election) and the televised debates have been well worth watching. It is gratifying that, despite how things looked at the outset, the attention given to Mrs Brown, Mrs Cameron and Mrs Clegg has abated and attention has focused on the main ‘promises’ of each party and the men charged with delivering them.
But even so - I’m confused. Not by policies, promises or aims but by ‘tactical voting’.
Polly Toynbee advised us to vote with our heads and not our hearts:
Your heart might say Clegg. But vote with your head
Until the electoral system is reformed, progressives are stuck. If you do not want a Tory government, it’s tactics not romance.
I am not sure that I even understand the current election system – no, strike that - I don’t understand it! I live in a very safe seat and the local MP has proved to be very hardworking and squeaky clean in terms of expenses, which was going to be one the major factors in my voting decision this time round, so sickened was I by the greed and sheer disregard of public funds by those MPs who took the tax payer for every penny they could. But he is in the ‘wrong’ party. So do I go for his main contender, who is the 'right’ party but is, sadly, a 26 year old estate agent who hasn’t even taken the time to produce any leaflets that are worth reading, or even bothered to add anything interesting to his profile on the party’s website? It just doesn’t feel right to give him my ‘precious’ vote.
Polly, again:
The vote is precious, but we can't be. Keep the enemy out.
Whoever wins, we're in for a bad time, but Cameron says he will cut deeper and faster. Your vote matters." We talked, but she was unconvinced. She wasn't apathetic, but her vote was too precious to give to anyone less than perfect. There is a lot of this about, and not only among the idealistic young: a precious vote can only be bestowed on a worthy prince – though their prince may never come.
But I have never been a tactical thinker so do I put my cross against his name with a heavy heart or do I go with the old timer? How do I keep the enemy out?
All the parties are going to implement cuts, but some with a hatchet, chopping indiscriminately and other using a finely honed knife with the skill and purpose of a surgeon. I am currently witness to the hatchet style of cutting and funnily enough the cuts are all focused on front line services while suits in the ivory tower are still driving to their meetings in limousines and spending fortunes enhancing justifications for their existence and huge pay packets. The changes that they are driving through are ill conceived, badly thought through and, pathetically, they have to keep putting back the inevitable day of our demise as they are ill prepared and incompetent. It would be funny if it was not so fucking sickening.
Example 1 – a new database is being installed and training was scheduled for this week. Training was to last a whole day as the database is, because of the information it holds and the complexity of the needs of the service(s), huge, involved and complicated. Training appeared to be going well until it was discovered that the database holds – and shows to anyone using it – the personal details of everyone working with the ‘client’. Home addresses, dates of birth, personal email, even bloody next of kin. Training was boycotted and an ‘investigation’ launched. The general consensus by the top brass was ‘what’s the problem? Don’t be so sensitive. We just downloaded the info from your CRB forms to the new database, via HR. Easily done. We will remove it all…manually.’
Yes, manually. Some temp is going to manually trawl through a database holding personal information of every worker who has ever come into contact with a ‘client’ or a ‘setting’ and delete each piece of information that shouldn’t be there. These even include the information of those not employed directly by the organisation!
As the new database is going live in a weeks time and the creators of the old database were treated appallingly and banned from the premises there is no chance of extending the licence on the previous system for a week or two or of even asking these guys for some help to migrate the information in a sensitive and legal way, our one days training has be cut to - one hour. Ha bloody Ha. But wait….how is this going to help me provide the best service to my ‘clients’ and ‘service users’. Oh, you’re right it won’t.
Example 2:
Imagine the scene…in an office high in the ivory tower, three people sit around a table sipping cappuccinos they got free from the high tech drinks machine they insisted on being installed. They look out through the glass walls of the room in which they sit at all the staff beavering away in the call centre environment, busy ants who sit in front of screens tapping away and they can see others, others like them, in other glass rooms talking, scribbling on note pads and trying to say awake.
Suit No 1 ‘Let’s reorganise the structure and get rid of people who are ineffective and drifting towards retirement’
Suit No 2 ‘Who? Me? Now look I know I could retire next week, bloody hell everyone knows that due to that new database we commissioned that the peasants are moaning about, but I’ve got a few more years left in me before I toddle off in my high heels back oop north.’
Suit 3 ’Well, I hope you don’t mean me! OK so I have failed to deliver on all the drives, projects, improvements, reorganisations, concepts and outcomes I have been given so far but I’m years from retirement. And being a prize twat you know I would find it hard to find a job on the outside!
Suit 1 ‘Calm down, calm down. No, of course I don’t mean you guys. Your jobs are safe. You are one of 'us'. I’m talking about those who are the most respected by our ‘clients’ and ‘service users’, those with no real power but I am sick of hearing how effective they are. Get rid of those who know their stuff, those who bring about positive change and have high ideals, those who work bloody hard day in and day out trying improve things for the ‘clients’ and ‘service users’. They make us look bad, they make me feel defensive and inadequate and every time I see them, or hear about them I feel like having a tantrum. I have enough to contend with being a man of limited height without being made aware of my limited personality and capabilities! So let’s take this opportunity to push them out. We hold the power. We can merge, federate, combine and restructure and invent new job descriptions and responsibilities that only fools will apply for, fools we can manipulate and turn into one of us. (At this point Suit 1 rubs his hands together) and then.......
the axe falls.
And does this improve services to ‘clients’ and ‘service users’? No…because now no one is sure what their role will be or how they are going to continue to meet the needs of their ‘clients and service users’. Is it going to save money? No…because the pay offs and redundancies will be huge and they are still going to have to pay the fools that take on the impossible challenge. And in one move people with knowledge, compassion, understanding, drive, aspiration and common bloody sense have been lost to the organisation. And replaced with more Suits.
And now for something completely different -
Bravo Addidas!
Adidas community gym scheme
A London partnership between the government and sportswear giant Adidas to create gyms
in the community is to be rolled out across England. The so-called adizones are already in place in the five Olympic London boroughs of Waltham Forest, Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Hackney and Newham, and provide outdoor gym equipment free of charge in open spaces.
This week my friend and I spent a wonderful hour in an outdoor gym as part of our keep fit campaign. We are both incredibly unfit and when we tried some of the equipment we were in danger of being injured, killed or even….laughed at! But after the fits of giggles (ours) had subsided and given the fact that the teenagers playing basketball on the court next to the gym didn’t look at us as if we were madwomen, we enjoyed the challenge presented by the various instruments of torture. These outside gyms are just like playgrounds for adults. So if you have ever been tempted by a child’s swing or roundabout and if you are lucky enough to live in an Olympic borough then get out there and try one!
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