When bullying is OK

We all agree it is clear cut, if you are told do what I say, do it now or else. If that else is a clear an unambiguous something far worse that is going make you endure emotional stress and or financial hard ship, you have unequivocally been subjected to bullying. Right? Wrong, not if it is carried out by the State. Now the State has to pursue ten of thousands of miscreants who are trying to evade the law of the land. It is only right and proper that they can stop these miscreant in their unlawful tracks swiftly and efficiently. We don't want to be wasting our time and resources on these repeat offenders. Swift efficient restitution and compliance with the law of the land is what we all want. Particularly if those miscreants are the unemployed. It has entered into our unquestioning social psyche, as our political leaders have told us often enough, all unemployed are shirkers, time waster only in it for easy money living off the State. It is therefore entirely reasonable that they should be subjected to coercion, real and implied threats and official harassment. Got to make them work irrespective. Entirely reasonable that they should be made to forego searching for a real job and be made, under duress, to commit to a job that offers nothing other than promises. Harassment from over-stretched officials, who have heard it all before so many, many times and in anycase have their own performance targets to meet else they too might receive an unfavourable report. Apply the department instructions to the letter, no deviation, no pause for thought, no scope for discretion, just the tick box, onto the next. Yours is not to reason why or to feel any compassion.

Not just the unemployed, naturally, anyone who has the misfortune to depend on the State can be a prime target for State bullying. These are the unwashed masses beneath contempt so it is perfectly alright. Brought up a family now living in a home too big for you, out on the streets or pay a rent increase way beyond your already stretched finances. Do not bleed broken here to us, the smug comfortable, about lack of alternate choice, having to move away from a work/family support network to a distant strange town or your pathetic special caring needs. Get over it. Greater needs must. The greater need is that untouchable Ministry, the Treasury, beyond any reason or argument. When they say 20% budget reduction. Jump to it, comply. When they say reduce welfare costs, cut, slash, importune what the hell it is only the unwashed masses that no one cares a fig about. When they say increase income, turf out lifelong sitting tenants so the now vacant property can be sold at a premium prices to ex-yuppies. Never mind that these same properties were bequeathed to the Nation for the Nation's custodianship of its cultural heritage. Nope, Treasury says raise money, compliance is the only acceptable response.

Just keep in mind that the Government's tactic for the past decade or more is it to defuse blame to some lower level quango's, pseudo government offices or other administrative functions whilst retaining the moral high ground of making decision for the good of the people. Look at us see what we have decided, then failing to make money available to properly implement that decision. Then they can look down at those diffused lower administrations, tut, and say what failure, how under resourced, making such bad judgements calls, a disgrace. It is called a Government WinWin. What ever results comes out of their short sighted policies, they are Teflon coated, nothing sticks on them!

Of course if manner by the Government conducts its affairs is right and proper for them, so it is also for those large conglomerates set up to provide us with essential services. They too have huge numbers of users all out to defraud them, they too need to use fast effective methods to maintain their income stream, irrespective of consequence. Good enough for the Government, good enough for them to. No doubt you will have received those peremptory notices warning you have breached some terms of supply, that requires immediate compliance  within some short timescale else some variant threat of bailiffs to seize goods, your life essentials, or of a court appearance where there will be a fine added to any amount owing together with their court costs estimated at some ridiculous eye watering number. It is just state endorsed bullying, no matter what way you look at it. The usual expectations of fairness and justice are unilaterally set aside by a superior organisation who consider that they are above such niceties. The simple niceties such as no prior presumption of guilt, of a right to offer a defence against an alleged offence and an impartial body, representing those twelve decent men on Clapham Bus, to adjudicate an outcome when disputed and on the appropriate retribution, cash or kind. That is our birth right.

Next time a political leader stands before you pontificating on the horrors of child bullying demand they ensure that all legislation they endorse enshrines the principle of fairness to all with no bullying no matter what age, creed, race or social status.

Caring for Customers

The Media churn out another lazy rehash of the old familiar story, Mr Good trying to save money whilst Mr Bad wants to stop him firing all his workers, in this case all the London Underground Ticket Sales staff. If like me, you are an infrequent traveller to London, you always use the Underground as it is the only way to get about. As an aside, in fairness the Buses are getting better organised, (fantastic 'London Journey Planner' App)  but still the dilemma of  which Bus, where to get off and electronic display saying next due in 5 minutes whilst you wait for 25 minutes and still no Bus in sight. Back to my theme. A welter of overlapping tiers of travel options and an automatic ticket machine with an interface devised by the Devil himself, evil incarnate. I regard myself as reasonably technically competent, an average commuter, but my lack of routine familiarity with all the London travel options means I am defeated each and every time I attempt to use the automatic ticketing system. I need the human, even if scowling, face of the Ticket Sale Office to translate my simple travel plans into a sensible Ticket to Travel. Unless London has decided to commit suicide and turn its back on all those tourists that flood the Underground every day, what is it thinking.

Our Society is being driven top down by Accountant Rules. Sure, absolutely, the Money In has to exceed the Money Out, no argument. But Accountants do not have any formula to tell when Customers have had an unsatisfactory experience that they choose not to repeat. In the real commercial world out there, struggling to get by in the ongoing recession, they are highly tuned to the customer experience. They go out of their way to ensure the customer's residual recollection is favourable to them. Not that mistakes do not happen, of course they do, but it is someone's job to proactively respond with more than a smiley face and 'Have a Nice Day' to ensure any problem is fixed and they are left satisfied. Not so our quasi-private companies running our essential services. They are only in it for profit, customer, or consumer, satisfaction is of no account. Sure a stone-walling complaints procedure that at most logs the complaint then dead files it away. Their remit is not to provide a good quality service that meets the needs of the users, just to return a profit. Not just London Underground but a plethora of quasi-private service provider have all been hitting the news for failing to address their 'customers' needs. Take the water utility boards, responsible to safe discharge of sewerage, brushing aside one of several householders that have repeated (five times), raw sewerage flooding into their homes; or Environment Agency with responsibility to manage our natural resources, failing in their duty of care by allowing the Somerset Levels to be inundated for weeks on end; or our treasured NHS failing to provided basic care robbing their elderly patients of dignity; or Local Authorities not allocating sufficient Care Hours to enable carers provide a decent quality of assistance and so on, rail failings, postal failings and on and on. Staffed by dedicate people who joined to serve the public but in the end are undermined by administrations that can only see the profit line and have no motive to meet the needs.

As I argue elsewhere, (All Change)(Time to Stand Up) quasi-'competitive' private companies have no place in running essential services. The 'competition model' is an entirely false fabrication, no real viable alternate options exist, the customer is stuck and stuffed. Nothing wrong, in fact overwhelming reasons why, essential services should be State organised. Just a new leaner model of how to go about organising and arranging them and making them accountable. There is hope that we can get back to providing all the customers, that is us, with services that aim to at least meet the needs of its customers. Now that would be a refreshing change.

The other way

Standby for the long haul. For time to time I have lost heart. Those with power and or privilege have such a firm grasp on the Establishment as to rebuff all pressure to change. People power as evidenced by 38Degrees or Tweets that go viral have shone a light. Not by plaintive 38Degree appeals to the better nature to those in power, who have shown by their sanctimonious platitudes, to lack compassion. To be devoid of all empathy. No people power as demonstrated by the overwhelming strength in numbers.

When all the Establishment has left is the preservation of the status quo, the power redistribution is over, job done. If the masses and just as important, the income generated by those masses refuse to accede to demands of those who have subsumed power to themselves, finally power reverts to where it always has been, with the will of all the people. Not just a select, self-protecting clique minority but all of the people. Clearly the Establishment is going to fight, fight dirty and there will be causalities along the way. The Establishment will use wontedly against it own citizens every vestige of power it has accreted over the years, indefinite detention without charge, body orifice search, seizure of assets, denial of service, search and exploitation of a digital material, injunctions, you name it and they have given themselves the uncontested power to do as they choose to any person that courts their displeasure. All in the name of the security of our State, the State that belongs to us, not 'them' that have arranged amongst their cohorts to be in charge.

Logistically if enough people come to together and agree on a course of action there is nothing that can be done to stop them. The mass will always win out against the minority no matter what weapons the minority choose to fight with. In the end, sheer overpowering numbers, overpower. There is no other outcome. Until now mobilising sufficient mass to overcome the forces set against them has been the restraint, (think the miners strike). Now we can have instant mass action or reaction, dynamically fluid, ever moving orchestrated by mass appeal, not along designated channels. IT savvy, entrepenual and able to respond in kind to Establishment attempts to throttle the communication pipes.

Not banner waving protests either that accede and are subservient to the powers assumed. No, but by mass refusals to comply, refusals to accede to domination. Emphatic rebuttal of this or that directive issued by those seeking to exert power and control. Masses that refused to be demonised as fraudster, cheats or liars and stand their ground and claim recognition for what they are, loyal, hardworking, honourable and worthy citizens. The will of these people do not consent to what you have granted to yourself. Not just a negative reaction either but a rejection along with an alternate action that the people will support and put their will behind. 

My hope is that the people will choose to move towards an egalitarian society. Where each looks out for the other and helps them to realise their potential for the great good of all. Where no one is left distressed or disadvantaged, each one helps the other. No elites, no protected tiers of ring fenced wealth, power and influence to buffer against the just claims of all those majorities without. My belief is in the common person. They would not tread down those below them just to get on the next ladder up. In the end, the people, just the people will decide. Now that really would be a welcome breath of fresh air.

Changing Banks?

Thinking of changing Bank Accounts? Choose not to be off-loaded to Santander in the RBS give-away? Be very aware, if you are receiving a State Pension. The glib promises of the banks to take all the stress out of switching Bank Accounts is all one-sided. They only look after the outgoings, you have to sort out all of your incomes. Not so stress free after-all.

Worse of all, before you even think of changing bank accounts your need to tell DWP (Department of Works and Pensions) as they are taking 'upto eight weeks' is the official line, to changing details! Unless you are content to miss maybe two months payments you are stuffed. You will not get your new account details until you have committed yourself. By then it is too late to get the DWP's to amend your account details.

Join the queue of pension receivers who have been notified of a returned payment just because the lumbering bureaucratic machinery has not got round to processing your earlier (in good time) notified account details. They are no short cuts. You will be sure to miss a payment. The only small upside is that after surviving the blind sampling of the automatic telephone response the humans you get to talk are very pleasant and almost proactive.

In this electronic age is it really acceptable for a government department to be working to stone-age time-scales? A woefully inadequate service and no one to complain to, just suffer.

Postscript. It seems that just maybe I have fallen into to the timewarp trap. Organisations are now setup to manange by telephone these essential detail changes. Whereas trapped in my past I assumed that such confidential and vulnerable transaction were best dealt with by the old fashioned letter. Speculation and untested. Maybe telephone is fast and best and letters are consumed to the slow lane.

From Cradle to Grave

I have been brought up with the expectation that the State would look after my every needs from cradle to the grave. Clearly this is not possible. Just as a belief in Father Christmas, this is a wholly unrealistic fantasy expectation. Yet it is a wide spread, fervently held expectation, almost as a moral right of citizenship that this shall be delivered to me, if not everyone else. No politician, if they hope to survive,  dares to stir the foundations of this expectation. But for all that it is a fantasy, incapable of implementation.

The human condition is complex, diverse and we are only now getting glimmers of how it might work and come together. One persons needs are of such a different magnitude to another's. Those needs so real and pressing at the time are not immutable. Satiated, the need merely shifts and moves on to new arenas. The time, place and even the company can have a huge impact of the perceived desperation of the need. For some, having an need is a prerequisite to life, without a need to share, they are vulnerable, isolated, cut-off. Their need is their way of relating and claiming attention and reassurance from those around them. Little wonder then that the State has not the least chance of satisfying the needs of its citizens.

All needs are very real to those that live with there lack of resolution. It is rather like deciding on degrees of killing, which is the kinder or more humane method? You might think that providing a wheelchair to a non-ambulant person is a clearly demonstrably more real and justifiable need than reading a newspaper to an elderly person. It all depends on circumstance and expectations. If the non-ambulant person is really missing companionship, the wheelchair may not provide the answer. Hearing the newspaper read may be the last desperate cling onto reality in an otherwise slide into dementia. You tell me which is the real need. Meeting needs is not about cost, it is not about the practical ease of provision, it is not about the physical against the emotional, it is all about a person perception of their need and how it might be provided for. Whether it is a wealthy housewife unable to cope with dusting, a single mum trapped in unsuitable accommodation all across the spectrum to a severely disadvantaged person that needs help just to breath. How can the state cater for all its citizens needs? It simply cannot.

It is the citizen, with their supporting network they have drawn around themselves, that has to address and resolve their own needs, within the pool accessible to them of financial, practical or emotional assistance. Harsh but that is the reality. No magic wands to sweep you out of your circumstance out in to some fantasyland where problems have been banished. We have to live with what we have got and have to learn to overcome the disadvantages of being in that place we find ourselves. Unfair, inequitable but that is life, we do not get to choose were we are born. Which is not to say the State has to be uncompassionate, it has a duty of care to look after those that fall for whatever reason.

Those that fall due to no fault of their own, they are worthy of every possible support and assistance to get back on their feet. Just short of that support becoming a crutch is the catch. As humans we are always going to get it wrong, taken in by a sucker story, to refusing a genuine tale of woe because it appeared self-induced. Despite all the wrong calls, the majority will be desperate needs rightful for state intervention. For all those other self-inflicted needs the state eventually has to provided a final safety net. We cannot let our citizens slump into degradation and despair. There has to be a safety net. It is just that the safety net does not have to equate to  an equivalence of self-sufficient suburban life with own front door and fully equipped and furnished home. The horrors of the workhouse are real and current memories, no going back to that. Short of the workhouse, a place of safety not full of all creature comforts, but a supportive environment to provide shelter and reassurance, for the individual, or members of or up to the whole family,  during that struggle to get back onto ones feet. That is the states remit. That is the extent of the state meeting the needs of its citizens. Well short of support from cradle to grave.