baldysblog.co.uk

I have by default a good nature and although I can get angry and passionate as any other person, my default mode of behaviour is humorous rather than aggressive. Back in the late 80′s when, not coming from a computer literate generation, I taught myself and studied computer technology during the day, at night I was a Doorman at a busy West End London bar and at 5’8”, certainly no Rambo.

After 6 months when as a new “team”, we had cleared the clientèle of trouble makers, created a better atmosphere and increased the turnover and profitability of the bar, the Manager, not one to hand out compliments, did so in my case. His view was that the crucial combination behind the change was his tightening up with the business logistics plus, my good nature front of house with the customers.

The point was not that I was reluctant to get “physical” if required, it was that I could deal with over 90% of incidents through gentle but firm persuasion and this was important. If people are in a busy bar and they see a troublesome customer being roughed up, it poisons the atmosphere for them too and a bad atmosphere, one where there is even the slightest edge of potential violence, puts people off, makes them uneasy, reduces profitability and attracts more violence.

The Mood within the UK

I am no supporter of the Labour Party but, on the basis that a country gets the Government it deserves, my comment is that the “atmosphere” within the UK has most certainly deteriorated since 1997. Perhaps it has been a slow corrosive drip of pointless legislation such as the ban on fox hunting don’t get me wrong, I neither support or oppose hunting with dogs. I would never trust such a nervous creature as a Horse with my person jumping over gate and ditch in hot pursuit and my view would echo Oscar Wilde – “The unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible.

But all that said, I do not either see why Parliament should ever have got involved in the matter, this surely was a local Parish Council decision to ban or not according to the wishes and economic realities of the local population where the activity is carried out. That a lot of Labour lobby fodder the vast majority of which sit for urban seats, get involved in “banning something” that doesn’t effect them or their constituents is very much the story of this past decade – hectoring, bullying and interfering at the slightest excuse.

It is hard to place too much trust in opinion polls these days, people’s voting intentions are far too volatile but clearly Labour sees itself in trouble and feels the need to use “robust” language in announcing “policies” they don’t have the money to fund because of their own profligacy with the public purse. The current phase seems to have started with Gordon Brown and his “British jobs for British people” a foolish promise if ever there was and impossible to impose because of EU rules.

A Minister for Zombies

However, what bought this all into sharp focus was the announcement yesterday by some totally unknown woman called Caroline Flint who apparently is a Housing Minister, that unemployed Public Housing tenants who refused training or job opportunities could lose their homes. Now like Brown’s “British” crap on job creation, I would suspect that under current legislation, this is probably not enforceable and if the targeted “Chavs” got together in coordinated resistance, any attempt by central government to enforce such evictions, would be doomed to failure and Labour Party embarrassment.

But it is not just that the announcement was daft – more of a Edwina Curry egg moment than serious policy, it is the nasty nature of it, positively Medieval in its overtones of “We the Labour Party with our Divine Right to Rule, shall send our soldiers to burn you out of your hovels you worthless scum !” The problem now appears that after about 10 years in office, any Party is totally removed from any sense of reality and therefore given to “Let them eat cake…” type of statements.

This was an attempt to seem tougher than the Tories on the Welfare Budget and most people would agree that the game is now “up” where a government can hide the true level of unemployment by switching people to being “Disabled or in Training” but to use a caricature of people parked on sink housing estates as the “Undeserving Unemployed” is frankly outrageous.

Just like taxing the bottom out of pension funds so that final salary schemes are now as rare as hen’s teeth, this government has expanded the non-productive Public Sector by 750,000 jobs whilst keeping the lid on wage increases so that the increase in earnings compared with the increase in house prices speaks of a dam about to burst and massive inflation to follow before things are back in balance again.

Gordon Brown is the Problem

The truth is that much of the problems are due to the way Gordon Brown personally as Chancellor, tried to macro-manage the economy, it just can’t be done and small government plus market forces are the only things that will work. Whilst “market forces” can and will often produce harsh outcomes in the short term, in the medium or longer term, they are generally beneficial. It also follows that State Benefits should be aimed squarely at cushioning people in times of need and that any kind of “Back to Work” schemes should aim for positive benefits for the individual during transition.

Instead of “shouting at people”, the Government and regardless of political party, needs to concentrate on positive persuasion and incentives where people can see that through their own efforts, they can have a better life. Instead of this silly cow threatening to take away their home, didn’t she think that offering the carrot of a “better home” in a better area might be a lot more motivational ?

Let’s stop all the thuggery because as I wrote above in the context of being a Doorman, a violent bar breeds more violence and less profit for the “owners”. Nasty politics can only breed the kind of nasty edged society we have today, we need a change of language and attitude, I also think a change of Government would help too, this lot are hopeless. Under Labour we have probably the most economically divided society where the gap between the haves and the have nots has never been as wide since the 19^th Century which is really quite an achievement for a socialist government and probably only equalled in the USSR under communism.