Thursday 28 August 2008

The People in the Shadows

This BLOG was born out of a deep sense of frustration which I now know is mirrored up and down the country. One only has to view other BLOGs and read the letters pages on almost every newspaper in the land to sense the deep despair spreading across the country. It has also been reflected in every recent by-election result but still Gordon Brown and his useless cabinet will not let their grip on power go. Heaven only knows what David Cameron will find when we eventually get an election.

This week in my local paper a letter had been submitted by a teacher prior to returning to work after the summer holidays and she seemed to care quite deeply about her responsibilities with the children but she seemed in despair at having to face and confront an army of government consultants, advisors, administrators and middle managers.

Now I knew that it was bad and I knew that the government was employing an army of people to ensure that their targets were being met but this article emphasised that the situation is much worse than even I thought. Apparently it is also the same with hospitals, the police and the Fire Service with the same shadowy figures calling all the shots. These people sit on the sidelines telling the professionals what to do and they are getting paid very well for doing so.

They are not necessary! The professionals are quite capable of running their class rooms, wards, crime desks and shifts without interference from the outside. The problem is that the current government are obsessed with targets and statistics. Ask the PM a question and he fires back figures. It happens all the time at Question Time in the Commons. They cannot trust the professionals because if they do then they lose control which is their prime objective. They are committed to ensuring that they control as many aspects of our lives as they can.

Unfortunately for them they have been rumbled. One of the reasons that the economy is going downhill so fast is that all these advisors and consultants have to be paid for and they are not producing anything. I just hope that when the Tories win the next election that they give the professionals back the responsibililty for their professions and make the people in the shadows get proper jobs.

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