When I was nine or ten I found a wallet on the pavement. The
wallet contained a number of things including ten and five pound notes. I
couldn’t see an address and so I took it to the local police station.
Some weeks later I had a visit from a local policeman. He
told me that a man had claimed the wallet and asked them to thank me. It seems
that he had just been paid and the money would be feeding his family for the
next week or so.
Why am I telling you this? Well I’ve just listened to a
little of the parliamentary debate following the Queen’s Speech. It seems to me
that there is a rapidly growing gap between political rhetoric and reality. The
rhetoric is cleverly constructed and so truth can be a little difficult to see
at times.
Today for example whilst walking I found a lost item taking
it to the nearest police station wouldn’t be that easy. My local police station
in Paignton has been demolished and will soon become retirement flats.
Apparently with modern communications there isn’t really the need for
neighbourhood police stations.
Of course I should have seen all this coming. The changes
tend to be subtle and therefore easily missed. It isn’t until you reach out for
something you have always taken for granted and find it missing that the
feeling of uncomfortableness grows.
Let me give you an example. Some years ago the enquiry desk
closed at the police station down the road. I found this out by accident when I
went to ask whether a set of keys had been found. It was a while back when
British Telecom inserted a one after the zero for area codes.
There was a telephone attached to the wall outside the now
closed police station door suggesting that if you needed help simply pick up
the handset. I picked up the handset and a voice said “Please replace the
handset and redial inserting a one after the zero.” There was no keypad which
meant following that instruction impossible!
I’ve watched a distressing number of similar flights of
madness since attempting to make that call. The systematic destruction over the
years of so many important services hidden by clever wording depresses me. All
too often it is the most vulnerable who take the greatest pain.
Phrases like “Care in the community” send a chill through me
especially when retirement homes close sending distressed octogenarians seeking
a new safe haven. A plethora of home-help providers pick up the discretionary
services once provided by local authorities where now more and more help is
needed with less money.
The draconian cuts to education provision and youth services
make me so sad. The words spinning around suggesting that all this is actually
for the greater good simply can’t be true. You may have read about one Devon
primary school with a class of just under seventy children. The head teacher
presented an excellent argument defending this new initiative.
The children were using tablet devices and the most modern
computer systems and the single teacher had the support of a couple of trained
assistants. I simply can’t accept that the change is actually for the greater
good!
Am I a curmudgeon? I don’t think so, but worry about the
fact that things are happening now that may turn out to be hugely harmful to
many while an aspiring elite minority benefit at the expense of a beleaguered
majority.
I guess for me I will campaign on and do my best to keep the
smile……………………..
