Clapping - a Confession

A confession – I ‘clapped for Carers’ for a couple of weeks.  Wasn’t really that comfortable doing so – it’s not really a thing the English do but I did it.

Another confession – I don’t ‘clap for Carers’ anymore.

I feel better having got that off of my chest.  But I feel so much better knowing that no one can accuse me of clapping for the NHS because I won’t do that.

I won’t clap for NHS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Managers (starting salary more than £58K)

I won’t clap for NHS Climate Change Managers (starting salary more than £44K)

I won’t be clapping for NHS Procurement Managers (starting salary £38K)

I won’t be clapping for the owners of private care homes.

And I won’t be clapping for Sir Simon Stevens – NHS Chief Executive (salary £190K+) or the thousands of other  highly-paid NHS ‘executives’

Indeed, I won’t be clapping for any of these people who have failed us.

And that’s what they have done.  They have failed us. 

They have failed to have sufficient PPE supplies for hospitals and care homes.  Be clear – the failures are those of the NHS ‘management’ and Care Home owners.  It is patently not the failure of the government. 

The NHS have wasted taxpayer money on virtue signaling jobs such as those above.  Think of a local NHS trust.  Now think what possible impact the Trust’s Climate Change Manager can have on the climate.  The Sun (the one in the sky not the newspaper) is the single most important determinant in the situation regarding our climate.  Not just most important but overwhelmingly dominant.  And yet, Trusts employ someone who will tell you to turn off the light when you leave a room or recycle your plastic water bottle!

The leadership of the NHS and Care Homes have feathered their own nests while neglecting their core responsibilities to their patients and their employees.

Ask yourself this – Are you aware of any, I repeat any, NHS Procurement or Supply Chain Manager – you remember, those whose job it is to ensure that the NHS is supplied with what it needs to do its job – anyone who has resigned at his or her failure?   The lure of those above national average salaries (plus of course, cosseted benefits) far outweighs integrity and basic decency on the scales of life, for these people.

Imagine for a moment, what would have happened if the Government had not stepped in?  Does anyone seriously believe that the NHS Executive would have been able to organize the Nightingale Hospitals?  Anyone? 

Some of the actions taken by the Government have maybe later found to be unnecessary – Nightingales being a case in point – but they were, and remain, a necessary contingency.  These though were built by the organizational skills of the British military. Mostly the British Army.  Not the army of Supply Chain and Procurement Managers and so called ‘professionals’ but the real Army.  They just did what they always do – they got on with it.  Give them a problem and they’ll fix it.  Give the same problem to the NHS and they advertise for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Managers and Climate Change Managers so as to ensure that all aspects address the requirements of the ‘woke’ commentariat.

And while your ire might be directed against this army of bureaucrats, please don’t lose sight of their ‘leaders’.  The Tax Payers’ Alliance (@the_tpa) advised, in April 2020, that 242 NHS ‘executives’ were on 6 figure salaries.  Supposedly they get these ‘film star’ wages because they know what they’re doing.  Well, their stellar performance has led us to the situation where the Government had to intervene and assume responsibility to get things done because the NHS ‘executives' were simply not up to the job. 

Post-Covid19, there will be some kind of public inquiry – I now have the ability to predict the plaintive calls of the Labour Party for one – remarkable, I know - it’s a gift .  This inquiry must examine and name and shame the NHS ‘executives’ who so roundly failed us.  Heads must roll and a complete re-organization of the NHS must be undertaken.  Clearly it is not fit for purpose. Note:  When these heads roll – no Golden Goodbyes, please.

These NHS ‘executives’ and indeed, throughout the organization, support a group-think that – you have to have been in the NHS, in order to work for it.  This dangerous policy has borne fruit in the recent crisis with the so called leaders – you remember, those people that are constantly on the news, saying that the NHS is underfunded, those ones – unable to perform a basic task like getting PPE to front-line carers in hospitals and GP surgeries. 

And the private sector is no better.  I occasionally sleep so I must have missed the moment when responsibility for the provision of PPE shifted from private sector employers to the State.  I’ve never heard of a construction company, knocking on the door of No. 10 and asking for their hard hats or safety boots.

Of course, if you accept that it IS the responsibility of the State to provide for private businesses, then you can be sure that the BBC and other media will give you a platform from which to whine – after all, if it’s anti-Government, then the BBC  or Sky is your man (or woman).

I could go on in the same vein but enough for now.

I started off by saying who I won’t clap for but please don’t think I am some kind of ingrate who can’t recognize the huge contribution made by individuals up and down the country.  I am talking about;

Hospital doctors and nurses

Shop workers

GPs and their staff

Dustbin men and women

Postmen and women

Delivery drivers

Government Ministers

Volunteers who tirelessly just help.

I would have liked to include teachers but it seems that they, and their Left-dominated unions, have decided that while it’s safe enough for others to work, they can’t let the opportunity to thwart the Government pass them by and so they won’t return to work.

Covid-19 Heroes and Villains

It’s been a while.  I last posted a blog here, back in June 2018 and since then have managed to contain my utterings to 120 and then 240 characters but..  That just isn’t enough.

What follows mostly applies to the UK but I suppose some will resonate in other countries.

Like so many other people, I have been in ‘lockdown’ since the middle of March.  I am a Type 2 diabetic (my own fault) and so have been at home since March 17.  If the sometimes ‘echo chamber’ that is Twitter, is anything to go by, then most people in the UK, outside of London and certain communities and self-imposed ghettos, have observed the rules on social distancing. 

Our police have sometimes been over-zealous in interpreting the laws and thereby opening themselves to ridicule – exactly what is wrong with going for a walk in the wide-open spaces of a National Park?  There continues to be a danger that support for the restrictions will diminish, when people see Londoners gathering en-masse, along with police and other emergency services personnel on Westminster Bridge, sometimes accompanied by the Met Police Commissioner, Cressida Dick (a Common Purpose appointment) or when they see churches and temples following the closure rules but mosques not. 

We’ll see how this pans out as we likely continue in some kind of lockdown for a while longer.  I sense that outside of London, people will follow the rules not because they’re a government diktat but simply because family and community mean so much more in the less metropolitan towns and villages.

Likewise I expect the weekly ‘clap for carers’ will continue as people genuinely want to show appreciation for ALL those who serve our local communities – be they nurses, doctors, police, fire fighters, refuse collectors, military personnel, shop workers or delivery drivers. 

I do wish though, that there was a way for this exercise to not be a ‘clap for the NHS’.  I certainly don’t clap for that organization. 

If you’re an NHS Procurement ‘Manager’ or Supply Chain executive – resign now.  If you’re an NHS trustee or Executive manager or director, resign now.  I certainly do NOT clap for you.  You have failed. 

There’s lots of ways to say that but that’s what it boils down to – complete and utter failure.  You haven’t done your job.  You have left us exposed to empty storerooms and warehouses and supply chains that simply don’t work.  You have exposed us to a supply situation where we depend upon throwaway PPE – I have absolutely no doubt that every one of these PC clowns will also be signed-up members of the Green lobby and regularly try to lecture the general public on the need to protect the planet by paying extra taxes and going back to a pre-industrial existence!

NHS Executives have failed in their duty.  They have been bailed out by the Government and the military but these Executives failed – they must resign or be fired.  Oh, and no special ‘Golden handshakes’, no pensions fully paid-up and sweet-heart redundancy-type severance payments.  They should just simply go.  I’ve said they should resign and if they had any sense of dignity, they would but, if they don’t, they should ALL be fired.  They have failed and must go.

Covid-19 has not all been about villains though. 

What’s that saying about ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man’?  Well in the UK, we have had such men. 

Of course there’s Boris Johnson, our PM.  That Monday night, when it was announced he had been taken into intensive care – I can’t explain why but it felt so personal and like it was affecting a close member of my family.  Seeing him now on the road to recovery is like an analogy for the UK – we are starting to come out of this.  It is a journey and we don’t know how long it will take and we do know that there will be bumps long the way (2^nd and 3^rd wave, etc.) but we have turned the corner.

Matt Hancock (apparently connected to the Eyam Hancock’s – look it up!) our Health Secretary and Rishi Sunak, our Chancellor have stepped-up and performed well.  By this I mean, they’ve considered what the country needs and delivered it.  They haven’t gone about pointing fingers and laying blame – they’ve just got on and done their best.  As have their teams and many other Government ministers.

It’s hardly worth mentioning the military – for them it was ‘just another day at the office’.  Every day, in every way they serve.  “Need a Nightingale Hospital built in days?  Okay step aside, give us a few electricians and plumbers and we’ll get it done” No fuss, no histrionics, just delivery – pure and simple.  And yet….  We’d have been in grave danger had they not stepped up and did their job – I am in no doubt that their work in logistics is what has led to PPE supplies getting delivered.  I hope that doesn’t sound like I take the military for granted.  I take every opportunity to thank them for their service and I recommend you do too.

Back to villains though – the media!  With a couple of exceptions, what an absolute shower.  If the daily press briefings ended after the official statements, I would have all I need.  The inane questions, the search for a ‘gotcha’ moment has exposed the absolute weakness and anti-Government and anti-British sentiments of the media.  I appreciate that as we exit the worst of the Covid-19 crisis, the Government will have its hands full, but the ending of the TV Tax has to be very high on the agenda.  There is no way, people should be forced to pay for such Leftist bile, day in, day out. 

I’m not going to give the media villains the ‘oxygen of publicity’.  You know who they are!  Basic integrity and decency would oblige them to resign and enter a period of deep self-reflection but since when have ‘journalists’ had either integrity or decency?

The Labour Party are a mixture of heroes and villains.  Jon Ashworth the Shadow Health Secretary has performed well, on the whole, focusing on solutions rather than picking holes and pointing fingers.  The new Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer hasn’t done so well.  On the surface slightly supportive but then attacks the lockdown strategy and wants to know what the exit strategy is, and all the while brings forward nothing constructive to say or offer.

This place probably isn’t the best place to say what I think about the SNP.  However, if there was a political villain in chief, then Nicola Sturgeon would get the prize.  She attends secret COBRA meetings and then immediately blabs about the outcome – I shouldn’t be surprised, she has a habit of breaking confidences.  She has constantly sought to make political capital out of the crisis and to seek to differentiate the response in Scotland from that of England. 

Unfortunately, this has back-fired as the response of NHS Scotland, for which the Scottish Executive is responsible, has been woefully inadequate – even worse than that of NHS England.  I say unfortunate not out of any love for the SNP, but because the victims of their incompetence are the people of Scotland, especially those in care homes. 

The SNP have also failed to share out the funds sent from England in support of businesses and communities.  They have ‘form’ on this and so maybe it’s time for Westminster to bypass the Holyrood farce and manage these help programmes, directly.

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There are of course, other heroes.  People like Captain Tom Moore, who has raised more than £33 million and all those individuals up and down the country who are doing their bit, in their local communities, including the more than 750,000 volunteers in England who signed-up to help in just two or three days. 

At the end of the day, the real heroes have been the British people – not all of them, but the overwhelming majority – who have looked at the situation, listened to the experts and decided, we’re going to get through this.  We’ve faced adversity before and we have overcome.

As a great man said.  Tomorrow will be a good day.

Stay Home, save lives.

Hammond's chance

Assuming he is not replaced, UK Chancellor, Philip Hammond, is shortly to present his Budget, outlining spending and taxation plans.  This will be the first time we have the budget in the Autumn.

There has been conflicting talk of loosening the reins and then of tax rises. 

First, let us  be clear, we have not really experienced so called austerity.  That is just a lie put about by Labour and its fellow travellers in the media and the self-interested ‘grievance industry’. 

So, spending must be cut and cut significantly.

The minor spending reductions that we have seen since 2010 have had some effect on reducing the deficit but zero effect on National Debt.  This continues to climb.  Not surprising really – we are now borrowing money to give away in foreign aid – of course, this is madness but what could we expect from Red Tory Chancellor Osborne and ‘virtue signalling’ call me Dave Cameron?

I outlined, last November  the spending cuts that could be made.  These were the work of the Tax Payers Alliance (a worthy champion of taxpayers and very deserving of your support)  These are shown  here  (http://bit.ly/2eqGP2y).  The effects of some will take time to filter through but stopping HS2 must be an immediate action.  Spending £50, 60, 70 or 80 billion so as to save 20 minutes on a trip to Birmingham, is simply madness. 

In the post-Brexit world, Britain needs to increase its attractiveness for business.  This means lower Corporation taxes and lower personal taxation.  We need to become a low tax low spend economy.  Yes I have no doubt this will upset the other EU countries but that is tough!  We will once again be an independent sovereign nation and can do what we want.  Probably, such an approach might influence the Brexit talks – so be it.  We are a free nation and that freedom includes the ability to simply walk away from the talks if Barnier and company seek to hobble our ability to run our country as we see fi

The UK, for the benefit of future generations – your children and grandchildren – needs to urgently reduce public spending.  At the same time, we need a simplification of the UK tax code.  I would contend that one of the major contributors to the industry that has sprung-up around tax avoidance, is the current complexity of tax law.  Indeed, I would suggest that there are parts of it that no one really understands!

In addition to the cuts proposed by the Tax Payers Alliance, I offer the following:

Public Sector Pay

The 1% pay cap should be maintained, however, in the NHS Jeremy Hunt should be encouraged to take more direct control over hospital trusts.  Trusts should immediately undertake a complete review of all of their middle management positions.  That is, not doctors, nurses or direct support staff but those other roles that hold the NHS up for ridicule.  Posts such as Diversity Directors or Assistant Diversity Directors or Equality Directors or Nursing Management coordinators etc.  Any role, yes any, that is not involved in the direct hands-on care of patients or in the day-to-day support of them (porters, cleaners, catering staff etc.) should be terminated.  The funds ‘freed-up’ can then be used to fund increases for nursing and/or extra nurses.  An Assistant Director of Diversity can easily command a salary of £45,000.  Add in around a minimum  20% for other costs and you could have £54,000 to distribute – do three or four of those and all front-line nurses in a given NHS Hospital Trust, could have a flat £1,000 increase.   No extra cost to the taxpayer, increased efficiency for the NHS and happier, better remunerated staff – simples!

Talking of simples – end the translation farce which costs the NHS £millions each year.  Signs and pamphlets shouldn’t need to be translated into 12 or 14 different languages.  English is the language of NHS England and that’s it.  I know, you’ll say that’s racist and such but think about how many commercial, private sector businesses put up menus and price lists in 12 different languages.

Public Sector Salaries

In addition to the current 1% cap, set a ceiling on public sector salaries.  The level should be £140,000.  No public sector employee, none, should be earning more than the Prime Minister. May and Hammond should ignore all of the usual ‘pay the best to attract the best‘ clap-trap from self-interested civil servants and town hall employees. At just under 6 times the national average wage £140,000 would still give the country a wide range of candidates.  There is a strong feeling that many of the current crop of public servants would have a very hard time commanding salaries of 50% of their current level, outside of the cossetted public sector.

Pensions

Time to ‘bite the bullet’.  Yes people are living longer and other such arguments matter but fundamentally, we cannot afford the current provision.  So, from 2037, increase the current pension age from 66 to 67.  Then from 2040 increase it to 70.  This will give people plenty of time to plan for the change – some will and some won’t but none can say that they didn’t have time and so on.

Also on pensions, remove the ‘triple lock’.  Pension increases should be linked to an agreed and then non-changeable, version of the Retail or Consumer Prices Index.  That’s it.  State Pension income shouldn’t be allowed to accelerate ahead of other incomes.

Finally on this subject, end so called Final Salary schemes for Public Sector workers or rather, end all new entrants.  We must honour commitments made to existing staff, even if those commitments are over-generous but we don’t need to keep digging ourselves ever-deeper into an unfunded pensions hole.

This is what a Conservative Chancellor should be proposing – cuts to expenditure, cuts to the deficit and cuts to National Debt and of course, to promote growth and invectives, cuts to taxation.

Don’t think it will happen though.  Hammond will be timid (maybe he would be less so if he focused on the economy and kept his nose out of the Brexit talks) and he will show his Red Tory credentials by punishing core Tory voters and rewarding the various special interest groups who make the most noise.

Shame really but that’s the likely outcome.