Whose fault is it that the UK is in such a terrible financial and economic mess? Is it the bankers, the politicians, businesses, world affairs or some other force we do not understand?
Who should we blame for this mess? After all unless we can blame someone - we won’t feel any better about it! It can’t be our fault, because we have no say and no control over what happens – can it?
Perhaps we should just ignore what is happening and then it will go away! After all we elect politicians to solve all these sorts of problems.
Sadly today, many of these individuals are professional politicians, i.e. they have been educated to work and live inside politics and have never had any real experience at running a successful business. Indeed, it now appears that many of the top people in business (the bankers come to mind) are also experiencing the same sort of problems having being educated to do the jobs they aspire to but not necessarily any good at doing.
But the truth is that times are always changing, things are not the same as they were in the seventies, eighties or nineties! The country’s (and the world’s) problems have changed; things are different now from back then. Is that not true?
The difference between a country (as a business) and a genuine business is that every business has one or more owners who expect the business to perform against a predetermined set of rules. That may be achieving some financial targets, profits, growth or market share etc. All businesses are run by people who are appointed because they are accessed by qualified people who understand what is required of them and what skills are needed to achieve them. These professionals remain in their positions until such a time as they either leave or fail to achieve the agreed targets.
Government is different. We, the people, who do not own the country (business), elect essentially unknown people to run that business. In most cases we do not understand what qualities are required and if the candidates have any of them. We have little or no influence at all on what the government of the day does. Worse still, are system here in the UK encourages us not to vote for a person, but for a political party. As a result, in most cases, we only ever see our MP or their representative, on the doorstep when they are canvassing for the job. Is this not a recipe for disaster – especially as we can’t even sack them for doing a bad job?
These MP’s are essentially directed by the agenda of the party they belong to. If their leaders tell them to vote yes, they vote yes. Of course MP’s often get to vote freely on the less important matters, making it look as if they do have freedom to vote as they feel, or perhaps even in line with the feelings of their constituents (who elected them) – well perhaps not, as no MP has ever asked me for my opinion! What about you?
Of course, running a country, with its infinite areas of operation, and their complexity is not easy. Indeed it is harder than any other job. The variables are numerous, the outcomes are unpredictable, and the affect of any action can cause a huge re-action in many other areas. To make it even worse, we are subjected by the action of other countries - which we have no control over whatsoever.
So how do we run a country under these conditions?
Well perhaps we should take a lesson from nature. It is made up of billions of independent plants, animals, elements, events, conditions - all affected by time, weather and a host of other variables. Yet nature survives and has done for millions of years. Whatever is thrown at it, it appears to deal with. Yes it might lose a few species, flood some deserts or turn a beauty spot into a wasteland or wilderness – but it deals with it! And it does it slowly and automatically without the rest knowing much about it.
It achieves this by allowing every element to look after itself, to manage their own interests, and if any fail, then they fail, but at just that level. It may influence other elements of nature, it may be disastrous for some, but it may help others to thrive. The point is that Mother Nature allows everything to happen at the smallest or lowest level. She did not interfere when the mighty Elm Tree succumbed to Dutch Elm Tree disease, the weak ones just died and the stronger trees survived – a common outcome in nature.
So perhaps the leaders of the UK should take a lesson from Mother Nature and step back and allow the people to resolve the problems that we face, at the lowest level. Decisions about our futures have been taken out of our hands and passed up to some autocratic body who have little or no understanding of the situation - or worse still, no desire to even understand and do what is best to resolve it.
As a result of us relinquishing our responsibilities we no longer are prepared to take responsibility for anything outside of our own lives.
Who cares about water fluoridisation, as long as it not in our area?
Of course we should have wind farms, but according to the nimby’s, not in my back yard! How quickly would we change our attitude and start taking action if our electricity was turned off for good and we had to come up with a plan to generate it locally?
I don’t think this is because people want to be difficult, I believe it is because they have not been allowed to become really involved with what goes on in their lives. We have become conditioned to having everything done for us, and the record of politicians in recent years seems to back this argument up.
We have local councillors, both at village, town, city, district, county and regional levels, all adding to the tiers of bureaucracy. The problem is the higher you go, the more power they have! What good is a local village councillor if he or she has no power to do anything? The time is coming to strip out all this bureaucracy and change the system so that it puts responsibility for change and the necessary action back into the hands of the people which the current system tries to control.
Power to the People!
Sadly, making a large change of this nature has to come from the top as we are powerless down here at the bottom. After all we are just the tiny elements that make up this once great nation.
How much longer will we focus on just ourselves, ignoring the huge issues that the whole country faces, content to just be a member of the largest political party in the UK, the Nimby’s, but having no power and little say!
