Norman’s view

Written by Norman

The leaves have finally fallen following the high winds, torrential rain, and temperatures in the minus range for the first time this Autumn – which is a far cry from those cold windy and wet November days that I (and I suspect many readers) remember ‘back in the day’.

So here we are again. Not particularly happy either about the onset of wintery weather or the not unexpected shambles that the government of Boris finds itself in. Some of us did of course try to warn about what would happen following the election in 2019, (my goodness how time flies when you are enjoying yourself!) but those of us who did were often accused of being spoilsports and anti-Boris and taken to task for suggesting that giving Boris an 80-seat majority may not have been the best thing since sliced bread.  And to be honest, the prospect of a Labour government led by ‘what’s his name’ and his merry crew did not fill me with anything but horror any more than the latest incumbent does.

Anyway, the sense of relief from our conservative community members from the leafy lanes, typified by the middle-income earners of Audi Avenue and their younger neighbours in BMW Close, was palpable, although in both areas there were misgivings about the then continued threat of HS2 and murmurings – very muted of course – about immigration and all those EU workers from eastern European countries taking ‘all our jobs’.  Which jobs was never made clear in any conversation I had with these at the time, who, being mostly retired, were more than happy to tell me and anyone in earshot just how well their children and grandchildren were doing at ‘uni’, which would apparently qualify them to do something or other but which too was never really made clear; but they were certainly not the sort of jobs that I saw all those eastern Europeans doing in the leafy areas of middle England – fruit picking, shelf stacking, courier and delivery van drivers.  In short, all the jobs at that time mostly ruled out by Angelica and Joshua.

And then of course came the ‘Black Swan’ event of the century so far – the Covid pandemic, to which Boris himself fell victim, emerging, not as did the 70-something Donald Trump, but as a shadow of his former self, from which, it has been said by insiders, he has never completely recovered.

Certainly, his government has not. “Never have I seen such a lacklustre cabinet and downright incompetence,” said one of my friends, a lifelong politician elected to various offices over many years.  The total panic was obvious at times during the various phases of the pandemic, together with a total disregard for what the average voter wanted or was suffering thanks to their reliance on people who had vested interests and agendas all of their own.  Some ministers were unable to manage their briefs or in some well publicised instances their own behaviour including the zips on their immaculately-cut trousers.

Obviously doing just what they wanted to do, while much of the population was distracted, wondering how and if their hard-worked-for businesses would survive, along with worries about the appalling way in which many seriously ill people were unable to access even their local GP, and even if they did how many were denied access to tests and scans and so on that in many cases may well have been lifesaving.

Not that any of this stopped many people for one moment from staring blankly into space, clapping furiously and banging pots and pans once a week to thank the monstrosity that the administration and organisation of the NHS has become with its insatiable quest for more and more funds. Well, it is now plain where that particular hysteria took us all, with years of waiting lists for procedures and surgery facing the still terrified population.  And the now Labour leader’s opposition to that? Apparently because his mother told him to announce the policy, the Leader of the Opposition declared that when in government, he will ban private healthcare and private hospital treatment so as to force everyone to join the waiting list of the National Health Service.   Sounds like a sure vote winner to me.

Just when you thought the main-stream media had given up trying to mortify and terrify the population of workers still apparently working from home, a new, sorry ‘Nu’ variant of the covid mutation has been found which, according to experts, requires a return to mask-wearing, social distancing, working from home and no socialising together with any other ‘regulation’ that they decide to tell Boris to enact by decree. Only for three weeks this time you understand, but again it seems to be mainly driven by the media, although the media across Europe seems hell bent on pushing the same agenda.

Odd wasn’t it that when COP 26 died a death rather quickly the media found ‘Tory sleaze’ and ‘Tory mismanagement’.  To be honest I thought we’d gone back to the days of John Major.

The newspaper headlines and of course the BBC blasted out headlines straight from the 90s and helping push public opinion against Boris and push down his lead in the polls, which at one time was outstanding.

Not that that they needed much of a push following the pronouncement from Boris about the green agenda.  Energy prices, inflation, HS2, home gas boilers to be banned along with internal combustion-engined cars and so on.  People have started to wake up to the fact that most of this not in any manifesto and will cost them a fortune. Goodness knows who is advising Boris these days but it’s almost as if he is being set up to fail.  Now there is a thought!

Then there is the total obvious shambles in the Home Office led by Priti Patel and the total inability of the Border Force to stop the boat people arriving in increasing numbers on a daily basis (not surprising when it was reported that the retiring chief officer found borders to be, well a bit of a nuisance) and to top that this week, we now find that legal advice is being taken by some of its members to challenge Patel’s instruction to stop these illegal immigrants and return them to France.  You could not, as they say, make it up.  When did employees stop doing what they are paid to do?

But anyway, I digress.  It must have been a godsend (do we do God again now that we have supposedly left the EU?) for Boris to be suddenly given yet another chance to stop the falling poll numbers, the threat of yet another backbench rebellion and falling support in the shires and the red wall oop north, by appearing to make strong decisions about restrictions that will be needed to curb the new ‘Omicron’ covid variant.

These regulations again it seems have been written down, without much thought, on the back of a cabinet minute paper and follow much of the same route as before with all the anomalies, misleading information and the threat of fines being imposed.  Well not really as fines can only be imposed after due legal process in a court of law, so refusal to pay will have to be by due process and that can only be authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service.

I can’t see the Police Service being particularly happy about having to police shops and other establishments to challenge these criminals who refuse to make it clear they have an exemption from mask wearing due to some reason.  So that should make for some interesting video films of plods and other officials making complete fools of themselves to watch during the holidays – note the use of the term there as apparently it’s been decreed by somebody or other that using the word Christmas could offend somebody who heard this from a friend on social media who thinks that they may be offended, but incidentally why then is the new term ‘Black Friday’ imported from the US in the last few years not found to be offensive? Search me, I have no idea and am even less interested.

If like me you have wondered what the hell is going on with our civil service and the institutions that are supposed to be there to either protect us or service our needs, it was interesting to see the comments reported in the media this week made by the Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire police about the state and attitude of his force (and in fact he may just as well have been speaking about the other 42 police services in England and Wales because they are all led  by the pronouncements of the ‘College of Policing’), that the new police apprenticeship, where new recruits join and study for a degree in policing, is not going too well.

Whoever came up with the idea that only somebody with a degree – any degree that is – is a fit and proper person to join their ranks must have never done any real policing on the now out-of-control streets of this once green and pleasant land or has taken leave of their senses. Apparently, this has had a drastic effect on our police service.  Older readers will remember that until the mid-1980s we had a police ‘force’ but all that changed with the advent of the politically-correct common purpose-trained butterflies who joined the police and who were delighted to be accelerated through the ranks and were able to mould the service in their own image.

It’s taken the best part of 30 years to achieve and we can all see the result.  The job is no longer seen as a vocation nor in many cases long-term. As the Chief Constable reports, new recruits are often horrified that they will have to work nights, weekends and in inclement weather.  They are unwilling to face violent situations and by extension I would say unpleasant and difficult situations, so they leave, many before the two years of their training is complete.  In fact, he went on to say that 88% of his Nottinghamshire officers have less than four years’ total service.  That explains what is often seen on the streets which is nothing more than untrained badly dressed ill-disciplined personnel.

But then I’m old school. I just have or rather had the expectation that the police policed, the fire and rescue services did just that and that the civil service and local government officers actually did what elected members asked of them.  Strangely, in this brave new world of nice woke common purpose, this is not the case.

I do have some confidence that we are actually building back better.   This week I received a letter from our county council which proclaimed proudly that they were starting to work back in the workplace as departments would be staffed for one day a week! Mind you that was before Boris announced more terrifying restrictions were to be put into place to save not the NHS this time but Christmas.

Winston Churchill, a person that Boris thinks he can emulate, commented in 1948 about the fall of Singapore to the Japanese during World War two.  This resulted in the ‘experts’ and him making flawed decisions that saw the biggest defeat of British forces ever.   “I should have known,” he said – a phrase that we should consider today.  Yes, we should have known indeed – the last couple of years have shown that.  Mind how you go.