Whitehall: populated by haters

 

Today’s top news show not only that this Tory government has a massive death wish, they also show that ‘Teh Officials’ truly must hate us, the people. Here is the customary compilation of the front pages: “Newspaper headlines: School closure ‘chaos’ and ‘misery for the NHS’.” (link). 

Let’s firstly look at the ‘school closure chaos’. This is truly beyond belief: right at the start of the school year, schools across England are closed because the buildings may or are crumbling, endangering the lives of pupils:

“Number of schools at risk from deadly crumbly concrete is ‘GROWING all the time’ – but officials refuse to give parents a list: At least 700,000 pupils are already affected – as fury at government’s chaotic 11th-hour order to shut buildings grows” (link)

This scandal must be placed firmly at the feet of ‘Teh Officials’ before we blame the politicians, i.e. the various ministers of education. See this (all emphases are mine):

“[…] the first warnings that RAAC had been cracking in roofs came as early as 1995. A letter written by a structural engineer in Somerset to the journal of the Institution of Structural Engineers described RAAC that had started to crack in a school. He said it was a “booby trap” for engineers and that he believed it should not be used in permanent structures. In 2007, a reporter at Collaborative Reporting for Safer Structures, which collates construction safety reports and flaws, noted that RAAC could structurally degrade.” (link, paywalled)

This issue was known for nearly thirty years! Nothing, apparently, has been done in those decades. It’s no good for Labour or for some teachers’ trade union spokespersons to ask why this government has only now closed yon schools: they and the erstwhile Labour ministers, have done eff all, just as the Tory ministers did nothing.

Unsurprisingly, nobody in the MSM asks why ‘Teh Officials’ were sitting on their hands during those decades nor does anybody ask why school head teachers also did nothing:

“The Department for Education began reviewing the risks posed by RAAC in 2018 when the roof at a primary school in Gravesend, Kent, collapsed. In March last year it released a questionnaire asking schools to check whether they had RAAC in their buildings. However, it was only after part of a school building containing RAAC which had been rated as “non-critical” collapsed unexpectedly during the summer holidays that the department was spurred into more urgent action. It has contacted schools that have responded to the questionnaire providing details of the presence of RAAC. However, it does not know how many schools will have to take action because many have not yet responded.” (paywalled link)

Words fail me utterly! Did the DoE mandarins not chase up yon schools? Did they not inform their minister this this issue was urgent? Is the reason for their lax attitude the ‘work ethic’ which permits civil serpents to WFH rather than in their offices? 

And what does it tell us about the general attitude of both DoE mandarins and teachers’ unions that they so blithely shrug their shoulders about putting pupils again into ‘lockdown education’? Have they learned nothing from the actual, educational lockdown disaster which “TFH”, i.e. teaching from home, has created for our kids? Do they think that parents can simply stay at home as well, supervising their children, never mind that most of them cannot WFH? 

Furthermore: do all these ‘officials’ think that their mission is to get rid of the Tories by any means, even if it means sabotaging the education of our kids? It doesn’t seem to occur to them that more and more of us taxpaying plebs are asking if the Whitehall monster is actually doing its duty for us and the country when they clearly are playing politics? How much must these serpents hate us, the people, who pay their salaries!

The ‘misery for the NHS’, which should in fact read ‘misery for patients’, must also be filed under ‘officials hate us’. This ‘misery’ refers to the ‘joint strikes’ by consultants and junior doctors who have announced their ‘strike days’, separately this month and together on two days next month, days which unfortunately happen to coincide with the Tories’ Conference. Getting rid of the Tories is what the BMA lot want, after all, according to their posters. 

I don’t think they have to go on strike to achieve that! I am however puzzled if they believe a Labour government will fill their wallets. I am also puzzled by their lack of mental prowess, or rather: their economic astuteness. Do they not know that their salaries, increased or not, comes out of the pockets of us, the taxpayers? Do they themselves not pay taxes which will affect their income, increased or not?

The clear disdain which they hold for us, their patients, is off the scale. Announcing their strike calendar on a day when the MSM reported on the thousands of extra deaths of patients on the waiting lists is truly something to celebrate, innit, especially when added to the news that 900,000 patients have not been seen thanks to strikes (link).

Can we say that the NHS is on its deathbed because we, the patients, are just an inconvenience, numbers to be disregarded? I think we can, just as we can say that our educational system is on its deathbed when ‘officials’, for decades, have sat on their hands in regard to making schools safe. Why, we might ask, should we pay exorbitant taxes when those who are tasked to fulfil their duties, be it safeguarding our health, be it educating our children, are failing in every way?

That’s all I have for today. The rise and rise of a certain Mr Shapps, now Secretary of Defence, pales in comparison with these scandals. I wonder which profession is now seen as the lowest of lows: politicians, teachers or doctors. Have a good day.



Print Friendly, PDF & Email