Duggie’s Ramblings – February 2024
Recently we watched and were absorbed by the TV adaptation of the events surrounding the Post Office Horizon scandal which received widespread public attention, forcing politicians to promise action and compensation? Ha ha!
It brought to my mind one overriding thought which had echoes from past similar scandals – the Hillsborough disaster where 97 died (the chairman of the report into this event was the Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones) the police blamed the victims but 25 years after Bishop Jones published the report, the government stated that the deaths at Hillsborough were ‘unlawful killings’ overturning the alternative attempts ‘not me guv’ given by the police to the inquiry.
What does this bring to mind? – The delay of politicians to bring justice to the ones who have lost loved ones or their livelihood! More so, the arrogance and disdain of those people in authority for the ordinary people whom they are there, or supposed to be there, to serve. Are the people on the receiving end – the loved ones of the victims given the opportunity to question those in authority? Yes, but those in authority have closed ranks, using deceit and denial, defending the institutions of which they are powerful figures. The people in overall authority build a wall around themselves and hire (at our expense) expensive lawyers to defend their ramparts and intimidate the people who have legitimate questions to ask of those in authority. This was the response to the gross injustice suffered by the employees at the Post Offices.
We await poignant dramas with outstanding actors on the Hillsborough disaster or the Grenfell Tower does anyone remember that? For which no responsibility or charge has yet been made, and may the politicians be awake to the outcome and not brush it under the carpet; how many years since the Grenfell Tower disaster?
The bullying and arrogance of the Ofsted inspectorate in a school led to the suicide of a teacher. The inspectorate were / are selected from the senior management of schools – people who can’t escape the ‘blackboard jungle ‘ quickly enough, raised to the ‘level of their own incompetence’; the last people surely to comment and judge on the knowledge and ability of the classroom teacher! But is that also the experience of doctors, radiographers and nurses in Hospitals?
One new word – among others – that has come to mind is CATNIP. I had not heard or read this word before. It was told by a journalist so it is a word familiar to people of that profession. It is (as I understand it) to be a word or terse phrase which catches the eye and attention of a potential reader which leads them into the article. Many years ago, in one workplace with which I was familiar, there was a staffroom notice board very rarely read. One person (I don’t know who) pinned a notice to the board, at the top, which in bold red ink he had written the word SEX! That is a Catnip!
Kibworth and Smeeton WI – February 2024
