So
Rotherham. Ukipists are saying we need to ban PC culture. I'm not sure
how we do that, but that's their answer to multifaceted and complex
problem. Course one might start by looking at why "PC culture" exists,
and that's largely the result of of a system wide public education
programme that bigoted language was not constructive or helpful within
public services as well as being impolite. This has indeed spawned a
whole race relations industry that many, including some of its own
senior officials, are starting to question whether it still has a role
to play.
But the buck cannot stop there because while the lower orders within public services are left a little bewildered by terminology, we have some quite highly paid individuals supervising these organisations who are supposed to be bright enough to tell the difference. At this level of local authority, there are few, if any, excuses.
Ukipists would have it that it is directly linked to Islam. We can throw that out straight away. Illegal immigration is certainly part of it, and there are cultural aspects both in Pakistanis and Brits that need to be examined and understood. But again, these are symptoms.
The common thread throughout, and not just in the Rotherham affair, but also Rochdale - and unrelated scandals such as Hillsborough and NHS Staffordshire and Baby P, is a multi-tiered, multi-agency failure where seemingly nobody is to blame. Meanwhile, the Ukipists are complaining about immigration and the fact that we have no control over it, when in fact there is plenty within our existing legal framework to tackle the symptoms that obviously upset people.
We can enforce HMO law, we can enforce minimum wage properly and we can criminalise those who hire illegal workers and there is quite enough in law to tackle persistent vagrancy. But it is not enforced, and the penalties are seemingly no deterrent.
So there's a much, much more fundamental question to be asked here. How is it that we have so much law, so much government and a public sector larger in recent years than it has ever been, with budgets far exceeding any previous decade, and still local authorities are broke, borrowing and running out of cash - while the very basics of civic enforcement are being completely abandoned?
If you can answer those questions you'll get closer to a solution. It has a lot to do with the fact that local government and policing is too big, too remote and lacking sufficient accountability to be responsive - and those working within it at a senior level live in an entirely different world to the rest of us.
That is the starting point for any policy making, and unless you have a clear methodology for identifying the failures and diagnosing the problems, you cannot even begin to construct workable solutions and credible policy. It requires a certain mental architecture and a disciplined approach to analysis - which is something Ukip has not got, not least because Farage, who needs to be seen as the best of the bunch, expels anyone with talent and surrounds himself with yes men.
That is why Ukip policies are contradictory, slapdash, unrelated and without substance - and always will be. The man at the top is not interested in solving the problems. He is interested in growing his own dismal little cult of personality - and there is no depth of depravity he will not stoop to in order to grub a few more votes. The man is a venal, crass, calculating sociopath enabled by a party which taps into irrational fears, which has just enough traction to feed his galactic ego - but not enough to get us out of the EU.
Try suggesting this to your common or garden Ukipist and you become an unperson and a heretic. There is no talking to them, there is no reasoning with them. So what's to be done apart from call them sad, xenophobic and stupid?
But the buck cannot stop there because while the lower orders within public services are left a little bewildered by terminology, we have some quite highly paid individuals supervising these organisations who are supposed to be bright enough to tell the difference. At this level of local authority, there are few, if any, excuses.
Ukipists would have it that it is directly linked to Islam. We can throw that out straight away. Illegal immigration is certainly part of it, and there are cultural aspects both in Pakistanis and Brits that need to be examined and understood. But again, these are symptoms.
The common thread throughout, and not just in the Rotherham affair, but also Rochdale - and unrelated scandals such as Hillsborough and NHS Staffordshire and Baby P, is a multi-tiered, multi-agency failure where seemingly nobody is to blame. Meanwhile, the Ukipists are complaining about immigration and the fact that we have no control over it, when in fact there is plenty within our existing legal framework to tackle the symptoms that obviously upset people.
We can enforce HMO law, we can enforce minimum wage properly and we can criminalise those who hire illegal workers and there is quite enough in law to tackle persistent vagrancy. But it is not enforced, and the penalties are seemingly no deterrent.
So there's a much, much more fundamental question to be asked here. How is it that we have so much law, so much government and a public sector larger in recent years than it has ever been, with budgets far exceeding any previous decade, and still local authorities are broke, borrowing and running out of cash - while the very basics of civic enforcement are being completely abandoned?
If you can answer those questions you'll get closer to a solution. It has a lot to do with the fact that local government and policing is too big, too remote and lacking sufficient accountability to be responsive - and those working within it at a senior level live in an entirely different world to the rest of us.
That is the starting point for any policy making, and unless you have a clear methodology for identifying the failures and diagnosing the problems, you cannot even begin to construct workable solutions and credible policy. It requires a certain mental architecture and a disciplined approach to analysis - which is something Ukip has not got, not least because Farage, who needs to be seen as the best of the bunch, expels anyone with talent and surrounds himself with yes men.
That is why Ukip policies are contradictory, slapdash, unrelated and without substance - and always will be. The man at the top is not interested in solving the problems. He is interested in growing his own dismal little cult of personality - and there is no depth of depravity he will not stoop to in order to grub a few more votes. The man is a venal, crass, calculating sociopath enabled by a party which taps into irrational fears, which has just enough traction to feed his galactic ego - but not enough to get us out of the EU.
Try suggesting this to your common or garden Ukipist and you become an unperson and a heretic. There is no talking to them, there is no reasoning with them. So what's to be done apart from call them sad, xenophobic and stupid?
No comments:
Post a Comment