![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What we need is The Bogie Man
Mar. 22nd, 2009 06:33 pmFaced with a set of books that no amount of creative accounting will be able to balance, and having finally got to the stage in "time in office" that you can't blame the previous Conservative administration any more, the Labour Government in the UK is thrashing around like a drowning seal for things to take away the public's attention from the current economic disaster that is the UK economy.
Let's turn to Jacqui Smith! Christ, that's how desperate things have become:
Of course, it would be better if thousands of UK finance managers had been trained to cope with a collapsing economy and a complete misunderstanding of the nature of risk, but, well, I guess you have to take what you can get, and shadowy members of Al Qaeda are a neat version of "The Bogey Man". We now have our own little "Jewish conspiracy".
++++++++++++
As I arrived back from Spain yesterday, I really feared for London in 2012. To be frank, I don't think we will be able to cope. The simple fact of the matter is that the people running what laughably passes for our transport infrastructure just havenn't really got much of a clue.
First there was the wait at the pleasantly renamed "UK Border Agency"; someone must have been on holiday to Florida! Clearly caught on the hop by planes landing at an airport, there were only two people on duty when two planes landed. So, we queue for 15 minutes, at which point an extra four staff appear. This means that the people at the back get a fast run-through, but we remained stuck in the original funnel, because Gatwick does not have the system adopted by all sensible airports -- a single queue system. This is clearly a case of the hearts being in the right place (the staff were on hand and were put to work relatively quickly) but the brains behind them not being up to scratch (surely planes landing can't be hard to spot? You shouldn't have to wait for the queues to build up.)
After that it was a trip to platform Four to catch the train to London Bridge. Except that two minutes before it was due to arrive, we were told it would be arriving (in English only, of course) that it would be arriving on platform Two. So a few of us (those that could understand English) legged it to platform Two.
Only to see the train pulling into platform Four.
So we legged it back, passing, (as if to rub this in) some "customer service officers" (i.e., the ticket Stasi) making sure that people who actually managed to catch a train had the right ticket so to do.
Then, on arrival at London Bridge, a four-carriage train for Lewisham arrived that was absolutely packed to the gills. I'm not sure what principles the various train companies follow on deciding how many carriages a train should have, but they frequently get it hopelessly wrong. Once again, sure this isn't that hard a thing to get right? Changing the timetable is, I admit, a logistical nightmare, but working out that some trains are rather empty while others are rather full can't be too difficult to observe. And allowing for special sports events on Saturdays shouldn't be that hard either.
This doesn't even make me particularly angry; it just makes me sad that we are so self-evidently hopeless at things which shouldn't be difficult to get right, and which must create a dreadful impression on foreigners. Unless we can get our act together by 2012, the London Olympics could be known as Farce City.
___________________
Let's turn to Jacqui Smith! Christ, that's how desperate things have become:
"Thousands of UK workers are being trained to help respond to a future terror attack as part of an updated counter-terror strategy, ministers say.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said shop and hotel workers would be among 60,000 people able to deal with an incident.
The updated approach, aimed at tackling immediate terrorist threats and the causes of extremism, would be the most comprehensive in the world, she added."
Of course, it would be better if thousands of UK finance managers had been trained to cope with a collapsing economy and a complete misunderstanding of the nature of risk, but, well, I guess you have to take what you can get, and shadowy members of Al Qaeda are a neat version of "The Bogey Man". We now have our own little "Jewish conspiracy".
++++++++++++
As I arrived back from Spain yesterday, I really feared for London in 2012. To be frank, I don't think we will be able to cope. The simple fact of the matter is that the people running what laughably passes for our transport infrastructure just havenn't really got much of a clue.
First there was the wait at the pleasantly renamed "UK Border Agency"; someone must have been on holiday to Florida! Clearly caught on the hop by planes landing at an airport, there were only two people on duty when two planes landed. So, we queue for 15 minutes, at which point an extra four staff appear. This means that the people at the back get a fast run-through, but we remained stuck in the original funnel, because Gatwick does not have the system adopted by all sensible airports -- a single queue system. This is clearly a case of the hearts being in the right place (the staff were on hand and were put to work relatively quickly) but the brains behind them not being up to scratch (surely planes landing can't be hard to spot? You shouldn't have to wait for the queues to build up.)
After that it was a trip to platform Four to catch the train to London Bridge. Except that two minutes before it was due to arrive, we were told it would be arriving (in English only, of course) that it would be arriving on platform Two. So a few of us (those that could understand English) legged it to platform Two.
Only to see the train pulling into platform Four.
So we legged it back, passing, (as if to rub this in) some "customer service officers" (i.e., the ticket Stasi) making sure that people who actually managed to catch a train had the right ticket so to do.
Then, on arrival at London Bridge, a four-carriage train for Lewisham arrived that was absolutely packed to the gills. I'm not sure what principles the various train companies follow on deciding how many carriages a train should have, but they frequently get it hopelessly wrong. Once again, sure this isn't that hard a thing to get right? Changing the timetable is, I admit, a logistical nightmare, but working out that some trains are rather empty while others are rather full can't be too difficult to observe. And allowing for special sports events on Saturdays shouldn't be that hard either.
This doesn't even make me particularly angry; it just makes me sad that we are so self-evidently hopeless at things which shouldn't be difficult to get right, and which must create a dreadful impression on foreigners. Unless we can get our act together by 2012, the London Olympics could be known as Farce City.
___________________
