Saturday 21 February 2015

Moving Home

Having seen a few changes across the blogosphere I decided to get my own backside in gear and implement some changes I've been contemplating.

I've decided to move the blog to a new home. You'll be able to find my new home at http://restoringbritain.com

I've begun setting things up so please bear with me as I add others to my blog roll. Also the page is taking a little bit of time to appear consistently across the inter web.

I do hope you'll visit me in my new home and if you think my small contribution is worthy of sharing, update your links accordingly.  I'll leave this blog here for the time being at least whisky I dedcide what the best use for it is.

In the meantime, thanks for your support here and hopefully see you on the other side.

Saturday 7 February 2015

The Five Whys

David over at Witterings from Witney has added a recent post that has helped me gather some of my thoughts regarding what I've been reading around the Rotherham scandal.

There seems to be a bit of an emerging polarity in the viewpoints across some of the blogs. There's a common set of threads on the angle of political correctness and some which downplay the political correctness angle, preferring to point to the failure of local government. Some of these threads have seemed a bit dismissive of the political correctness angle or those speaking of it as being a key component.

Although I've still got to see the report with my own eyes, I'm suspecting there's an element of both in there. What I don't think would be right would be to totally dismiss political correctness. It's a
Deliberately designed idea, intended to be pervasive and dominate the atmosphere in a myriad of structures. When you've been in these places for any length of time with your eyes really open you can see this ghost in the machine. You see it in the decisions which seem to make little sense. You see it in the lack of candour and the skirting around issues. You see it in the realpolitik in which everyone in the room knows what's happening but shrug their shoulders because they know there are bits of uninhabitable territory in terms of ideas and conversation.

Also to throw into the mix are the observations of other bloggers who have cited similar cases coming to light in other areas in which  they point out longstanding awareness of the problem beyond the walls of the local authority and police. This in turn leads to the question of where journalism was on this issue. It's being suggested that knowledge was widespread amongst this estate too. Their refusal to engage this subject points to something beyond system failure and ineptitude.

As I say though, I think it's both of the things but as David suggested we have a bit of a chicken and egg situation.

In that instance I would like to see the media bring the 5 Whys tool to this story. In essence it's a tool aimed at understanding the root cause of a failure. The principle being is that if you ask a question regarding a problem you will get an answer. by asking why to that answer and to each subsequent answer, on average you can get to the real root cause within 5 iterations of why.

I think Rotherham and the other cases need subjecting to that.

Friday 6 February 2015

Reaping what they sow

In the light of the Rotherham scandal, further news is coming out this morning of  two further similar criminal scandals in Halifax and Northumbria.

As ever,  I end up shaking my head at the vileness of what is going on in our country when I read things like this.

What did stick out though was the comment that appears to have grown up alongside it and that is the view that these stories will fuel reaction from the "far right".  It's an aside that demonstrates a fear on the part of the authorities.

There's no guarantee it will, but if it does, it's hardly surprising is it? This is what's called reaping what you sow. If they react it will be as much a reflection on those who turned a blind eye as those reacting. for some time now we have had everyday people just wanting a simple, legal, open and honest debate about some things that are going off in our nation. Some of that debate however has tried to wander into subjects that have become something  of a sacred cow in this country. These subjects are verboten. Anyone who brought them up was shouted down, pilloried, sidelined, warned. Debate was shut down and that was deliberate. Someone wanted to maintain a pretence that no such problem existed, leaving people in a kafkaesque world where they had to fight their own lying eyes.

So now we have this fear of a group taking us down an equally dark road by capitalising on it. If it weren't so serious it would almost be laughable. How can you express horror at a situation you helped create?  Such groups can only thrive when they are fuelled, by what we have seen in Rotherham - the turning a blind eye and shutting down those when legitimate concerns were being raised. Those raising the alarm we labelled as racists and hatemongers  because that's what the debate required. So it's no surprise that such groups are able to come along with a beguiling message. my message for those connected to such scandals, if you fear this reaction, then look to yourselves as you had a hand in fuelling this and no blustering and blithering otherwise will absolve you of that.

Of course it would seem that little has been learned. It's somewhat odd  this comment about fuelling the far right has come out alongside the stories. If you're reading with your eyes and mind properly open, you'll see that the story isn't being allowed to simply stand on its own for us to make of it what we will. A narrative is already being introduced - the fear of a backlash. the inference being, that given the specifics of these cases is that only bigots will react and you're not a bigot are you? Regardless of how inhuman this vile cruelty has been, we're being given a message. That message is hush, don't make a fuss, don't ask pointed questions abouts what going on here, who knew and why didn't you do something.

We're being told to carry on with the same thing that got us into this mess in the first place.