Awareness

awareness

Once again, I have noticed something about BBC radio and TimesRadio, only this time the … anomaly … was first evident on TimesRadio and then on BBC Radio4.

It has been an interesting week globally and locally but this thing is a local issue, for local taxpayers in England (maybe also in other parts of the UK) yet maybe you will see familiar issues wherever you are in the world.
On TimesRadio, Matt Chorley has had a new segment with “exit interviews” for members-of-parliament who have decided not to stand for election at the end of this current parliamentary term (possibly a general election could be as late as January 2025).
The MP’s have noticed an increase in their workloads and have commented that they are now seen as the first-port-of-call for issues their constituents have rather than the last-resort when other processes have failed them.
Particularly, Conservative MP’s have been saying this (though this can be attributed to the larger number of tories leaving parliament). The tories have also said that local councils used to handle these often quite normal issues.
Local Councils.
The lack of self-awareness should be astounding but it has become “hypernormalized”.
For people who represent the largest political-bloc with the most power in England, tories seem blindsided by how their policies (destroying local services and replacing them with profit making private companies that deliver less service for more money) could have led to this situation.

The phenomena of MP’s talking about their workloads also spread to the BBC, I heard it on Radio4’s evening “PM” programme. Almost the same observations of constituents approaching MP’s with ordinary problems that were once dealt with by councils.
A “Third Sector” (that’s charities and volunteer organisations) manager commented that they were definitely not a replacement for local services (I think that was a TimesRadio interview).

The problem I see is more with the interviewers, their teams and maybe with arranging opposition views or commentators; in those segments, no one made the obvious statement (rather than a question) that those things should be in the purview of local government. When a tory MP says their workoad has increased, I would ask, “Didn’t your constituent approach their local council representative first?”
The tory could then laugh while telling me how they voted to destroy local councils and “lefty” organisations like the Citizens Advice Bureau and sometimes replaced them with funds for religious organisations who could provide people with tins of tomatoes that are out-of-date. Ha-ha-ha-ha-hah.

One interview WAS with a foodbank that also provided energy vouchers.

The problems that people are facing go beyond choices of foregoing eating to feed their kids or keep the heating on. People are getting into debt to pay for household expenses; the debts then become unmanageable. Those are “the poor” AND “the working poor”.
Who is responsible for the levels of pay for workers? Who is responsible for the conditions of the workplaces of workers? Who has removed legal services and advice that could have restrained the exploitation of workers?
It’s the Tories, stupid!

I’ve come across people with this level of lack of self-awareness in all kinds of situations. They will say something about a “problem” and I will tell them that they are creating that problem and then they will say that I am being rude or more likely go tell their friend (or line-manager) some made-up crap about what I said thereby making me “the troublesome customer” in their “tell me about the time when you dealt with a troublesome customer” story.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a military type in search of an income can make major spondoolix teaching a one-hour course on “situational awareness” at Civil Service training sessions and for the unemployed at compulsory worksearch programmes.
They don’t teach self-awareness.

As a positive … (whoa … I went dizzy for a moment there) …
As a positive note … (oh, my head is swimming) …

Deep breath.

On a positive note, Evan Davis has been brilliant over his few years on “PM” and especially during Covid measures. He has humanity, curiousity and knowledge of the worlds of business and government funding of policies. He actually does think about solutions to problems and follows through with follow-up questions/segments.
He’d make a great Prime Minister. 👍

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notes:

1 – One of the Tory MP’s interviewed on TimesRadio said that they had had to expand the team at their local office to deal with the case workload. The rules around who is allowed to be on an MP’s personal team are different to rules about working for a council – an MP’s team member is an employee of that MP not the constituents.

(I would ask if this increased team size also means more funding from Parliament to that constituency office and how it compares with council pay.)

2 – The word hypernormalisation was coined by Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology.
“Yurchak argues that for many decades everyone had known the Soviet system was failing, but as no one could imagine any alternative, politicians and citizens were resigned to maintaining a pretence of a functioning society.” – Wikipedia

(reference from the documentary film “Hypernormalisation” by Adam Curtis)

3 – One of my algorithmically recommended follows on Twitter was DEPHER – Disabled & Elderly Plumbing & Heating Emergency Repair.
A kind of community interest company that was (or now has?) charity status.
I used to describe them as the only Social Services provider in England.
They are now on the fediverse on Mastodon as “Community Plumbing & Heating”, @DEPHER_1 .

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