Post by ancientblade on Jul 1, 2008 18:10:25 GMT -1
I agree that discrimination is discrimination however it is applied.
But the culture of political correctness has not just suddenly appeared post 1997. It has gradually been wormed into our lives over many many years, just as the 'best value' culture has, and the obsession with trying to measure every aspect of a company/worker/service performance has. As I have said on another thread, we are now so obsessed with saving even one penny, that we set absurd numerical targets and spend millions of pounds employing layers of non productive bureaucrats to ensure that we save that one penny. In short, trying to be super efficient has left us totally and utterly inefficient. And that did not start in 1997 either!
And a big problem is that this inefficiency is not so obvious as the inefficiencies prevalent in the 1970s and before, but it is probably just as costly to the country. It also leaves people working for the dubious pleasure of achieveing a numerical target, rather than achieving something that is good in it's own right.
It seems to me that the human race has an obsession with counting things. If it is at all possible to count something, we count it. If something can't be counted then it's not worth bothering with. To use a phrase coined by Dennis Healey, we live in an age where we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. And in my opinion that culture was fostered by successive Conservative governments between 1979 and 1997 when everything was viewed purely in terms of whether or not it made any money.
We are where we are not just because of the failings of this government, but because of the failings of successive governments over a long time.
And as an aside, I would say that for a species that obsesses so much about counting, we ahven't even managed to devise an electoral system that accurately reflects the way people have voted. The last six elections have produced four governments with huge majorities, and yet not one of those governments even got over 45% of the votes cast.
And in the electionsd of 1929, 1951 and February 1974 the party that won the election actually had less votes than the party with the second largest share of seats!
If the system that puts people in power doesn't make sense, then it's not really any surprise that what those people do when in power doesn't make sense either!
But the culture of political correctness has not just suddenly appeared post 1997. It has gradually been wormed into our lives over many many years, just as the 'best value' culture has, and the obsession with trying to measure every aspect of a company/worker/service performance has. As I have said on another thread, we are now so obsessed with saving even one penny, that we set absurd numerical targets and spend millions of pounds employing layers of non productive bureaucrats to ensure that we save that one penny. In short, trying to be super efficient has left us totally and utterly inefficient. And that did not start in 1997 either!
And a big problem is that this inefficiency is not so obvious as the inefficiencies prevalent in the 1970s and before, but it is probably just as costly to the country. It also leaves people working for the dubious pleasure of achieveing a numerical target, rather than achieving something that is good in it's own right.
It seems to me that the human race has an obsession with counting things. If it is at all possible to count something, we count it. If something can't be counted then it's not worth bothering with. To use a phrase coined by Dennis Healey, we live in an age where we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. And in my opinion that culture was fostered by successive Conservative governments between 1979 and 1997 when everything was viewed purely in terms of whether or not it made any money.
We are where we are not just because of the failings of this government, but because of the failings of successive governments over a long time.
And as an aside, I would say that for a species that obsesses so much about counting, we ahven't even managed to devise an electoral system that accurately reflects the way people have voted. The last six elections have produced four governments with huge majorities, and yet not one of those governments even got over 45% of the votes cast.
And in the electionsd of 1929, 1951 and February 1974 the party that won the election actually had less votes than the party with the second largest share of seats!
If the system that puts people in power doesn't make sense, then it's not really any surprise that what those people do when in power doesn't make sense either!