Oh dear! Richard Dawkins has finally been cornered by his own peers. Recent studies reported in the Sunday Times (6.9.09) [www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6823229.ece ] have suggested that atheism may be fighting against nature. Humans have been hardwired by evolution to believe in God, scientists have suggested. The natural processes of evolution have ensured that those with religious beliefs tended to work together better and therefore stood a better chance of survival.
Professor Pascal Boyer, anthropologist of Washington University, holds out little hope for atheism and said "Religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our cognitive systems. By contrast, disbelief is generally the work of deliberate, effortful work against our natural cognitive dispositions - hardly the easiest ideology to propagate."
Monday, 28 September 2009
Upside down priorities.
So much stupidity going on at the moment that it's difficult to know which example to pick!
This week's prize has got to go to the school which sacked a dinner lady because she told a child's parents that the girl was being bullied at school. In the minds of 99.99% of the population this was entirely the right thing to do. Somehow the school managed to justify sacking her on the grounds that the child's confidentiality had been breached! So keeping confidentially comes higher up the ethical scale than safeguarding a child's physical safety and human dignity does it? I pity any child at that school if they have to put up with this kind of warped thinking for very long.
This week's prize has got to go to the school which sacked a dinner lady because she told a child's parents that the girl was being bullied at school. In the minds of 99.99% of the population this was entirely the right thing to do. Somehow the school managed to justify sacking her on the grounds that the child's confidentiality had been breached! So keeping confidentially comes higher up the ethical scale than safeguarding a child's physical safety and human dignity does it? I pity any child at that school if they have to put up with this kind of warped thinking for very long.
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
Safeguarding - or revenue making?
The world hasn't got any saner since I've been away on holiday. The latest bad idea to hit the headlines is the Independent Safeguarding Authority, the body set up to register anyone who wants to work with children or vulnerable adults. It will shortly be an offence for anyone to work with these groups unless they are registered with this body!
When will the Government stop interfering with everyone's lives and just trust us to manage our own affairs? This stupid idea apparently sprung from the murder of two schoolgirls by a school caretaker. Nasty occurence, obviously, but exactly how is this kneejerk reaction going to prevent such cases? Even the policeman who was involved in the case can see no sense in this suggested solution www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6834544.ece
Instead of identifying future murderers and paedophiles, all this is going to do is make a lot of unneccessary work for everyone and cost a fortune to administer. While the Government looks one way and asks for suggestions on how to cut public spending, its alter-ego looks the other way and sets up an expensive and completely ineffective quango. All this will show is whether or not the person being vetted has been caught before. Anyone who is any good at being a murderer or a pervert won't have been caught and won't have a record. I am convinced this is simply a very poorly disguised way of raising more taxes (I understand it will cost £64 to become registered. The requirement will apply to millions of people ...... that's , err....... quite a lot of money, thank you very much.
How many undesirables will it catch? ......... I would venture to suggest probably none.
I am sure I have said it here before, but I'll say it again. Every government department and every local government authority should employ a "Common Sense Officer" to vet all political decisions before they are put into practice. This seems to me to be the only way to stop the country completely disappearing down the plug hole!
When will the Government stop interfering with everyone's lives and just trust us to manage our own affairs? This stupid idea apparently sprung from the murder of two schoolgirls by a school caretaker. Nasty occurence, obviously, but exactly how is this kneejerk reaction going to prevent such cases? Even the policeman who was involved in the case can see no sense in this suggested solution www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6834544.ece
Instead of identifying future murderers and paedophiles, all this is going to do is make a lot of unneccessary work for everyone and cost a fortune to administer. While the Government looks one way and asks for suggestions on how to cut public spending, its alter-ego looks the other way and sets up an expensive and completely ineffective quango. All this will show is whether or not the person being vetted has been caught before. Anyone who is any good at being a murderer or a pervert won't have been caught and won't have a record. I am convinced this is simply a very poorly disguised way of raising more taxes (I understand it will cost £64 to become registered. The requirement will apply to millions of people ...... that's , err....... quite a lot of money, thank you very much.
How many undesirables will it catch? ......... I would venture to suggest probably none.
I am sure I have said it here before, but I'll say it again. Every government department and every local government authority should employ a "Common Sense Officer" to vet all political decisions before they are put into practice. This seems to me to be the only way to stop the country completely disappearing down the plug hole!
Friday, 21 August 2009
Downsizing
I have been moaning for sometime about the "rabbit hutch" mentality in British housebuilding. But now it's official. A report from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment [http://www.cabe.org.uk/publications/space-in-new-homes] says that new British homes often have barely enough room for proper furniture or even a microwave. Things have become so silly that many people are now renting out units in self-storage warehouses to keep all their possessions in and, in some cases, to live in part of the time. A room that would have been a walk-in cupboard in my youth is now designated as a single bedroom. A single bed is all that you can get into it. No room for a wardrobe, drawers or even a chair. British house sizes are now the smallest in Europe with an average floorspace of 818 sq.ft. compared to 1200 sq.ft. in France.
When I started in Local Government we had the "Parker Morris" standards which were designed to ensure that houses were fit to live in and provided a decent standard of accommodation. Somewhere along the line these standards went to the wall. Now anything goes. The more units you can cram onto a piece of land the more profit you make. Never mind whether anyone wants to live in them or not. Never mind whether people will go mad, get stressed, and probably come to an early demise if they do.
Despite all the government's rhetoric on "Decent Homes" they are doing absolutely nothing to ensure we get them. It would be quite a simple matter to deal with - classify housing accommodation as "1 person", "2 person", "3 person" accommodation etc, with or without a garden. Then get Local Authorities to refuse planning consent for any units which do not meet an appropriate space standard for their grade. Separate space standards should be set for both living accommodation and garden space. Then people would know exactly what they were getting when buying a house or flat and local Housing Authorities would be easily able to deal with overcrowding issues without people being able to claim that the cupboard under the stairs is really a bedroom. Bring back Parker Morris.
When I started in Local Government we had the "Parker Morris" standards which were designed to ensure that houses were fit to live in and provided a decent standard of accommodation. Somewhere along the line these standards went to the wall. Now anything goes. The more units you can cram onto a piece of land the more profit you make. Never mind whether anyone wants to live in them or not. Never mind whether people will go mad, get stressed, and probably come to an early demise if they do.
Despite all the government's rhetoric on "Decent Homes" they are doing absolutely nothing to ensure we get them. It would be quite a simple matter to deal with - classify housing accommodation as "1 person", "2 person", "3 person" accommodation etc, with or without a garden. Then get Local Authorities to refuse planning consent for any units which do not meet an appropriate space standard for their grade. Separate space standards should be set for both living accommodation and garden space. Then people would know exactly what they were getting when buying a house or flat and local Housing Authorities would be easily able to deal with overcrowding issues without people being able to claim that the cupboard under the stairs is really a bedroom. Bring back Parker Morris.
Going, Going, Gone
I hung on as long as I could..... but my drawer unit has finally gone. My line manager wheeled it out himself despite my protestations that I will now not be able to work effectively. I threatened that he would be mentioned in my blog but it didn't seem to worry him. He probably doesn't think I have one. So .... MARTIN ...... you know who you are! This is the beginning of the end!
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
An Introduction to the Chaos of Follyville
Sorry no blog for a while ...... holidays etc. But it's back now to the chaos that is Follyville.
Follyville is the fictitious local authority I work for. Well .... I try and work for! Every day they try to make it more difficult to work for them. Some kind of perverse reverse logic I suppose. They want to increase efficiency but every move they make decreases it.
Everyone in my office has to move out by the end of the year. The burghers of Follyville have sold the office (in a prime position in the central High Street) and we are to be relocated to another office on the outskirts of the town. The trouble is, that office is already full with other employees. To make matters worse, part of that building has now been leased to a completely different organisation. The result will be about half the number of desks for the number of people that need one and very little storage space for anything else. Staff will have to book a desk and computer when they can get the chance, and work out of the office for the rest of the time.
We have now been ordered to empty all our drawers and cupboards by the end of the month in preparation for the move. At present we each have a neat little draw unit to accommodate much of what we need, which also extends the working area of the desk itself. Each draw unit has one of those little plastic inserts that hold all your paper clips, staples , rubber bands and all the other paraphernalia that is the mainstay of office life. It is a piece of equipment which is specifically designed for the purpose for which it is used. But now we have to empty it and try and find something else suitable to put all this stuff in ....... and then find somewhere to put that. And we can't just leave it on the desk-top because we won't actually have a desk-top to leave it on! At the moment I have put it all in a plastic box under the desk and am running a serious risk of getting a slipped disk or a hernia every time I try to retrieve anything. I am just wondering how many compensation claims it will take for the burghers to realise what a stupid mistake they have made.
All files and other documents must be scanned onto the computer as there will be nowhere to store them in the new office. This, initially, sounds like a good idea. But some paper copies are essential, to take to meetings or out on site. The cost of printing will rocket as everyone tries to copy scanned documents to work with .......... and then destroy them afterwards (until the next time) because there is nowhere to put them!
More about Follyville later
Follyville is the fictitious local authority I work for. Well .... I try and work for! Every day they try to make it more difficult to work for them. Some kind of perverse reverse logic I suppose. They want to increase efficiency but every move they make decreases it.
Everyone in my office has to move out by the end of the year. The burghers of Follyville have sold the office (in a prime position in the central High Street) and we are to be relocated to another office on the outskirts of the town. The trouble is, that office is already full with other employees. To make matters worse, part of that building has now been leased to a completely different organisation. The result will be about half the number of desks for the number of people that need one and very little storage space for anything else. Staff will have to book a desk and computer when they can get the chance, and work out of the office for the rest of the time.
We have now been ordered to empty all our drawers and cupboards by the end of the month in preparation for the move. At present we each have a neat little draw unit to accommodate much of what we need, which also extends the working area of the desk itself. Each draw unit has one of those little plastic inserts that hold all your paper clips, staples , rubber bands and all the other paraphernalia that is the mainstay of office life. It is a piece of equipment which is specifically designed for the purpose for which it is used. But now we have to empty it and try and find something else suitable to put all this stuff in ....... and then find somewhere to put that. And we can't just leave it on the desk-top because we won't actually have a desk-top to leave it on! At the moment I have put it all in a plastic box under the desk and am running a serious risk of getting a slipped disk or a hernia every time I try to retrieve anything. I am just wondering how many compensation claims it will take for the burghers to realise what a stupid mistake they have made.
All files and other documents must be scanned onto the computer as there will be nowhere to store them in the new office. This, initially, sounds like a good idea. But some paper copies are essential, to take to meetings or out on site. The cost of printing will rocket as everyone tries to copy scanned documents to work with .......... and then destroy them afterwards (until the next time) because there is nowhere to put them!
More about Follyville later
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Stand at Ease
I got the dreaded disease. Been off sick yesterday and today. It's taken a lot of phone calls and pushing but I've eventually managed to discover that the results of the swabs were negative for swine flu. It's taken a lot of hard work on my part to get this information though. Anyone else probably wouldn't have bothered and would be walking around potentially contaminating anyone they came into close contact with. Makes a mockery of the emergency plan!
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