RE: Agreed I work for an organisation funded by the Government (The Environment Agency) - I sit here everyday and watch the fu*kwittery that goes on by jumped up bureaucrats who spread responsibility and blame around like it was going out of fashion and waste money left right and centre. And this is an organisation trying to save the environment, so god knows what bureaucracy would make of a national DNA database! In my view they are a quick and poor short term fix, and they dont tackle the real social problems that cause crime. If we really want to tackle problems then you have to deal with them at a root level, not just bang folk up in jail via whatever method is the most effective - is it any wonder our prisons are overcrowded when so little is done on a social level to help alleviate the causes? Look at the USA, it has the largest prison population per capita in the world, most of them being poor black folks. We need less bureaucracy not more, because bureaucrats see people and decide their 'fate' based on statistics and percentages. People cease being living breathing human beings that people can see and talk to, instead they become a name and number on a screen. Anyone who has ever tried to explain a difficult personal situation to some jobsworth will know what I mean........ "Sorry sir but our computer records do not show this to be the case". Of course getting your gas bill wrong is one thing, banging you up in jail because of a computer error or human error is quite another....... And yes, society is corrupt on many levels, but Im far more frightened of the power of ordinary people with extraordinary powers than I am of some chav breaking into my flat to nick my stereo.
RE: Agreed so we work in the same sector then. I work with our local environment agency who are desperately trying to give away about £120k that's in a pot for social enterprises. The local council tried to fob this same pot off to the organisation that I work for and we told them to stick it. They want to spend the pot by March so they get more money next year. The local council officer charged with running this pot actually doesn't understand the first thing about social enterprise and he's now passed on the responsibility to another agency who knows even less to manage it. Unfortunately amid all this poor management, they just been awarded a further years funding. Now tell me Acky, with this level of incompetance at a local level in the civil service and the third sector, can you not understand why the government are adding to the beaurocracy of reporting and accountability? They may have misfired their arrows in terms of impact and benefits of their investment in regeneration, but I can see why they shot the arrow in the first place. I detest the way things are with a passion, but I'm not naive enough to blame the government for everything. Sadly, honesty is generally what's missing on all levels.
RE: Agreed heh that reminds me - at the end of the last financial year, after not being allocated enough money to build the flood defences we wanted to build, we were given £1m pounds (by another Govt. department) that had to be spent within a month, or not get it back next year. I had people asking me what I thought it should be spent on. hahaha "Dont ask me, I just make the coffee" I agree, its a consequence of massive bureaucracy that these things happen, hence the reason for not wanting more, but less of it. Its about communities and people organising themselves and not relying and moaning at the government when it goes wrong - because as I said accountability is spread around. Its a system that's 'built to fail' - hence not wanting dickheads looking after my DNA. The problem is that Governments are part of that system of bureaucracy and their power stems from it, so they arent likely to start dismantling it (or at least not to any severe extent) overnight. Yup, honesty is lacking on all levels, but you have to ask whether the system we live in encourages honesty, or dishonesty. You lose your wallet and you're probably more surprised if someone actually brings it back to you, especially if its got £50 in it. Are people born dishonest, or does social and economic factors encourage it? I'd say the latter more than the former. Oh and you asked me yesterday to explain some stuff - this link sums up what i think fairly well - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism
RE: Agreed I didn't say it was a consequence of massive beaurocracy did I? It's a consequence of billions of pounds being sqaundered on "projects" that are meant to be addressing those problems at grass root level. The accountability comes in the reporting back of 'outputs' and so called 'beneficiaries' of activities. You don't need to work in the sector long to realise it's absolutely rife with mismanaged projects with output figures being fudged to ensure further funds for more years. And these are the people who are charged with improving peoples lives. Of course the Government should be handling this all as a matter of course, but they're not. I haven't seen Tony Blair or Gordon Brown delivering these projects personally, but a significant number of righteous people I've met who have screamed for this kind of funding to address the problems haven't got the first clue as to what they're doing when given the money. ooh I know we'll buy everyone a hanging basket, that'll lift the neighbourhood. Does this empower any one? ESF funds, regional development agency funds, various trusts set up, pheonix funds etc etc with no real return for what is being handed out. We could sit and blame beaurocracy for ever, but accountability and beaurocracy unfortunately go hand in hand. Do you not think people should be accountable?