Spa Tek

Longest Day

The longest day, shortest night. The day when the waxing old oak battles against the bright new holly. Fortunately neither tree will suffer, indeed the oak will grow stronger from the encounter until it eventually dominates the landscape. Wise wisdom prevailing, until man came along, and in England all the oaks were chopped down to make warships as man went to fight his imaginary foes, in lust and greed.

Looking at our leaders it seems we must be a sorry lot, for they are shallow, lacking vision, often inveterate liars and some are incapable of stringing together a logical sentence. Yet we allow these people to dictate to us.

Internationally the best parts reach our TV screens. Bombs are dropped, innocent people killed, labels are stuck on foreheads: the latest is that all Iraqi citizens who do not want the invaders in their land are called 'insurgents'. At a local level we are attacked from every side. Local laws are increasingly restricting choice, while demanding more payment. The average British worker now pays £22 in tax, every day of their lives.

What do they get for their money? Arrogant presumption in the might of the bureaucracy. In my town we have three large buildings, each given to the people of the town about 100 years ago, because their owners could see that the town could make use of such facilities. Two have been used as hospitals, the other has had a variety of uses, lastly as a theatre. Over the years ownership has been passed from the people of the town and are now owned by ever-agglomerating and changing authorities.

Now the Strategic Health Authority, based in Peterborough, miles away from here, have looked at these two hospitals and seen two prime sites for commercial development. The old theatre also faces demolition because a developer wants its location to build luxury apartments.

The bureaucrats making these decisions are not visionaries, except when it comes to their own careers. Our local district council is about to have its fifth Chief Executive in five years, hardly a bunch of people dedicated to serving local people.

The motives of these politicians and bureaucrats are easily analysed, what is more difficult is to understand why we, the people, stand for this errant nonsense.

These buildings are not to be replaced with anything new: that would be understandable. A brand-new hospital should be able to provide better facilties. No, they are to be thrown into the fire to soak up debt. That debt is only one that has been created by goverment bureaucrats. We do not owe money, they have not given us enough of our own money to do the job.

We pay enough money to have fine hospitals. There could be a brand-new arts complex in the town. We pay enough money. The problem is that our money is wasted.

Isn't it time the people had more say in how our money is spent? Councils may be good at collecting money, but perhaps a larger proportion of that cash should then be handed over to local management teams: charitable trusts perhaps, who then employed the people needed to do the job.

Too much power and money is left in the hands of people who have little real interest in the local community needs. Instead they want to further their own ends, expand their own departments, while looking for the next job opportunity.

posted by Suffolk Notes @ 11:03 am