local council – Observations and Misunderstandings

Well we’re one step closer to a tyrannical regime. They’ve decided which direction we can now walk up the street. That would be an example of using an exaggerated statement to belittle a potentially legitimate argument on something ridiculous. Of course we’re not one step closer to a tyrannical regime because of this but it is ridiculous. I should probably explain a little more on what I’m talking about. As you can see from the picture they have created a one way system on the pavements. On one side of the road you can walk up the street and on the other you can walk down. Apparently it’s okay to go into shopping centres and queue outside Primark for hours but god forbid you face someone on the street as you walk towards and pass them. I had a similar opinion on having a one way system in the supermarket, all it seemingly did was confuse and stress people as they did huge laps just to pop back one aisle because they forgot something, or lingered behind as they weren’t sure if it was acceptable to pass you. Saying that I’m not dismissing the fact that statistically even if minimal it could probably have help prevent the spread in some way but it seemed like slight overkill. Outside on the street though; give over.

It’s very easy to get excited by something like this and use it as another example of people slowly being controlled, or getting used to being controlled in the most minute way. But all this is is some bureaucrat sitting in an office somewhere trying to justify the existence of their job and people spurring them on because they know they can use it as an example of some kind of action. Make no mistake something like this is for nothing other than appearance sake, a cosmetic little plaster to cover a deep wound. Actual action would be proper testing not just smudged empty figures, it would be actual PPE for nurses, doctors and care home assistant, it would be a contact tracing app that is ready before November not nearly a year after the first official case in the UK.

This nonsense outside on the street is nothing other than a local version of the same thing we have on a national level. Everything, literally everything, the government have done in combating the spread of Covid-19 has lacked even the remotest amount of substance. It has been enforced reactive empty action for nothing other than appearance sake and we have the highest death rate in the world as a result. Now we have a supposedly skint, when it suits them, council taking two days and four workers to put up and spray a few signs on one little street. Three months of nothing and now just as everything is reopening and the two metre distance rule probably dropped, they finally act. If as the Economist described it; “The government played a bad hand, badly”, the local council it appears don’t even know how to play. Or at least not the game they should be playing.

This was going to be a piece having a little rant at the local council. Let’s be honest it probably will anyway but I’ve lost some of the conviction having thought a little more about it. It is probably worth mentioning that I dislike councils immensely. They seem to be just small time self-serving bureaucrats. There is nothing worse than a local councillor attempting to justify why they gave their mate a deal or attempting to elevate their own importance despite not being able to look beyond their own narrow little view of the world. I was looking at the road outside my parents today and it is dangerous to drive down, the potholes are everywhere, it could be described as off-roading and that would not be an exaggeration. My parents pay one thousand eight hundred pound per year in council tax, which works out as about thirty-six pound per week. They get their recycling collecting every second week and the rubbish collected every alternate second week. The local farmers cut all the hedges locally and if a tree came down in the road they would have moved it before the council even contemplated having to do anything about it. The local power and phone cables are maintained by the power companies too. The council clearly never fix the roads so that means we’re paying thirty six pounds per week to have a bin emptied. They wonder why nobody believes in the credibility of their existence.

However, nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems and this is why intellectually I start having to question my short sighted emotive rant. They also apparently do certain care in the community things around my area. Now while that is one thing, it also mean there will probably be others I’m unaware of. Also, while there are payment bands and people in town will pay more, it does make you realise that perhaps some of the money raised goes towards funding things in the local town which we do use sometimes.

It is frustrating because you want to rant at their expensive incompetence and when you see yourself getting so little back it is justified but that approach is one that merely highlights an endemic problem within society as a whole. We have been conditioned to think so much from an individualistic perspective, it is about what society can do for me. Why should I pay that much when I am only getting those small few things back. We never look to how we can contribute to society or the community as a whole despite the reality that stronger community around us makes our own lives better, safer, stronger and potentially more fulfilling. I still have no time for the small minded council but it is important to have the time for those around us. Sometimes it is important to pay a little more than we may immediately get back because we never know whether we will get it back in other ways at a later date. It is a shame to realise that because clearly I just wanted to shout and I’m not happy that I’ve rationalised this fairly.

Fuck it…total bunch arseholes!! That feels better. Maybe it’s time to dig out that spray can.

Tag: local council

This Way Please

Local Councils