Frustrations

The earlier rant on this page was born out of frustration or maybe even double frustration. Aside from the ongoing furore over what the Prime Minister knew and didn’t know there was another niggling concern. The PM has lost (sacked?) three senior Civil Servants but what BBC England (with regional opt out channels!) and other political journalists have failed to expose are the financial implications and recriminations.

Were these individuals allowed to leave with a golden handshake and a full pension, or did they lose any entitlement due to their wrongdoing? When pressed in the past government spokespersons have often refused to answer such questions “for operational reasons we cannot disclose such details” which begs the question why not?

For instance, the current scandal around the Foreign Office Chief should be of concern as that job carries a salary scale of £235,000 to £239,999, and you can bet your worn out, downtrodden little booties that he won’t be on the standard state pension when he goes! In other words, the cost of getting rid of three senior civil servants could run into millions, and of course no penalties for mismanagement or wrongdoing shall be allowed to blight their CVs.

These people are public servants paid out of the public purse so the public has a right to know how their hard earned tax contributions are spent. Compare that with how private business employers deal with their staff when things go wrong and there is a whole gamut of hoops through which they must jump and legal processes with which they have to comply, and that’s even without input from trade unions and human rightists!

It just highlights yet again the differences in a two-class society where the rules apply to some but not others

However the real reason for my distraction these days is one of frustration here in the plastic turrets of Castle Bunnet. Writing the fourth book in a series should be easier than the first three, should it not? Well, it isn’t, hence my wandering mind.

Reflecting on how the sport has changed and keeps changing, the 2000-2019 decade generated many different headlines. There were new names amongst the rally winners and new champions to celebrate including the first Scot to win both the Scottish Rally Championship title and the British Rally Championship title in the same year. Long established rallies disappeared and new ones appeared and there were changes at the top of motor sport’s governing body and more changes within the Forestry Commission. There were losses too and fatal accident inquiries following which changes had to be implemented and yet, a new Public Road Closure Bill was introduced to ease the problem of organising closed public road events.

In other words there was much to write about yet again – too much!

Having said that, the first draft of the text is just about complete and will be off to the proof-readers shortly - along with a copious supply of red ink!

And finally, if you don’t hear from me again I shall endeavour to get the word out where I have been incarcerated and give you the address where to send the cake with the file in it!

Onwards and upwards, eh?

https://fife-motor-sports-agency.square.site/
#rallyscotland
#motorsportbooks

Society and Politics

Classless society or two-class society? …. The rich, the powerful and the well-connected make up one class and then there is the rest of us. Politicians continually try to tell us that they care for the working class but they have so far failed to define what and who the working class is.

Some might suggest there is just one working class, and that includes business owners, managers, staff and employees at every level, earning a wage and paying their various taxes. Then there is the other lot, which includes business owners, entrepreneurs and other financiers who hob-nob with politicians and civil servants to reach the ‘well-connected’ status and therefore qualify to join the rich and powerful class.

And whilst there appears to a be two-tier tax payer and tax avoider system in this country there also seems to be a complimentary two tier legal system which seeks to protects the saintly from the irritating serfs!

Example. No-one from the Post Office or Fujitsu board rooms has been held to account let alone prosecuted and this from an organisation and multi-national company which were quick to judge, prosecute and incarcerate their own staff and hard working individuals when they thought their own income and profits were thought to be in danger.

Example. PPE. How many profiteers and shoddy manufacturers/suppliers have been pursued for the supply of faulty, over-priced equipment, much of which didn’t meet required standards and was unfit for use.

Example. Ajax armoured vehicles. Eight years and billions spent on a vehicle unfit for purpose and has harmed more service personnel than it has saved!

And as for the NHS, how many senior executives have been made to answer for problems when those very same individuals seek to pursue the over-worked nurses and hospital staff for poor care and medical mistakes?

Adding insult to injury, The Rt Hon. the Baroness Harman KC reckons that the triple lock pension provision should be reviewed – downwards. And this from someone who was earning a six figure salary whilst in government and has a pension which is double, treble (at least) the standard state pension. And who paid for her salary, perks and pension in the first place - those very same pensioners who paid their taxes while she was in government?

Sadly, the list goes on.

And if the Messiah And Godly Anti-christ (MAGA) from across the pond invades Greenland what’s the betting on the archangel of evil sending his convoys from Murmansk to invade and colonise the Western Isles to provide the USSR with an Atlantic seaboard and protect their own northern approaches? Is Lewis and Harris safe?

Can you imagine the kerfuffle that would instigate amongst that mixed political collective at the foot of the Royal Mile. I can just imagine the emergency deployment of the Glen Sannox with the one o’clock gun from the Edinburgh Castle battlements being mounted on the ferry’s prow to go and see off any invaders.

CalMac to the rescue, eh?

We’re doomed. We’re all doomed.

Have a nice day.