Who needs Qualifications

Why do we Brits keep handing over the Keys of the Nation to people who are totally unqualified to hold them? We all joke about the Old School Tie, and make fun of it but time and time again we vote for a lazy overprivilged bunch of public schoolboys.

The persons currently running the UK would find it hard to scrape up a decent Degree on a relevant subject between the entire Cabinet. The ‘Professional Politicians” Degree is the ubiquitous PPE, a 3-year degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics. To be of any real use to a serious politician, these subjects would need 3 courses of three years on each subject.

Maybe talking in a posh voice indicates the ability to do 10 years work in three, but I very much doubt it. My experience of working with many posh voiced folks is that they are very often lazy bad-mannered shirkers who snap their fingers, and yell at the hired help as they head for the door, bound for the Golf Course.

There is something also rather telling about the mentality of a person who is quite happy for the people who voted for them to see them having a post luncheon snooze while earning the taxpayers money, rather than looking sober, alert and interested in the job they are supposed to be doing

Do NOT confuse my anti-posh experiences with those ordinary people who happen to be well spoken. Most I know did very well at school and University, carrying off serious qualifications in the sciences, medicine and the Law. They actually get off their arses and work for a living.

No sooner do these PPE Chaps get into Parliament than they reach out for help, and the brains of others to compensate for their own lack of skills….and do most of the heavy lifting. They can also claim expenses for it and deduct costs their taxes no doubt. This hired help, known in Parliament as SpAds (Special Advisers) are getting far more control over our governments than is good for us and the nation as a whole. SpAds also act as a Contact Breakers, removing all traces of responsibility and accountability from the politicians they work for, creating that handy “arms-length” get out clause, and a useful bum to kick..

A minister has  fu*k*d up? = Oh Deary Me, so the Contact Breaker goes ‘Ping’ and the SpAd gets fired with another one brought out of the box(ford)! The Minister gets a Knighthood and a pay rise.

As well as SpAds, we have an unhealthy clutch of Advisers who operate at a lesser level than SpAds. There is an adviser for every subject known to man,  there is even a very special adviser to prop up in front of a TV camera and blather away creating a smokescreen for the holiday-making Politician in his absence.

When you hear Laura Kuenssberg say “A government source said this morning……..”,  on BBC News, it came from a SpAd or and Adviser. If Twitter lights up with outrage, as it often does, the

relevant politician will deny all knowledge and nip out for a jolly round Britannia Bay, Mustique.

All advisers are of course expendable. Thats their core business…to be expendable and unaccountable.

Corona Virus advice I – Herd Immunity

Not sure I can write too much about this without having to dose myself with blood pressure medication.

The basic premise behind Herd Immunity is that the weak and the sick, (aka Losers) should fall by the wayside to make way for the young and fit.

If it can be arranged in the meantime for thousands more losers to fall by the wayside, all well and good.

Why?

Well, as I write this, 3,605 losers have so far been culled by Corona Virus in the UK  saving the Government a cool £72,000,000 a year in pensions and assorted benefits, Health care etc. (Averaged at 20k pp)

The thinking, and the advice to try and support it is:- People with posh voices and second class degrees, are scintillating and genius level individuals who must be protected at all costs, for they are very precious. Everybody else, with very few exceptions, belong to the great unwashed herd of little people, to whom Herd immunity relies on that age-old Darwinian theory, Survival of the Richest.

Please note, we will be needing a lot more to die soon too…to hide the huge holes in the Pension funds that have mysteriously opened wide, as they have these past decades, so take it on the chin and get on with it loser.

Sounds pretty scientific doesn’t it?

(Only if you are already Dead. Ed.)

Corona Virus II – Herd Immunity???  Dunno what you are talking about!

Sound of SpAd footsteps exiting stage left, door slams

A Spokesperson – “Of course, her Majesties gov didn’t actually mean Herd Immunity, what we really meant to say was Social Distancing”

Isn’t that the exactly the opposite of herding together?

Get on with it

There is a current argument that the Covid-19 issue is just a publicity stunt. To support this theory, they protagonists point to the vast numbers of people who die who from ordinary flu each year, and that Corona virus is merely an extension to that process. If we do nothing it will go away, albeit leaving a trail of dead bodies behind that looks much like a line on a graph.

One bright spark recently stated that “Most” of the people who will have died in this pandemic, “would have been dead at the end of the year anyway”, sounding very much like a man who

A). Doesn’t give a shit, or

B). Is a Robot, or

C). Knew what he was talking about but Didn’t, or

D). Is someone who had no intention of assisting with the emergency in the first place.

The BBC took up this line today, stating that the line of Corona fatalities on the graph was masking the line of fatalities from other causes that would be there anyway, and to prove it they put up a graph with two lines on it that matched each other. Very Scientific, almost spadlike in its simplicity. Also a load of utter nonsense.The vast majority of dots on each line represent completely different people. One represents elderly chronically sick people who are nearing the end of their days, and the other line is people who are exposed to Corona virus.

Very few of them will appear on both lists, the virus isn’t tracking the elderly or the sick, its not intelligent, its taking hold anywhere it can get a hold, You, Me, Johnson and Cummings too. The Death Rate for over 80’s is 21.9%, but its only of the KNOWN cases. For sure the actual number of cases is far more than the 38,000 known cases in the UK. We would actually know how many known cases there were if much more testing had been undertaken, but the Government ignored warnings and ignored the risks. For sure the number of over 80 fatalities will go up, but the 21% will be roughly the same

Charming stuff from the BBC too, we are all just plots on a line now, our families and the society in which we live is of no account. We herds-people have paid £Trillions into the coffers of the nation, and worked long arduous hours to do so, only to be reduced to a line on a graph.

So what happened to the science?

Some scientists, and only SOME, think that a PhD somehow makes them a superior being. It doesn’t. Scientists are human beings, and suffer from the same weaknesses, usually the one that involves Money. A very crooked war is going on within science right now.

The two sides split along the divide of funding for research and funding potentially lucrative innovation, and a PhD is no guarantee of Goodness or Integrity. Someone may well be a Professor, but these days they can also be an utter bastard, albeit quite a clever bastard. It wasn’t always like that.

Judging by many a condescending Press Article, TV interview or Tweet, a lot of Scientists seem to think that we the herd, are too ignorant to understand the world they live in. We are simply too dim and couldn’t comprehend the complexity.
I will concede that many who have suffered the UK education system of Michael Gove might have experienced some learning difficulties, but many of us dodged that bullet.

In any case, do I really need to understand detail to be able to see the big picture? The scientists are supposed to deal with that and pass that information to competent planners; strategists; engineers or managers who will get the job done.

As a former Project Manager I was more concerned with the outcomes of the scientific knowledge and delivering the fruits of that science for my project and the public good. To reach that place I need to be 100% certain that the science I was given was accurate.

That is not always the case, especially with the encroachment into education by Big Business, who now control vast swathes of our University campuses. They do that for a reason, Business never acts without a sound financial reason, think Shareholder Value.

Many of these scientific wizards seem to be little more than glorified data analysts,  Mr Cummings springs to mind. He is hailed as a genius by those around him who want him to be a genius, yet for a genius, he seems to display very little sign of original thinking.

On his Blog, he lists a dozen or so other Bloggers (Called the Blogroll), and a cursory glance at some of their work, there are some tangible connections between the stuff he has been whispering in Johnsons ear and his Blogroll. It needs no stretch of the imagination to see where some of Cummings ideas may have been borne.

That, in itself isn’t a problem, I get some of my ideas and information like that too, but then I have not put myself forward as a SpAd …and neither have most on his Blogroll.

Take it on the Chin

If I were asked to advise anyone on pandemic management I would have to refuse, my qualifications do not cover the subject. Mr. Cummings seems almost at home advising on the Economy or Health, Transport and Uncle Tom Cobbleys haemorrhoids, though to be fair, the front page of his blog does contain a significant call for assistance,and has done for weeks…this is a copy of it…

“We want to hire an unusual set of people with different skills and backgrounds to work in Downing Street with the best officials, some as spads and perhaps some as officials. If you are already an official and you read this blog and think you fit one of these categories, get in touch.

The categories are roughly:

• Data scientists and software developers
• Economists
• Policy experts
• Project managers
• Communication experts
• Junior researchers one of whom will also be my personal assistant
• Weirdos and misfits with odd skills

We want to improve performance and make me much less important — and within a year largely redundant. At the moment I have to make decisions well outside what Charlie Munger calls my circle of competence” 

FYI – Charlie Munger is Billionaire Vice Chair of Berkshire Hathaway, Investor, Real Estate trader and Lawyer. Who once (or maybe even twice)famously said he would rather “hire a person with an IQ of 130 but who thinks it’s 120, as opposed to someone who thinks he has a 170 IQ, when he actually just has an IQ of 150

Pick the bones out of that Mr Cummings.

Meanwhile, Cummings is ensconced in Downing Street and fully operational. The one misfit he did manage to appoint, didn’t disappoint, it was Andrew Sabinsky, and he was quickly sent away sent away with a flea in his ear.

Even for the 21st Century Tory party his publication of numerous Eugenics theories, often racist, and his unhealthy obsession with IQ scores, a deeply flawed concept, were a bit, more than CCHQ could swallow

If you are so damned clever…………..

What my qualifications allow me to comment on is risk management, so I will make a quick withdrawal from my personal “Data Bank”.

There is absolute proof that one of the most significant contributors to any major accident is input from people doing something that they were neither trained, qualified or certified to do. By way of a major digression I hope to explain what that entails in an Industrial setting.

Would you give control of a large crane on the back of a rolling ship in a Force 8 gale to somebody untrained or qualified? Not if you have any sense, and even then, not if you don’t have a level of qualification and Authorization that allows you to consider such a decision

Can anybody just stroll on to an Offshore platform and start work?  No, not only because they lack job qualifications, but also for the lack of a Sea Survival training, Fire Training, Lifeboat certification, HUET (Helicopter Underwater Escape Technique) certificate and a full Industry standard Medical, (With a clean Drug and Alcohol test).

All these things will apply to EVERYONE on that rig, regardless of position.

These specific courses are designed to ensure that the right people are in the right place and, having been trained to the recognised standard. They can demonstrate high levels of responsibility and accountability – for peoples lives may well depend on it. We know all this because in the Oil and Gas Industry almost 100 people die every year. Prior to the onset of serious HSE work in this field around 2001, the number of incidents and deaths was ten times that on average

Back to The Future

So how does a “SpAd” demonstrate their competence? At this moment I see bugger all for Cummings. He has a First in Ancient and Modern History and worked in his uncles night club and did 3 years of something in Russia he doesn’t brag about.

I am impressed, but not in a good way. He reminds me of Adam Werrity, whom Liam Fox took in tow as an adviser. He had “qualified” with a 2.2 in Social Policy, so was obviously the right man to sit in on highly sensitive Ministry of Defence discussions, contracts and policies. (He probably had a posh voice).

I did not vote for Mr Cummings, or his Blogrolls, he was appointed by a PM too lazy to study the job he was supposed to be doing. Another unelected PM thrust upon the British public in a highly undemocratic manner.

So, what happens if Cummings advice isn’t up to scratch? What if his advice goes seriously sideways? (think – Herd Immunity?) How do we the people, those that elect governments to make life work for us, hold him and his Ideamongers accountable?

If I were to conduct a Risk assessment of the Covid 19 outbreak right now it would be classed as a major disaster.

The Possibility of it happening    =   100% it is here.

The Outcome of such an event it = Multiple Fatalities in large number – also 100%. They are here too

Evidence based reasoning is simple enough to understand, what is going on in the minds of ‘weirdos and misfits with odd skills’ is a bloody mystery, and the government of 67,000,000 people needs a bit less mystery and a lot more competence and expertise

If a Risk assessment with that score was shown to managers in Industry, the process would be shut down for immediate evaluation and heads would be rolling just for letting it get so bad. The list of people I would sack as a senior manager would be very long.

Summary

Corona Virus has been handled well in some nations and badly in others, in fact in the USA, Mr Trump said it wasn’t happening at all.

The UK is one of the bad ones followed closely by Netherlands and Sweden who have all chosen a soft path to controlling the pandemic with sporadic and sparse testing and very little effort in tracking and tracing carriers/contacts.

This translates to fatalities which are currently deemed to be an acceptable risk, a reasonable price to pay, in order to keep business wheels turning and economies afloat, albeit barely. Much of this is based on the advice of SpAds. The chaps with History degrees. The Brainy Ones. The ones that don’t have a clue nor iota of responsibility yet get well paid for their time

The motivation behind the botched handling of the Corona Virus pandemic is all about money.

We are told it is because they don’t want to overwhelm the Health Services and keep it functioning. Successive governments had pared the NHS down to the bone to make it cheap and attractive to foreign buyers. Its no secret they want to sell, it off, they have admitted it, former Health Minister Jeremy Hunt coauthored a book saying just that.

Half the Tory MPs already have a substantial financial interest in NHS Services and this little trail of breadcrumbs leads back to the real ideology that drives that Big Red Bus.

“A Tory politician has to work long hours for £90,000p.a. + £175,000 Exps + Duck House”

A Tory Healthcare Director can earn as much as he can wring out of the job, + Shares, while getting his minions to do all the work while he plays golf”

It’s a no Brainer, and anyone who doesn’t go for Option B is a Loser.

The Thatcher years saw Great Britain smash all forms of Industry to rid the Tories of their nemesis, The working man and his trade unions.

Fast Forward to today and British Industry cannot supply Masks Bio-Suits, test kits or Ventilators, and without a government that knows what it is doing, the wheels have fallen off.

Front line medics, Nurses, Doctors and Lab technicians are working in the front-line treating patients with a deadly virus without even the basic protections and there are nowhere near enough emergency beds or ICU beds available.

In 2016 there was an exercise to determine how well UK health service was prepared for a Viral pandemic.

At the time, however, the British government’s then chief medical officer, Professor Sally Davies, told a health conference, World Innovation in Health, that the exercise “killed a lot of people.”

The results were not good, but then Exercise results rarely are, that is the whole point.

Exercises are very costly to run, but then they are designed to show up faults and failures that would be even more costly in the event of a pandemic.

Had HMG acted fully on the results of that exercise in a swift and workmanlike manner, thousands of lives could have been saved this year.

But of course, the Tory Party are not all about lives are they? OK let me rephrase it.

Had HMG acted fully on the results of that exercise in a swift and workmanlike manner, Billions of pounds could have been saved and the economy of the nation would not be in the dire straits that we see it in today.

Not only are the government callous in the extreme, but even in the area in which they claim full dominion, The Economy, they are incompetent on an industrial scale.

If this were in an Industrial setting in fact, an exercise that had been ignored in this way would see people facing charges of corporate manslaughter

Make no mistake, this is all in the name of privatisation, the monetisation of sickness, injury and personal tragedy to fit a fraudulent political model and fill the pockets of the already wealthy.

Pure Greed.

Another great site by the Dangerous Globe