PUBLIC SERVICE CUTS

[Tizer]

If there is a concern over failure to pass on evidence in rape and sexual assault cases surely they'll have to review all cases of crime.

The staffing problems in the police force seem to echo the situation in Boot's Chemist pharmacies. The company claims the branches are fully staffed but customers say otherwise. There's an example today of a man being dispensed the wrong tablets.

[Stanley]

I heard that concern voiced yesterday in an interview with a barrister who specialises in the defence of rape and sex crimes. He also said that a major factor was the withdrawal of Legal Aid which has starved the legal process of resources.
I've commented this morning on 'Forgotten Corners' about the disappearance of the police from our streets. I heard an interview with a retired policeman yesterday in which he detailed examples of the failure of the systems to join up together. He gave the example of a sex offender being transferred to a prison without his specific offence being made clear to the prison authorities and other instances. We keep hearing about miracle IT systems which are going to be accessible to everyone in the process but this doesn't seem to be happening.
The Boots affair interests me. Over the decades pharmacists have been very successful in raising their status to something that is almost on a par with the doctors. This has been good for their remuneration but I don't see much evidence of it raising the quality or speed of service. I have a personal beef here in that last month when I went for my prescription on the day the young girl told me it would be ready and was publicly chastised by a slip of a girl for being there too early despite me telling her that I had followed instructions! This left a bad taste in my mouth and this month I went for my pills the day after they said they would be ready. The same slip of a girl couldn't find my order and it took three of them to dig them out of the shelves..... Add to this the fact that if you ask for a proprietary medicine you are questioned about who it is for and lectured on its use. I always react and point out I have been using them for 80 years without killing myself.
I shall stop, I am ranting, I want to go back to the days of Mr Elmer the chemist on Newtown.....
By the way, I always double check that my Metformin is correct....... I don't trust them to be always right!

[PanBiker]

I would be trying the other dispensing chemist in town Stanley.

[Tizer]

When I was at Boots in the 1970s our shop had a pharmacist, two dispensers and a trainee dispenser (me). There were always at least two qualified staff present and prescriptions were checked by both before being handed over, except for those for which were obviously harmless. A main cause of errors now is the proliferation of brand names and generic names for drugs so that similar ones get confused.

[Stanley]

I think I am going to do that Ian......

[Stanley]

The National Audit Office warns that there is a serious shortage of social care workers, the Adult Care system in particular is in trouble and the NAO takes the Health department to task for allowing this to happen. The government's only response at the moment is to allow councils to raise Council Tax by 6%. Remember there are more cuts still in the pipeline. How long can this stripping out of basic services go on?

[plaques]

The Council tax is well known for being a regressive tax hitting the poorest the hardest It is estimated that the poorest pay 8% of their income while the richest lose 2%.Link. Quote..The Institute for Fiscal Studies’ Paul Johnson even described it as "being deliberately regressive in its design". All that the Government is doing by shifting the funding from general taxation onto the Council tax is to deliberately increase inequality. The general idea being that most people will blame the Council for a deterioration of services while they see their local tax increase. A prime example of "not me gov". Shifting the 'cause and effect' below the immediate horizon makes it more difficult for lesser mortals to grasp what the real root of the problem is especially when statements are made like " we have increased spending across the band". Smoke and mirrors that result in the poorest paying more for less.

[Stanley]

P, I couldn't have put it better. It's a Salt Tax!

[Stanley]

Read THIS BBC report of research done on life expectancy in Britain. The gap between the richest and poorest children in 2001 was 7.2 years, it is now 8.4 years. Forget making excuses, this is an indictment on how we are governed and policies of austerity and deprivation will not be helping.

[Stanley]

See THIS Guardian account of the National Audit Office's report on local council funding. This has been cut by 50% since 2010 and in addition has been hit by inflation and new regulations and responsibilities. This has affected all areas of council services but in particular is the direct cause of the scandalous shortfall in Social Care funding. One in ten is going to run out in three years of the reserves they have been eating into to survive. There is of course the small matter that the reserves were there for a reason, they were part of responsible fiscal management.
Closely allied to this is the campaign being waged by the Grenfell survivors. Remember the promises that were made? None of them has been kept and all over the country we have people living in tower blocks that not only have no sprinkler systems or adequate means of escape but are clad in what we now know to be a fire risk, Too much has been swept under the carpet here and it is still going on. (LINK TO PROTEST)

[plaques]

The promise during WW1 was "Homes fit for Heroes" It never happened. We had to wait until Attlee's Labour government after WW2 that any real quantity of new housing were built. When back in government Winston Churchill remarked that the Conservatives should not get involved with any of these Socialist or National Health Service programmes. It looks like we are turning the clock back 68 years.

[Stanley]

As you may have realised P, I am convinced that this is the main aim of the present Tory government, to bring the underclass to heel by impoverishing them and taking every opportunity to restrict their ability to have a say in how we are governed. This has historically been the preference of all parties who want absolute control when in power but it has now showed itself in naked duplicity and lies which is why I bring Grenfell to your attention. Remember Cameron and the floods? If you get in trouble promise unlimited spending and then forget it. That's what happened with Grenfell and look at the government's response to every appeal for better funding, they simply make a bland statement about increasing spending from a low base which they set and completely ignoring the need. That's what is happening to the councils now and the scandal of underfunded vital services.....
You're right, I am angry!

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on what I see as the latest Tory cunning wheeze to address the problems in education without actually funding it. I see no mention of the catastrophic shift by which teacher training was largely removed from the universities funded by government to private firms operating for profit. Since that was done teacher training has completely failed to match the need caused by normal wastage and burn-out caused by the pressure on teachers and low rewards both in remuneration and respect. The same syndrome has been noted in other fields, benefit assessment, probation, forensic services, translation services.... Make up your own list. Damian Hind's speech today is not going to fix anything. It's a desperate attempt to find a quick cheap fix.

[Stanley]

More problems with outsourcing. See THIS BBC report of the problems Amey is having with their staff and the contract at Liverpool Prison. To put it bluntly they are failing all round, the official report on maintenance at Liverpool is dire and now they have sacked two long term workers for complaining about being made to work alone and not in pairs. They have been vindicated by an industrial tribunal and compensation will be decided later. The two are not fly by night cleaners, they have 55 years service at the prison between them. How long can underfunding of essential services be allowed to continue in the name of 'saving money'?

[Stanley]

THIS Guardian report on primary and secondary school debt is well worth reading. I have just been listening to a Headmistress on Today describing how shortage of funding has meant she has to cut back on the curriculum and essential maintenance and had just come out of a meeting with students during which they asked for text books relating to the new exam curricula which the school can't afford. She said the government altered the exams but never gave the funding for the materials needed to teach for the 'improved' exams.
The government of course says it is injecting extra funding but this isn't the story on the ground. This at a time when everyone agrees that our national wealth post manufacturing depends on the skills of the young.
[Can't resist it, a quotation from Disraeli's Sybil. "Posterity is in the hands of the young"]

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report about the pay rise for NHS staff. Much rejoicing and talk of 'the end of austerity' but hold on a minute.... Welcome though this is, 6% over three years is 2% a year and my fag packet maths tells me that this is still less than inflation. It also takes no account of the damage done to family finances over the long period of severe wage restraint. How many of the recipients are supporting an interest bill each month to the credit card companies?
More talk about 'flood gates being opened', let's wait and see shall we.......

[Stanley]

Remember me talking about the rise in violence in the cities? News last night that 6 people have been killed by stabbing in the last week in London.....
See THIS Guardian account of the latest survey of police efficiency. It doesn't make pleasant reading.....

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the rise of violence, in this case, in London. It reinforces what I heard that retired police inspector say on the Sky News report that sank without trace. I still think he had a point. He said that there weren't enough officers on the street gathering local intelligence and giving the police a chance to nip problems in the bud.
Have a look at THIS BBC report on child poverty as reported by teachers and then read my Flatley Drier post today reporting exactly the same thing 70 years ago. I believe these reports and think we should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing this state of affairs to continue. The government of course trots out a string of statistics detailing investment whilst ignoring the facts on the ground. The teachers also reported on shortages of teaching materials and having to ask parents for contributions towards expenses. This neglect of education is a disgrace, this is robbing children of their childhood learning and condemns them to membership of an underclass for life.

[Stanley]

See THIS for a measured report by the BBC on the violent crime in London. Breaking news this morning that the young man shot yesterday has died.
This report may well be right and these figures are a glitch but overall there is reason to suspect that the cuts to police staff are beginning to have an effect on the street. One thing is certain, the problem needs addressing and it will take a bit more than complaints about the effects of social media and standard responses detailing what funding is being given.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report of two more violent deaths in London. I wonder what the figures are for other urban centres? Forget facile headline grabbing by comparing London to NY, concentrate on the apparent rise in violent crime here. My own opinion is that apart from fewer officers on the street, the relaxation of police action in other areas of domestic crime due to lack of resource is just as important. The stark fact is that the police are retreating from preventing crime and being purely reactive. We hear reports of 'minor' crimes being ignored, shoplifting and small theft and burglary in particular. This is where the rot starts and more and more police staff are voicing the same opinion.
You can't withdraw funding and participation from society goods without consequence and this is what we are seeing now in may areas.

[Tizer]

Some small shops have closed in our town because they can't cope with the amount of shoplifting and the failure of the police to prosecute the thieves.

[PanBiker]

Our relevantly new mobile phone shop on Albert Road was broken into and burgled twice last week. I cant see why the powers that be cant retrieve CCTV footage, there is a camera 10M away covering the area. Maybe they have but are not saying anything.

[Stanley]

The blunt truth is that in many areas, policing is one of them, the government is shedding responsibility and funding and the whole structure of the services that lubricate society is withering away. We are beginning to see the consequences of austerity......

[Stanley]

I note that Cressida Dick, while being questioned about the suggestion the police were losing control of the streets stated that 300 extra officers had been brought into the areas affected to help with the problem. This despite her refusing to rise to the bait and admit that one of the problems was under-manning caused by budget cuts.
It seems to me that bringing in extra police was an admission that the streets are under-policed and a further question that occurred to me was where were the 300 officers brought in from? It seems obvious that other areas of policing would be suffering. I still believe that under-manning is one of the factors at the root of the present problem.

[Stanley]

The plot thickens on urban violence. See THIS for a Mirror report on a leaked Home Office report that warns of the dangers of cutting back on officers working in communities. I've just heard Amber Rudd on Today saying that she hasn't seen the report even though she commissioned the enquiry that produced it.