The Dangers Of Fighting The Last War
All organisations are made up of individuals; they are ‘human’ organisations which means that they have human failings and weaknesses. One of the greatest of human weaknesses is not to accept change. Humans get ‘comfortable’ with a way of doing things, therefore see absolutely no need to change the way things are done. The times I have heard the phrase- ‘ We have always done it this way, why change it, it works’. On that basis we would still be getting into our horse and carts to go to work, rather than get into a car.
It is about efficiency, if something is efficient it consumes less of our time and concerns. People no longer spend hours washing clothes and drying them because of washing machines, therefore the dreaded washday is not so arduous. Unlike in Africa we no longer spend hours gathering fuel and drawing water. It comes out of a pipe. Nobody seriously contends just because we should carry on walking miles to get a bucket of water because we have always done it that way.
Management and how they are appointed has a direct bearing on how the human organisation operates efficiently. The Military had a very bad habit of launching into wars fighting with the tactics of the previous one. The first year of World War Two was fought with the tactics of World War One; World War One was fought using the tactics of the Crimean War and the Crimean War on the Waterloo campaign. Mostly because of tradition, and if it was good enough for m’great-grandfather in 1815 it’s good enough for 2010 will not wash anymore.
If UK Plc was subject to a thorough going Management review. The choice would be to sell off the company to somebody who knew what they were doing and sack all the management in one go, or in the event of there being very little chance of a sale, drastic internal management downsizing, a professional Financial Director who knew how to keep costs down, a clear direction being set out by the management to give the shareholders, ‘us’ , some reason to keep investing.
What is clear to me is that the Political elite, have classic ‘rabbit in the headlights’ syndrome. They are still fighting this election (war) with the tactics of 1945. We have class being run out again with, Clegg and Cameron; we have a political system that has endured since 1688, with a minor adjustment in 1838 and a couple of extensions of the franchise,( akin to a modern army having the leadership mindset prevalent at Ramilles or Blenheim). Of a management team of 646 only about 150 are actively working in Management, the rest are swanning around ‘head office’ plotting against each other and drawing their salary and expenses. Of the 150 working ministers their quality and experience in business is so poor it would not get them a job in a small mid sized bakery in the Midlands let alone a world class Plc.
The Finance Director we have had for much of the last thirteen years was a control freak more concerned with ensuring only he had control of the cheque book, that he paid no attention to cash management and credit control. FDs like this last about six months in the real world, not eleven years.
We have had panic crisis that the management team could not handle, foot and mouth, swine flu and the ash cloud. The management team just could not cope and just panicked.
So if this was a board of directors offering themselves to re election to the board, why would you even consider them if all they were offering was more of the same style of ruinous management?
The Memorandum and Articles of Association of UK Plc need a good look over- oops we don’t appear to have one. Why – because of tradition! Because we have always done it this way. We need a Written Constitution that protects individuals from the State. Otherwise it is another five years under the same management.
Shareholders voting rights is something that desperately needs sorting out. The last Managing Director, until he was ousted in a board room coup, was not elected to his position by nearly eighty per cent of the Shareholders. What sort of gimcrack business is this? You are forced to be a shareholder against your will, they take your stake money every month against your will and then say you can vote once every five years on the board of directors, but eighty per cent of you will not have your views taken into account.
Other countries have to start again as a result of losing a war or revolution, UK Plc has been in continuous operation since 1688, but is now a sclerotic organisation. Without a management overhaul we are going nowhere.
The Political Elite are still playing the same old game trying to get confidence in the game itself, what they don’t like is that the shareholders are not proposing to give them any indication of which Board they want in or if they want a Board drawn from this lot at all. We all know the game is rigged in favour of the House.
In this case the House of Commons, I for one don’t want to play this game anymore until I have some say in the rules.
Sarbanes Oxley
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1
April 23, 2010 at 16:07 -
excellent analysis
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2
April 23, 2010 at 16:41 -
They have been putting in fixed water supplies for parts of the nomadic people of East Africa to save them having to walk all day for water for quite some years now
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April 23, 2010 at 16:54 -
“We need a Written Constitution that protects individuals from the State. Otherwise it is another five years under the same management.”
We *have* written constitutional documents that do that but keep electing MPs who insist it no longer applies. That they are somehow archaic. That Habeas Corpus is a terribly old-fashioned notion.
And then they have the cheek to try and hide behind them improperly when caught troughing!
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4
April 23, 2010 at 16:56 -
But we already have a perfectly good written constitution ,Magna Carta and the Declaration of Rights gives each and everyone of us the protection we need from the tyranny of government.The problem is that as a people we do not know our rights(and until you claim your rights ,you have none). 5000 people entering into Lawful Rebellion(Magna Carta article 61) can be ignored with impunity ,5 million can not.Don’t prevaricate send off your affidavits to Queenie ,stop paying those unlawful taxes and start taking control of your destiny,you know it makes sense
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April 23, 2010 at 17:49 -
Well yes indeed. King William III where are you when we need you?
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April 23, 2010 at 18:23 -
‘Unlike in Africa we no longer spend hours gathering fuel and drawing water. It comes out of a pipe.’
So instead, we spend hours travelling to and from work and working so as to be able to afford to pay for it to come out the pipe.
And we call it progress. -
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April 23, 2010 at 18:29 -
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
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8
April 23, 2010 at 20:03 -
with a minor adjustment in 1838
Is that the one that was so minor that it arrived 6 years late for you?
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April 24, 2010 at 08:24 -
MT
You are of course absolutely correct, which as a graduate Historian I am a bit red faced about. I cannot even make the excuse that I hit the wrong button as the ‘2′ is at the other end of the keyboard !
Mea Culpa for such sloppiness
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April 24, 2010 at 09:33 -
For the past 200 years, UK plc has progressed from a semi-feudal society to one where so called human rights are dripping out of every pore but where living and health standards have risen beyond imagination. An amazing success story – to be celebrated.
There have been some dark times of course – such as two world wars – and recently we have given a lot of our power to a corrupt elite called the EU. And every now and again, the British people have voted in a Labour government – because they talked such a a good talk. But until now, Labour governments have never lasted because they always screwed up – even in 1945 for God’s sake. And then the Tories come in and sort things out – in 1930, 1951, 1979 and now, unless the electorate are unbelievably stupid, they will do it again.
This time it has taken longer for Labour to be ex[posed as the incompetents they are because in 1997 the economy and international background was so good (thanks a lot to the Conservatives before then). So tragically it has taken 13 years for Labour to be seen to have screwed up this time – though gold sales, pension taxes, rampant private credit creation and creeping excess spending are with hindsight clear to see going back 10 years.
The fact that that a little Eurocrat puppy dog called Cleggy could stop this – because the voters are taking a collective leave of their senses and pattern matching to a manifestly false view of what Tories are and justifying it by the tendentious, blinkered self regarding crap of this post – could be a tragedy.
Yes the post is right in saying that Labour would have been voted out after 6 months in any properly functioning plc – but that plc would have installed the Tories again without any problem at all.
I urge every reader of this post to get real and vote Tory.
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April 24, 2010 at 10:41 -
Sox
Think nothing of it – an easy mistake, sorry, typo.
I liked your reference to Marlborough – now there was a man! Not only a brilliant military strategist but an extraordinary diplomat with a gift for keeping uneasy coalitions together campaign after campaign.
We won’t see his like again.
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April 24, 2010 at 13:04 -
Mick Turation – have you made a ‘wee’ typo of your own? Shouldn’t you be Mick Turition?
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April 24, 2010 at 14:21 -
Gloria
Ha ha! That’s very good. I think that both spellings work though the etymology is on your side. I shouldn’t wish to diss your ear but my spelling sounds better, don’t you think?
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April 24, 2010 at 15:14 -
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April 24, 2010 at 16:16 -
Mick, I had of course failed to consider that you may be a keen fan of Vogon poetry. I see that your spelling is adopted here in this celebrated example:
“Oh freddled gruntbuggly
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee.” -
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April 25, 2010 at 17:03 -
U:
I realise that identity theft is an increasingly prevalent danger nowadays but, honestly, you’re just taking the mick, aren’t you?
Anna:
You are awfu, but I like you!
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