Well that’s another year over; thousands of revellers took to the streets across the UK to herald the new year (see here) and we’re all now looking forward to the year ahead. But what did last year do to us as individuals or our society, and what can we realistically expect from 2012?
Many people are (apparently) looking forward to the London 2012 Olympics but it would seem, we’re not destined to be as proud of the event as some of those Nations before us have been (see here). To mark 60 years of HM The Queen‘s reign, the Diamond Jubilee will also take place in 2012 (see here). For whatever your views on the British Monarchy you have to admit, it’s an institution that has stood the test of time, with dignity, integrity and mostly, to the benefit of our nation.
But for many, the turmoil of civil unrest, at home and abroad, along with all the financial hardships of 2011, born out of the issues surrounding the Global Economy, are set to continue for some time yet. European leaders warn of another “difficult year ahead” and just as many economists predict a recession in 2012. The spectre of supremacy struggles and nuclear proliferation in several emerging powers shows no real sign of abatement.
Nearer to home… For all those ‘ordinary’ people who received recognition for their good work in the recent New Year Honours List, there are still many more who are living their life based upon factors of self-interest, self-importance and self-promotion. It’s a saddening fact and one that is mostly to the detriment of our society.
We’ve still had stabbings, shootings and all the usual drunken violence over the ‘festive’ period (man dies after assualt at a New Year’s Eve party), when people are supposedly happy and looking forward to better times. All impacting upon UK Crime issues and indicative of many of the problems facing our Police and Emergency Services. Many of these crimes may well have underlying causation factors. Ones that revolve around various social ills, not least poverty however; as they continue to challenge all those agencies, statutory or voluntary, who are working on our behalf trying to cure them, is now really the time to continue reducing their resources?
So what of the out with the old and in with the new? Well much of the ‘old’ is actually being discarded… Old people are being neglected and written off by our social support systems. Older (more experienced and knowledgable) workers are being cast aside by redundancy, in favour of new younger cheaper ones right across our public services.
Many of the ‘old’ ideas and methods employed by our government and public sector management, which largely got us into our current mess, are till there but simply dressed up as new ideas. Disguised in media spin and rhetoric about “doing more with less”, at least until the public angst about the empty public purse subsides somewhat. Once the furore and heat under political backsides dies down a little you can rest assured, those in control will be more than happy to resort to their business as usual tactics.
I’m not one for the New Year’s Resolution tosh, I also suspect many others only pay lip service to the practice. For all the mostly self-interested “I’m giving up smoking”, “I’m going to get fit” or “I’m going on a diet”, many of those hollow declarations will be cast out with the remainder of the festive rubbish, before January has even got going. It therefore goes without saying; I don’t hold a great deal of hope for world peace, an end to poverty, or indeed any substantial decline in our society’s prevalent angry drunken violence, at least not any time soon.
It should also come as no real surprise that; I don’t expect any change in the ethics and methods of our political leadership, or indeed those in the higher echelons of management within our public services!
Blog Report 2011: For those who are interested, an annual report on this blog’s activity during 2011 has been prepared automatically by the WordPress.com stats monkey… In 2011, there were 226 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 561 posts. The busiest day of the year was April 8th with 286 views and the most popular post of the top five was Rooney’s example to our kids (see below). The following posts got the most views during 2011…
- Rooney’s example to our kids… (2 comments)
- Police cuts: yesterday’s news? (15 comments)
- Simple routes to ‘visionary’ British policing for the 21st century and beyond? (11 comments)
- Rab C Nesbitt – Tests my rose tinted spectacles (1 comment)
- The tragic circumstances of DCC David Ainsworth (1 comment)
I find it slightly disconcerting that, despite my efforts to highlight all that is wrong with our public services and how they are failing our society, the most popular post was one about a so-called celebrity. I just live in hope that some of the other stuff has actually proved useful, to those who really care about the important things in society?
For those who visited The Bankside Babble during 2011 and did found something of interest; here’s wishing you all a happy and safe 2012 and, to those amongst you who like to fish… Tight Lines!
Dave's Bankside Babble 