Thursday 16th April

It seems so simple, doesn’t it?  Every action creates a reaction.  So, before you do something quite different just pause a moment and think of the consequences. If you want to move the furniture around fine, but think ahead; if you are moving that sofa from the wall opposite the telly – where are you going to move it to, and if that requires moving something else then where is that going to end up.  It is no good ending up with all the furniture in the middle of the room and then discovering that where they were in the first place was actually the most sensible arrangement. And so it is with both Government and Business; short term and ill though out ideas are pursued with vigour and intense pressure from above, ignoring any possible hint of criticism, and then when it all goes wrong the ideas are shoved under the carpet quickly and no-one is allowed to mention them.  A little long-term planning might have saved a lot of heartache, to say nothing of the money lost.  I have seen many company bosses rush into quick decisions without consultation, often ruining the companies in the process and many workers have lost their jobs through this stupidity.

We rush into decisions which may have long-term consequences, a little slower and a bit more thought and the right decision might be made.  Gordon Brown and the 10p tax rate springs to mind but the last Tory administration were just as stupid.  The previous Labour Government had started an ambitious school rebuilding programme, partly because many schools were dilapidated but also to stimulate the moribund building industry after the financial crash and to create jobs.  Within weeks of taking office the Tories cancelled all these contracts, despite the fact that millions had to be paid out in compensation. A couple of years later they decided to put money onto re-building schools and the whole process had to start again from scratch.  They had a hugely complex top-down re-organisation of the NHS, which resulted in thousands being made redundant and paid large sums from the public purse only to be re-hired by the new bodies.

Maybe permanent coalitions as are common in Europe would mean that a few wiser, less doctrinaire heads would be around for longer.  Compromise would be the order of the day, rather than the pendulum swing of UK political decision making. But we all know that the biggest priority of all Politicians is to be re-elected, so ridiculous un-costed promises are bandied about and nobody stops to think about the long term consequences.