Row Row Row Your Boat!

From yesterday:-

There's an awful lot of "don't mention the war" going on.

I always understood unions to be something people paid subs to for the protection of their terms & conditions in the workplace, NOT conditional terms & conditions that suit the unilateral arrangements made between the union and the employer, arrangements that members never get to vote on.

The White male Tory charabanc is off the marks and building up steam yet there seem to be increasingly fewer and quieter voices raising objection to the corruption, the lying, the deception, the contempt & the barefaced cashing-in of our citizenship for personal gain by a handful of spoilt brats. In fact there seem to be an increasing number of voices clamouring to be heard in defence of the heartless, soul-less, unscrupulous, immoral self-defined 'elite'.

The no-deal Brexit they are constructing will mean massive pay-days for the lying cheating privileged few, and penury for the rest of us.

The piss-poor management of the pandemic will mean massive pay-days for the lying cheating privileged few, and long-term life-threatening illnesses for the rest of us.

The pleasing of the simple-minded thorugh the premature opening of pubs, of air-corridors and the removal of quarrantine periods will mean massive pay days for the lying cheating privileged few, and protracted misery for the rest of us as the virus enjoys a resurgence throughout the population.

Everyone is expendable except for the privileged few, and even then its up for debate. If you're on the charabanc, you're quids in. But if you blot your copy book, you're out on your arse with the rest of us (although you've probably got a few more quid stashed away than most of us).

Once upon a time Napo was an irritating & painful thorn in the side of the Home Office/MoJ/NOMS. Now its barely noticeable as an innocuous blade of grass bending in the breeze.

Once upon a time Probation staff were angry, independent, creative professionals with flaws & irritating habits who nevertheless kept most of their caseloads in some sort of order.

SPOs were generally tough cookies who kept a team together & on-course regardless of the occasional rebellious spirit; more often than not turned into a force for good rather than thrown overboard.

The Chiefs often struggled to straddle the twin paths of hail-fellow-well-met versus canny Captain of a raucous but effective crew, but most managed it with good grace because they recognised the value of their crew.

Now? If you're wearing the expensive team shirt, nicely pressed-and-ironed to management standards, you get a seat in the boat. Whether or not you can pull your weight. Whether or not you know what to do. Just so long as you make the bosun feel in control and the captain's happy with the homogeneous presentation, you've got a seat.

"Oars at the ready, and... Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!"