Split society is price we pay for not rocking the boat

A POPULAR saying at No 10 in the early Tony Blair years was: “Don’t let the genie out of the bottle.”
In short:  “Don’t rock the boat.”  Or don’t disturb the body politic too much. 
Push through reforms on the constitution, crime and gambling by all means but don’t touch the main political and economic levers of the society.
It would explain how the Bush-Blair relationship came to be built up. It was the Third Way approach to governance.
And, as we know this week, it broadly led to the widest gulf for decades between the low-paid and the rich, as well as a banking system that crippled the economy.
If New Labour had been more courageous – driven by the kind of ideology that gave birth to their party 100 years ago – it would have dared to challenge the powerful interests of the behemoths that dominate our economy.
We cannot lay the blame for the nation’s epidemic of binge-drinking entirely on the sale of cheap packs of beer on the supermarket chains, but some responsibility is theirs.
However, Labour – as well as the Tories – would never dream of shackling their power.
Or, consider the terrible crime committed by the two boys in Edlington.
Are these young boys totally responsible for their actions?
Wasn’t Edlington a mining village where everybody had a job – until Mrs Thatcher destroyed the mining industry, leaving behind a trail of wrecked lives.
While, the parents of these boys were completely dysfunctional, weren’t there other factors that distorted the personalities of these boys – today’s cheap, almost amoral,  tabloid culture, the easy availability of disturbing horror DVDs. But, again, which government would dare tackle the powers that lie behind this?

Who’s to blame?

THE inevitable management-speak came from NHS Camden officials in response to our queries concerning the tragic death of Raymond Witch.
In effect, they appear to be saying:  We’re not to blame, guv – the decision to release him was made by the doctors at University College London Hospital.
But if they do not have overall responsibility for hospital care in the borough, who has?
The UCLH has a gold-star reputation for the treatment of emergencies.
But its treatment of the elderly can be questioned.
The blame lies with government-driven targets, the constant shuffling of beds, doctors who are afraid to rock the boat, and managers who pay too little attention to patients and too much to statistics and funding.