The Extraordinary Talents of Ordinary People

 In these trying times it’s very easy to get disheartened; in fact, it’s actually  quite hard to keep your spirits up. So you have to keep reminding yourself of certain things and, in this, I’m not grasping at straws but considering my own practical experience.

So let’s start with what, in my view, is wrong about what is happening although it must actually be blindingly obvious to anyone. We, not only, have a society that is less equitable than at any time in my life but one that is getting more unequal with each passing day. People on exorbitant remuneration packages who seem intent on ensuring that, despite failure, their more than adequate, income continues to be made available. That many of those who run the country have been educated at a very small number of private schools. Also, not only are they unrepresentative of the rest of us, but they actually have little understanding of the lives that a great number of their fellow citizens actually lead. This, in a country, that is still one of the wealthiest in the world. It’s as if they are all up there operating the levers of power; levers which aren’t connected to the machinery being operated. Of further concern is that there also appears to be a headlong rush to an exit door when, even those within government now admit, they have undertaken no research in regard to the likely costs and repercussions of that exit. Moreover, it’s one in which many of its most senior members, never wanted such a course of action. You really couldn’t make it up.

In short, we have a lowest common denominator society whereas we should have a highest common factor one. Unfortunately, it’s also a society that seems to be using the vices of greed and avarice as its fuel. It could, just as easily, be one that utilised a little more caring and sharing; something that I believe that, the majority of those living in these islands, would prefer.

So, why do I feel so strongly about this? Well it’s largely because those at the top end of our government seem to have no understanding whatsoever of the grass roots and culture of the country in which they live. Yet, not so long ago, Jesse Norman, a Conservative MP, was writing of the vast amount of untapped talent that existed in this country of ours. Now that’s something I have very direct and personal experience of; notably in running a charity which helped people who were homeless and unemployed to build their own homes.

That talent is, as it has always been, ever present in this country. It’s just a pity that those who purport to govern us can’t see that, not only can it work but that it produces better results than the way we currently operate.

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