We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Public sector cannibalism

I believe I detect some tantalising signs that the Many-Headed Hydra of the British State is, at last, beginning to eat itself:

Institutional racism is a “blot upon the good name of the NHS”, a report on the death of a black patient has said.

An inquiry said the failure to give ethnic minority people proper mental health care was a “festering abscess”.

It follows the death of schizophrenic patient David Bennett in 1998, after he was restrained at a clinic in Norwich.

Retired High Court judge Sir John Blofeld, who lead the inquiry team, said the death of Mr Bennett – known to friends as Rocky – was “tragic and totally unnecessary”.

His team said it believed institutional racism was present throughout NHS mental health services.

This ‘institutional racism’ thingy has turned out to be a very useful multi-purpose weapon. Perhaps they should drop one into Iraq to help quell the insurgents.

In any event, considering the disproportionately high number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds who work in the NHS, I find this accusation very hard to believe. In fact, I will go as far as saying that it is bunkum. Bunkum on stilts. Bunkum with knobs on. About as plausible as an EU anti-corruption drive.

It made more than 20 recommendations including the demand that NHS staff working with the mentally ill are trained in “cultural awareness and sensitivity”.

We have to respect the fact that some people choose to be stark, raving bonkers and that that choice is just as valid as people who happen to be in full control of their mental faculties. All states of mind are the same and doing things like eating spiders and lurking around public parks flashing the old one-eyed trouser snake at little old ladies are merely alternative lifestyle choices that we should celebrate. In fact, these people are not barmy at all, they are just….differently conscious.

But, truly, this is a puzzlement. The NHS is the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the public sector and the only thing still holding that wheezing, cankered Leviathan together is the commitment and morale of the staff working within. What better way to dissolve all that goodwill than by subjecting them to the kind of Inquisitional ordeal that ‘cultural awareness training’ entails?

Do these accusers not appreciate or realise that the possible consequences of their campaign might be to cattle-prod this most sacred of sacred cows straight into the merciless metal teeth of the abbatoir? Or perhaps they do realise but they simply do not care? Perhaps the years of unimpaired success have so sharpened the appetites of these professional race warriors that they have become like ravenous wolves, turning on their class confreres and ripping out great gobs of flesh in a feeding frenzy?

Well, either way, I say it is best to let nature take its course.

12 comments to Public sector cannibalism

  • And one hopes they have a jolly good feed whilst they’re at it, with the Treasury for the starters, followed by the Home office, and then for the entrée, the fat and juicy National Health.

  • Brock

    Really, a government that holds itself to the same standards as the private sector is the best thing you can hope for. Hopefully it won’t take them long to realize their standards are absolutely mad.

  • Julian Morrison

    The “public sector” is just a bunch of disparate and often feuding agencies. They probably don’t even see their commonality – they aren’t libertarian enough to have a concept of “public versus private”.

    Oh and while the racist-finders may be stabbing the NHS in the back, it’s not likely to lead to the NHS being dismantled. Far more likely to be a power grab, install a few racist-finders in more prominent positions in the NHS. That’s the way these games are played.

  • ernest young

    Like roaches on a dying corpse, they scurry about, delving into every nook and cranny, searching for the tastiest crumbs, and that which they do not eat, they soil with their excrement, leaving behind nothing of value.

    While they get sleeker and their coats get shinier, the corpse deteriorates into a pale shadow of it’s former self, all the while, being stricken by the diseases, left behind by the voracious marauders.

    Their collective forages in search of ever larger quantities of food, leave behind a trail of detritus with the distinctive smell of decay, and all the while the grinding of their jaws and the clicking of their claws, grows louder as they frantically search for yet larger corpses to devour in order to sustain their ever growing numbers.

    In the end, when nothing is left to devour, they turn on each other, and in their arrogant fury they destroy themselves. Such is the nature of socialism, as practised by man.

  • fnyser

    They’ll have to start looking for saboteurs and agent provocateurs behind every gurney once they’ve come close to the proper racial mix that should result in harmony and the system sucks even worse.

  • Perhaps Retired High Court judge Sir John Blofeld is eligible for the
    Bernrd Brandes Award.

  • Verity

    David, funny piece, as always. Well, they’ve eaten away the innards of the Metropolitan police, so now they need an even bigger, richer body to feed off. And this is exactly what the NHS needs, of course: more bureaucrats and snoopers. I’m sure the British won’t mind paying even more for their Soviet health service which delivers “diversity and awareness” to the million plus employees and hardly anything to patients.

    BTW, it’s always puzzled me – and I realise this isn’t really the place to ask – but what does “cultural awareness and sensitivity” actually mean? The culture we live in is British. Does that mean we should force all these diverse malcontents to be sensitive to our culture? Errr … I thought not.

    They want it both ways. Even black people who are third generation and are totally assimilated and as British as the rest of us are eyed hungrily as possible victims of racism – despite their culture being identical with our own. Which goes to show once again that there is no racist like a socialist, whose entire raison d’etre is the promotion of divisiveness.

  • Bombadil

    In any event, considering the disproportionately high number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds who work in the NHS, I find this accusation very hard to believe.

    The whole insidious point of claiming “institutional racism” is that no individual racists are required – in theory you could have an organization full of Martin Luther Kings and Mahatma Ghandis and it could still be irredeemably racist.

    The theory is that the organizational structures themselves, and the cultural paradigms that define them, are inherently racist. The only way to fix the problem is (ahem) set-asides and special priviledges for the put-upon group, or trashing the whole institution (by which is usually meant Western Civilization).

    Its a claim to racism that requires for proof only an unequal result – regardless of the unequal initial circumstances or other factors (say, embracing a subculture that denigrates work and education) that could have produced that result. And, since it doesnt depend on evidence of specific racism, it is an irrefutable claim.

    Of course, if you try to refute it anyway – you’re a racist.

  • Julian Morrison

    Blofeld huh? Somebody give the guy a white cat…

  • I think David might be onto something with the cannibal theme. After all, it always seem to be state-run conglomerates that get up to this – the medics and the filth – never the private sector. Maybe we could have a nice little civil war between the bureacrats and the anti-racists, while the capitalists watch on in amusement.

  • Jacob

    ernest young:

    Nice piece of poetry !

  • Dan McWiggins

    Verity, Bombadil,

    Well written posts with which I agree completely. Shelby Steele’s comment that “race will never enter public life except to excuse people from the responsibilities of democracy” is, yet again, shown to be spot on.

    Britons, you need to band together and take your country back.