Clarkson

23rd January 2023

Never one to be too far from the headlines, journalist, TV presenter and former TOP GEAR co-host Jeremy Clarkson has again recently caused controversy with his recent column in The Sun regarding Meghan Markle. 

Personally, I believe Clarkson to be a marmite person, some people absolutely LOVE the man, and some people absolutely HATE the man. 

I also believe that there are many that love SOME of his work, and hate SOME of his work at the same time. 

I FALL INTO THIS CATEGORY !

I suspect Clarkson is happy to generate that range of passion. 

There are some that will be indifferent to the man also, and have no opinion of him.

Call Jeremy Clarkson whatever you want, but he is essentially an entertainer, and self publicist, I don’t say this as a bad thing, he wants people to watch is programmes, read his columns and talk about him. So do the people that employ him. He has to generate a certain amount of interest and publicity.

Specifically on what was said about Meghan Markle.

I will not repeat here was Jeremy Clarkson said in his article. That can be found online.

Personally, I found the article, distasteful, ill judged, in bad taste and a huge mistake.

I did get the ‘Game of Thrones’ reference, even though I have never seen an episode of this TV Show. The scene referenced is very famous and I imagine most people (adults?) will have seen it.

Was it mysogyny ? Like any judgement call, people will have to make their own decision on it.

I didn’t like the reference he made, I didn’t like the wording he used. I didn’t like the article.

You may have stronger views on it, or not.

Clarkson realised his poor judgement, issued an apology on Twitter, has apologised a number of times, and has also stated he emailed the people concerned with an apology. 

Hopefully he will learn something from this.

I do not believe, however, that Jeremy Clarkson should be, using popular terminology,  cancelled.

I do not believe, however, that Jeremy Clarkson’s TV shows and Newspaper Columns should be, using popular terminology,  cancelled.

There are lots of TV entertainment & news shows that I dislike. Even hate.

I exercise my own judgement and switch over or switch off.

There are journalists and websites that I dislike. Even hate.

I exercise my own judgement and don’t read them.

I suggest that people take the same approach, and watch Jeremy Clarkson’s shows and read his articles if you like him and want to, and don’ if you don’t.

Everyone knows what they are going to get with Jeremy Clarkson !

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Twitter : @apple_shwn

Please add any comments to my Twitter post at @apple_shwn

Policing : Let’s Get Back To Basics

22nd January 2023

I am not an expert on operational practices within the Police Service. 

I have never worked within the Police Service.

But I am a taxpayer and want the Police Service to work, to meet its targets, to live its principles, and to have the confidence and respect of the people of the UK.

I have huge respect for the Police Service, I just want it to be better, and I believe it can be.

I think a huge amount of reform is required, and the rest of this blog contains a few discussion points for the journey, from the eyes of an ‘Ordinary Joe’.

Peel’s Policing Principles

Sir Robert Peel became the Home Secretary in 1822.

In 1829 Peel set up what is considered the first Police Force in England and Wales, covering the London area initially.

Peel is recognised as establishing the 9 Key Principles of Policing, which are still valid and relevant today.

As time has gone on, and we have asked the Police Service to do more diverse activities, perhaps we have lost sight of these principles a bit.

I suggest that the Police Service as a whole, and individual regional services revisit these principles and agree what these principles mean today, and how they should be embedded in operational practice.

What we want the Police to do

Ultimately Policing must be about maintaining law & order. We can ask and expect the Police Service to do more, to do other thing, but these other things must not be at the expense of the basics.

What are the basics ?

I suggest …

• to act as a deterrent to stop or restrict crime and criminal activity, and to maintain law and order
• to attend ALL reported crimes
• to investigate ALL crimes, gathering evidence as required
• to catch and arrest criminals and pass them into the criminal justice system
• to make the community and its people safe
• to ALWAYS act without fear or favour
• to ALWAYS act in the best interest of the public and never act for political purposes
• to ALWAYS have the support and respect of the public  

Recruitment

The Government must develop and publish rolling workforce plans covering 5 year, 10 year and 20 year periods. These should cover the skills required (based on what we want the Police Service to do now and in the future), demographics, soft and hard skills, qualifications etc. 

There should NOT be any requirement for qualification to degree level to join the Police Service. 

Physical fitness is very important both at the time of recruitment and maintaining this throughout a career in the Police Service by regular assessment.

Regular Psychological, Physical, Criminal & Security Re-Assessment

Recruitment of staff into the Police Service needs to be made in consultation with rigorous entry criteria.

Amongst this entry criteria, Psychological profiling must be of the highest regard, along with the obvious checks on previous criminality and any security risks. 

Policing is becoming ever more physical and therefore Physical fitness must remain important and perhaps even be further strengthened.

Once employed, I believe that Police Officers should undertake regular and on-going re-assessment using the same or enhanced criteria. People’s situation change and the Police Service need to understand these changes and take any required corrective action. I suggest that this regular re-assessment should take place every 3 years, although I know there will be some that will suggested a shorter frequency, and others that would suggest a longer frequency.

On-Going Training & Development

As with ANY organisation, on-going training & development is extremely important.

A full review of this provision within the Police Service should be undertaken considering Its aims and objectives, delivery and effectiveness. 

And full consideration is needed for hard and technical skills and equally soft skills.

Pretty standard stuff.

Internal Associations

The Police Service should consider the removal of internal associations within it. 

By this I don’t mean groups of friends that get together to talk, to play sport, to go for a drink or meal etc. I mean the removal of formal associations that now seem quite prevalent within the Police Service.

Quotas

Recruitment and employment quotas are, in my opinion, a race to the bottom, and a form of discrimination in itself.

For recruitment purposes, organisations should employ the best people for the jobs available, not recruit based on ticking boxes to meet some demographic or political policy or whim.

Police Numbers

Deterring crime is a vital part of policing. A key element of this remains strong and highly visible policing in the community.

Quite simply, Police Numbers are TOO LOW.

We must urgently increase Police Numbers (and this is already happening) and get ‘Bobbies back on the Beat’. I literally CANNOT REMEMBER the last time I saw a Police Officer patrolling on foot, or bike in the local area. To be clear, it’s been years.

Another urgent action for consideration should also be the re-establishment or re-opening of local Police Stations that have closed in recent years, and also the re-establishment or re-opening of Police Houses in local communities.

These actions will help deter crime, but will also build community respect and confidence, truly mutually beneficial.

Attend & Investigate EVERY Crime

This is a simple Policy, that should be implemented immediately across the UK

EVERY crime must be attended by Police Officers

EVERY crime must be investigated by the Police Service

It’s time to tip the balance back to the Police Service and the law abiding people of the UK.

Focus on ‘Specific Crimes’

This blog has been very generic when talking about crimes, however I believe there a some areas where additional and sustained effort is required.

DRUGS

It’s clear that a lot of crime is committed by serial offenders (re-offenders), and that much crime is drug related. I believe that the Police should have a zero tolerance for drug related crime, and that the judicial system further down the road should be the same.

Cutting re-offending must be a focus.

RAPE

We are just not doing enough to deter & prevent, investigate, arrest, and convict Rapists. WE MUST DO MUCH MORE.

But we must also address

• the culture that makes rapists think that it’s ok to commit these heinous crimes, and that they will probably get away with it anyway, even if they are convicted
• the culture that makes victims of rape think there in no point in reporting the crime, or are terrified about how the crime and they will be treated.

I believe we are improving, but WE MUST DO MUCH MORE.

Other areas where additional and sustained focus is required are SEXUAL ABUSE, PEOPLE TRAFFICKING and DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. 

These may be subject to future blogs and so additional information will not be considered in this blog.

Performance Data

The Police Service must re-confirm the Key Performance Indicators it should use to understand the effectiveness and efficiency of the Service, measure at least on a monthly basis, publish this performance to the public at least on a monthly basis, and then assess performance and identify any operational changes needed to reach target performance (where performance is below target) or to achieve performance improvement over and above target levels (leading to eventual higher targets being identified).

I am sure some of this is already being done, Let’s now make it more visible and make  performance improvement part of the culture.

Regaining Public Confidence

Policing must be by consent, but it doesn’t always feel that this is the case at the moment.

The Police Service must endeavour to be firm but fair in all that it does. 

General public support, respect & confidence will return when all party’s understand and agree the purpose of the Police Service, understand its principles and performance targets and can determine the effectiveness of the service.

It will return when the public feel safer, both themselves physically and their property.

Supporting Activities

There are other things outside the scope of the Police Service, but have a clear effect on the Performance of the Police Services.

For convenience, I have identified a few below, there are others, and these may be part of a future blog. 

Sentencing Policies

A full and detailed review of appropriate sentences for law-breaking and crimes should be undertaken.

Conviction and a prison or other sentence must be seen as one of the two main deterrents, the other being the possibility of meeting Police Officers  going about their business.

Unfortunately, I believe many criminals now treat prison sentences (when they are actually sent to prison) as an acceptable risk, often because sentences are seen as too soft. This becomes evident with the amount of re-offending that is seen.

Review of sentencing, and yes, that means more custodial sentences and longer custodial sentences, would act as further deterrent. Surely a good thing.

Parole

Parole, I suppose, has been about giving convicted criminals some hope of early release from prison sentences for ‘good behaviour’.

Now I normally support rewarding good behaviour.

But in the case of those in prison I suggest that the principle should be reversed and that Good Behaviour should be the expected default, which leads to prisoners released at the end of their sentence (no parole) and that Bad Behaviour should result in additional time been added to prison sentences. 

If this idea was considered and implemented, the principle of parole could be removed from the Judicial System very quickly.

It’s time to change the culture.

Prisons

It’s clear that the prison estate requires modernisation, both in terms of buildings but also operating practices. This needs to be done as a matter of urgency.

A guiding principle must be that if prisons are full or nearing capacity then we should always look to build more prisons rather than send fewer people to prison or release prisoners early due to capacity problems.

Judges / Magistrates

Unfortunately the general public, us ‘Ordinary Joe’s’ , have a pretty poor level of confidence in judges and the decisions they make. Although publicity will always tend to focus on controversial or unusual rulings, its seems clear to this ‘Ordinary Joe’ that often Judges seem to provide overly lenient sentences, for many reason. 

Far better guidance is required for sentencing, together with regular and on-going training and competence assessment.

One More Thing

In reforming the Police Service we mustn’t return to the mistakes of the past but we can and should learn from the successes of the past. 

From interactions with experienced police officers in real life and on social media it is clear to me that we must engage with these experience officers and use them, learn from them, put them to work as advisors and if willing into more participatory roles again. They can see the problems and they know how to solve them.

My belief is, they would support this initiative, because they want to improve the Police Service also.

Conclusion

If after reading this blog you believe that I have been too critical, then I will honestly say that is not the intention. What I have tried to do is discuss some of the issues as I see them and propose some ways forward.

I hope I am not so silly to believe that I have identified all the problems, I know there are many more, and I certainly haven’t identified all the solutions. That, absolutely, was not the point of the blog.

The point was to start a discussion, because …

I believe in the Police Service.

I believe in the Judicial Service.

I believe in Law & Order.

I want things to be better.

I believe they can be.

But we must start to talk about the problems, solve them and make it happen. 

Start that discussion with your local Police Service and local politicians NOW!

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Twitter : @apple_shwn

Please add any comments to my Twitter post at @apple_shwn

8 Immediate Actions for the NHS

16th January 2023

The are many problems that are effecting the efficiency and effectiveness of the NHS. 

For many people, the NHS is something that cannot be challenged, cannot be criticised. 

It’s the sacred cow.

This is partly why we are in the position we are.

We must change this attitude. NOW!

A quick Blog post can’t hope to address all the problems, but it can be a start and highlight some things that could be done VERY QUICKLY.

Here are 8 things that can be done now.

1. Nightingale Facility’s - Clearly one of the major problems affecting hospital operation is accepting patients into A&E. Often they are unable to process incoming patients as they simply don’t have the beds & space, and the flow through hospital wards can be hampered because patients that no longer need medical care IN HOSPITAL and could be released with their bed becoming free, have to remain in hospital because patients are unable to manage at home or inn the community with or without carers or other social care. Establishing Nightingale Facility’s near hospitals that these patients can be transferred into and looked after until suitable plans and support is in place would free up beds and allow a better flow of patients throughout the hospital.
2. Drunk Tanks / Observation Facility’s - If you live in ‘party towns’ or ‘party city’s’ (these days it’s most town’s & city’s) you already know that one of the things that desperately need to be established are drunk-tanks,to reduce the huge numbers of people that turn up in A&E Depts that are drunk or walking wounded or require lower priority care/observation. If they were established near A&E departments or in town/city centres this would lead to a big improvement in the efficiency of A&E Departments who can concentrate on those in genuine need. Ambulances could also get back on the road after dropping off people at these facility’s. If you have attended A&E on Fri-Sun evenings you already know this. 
3. Removal of Non-Jobs - One thing that gets a lot of publicity in the news and social media is the recruitment and employment of what seems like an army of non clinical roles, and, quite frankly, roles that seem to be made up or not required, that add little or no value. In fact they usually remove value. Some degree of non clinical roles will always be required, but it must be reduced to a minimum. Made up jobs need to be removed. Those doing these roles already need to be shown the door, and future recruitment for these types of roles needs to be stopped. Another activity that could be done in 1-3 months.
4. Workforce Plan- Cleary the NHS need to establish competent Workforce Plans covering various time phases, probably a 6-Month Plan, a 5-Year Plan and a 10-Year Plan, covering demographics of the population, demographics of staff, skill requirements, qualification requirements, available medical treatments, physical resources etc. The old saying ‘FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL’ is almost always true and is certainly true in this case. These Plans could be established and operational in 1 month, that’s what would happen in the private sector.
5. Independent Pay Body - It seems to me that Independent Pay Body’s are a good thing, and if all party’s can agree to the principle, then their recommendations should always be accepted. I believe that recommendations should be made each 6 months because, as we have seen recently, changes in the economy and in particular interest rates and inflation can happen very quickly. The principle though is that recommendations are accepted.
6. Pay Increments -  In the private sector, pay rises and sometimes bonus payments are often funded in part from efficiency and productivity improvements, savings and profits. We should consider incentivizing staff by having pay increments that are part funded as an across the board payment, and then an additional part being performance related, based on efficiency,  productivity and cost saving.  Performance gains, savings and self funded  pay increments. Got to be the way to go. Like most organisation, there is clear inequality in salary across the range of staff, of course there is, there is bound to be, but applying across the board percentage increases to salary just increases this inequality. Pay settlements need to be structured in such a way that lower paid staff receive a bigger increments and higher paid staff receive lower increments, the exact structure to be agreed by the Independent Pay Body.
7. GPs -  Covid is over, we are now living with Covid, we will be forever. It’s time for GPs to stop working from home. It’s time for GP’s to stop working part time. It’s time for GP’s to get back to their practice’s, and for face to face GP appointments to be the default again, and not the rarity. We also need to ensure the framework is there that plans, trains and retain GPs and other medical professionals. A standard time of service after training should be enforced in contracts. 
8. Minimum Service -  we quickly need to ensure that minimum service levels or even strike restrictions are enforced onto key medical services.  The government are looking at this now. 

This will not be enough, but it will be a start. And any journey begins with the first step. The answer CANNOT simply be throwing more money at a failing organisation and carrying on as we have always done.

A failing business in the private sector would reform, change processes, reduce waste, make better purchasing options, train staff better, get better management, remove superfluous jobs, remove bureaucracy, set better targets and make managers in fact all staff accountable for their performance and failure.

So should the NHS, before we pour more money into it.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Twitter : @apple_shwn

Please add any comments to my Twitter post at @apple_shwn

I love films, here are my favourite 12

13th January 2023

So, after a couple of serious blogs, I thought I would lighten it up a bit with a list of my favourite films.

Although I accept and thrive on the randomness of life, I must say I like order, lists and, in particular, ordered lists. I am a bit geeky I suppose. Or odd, maybe.

Anyway, like most people, I love a good film, of almost any genre.

I was thinking about this the other day, and thought I would post a ranked list of my 12 favourite films, some are classics, some aren’t. YET!

These are just films that I love, enjoy watching, have watched many times, and always make time to rewatch when on the TV (and yes I own most of them on iTunes).

I wonder what films are on your favourite list. Please feel free to comment on my twitter feed at @apple_shwn

12. Darkest Hour (2017)

11. Arthur (1981)

10. Casablanca (1942)

9. Bullitt (1968)

8. Star Wars : A New Hope (1977)

7. Cromwell (1970)

6. JFK (1991)

5. No Time To Die (2021)

4. The Italian Job (1969)

3. The Godfather II (1974)

2. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

1. Breakfast At Tiffany’s (1961)

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Twitter : @apple_shwn

Please add any comments to my Twitter post at @apple_shwn