Saturday 13 February 2010

Power corrupts absolutely - Berger, the BMA and the rot

The recent case of a young career politician being dubiously slotted in as the official Labour candidate for Wavetree is demonstrative of the fundamental problems within our corrupt political system. The fact that Berger lived at the house of the person running this 'selection process' obviously had nothing to do with her selection, it was simply down to her remarkable life knowledge and experience. She certainly has some money and connections, her shiny website is strangely closed to any comments. Interestingly it says at the bottom of this website that the very same Peter Dowling promotes the site, he is the partner of the Ms Kennedy who Luciana Berger stayed during the selection process.

People like Luciana Berger are the reason why are political system is going to the dogs. She is typical of a new breed of professional politician that knows nothing of real life but is highly skilled at meaningless gassing hot air. Berger is a close friend of the repulsive Euan Blair, another one of this cohort of young know it alls. The people of Wavetree should stick two fingers up at the likes of Luciana Berger by voting for the candidates with some real world experience.

This new breed are invariably ex-student politicians who spent their student days sliming around debating and greasing each other on committees rather than doing normal human activities. They then typically study vague and useless subjects such as politics and business, it is unusual for them to study something proper like a hard science. Then they will never get a real job which exposes them to the reality of life, they will instead lubricate with other greasy slime balls in an industry such as pubic relations, management consultancy or lobbying. They then become career politicians at a young age, they have no interest in serving the public, they are serving their own career interests. The only thing they are capable of by this stage is talking the dishonest doublespeak of a politician, they are now destined for a life of hypocrisy as self serving liars. They are of no use to anyone but themselves.

The medical equivalent to this contemptible breed is the career medico politician. Liam Donaldson is a great example, a colossal tool who couldn't cut the real world of clinical work, a man who preferred to tell the government what they always wanted to hear than actually serve his profession or the public. Carol Black is another example, a lady who is on more committees than John Terry has had lovers, she is a typical career medico politician, her malignant work in recent years has seen her sell her soul to the government in shafting junior doctors and the whole medical profession.

The process of gaining extra pay as a doctor is intrinsically corrupt, the 'clinical excellence awards' system is a corrupt old boys network that is used by medico politicians to control the workers, anyone who dares go against the politicians and managers will be partly discouraged from doing so by pay cuts that can result from the corrupt nature of this process. The GMC/government's new revalidation process for all will be yet another weapon with which to beat dissenters, the GMC's new local officers will be empowered to intimidate anyone who would dare speak out about malpractice or systemic failures, the conflicts of interest between the Trust/PCT management's interests and the roles of the local officers in protecting the public will be glaring, however this is what the government wants, a corrupt nepotistic system that will cover up problems, not an effective open system that will learn from its mistakes.

The corruption and anti-democratic nature of the way in the medical profession's union, the BMA, works is also another prong of this dysfunctional web of corruption. The talk from the likes of the BMA's Jonathan Fielden always sounds good, but the reality of it is that these Chameleon like creatures will say whatever is required for them to get to the next level of the food chain, they are only serving themselves like two year olds who pretend to be hurt in order to get an extra sweety. Back here Jonathan Fielden pretended to care for what the BMA membership felt in order to force Jim Johnson's resignation, I wonder how long it wil take for Fielden to metamorphose into the new Jim Johnson.

So what's the point of this wandering rant? Well, it is obvious that power corrupts and that those who seek power are the least suitable to wield it. Corrupt systems fade and grow in cycles, but the corruption will only wane if people start making some tough decisions, it is not an inevitability. The people of Wavetree need to make a stand against the shallow career politician that is Luciana Berger, however it is not quite so easy for the NHS and the medical profession. Hopefully every little stand will help, every time a target is ignored to give a patient a better service, every time people speak out against the lack of representation provided by the BMA, every time a consultant tells a manager to stick it when fighting for patients. Maybe with enough small pushes, the big pushes will start to follow.

2 comments:

Ben said...

The third paragraph of that post is true brilliance.

Demetrius said...

As one who was born in the West Derby Union Workhouse (More recently Walton Hospital) in a ward overlooking Walton Gaol I was very sad to see she was not seen outside the gates of the HMP. It would have brought back fond memories. Given the demographics now of the area, however, perhaps she is anxious not to say too much about crime.