‘Why what?’ you will ask, and my reply is ‘So many things I don’t understand’. For a start, why it is that in spite of the fact that one doctor complained to the authorities that the department was heavily overworked, but the Department in the hospital dealing with the baby who was so badly injured, ignored the warning and later another doctor was censured for missing apparently serious damage to the spine and other injuries, allegedly as a result of these pressures. I myself have been amazed, sitting in hospital, having been injured, at the throughput of patients that are necessary to keep abreast of demand. I have seen surgeons coming out of surgery into the seating area to collect the patients that they needed, because of lack of staff, when this should have been done by a less senior person.
I raise this matter as an example of the chasm between ordinary functioning professionals, and banking. I have never understood why, when the banking system failed, which was not only predicted by practically every newspaper, and scribblers like myself, month after month, that the banks were not left to sink or swim as they saw fit, while the government inaugurated a banking system under the auspices of the Bank of England, and public money would then have been secure against any form of excessive rewards being given for what is nothing more than doing the job they’re being paid for. When people in other walks of life, who have the safety of the population in their hands, such as design and build engineers, surgeons, the police and many others, they are expected to do their job to their best ability without any handouts. Just as an amusing aside, my son-in-law was a professional golfer, and everybody came up to me and asked me how he had done the previous day’s championship, but they never asked me how many piles I had arranged to be driven, or what structures I was putting up.
What is it about the bankers that gives them a licence to ignore, so it would seem, ordinary common practice, even though they are now in effect, civil servants being paid by the populace? It is our money that is keeping the banks afloat.
Another typical question is why when the Prime Minister acted outside his mandate, tries to justify his actions in the face of extreme opposition from true professionals, runs the country into billions of cost for wars that I as a child, reading my comics in the 20s and 30s about the problems that were faced by our troops in the Indian mountain passes, was totally aware of then and if I had been involved I would have been wary now, It seems that there is some distinction between the attitude of government to the misdemeanours, or mistakes of the man in the street, and those of a select few. The question is, why?