Mefi thread on the "shock and awe" tactics I mentioned yesterday.

A reminder, if we need one, that Saddam is a despicable git.

I am afraid I have 2 rants I need to get off my chest.
There has been a debate going on for some time now as to whether the England team should offer tacit support to the brutish Mugabe regime by playing a game of cricket in Zimbawe. All sorts of claptrap has been batted back and forth, with the powers that be insisting (against all logic) that the country is perfectly safe to visit, and that in any case it would in no way offer succour to Mugabe. The players, by and large, kept shtum. Then they released a statement yesterday expressing grave concerns about the trip. They cited safety concerns , and to their credit, suggested that the whole enterprise was morally dubious.
The odious Tim Lamb however continues to stress that the game will lose money, they are contracted etc. Funny how they have a moral duty when it comes to protecting their pocket but not when it come to sending a message to a murderous psycopath.

Not a good day for me and authority figures. The Climbie report was published today. This was to do with a child who was sent from the Ivory Coast to live with an aunt and her partner in London. She died a gruesome and unnessary death aged 8. Unsurprisingly the social work profession has come in for some stick which is par for the course. The medical profession gets away scot free depite being the people best placed to offer a reason for the injuries over a long term and spot a pattern. The police are forgivern because as ever it was social services that cocked up.
None of that I have a problem with, it's par for the course. However what is also par for the course but rarely mentioned iss that those who are ultimately responsible walk away better off. Local councillors who set budgets and place caps on staffing levels accept no responsibility. In this case the social worker on the ground was dismissed almost immediately. This was her first job and it is acknowledged she had nothing like adequate support or training. Her line manager has been to shown to be utterly incompetent, but this individuals career is over and her reputation has sufferered irreperable damage, not to mention the psychological scars.
The line manager initially involved was given redundancy, the next was sacked despite barely being involved in the case. All managers above that level have moved on elsewhere, in every case to better paid positions. Whatever happened to the notion of corporate responsibility, or the quaint old phrase "The buck stops here". They appal me, each and every one of them up and down the land because this story is typical. And they wonder why they cannot recruit into the profession and why those that were mugs enough to go into are leaving as fast as their little legs can carry them.
Incidentally, the dude who was chief executive at the time says there is absolutely nothing he could have done. He became head of the Commission for Racial Equality. He is currently on gardening leave after assaulting an officer of the law at a cricket match. Despite there being many witnesses he denies the incident took place. I don't think I have much respect for this pillock.
Grim reading

Worm game.