NOW that there are more wrinklies than striplings in this Eden, this demi-paradise – 11.58 million pensioners to 11.52 million under 16s – you might reasonably think that the powers that be would defer to experience. Common sense learned along life's rocky road is about all that is left in some of our armouries.
But are we listened to? Does anybody show the slightest inclination to heed our opinions or wilt under our ridicule? What do you think? The most common complaint in Britain today by mature people of all ages is
that nobody takes a blind bit of noti
ce.
The plain fact is that we have lost control of our democracy.
Oh, it isn't just crackpot governors of all political parties approving useless wind farms, regardless of overwhelming public opinion and engineering advice.
Nor Gordon Brown's unconstitutional minions outrageously spending public money on an online Number10 TV to broadcast his speeches and press conferences – pardon me while I yawn – or making a video to try to sink the ridiculous campaign to make Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear presenter, the PM. Why do they bother?
Nor is it the £15bn wasted, according to the Taxpayers' Alliance, by unelected regional development agencies, such as Yorkshire Forward, at a cost of £600 per household, by damaging the economic growth they were supposed to promote.
In each of these cases, those responsible should be regularly – and fiercely – exposed for their utter profligacy by the infinite variety of watchdogs that are supposed to protect us from the rapacity of politicians and officials. But these watchdogs don't bite much, so nobody listens to them.
This is because, under New Labour, anybody who vigorously seeks to enforce minimum standards in public life is fired.
When the Government is not usurping local authority responsibilities through such agencies as Yorkshire Forward, it is egging them on to do their worst by model guidelines drawn up by the demented in Whitehall.
Sadly, there are sufficient numbers of boneheads in local government who are only too willing tools of the bossy, nannying state that Britain has become. In my experience, they are often female, overweight, close-cropped and wearing black trouser suits – no doubt to create an impression of executive power.
Dammit, one of this clan who, for all I know, may be slim, beautifully coiffed and wear colourful gowns, has just gone on a £5,000 course from Sandwell, in the West Midlands, to Germany and Florida, to learn how to become "more likeable and able to like herself". The only wonder is that anyone apparently suffering from such complexes ever got the job.
But anything can happen in local government these days – as the residents of Mirfield, Huddersfield, West Wiltshire and Essex have latterly discovered over their rubbish collection. Although they pay for it, they tend to be treated like dirt by town hall dictators if they overfill their bins (even when dustmen go on strike), don't put them within a footstep of the kerb or live in inconvenient or allegedly dangerous places like cul de sacs.
Hang it all, Islington council officials recently went through the rubbish bins of 1,000 residents in 53 streets to check on their recycling. Is there no limit to their cheek? No, there is not.
Using that terminator of harmless pursuits and public good – to wit, health and safety laws – our civic satraps have this month stopped a Cleethorpes woman from selling cakes from her garden for charity; caused Spalding to abandon its tulip festival; and even ended a whist drive for those living in sheltered accommodation in Norfolk because they cannot afford £250 a year insurance. Now Chichester district council has reportedly advised staff not to use the phrase "man in the street" – in case it offends women.
This utter official determination to ban, interfere or otherwise sabotage our lives has inevitably infiltrated the NHS, leading
not just to lethally contaminated wards but to 15 million patients being unable to book appointments with their doctor when they need them, according to a recent survey. And they call it the National Health Service!
As for education, our universities can no longer pretend they are seats of learning when they deliberately discriminate, for social engineering purposes, against middle-class pupils, however splendid their exam marks.
Britain has become a living, albeit wheezing, example of a nation going to the dogs because its democracy is no longer working. Nobody is accountable for anything any more. Your voice and vote have never mattered as much.
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