Who wants a “Big Society”?
There were difficult times before but that was before big was beautiful
in the shape of retailing, banking and government.
Now I want my Little Society of the past back. It was cheaper, close at
hand and a whole lot easier to deal with. Here are just a few thoughts:
Off licences that sell beer by the jug in quantities you ask for and not
in expensive packaging.
Policemen who know which town or village they are in without having to
consult a sat-nav or ask for guidance from Control.
Refuse collectors that remove refuse.
Meat retailers who are butchers who know one end of a cow or pig from
the other.
Post Offices within walking distance that sell stamps and have
collections with a parcels service that does not send everything to Coventry
Banks nearby that keep your accounts accurate, pay interest on savings
and get on with dealing with the customers instead of regarding them as sales
targets.
Greengrocers round the corner with a choice of locally grown fruit and
vegetables.
Real newsagents.
Local councils who tell you what they do, use English and not management
speak like verbal diarrhoea and have people who can give answers with
councillors who do not think they are the Court of Versailles.
Bakers who bake real bread.
Pubs that cater for adults and do not require you to spend up to fifty
quid on microwaved packaged junk food supplied from central Poland so you can
sit down and have a drink or two.
Doctors and nurses who sometimes look up from their computer when they
are talking to you and work in surgeries which do not smell like a 19th
Century Parisian brothel after a bad night.
Shops which sell you what you want and not what their marketing or
distribution systems tells you to have.
Appliance retailers and servicing where the men do not have to come from
the other end of the country and the parts ordered from East
Asia .
I will leave it there and suspect that others could think of a few
things more.
Where any adult could tell off an erring youngster or hold he/she back from danger without being thought iffy.
ReplyDeleteWhere children could play out all day and evening.
Where mothers could leave babies outside shops in prams without the social services getting involved.
Where the abattoir was local and livestock was not carted for days before being dispatched in ways God/Allah only knows how.
I could go on.
Even as basic as bacon which did not secrete a white scum when being fried.
Well said - I want my Little Society back too.
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