Ladders and Ladders

I have watched a new twist to the Baby P saga unfold.

It is silly to imagine mistakes will not happen, but there seems to be a slight disconnect between how mistakes are handled in the real world (hence I exclude the City and most major corporations) and wherever it is that the BBC and those it invites on to witter away inhabit.

In the case of Baby P we seem to have series of folk participating, some through being plain useless, some from being spineless, but most through being careerist drones, in the death of a child. It happened before, lessons were not learned, it has happened again, no one has been held to proper account... and so it will keep on happening.

I have lost count of the number of times I got fired in the advertising world for telling a client he was a prat or missing a line of copy when proof reading. Fine, I wouldn't want to work where I was not wanted, and ended up with my own agency. And if it was all falling around me I usually was smart enough to bail first. Rule 1: if you can't do a good job and know it (for whatever reason, even if nothing to do with you), don't try. It will go wrong and you will carry the can. Unless in the public sector, where it will go wrong, people may suffer, taxpayer money will be lost (and 'found' mysteriously to pay off whatever or whoever needs to be) but no one will be held to account, lose pay or status, much less their jobs. At least not without an eyewatering bribe from the public purse to spare those who surrounded them and will remain's blushes. Witness the harridan in the NHS who oversaw old folk left in soiled beds.

Now I have a Local Gov exec, who seems to have spent a long time at the hairdressers in advance of her day in the spotlights, giving us the 'only' 'alternative', namely the goon squad knocking down doors because our Tracey lobbed up at school with a grazed knee.

This is also an outrageous cock-up, and those who cover their backsides to ensure no deaths on their watch in this manner, arealso a waste of space.

Life is cruel, and seldom clear cut. So there will be lots of grey areas. In these cases I have every sympathy for those making tough calls and will always defer to innocent until proven...

However, what the government and BBC are presenting me with is an either/or that is based on cases which simply have no justifications, yet many still seem to think they do.

If you have clearly blown it, and blown it a lot, maybe you are in the wrong job. I think a few dead kids and a few unjustly abused/accused parents might think a wee purge of the 'job security at any cost' system that currently prevails might agree.

Gaurdian - Most tabloid hysteria is fake. The Baby P coverage is ghastly because it manipulates genuine outrage - He just had to be named Julian

Telegraph - Baby P case and Hazel Blears prove that when leadership fails, the messenger is shot

BBC - Official sacked over Baby P case

Gaurdian - Misguided vengeance - Interesting chocie of words there.

Those who seek to detect them need support

No issue with that at all.

not the sack

Well, as we are getting to the highest echelons (for once), I say that it's hard to equate the first part of that sentence with the last.

And if you wish to prevent something happening again, especially through rampant numptitude, it's a nifty way to replace those with less than sterling histories of performance, hopefully with some better able, and also focus the minds of those who remain on what might be the most important aspect of their job functions.