Why can't we be more like the French
03 Feb 2010
Why cannot we be more like the French? The reason I say this is because of an incident that occured this evening on Hanley Bus Station when I was waiting for the 18 bus back to Leek. The 6 o'clock service was cancelled and a group of around 20 waited for the next bus that was supposed to turn up at 6.20.
Of course it did not and the next bus was due at 7.10.
I knew what was to happen because I had been caught out by First in October. When I was waiting nearly two hours for a bus then and eventually a bus turned up at 7.10 but not before a heated exchange between a bus driver and a group of passengers. First did not help the situation and the member of staff only escalated the situation and eventually threatened to call the Police after a certain amount of swearing from some angry youths.
On this occasion the passengers were so accepting of the situation. I was saying to them that they ought to complain, but was met with the comment that it was pointless and nothing would come of it. Amongst the passengers was a young couple with a very small baby which by now was wailing with the cold. Eventually I went up to the staff area overlooking the bus station and spoke via an intercom persuading an inspector to come down to explain the situation to the frozen passengers.
He did and after ten minutes re-appeared and organised a special bus to take the passengers to Leek and places in between.
You see I told them complaining in an assertive and polite way can work
However I was struck by how defeatist the passengers were and unwilling to challenge the situation. They were good at moaning, but not very good at trying to resolve the situation. In short many people are bovine.
Why cannot we be more French in the way we challenge authority. Over recent years we have seen the activities of Joseph Bove the French farmer and his anti Mcdonalds campaign, the occupation of closed factories, riots in major cities and the rise of an Anti Capitalists party which has challenged the orthodoxy of the French Socialist Party with an eclectic mixture of traditional communists and members with more contemporary motivations ranging from feminism to climate change.
The example of Bove is especially relevant in the case of Leek as recent weks have seen planning applications for two large supermarket complexes and the sacking of the Town Centre Coordinator much to the irritation of the independent shop owners of the town
We shouldn't take things too
We shouldn't take things too far, but I am all for complaining. If we don't, how will people know where to improve?!
Andy
William Cobbett the early
William Cobbett the early 19th century political writer used to refer to the concentration of power and influence in London as " the Thing".
I'm indebted to Mick Williams for pointing me in the direction of a publication by Demos on the growing power gap in the UK which they have turned into a map of power in the UK predictably Stoke comes into the bottom 5% in terms of access to power.
And as they point out
"The factors that contribute most strongly to draining power away from the low-power areas, and also boosting constituencies up to the top of the power scale, are education, occupational status and political power in the form of seat marginality and voter turnout. Education, workplace power and political power are therefore important areas of focus in terms of moving towards more egalitarian power distribution. Those living in safe seats also tend to score poorly in the other categories, making them subject to a form of double damnation: not only do they lack personal control, they also lack meaningful opportunities to change the wider social and political landscape through a real choice at the ballot box".
In short my experience on Hanley Bus Station was not unusual, people do not have the tools to change their situation.
But in reality, if you're
But in reality, if you're stuck waiting for a train or bus in France there's little most people can do and the inspector, with no fear of ever being sacked can respond to your situation with indifference.
Which is very common.
Oh, and if you live in France you'll find your life regularly disrupted by people protesting about something. Anything. Like having to work hard, or not having amazing pensions.
I agree with you to a certain
I agree with you to a certain extent Bill (people just enjoy complaining!), but I think there are some understandable reasons. Complaining takes a certain amount of confidence and doing it constructively requires skills that not everyone has learnt. Also, people often have a bad experience of complaining, you don't always get through to the person who can sort out the situation for you.
I think that one of the things that used to have strong strands in Stoke and then became weaker was education through unions, workers' colleges and political parties so that people could make their voices heard more effectively. Not everyone benefited but it had a very positive impact for those who did. Skills like critical thinking and debate were later seen as less important in the main education routes and now education and training tends to be much more about how to get a job, when I think it should be about giving people confidence as well. As well as the means to complain, a lot of people want the chance to put their ideas forward and have them listened to but again you need knowledge of the relevant systems to be able to do that.
There are a number of opportunities currently for people to learn about the 'tools' to complain, petition and articulate their views, these are the ones I know about, others might know more:
- Talk About Local provides training to people who want to have a voice online and support their offline campaigns or complaints: http://talkaboutlocal.org/welcome-2/
- Staffs Uni are running various 'Take Part' courses and sessions through the next year, pitsnpots reported on the first one and Penny's contact is on that article http://pitsnpots.co.uk/blog/2009/12/free-university-course-taking-part-c...
- the WEA is running a project called Learning Revolutionaries which supports new volunteer-led learning circles and these can include things like petitioning or running a campaign http://www.scribd.com/doc/22753718/A4-L-R-Poster-New-Design-Learning-Cir...
- The ODDC run open pub discussions across North Staffs on a wide range of issues: http://www.oddc.org.uk/programme.html
And of course there are more ways to complain more easily now like the Fix My Street reports posted here and just the fact that sites like pitsnpots are available as an addition to traditional means like the Sentinel and the radio stations. My Society, who have built Fix My Street and lots of other useful sites have just launched a site called Democracy Club http://www.democracyclub.org.uk which is all about supporting volunteers to get involved in the next election.
Clare it all sounds very
Clare it all sounds very positive! But the recent history of the area is rather bleak as one thing that is apparent is the lack of challenge.
The history of the area is littered with examples of what can go wrong when a decision is made without an adequate challenge from Pin Down in the 80s, the regeneration debacle, World gate, Britannia Stadium and the Cultural Quarter and in the NHS you have the example of David Southall and the Sodexho contract.
And of course if you do then you are labelled a smart arse- Ted Smith's favourite perjorative term- or a troublemaker.
Look what happened to the group who objected to the relationship between the City Council and the Britannia St back in the late 90s
Indeed, another reason why
Indeed, another reason why people keep their heads down :)
I found a link to the power map that you referred to from Mick Williams, in case others are interested (PDF): http://www.demos.co.uk/files/demosmap.pdf
Worst PMT should never have
Worst PMT should never have been privatised. We now have a system whereby they exist to make money, not serve the workers, just as we will if Brown and Camoron get rid of Royal Mail.
How very true indeed Bill, as
How very true indeed Bill, as a nation, we realy are not good at formaley complaining, explaning what we think need to be done and pounting out what the problem is in a polite way. Many are now all to good at dishing out the iting and biting and theats of outrageus vilance upon the person trying to sort out what ever. I have done some public relations traneing, the best thing to do is to when complaning is to stay cool, and say what the problem is in a freandly way, and what you would like to see done.
A few weeks ago I was in hospitel, and had a problem with one of the departments, now, I could have gone to that department yelling the odds, but all that would have done was make me look a prat and probably ill thought of, so I asked the ward sister if there was a complaints system I could go thought.
She said yes but she would have to read up on it herself, as they did'nt have much call for it, people just went off there heads at staff 9 times out of 10, but never complained in wrighting, I did, and within a few hours the crosk of the problem had been ironed out.
Futher to this, last week I got a phone cell thanking me for pointing out a problem within there system and new working proseses would be implermented to stop it happening again.
As for the French, they have always been a rebelus race, but they stink to high heaven and the women don't shave there armpits, it looks like Tina Tuner is doing another comeback gig under some.
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