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I try to avoid sporting metaphors.
They can have a mixed reception.
This really interesting article by Caroline Jones is a cuppa-builder’s read, to save for later.
It would be easy to overlook ‘recent events’, but not the maturity and poise of England's footie manager, Gareth Southgate. A young-man, wise beyond his years.
I was particularly struck by something he said.
Before ‘that game’, he hit the nail on the head;
‘We live in an angry country’.
Not the sort of thing you’d expect from a football manager. A piercing observation of our nation that goes well beyond, ‘we need to tighten the back four…’
He’s right.
The nation is angry.
Angry that our rivers are full of sewage.
Angry drivers, that our roads are full of potholes.
Angry that police services don’t seem able to catch shoplifters and house-breakers. Petty criminals who blight our neighbourhoods.
Angry that our environment is splattered with tagging and graffiti that councils don’t remove.
Angry that sanctions against Putin appear to be having little impact on his oil-income.
Angry that India buys his oil and we and the United States still send them foreign aid.
The Palestinian diaspora are incandescent about what is going on in Gaza. Jewish families, inflamed by the events of the 7th October.
The Tories are angry that their squabbling and mismanagement means they are likely to be out of power for a generation.
Labour is angry at their inheritance. They are unlikely, any time soon, to be able to do much about it. Fearful the nation will turn its anger on them.
We are angry about parking, litter, the national curriculum. Cycling on the pavement. The fact that people don’t queue properly at the bus-stop. Ofsted, the GMC and internet scams.
Angry about the Gordian Knot of small boats and desperate people.
Southgate is right. We are angry, tetchy, simmering.
Indignant at the audacity of the water companies, paying themselves millions and regulators letting them charge us more.
Resentful the government will let them.
Hostile to housing authorities who put-up their rents and expect tenants to put-up with black mould creeping into their children’s lives.
Beyond angry at the behaviour of the Post Office. Authorities imbroglio in the infected blood scandal. The opportunism during Covid.
Angry that it will all go unpunished as inquiries allow witnesses to 'not remember’ what happened.
We're angry about everything. Have you noticed… everything...
... except the NHS.
Families are aghast... incredulous that they’ve waited for hours for an ambulance that’s supposed to turn-up in minutes.
People are despairing they are parked in corridors. At home, waiting for treatment.
They rightly complain. Satisfaction has slumped.
But angry?
The public are unequivocal in their support for the core principles that underpin the service; tax funded, free at the point of use, available to all.
Support for these principles barely wavered in 2023, with more than 90% supporting its universality. More than 80% supporting it being tax funded and free at the point of use.
They are cross, but not angry in the way they might be. Why?
There are over 1.4m people working in the NHS and hundreds of thousand involved in supplying or servicing the NHS. Each of them will have family and friends, neighbours and acquaintances. Millions who will tell stories of how they come to work and witness a system, on its knees.
Millions who will know how people are busting a gut and...
... when they are in the hands of the NHS, they see for themselves the care, effort and energy that goes into fixing up, patching up, getting us up on our feet again.
Those who know will be angry about the austerity years that have emasculated the NHS and social care. Leaving the once best system in the world, to erode and struggle.
Angry at the leaders who, through wilful neglect, let it happen.
Angry at the audacity of new leaders, with no plan, other than to declare this engine-room of national effort and pride… ‘broken’.
Angry, knowing tough talk and wild ambitions are no substitute for funded, well worked solutions and plans.
Angry that there are none.
Whatever begins in anger, ends in shame. Shame at the cause. Shame at our reactions.
The NHS has nothing to be ashamed of.
Ashamed of the predicament it finds itself in. Ashamed of its effort. Ashamed of the determination that injects everyday with the will to do more and better.
The shame belongs to the neglect that got us here and the ignorance that will keep us here.
That makes me very cross.
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