It should come as no surprise to any sensible thinking person that the more red tape and bureaucracy, the less inclined people are to try to wade their way through it.Needless to say, Nanny and her acolytes don't view the world in this way. They have an inherent love of bureaucracy and form filling; in fact they positively delight in making things as complicated as possible.
Baroness Julia Neuberger, the chairwoman of the Commission on the Future of Volunteering, recognises this problem. She recently stated that a fundamental shake-up is needed to make volunteering "part of the DNA of our society".
The commission's report calls for barriers to be removed to help develop volunteering. Seemingly, and this is not surprising, people are being put off from volunteering because of the mass of paperwork that has to be completed in order for them to volunteer.
Baroness Neuberger said:
"Our vision is a society where volunteering is part of our DNA so that – by giving time – we enrich our own lives and those of others. But, at the moment too many people are being put off.
Many people come forward to offer their time and skills, but red tape and unnecessary bureaucracy get in the way.
It is time to rethink the obsession with any risks that might be involved and to remove financial obstacles which many people experience when they try to volunteer. We also need to avoid time-consuming criminal record checks, unless volunteers are working with children or vulnerable adults."
She is right, Nanny has a very unhealthy obsession with risk.
The commission's report, Manifesto for Change, said that the best thing that Nanny could do was to support volunteering by "non-interference" and resisting the temptation to develop new initiatives.
Fat chance!
Nanny's Cabinet Office spokesman said:
"We welcome this final report from the commission. We will consider its recommendations carefully and respond to it comprehensively in February."
Here is a small heads up for you; whenever a bureaucrat, politician or company director uses the phrase:
"We welcome this report..."
be assured that what they mean is they hate the fact that you have pointed something out that they wanted kept quiet, and will now do everything they can to obfuscate and delay.
If we got rid of red tape, thousands of Nanny's little helpers would be out of work. In Nanny's world, being out of work is a massive crime. Nanny would have fewer relying on her for their income, so fewer would vote for her when we elect our new dictatorship.....No no no... I can't see Nanny wearing that.
ReplyDelete"We welcome this report"
ReplyDeleteHmm yes, you're right.
Another one is "Be reasonable"
When someone says that to you what they really mean is stop being a nuisance and do what I want. The perfect response is:
"No, YOU be reasonable"
The problem with volunteering is that Nanny utterly relies upon it to keep the veneer of society glued together for almost zero cost.
ReplyDeleteSo much hoop leaping for so little real benefit to the volunteer groups.
Mind you, if funding and assistance were more readily available I would imagine that and entire new layer of quango worthies would rapidly descend on the function. It is only because getting any funding is almost impossible that these leeches keep away.
Grant
Politicians "resisting the temptation to develop new initiatives".
ReplyDeleteI think not.
Sounds like some sort of utopian dream.