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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Having lived in England for three months now, and in spite of quite liking the place and the people, there are a few things which strike me as so odd that I had to make up a new word plus a couple of back formations to cover the situation. Nowhere else that I've been do people face such bad service from essential services and constantly being either ignored or bullied (or both at the same time) by civil servants with such equimanity. The strangest things happen to people and they just seem to accept that this is the way it is and presumably is the way it's meant to be. I spend half my time in a state of anger at the causes of these situations and the other half frustrated at the sheep-like behaviour of the people who just accept them. An example of this is the trains. They an essential service in a country like England. And they're rarely on time. The railway businesses have reacted to criticism, but not by improving the service at all. No, no, instead they've redefined "late" into two categories: "delayed" which apparently can be up to an hour after the scheduled time and isn't to be confused with "late", and "cancelled" which almost always seems to follow "delayed" and, of course, can't be considered to be "late", either. This way, trains are never late. This seems to satisfy everyone ...  So the words are: surnormality n. 1. The state or fact of being surnormal; surnormalcy. 2. Something surnormal; the normally surreal. 3. conformity with the surreal norm [syn. surnormalcy] [ant. normal] surnormal adj. A state of surreality which is so prevalent so as to be considered by its inhabitants to be a completely normal state. surnorm n. The normal general level of surreality. absurnormal adj. 1. A state of surreality so intense that even the denizens of an surnormal state recognise it as being non-surnormal. 2. Deviation from the surnorm.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Jan 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear CK: the arrogance and indifference of civil service is not just English, it's European. I remember when I was studying German in the thirties, with then state of the art Linguaphone records (with cactus needles to reduce wear!) several minutes were devoted to the "Beamtenton" the slightly loud, unemotional, robotlike
speech of all functionaries, who made no pretense of being public servants.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I feel impelled to reply to this, but don't really know where to start.
The problem (for me) is that CapK is superficially quite correct, but an understanding of the situation is only arrived at with difficulty. As with most human situations, it is intensely complex, based on a long history, and cannot be adequately dismissed by phrases like ... the sheep-like behaviour of the people who just accept ... (although I have sympathy with your feelings, CapK!)
And, whilst I both understand and agree with the phrase, above, picking the railways as an example is probably the worst one to choose. There are plenty of other examples for which there is no rational explanation, whilst the railway system is in such a mess because of an amalgam of many years of neglect by a government who hated nationalised industry, followed by a privatisation that handed over this neglected infra-structure to firms unable to produce a swift modernisation without ignoringing the just demands of their shareholders, which led to two horrific rail crashes within a few months of each other, causing a most un-ovine public outcry which had to be addressed. Ergo, the tracks are being replaced and the signalling modernised, even in places where they could have been left for another year, throughout the rail system, all at the same time. This means that the railway companies are physically unable to keep to timetables on a frequent, but irregular, basis. (The fact that many of them do not employ enough staff to cover for sickness and absence is hidden by the above!) This is happening because the public have shouted, loud and clear, not because they have accepted.
The things that are accepted with equanimity (and these are legion, as CapK rightly says) are a result of about 1,000 years total, of feudalism leading into capitalism which has always denied the lower classes any rights. Close participation in two world wars in the C20 did not help to improve this situation.
Those who protested received sanctions of one sort or another, and many of them went across to the new colonies (and then to the Empire and later to the Commonwealth) where they found themselves better able to express their individuality. This removed those who might otherise have been leaders of any useful resistance and a focus for the discontent of the masses that has always run as an undercurrent to British Society.
Things have improved considerably since I was a youngster (1940s and '50s). Many more people expect and demand better service, and standards are improving slowly. (which gives you some inkling as to how abysmal they were, CapK!)
Sorry to have made such a long post - I'll shut up now, and let someone else have a rant!
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Joined: Mar 2000
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2000
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Nowhere else that I've been do people face such bad service from essential services and constantly being
either ignored or bullied (or both at the same time) by civil servants with such equimanity. The strangest
things happen to people and they just seem to accept that this is the way it is and presumably is the
way it's meant to be.
You have never been in Italy, I suppose...
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Oh, no you don't, Rhuby! The causes of the lateness of the trains last night (20 minutes going to London and 1.5 hours going back to Wellybro) were:
(a) Going TO London. A windscreen wiper on the lead TurboStar unit malfunctioned at Nottingham. Since no spares were carried any closer than, I understand, Luton, it could not be repaired and they had to shunt the units ass about face so that the train could continue. This was, apparently, compounded by the fact that the shunters had packed up and gone home about 3 p.m. Apparently the drivers aren't allowed to operate the turntable at Nottingham. You have to have some qualified semi-moron to do it. The train had actually made up nearly 20 minutes by the time it arrived in Wellingborough 20 minutes late. I have to admit that most of this is rumour, but the source seemed good - the station master at Wellybro.
(b) Going FROM London. The train was due to leave at 2340. By the time we got to the station, it was due to leave at 0005. Why? Because the engine driver's wife had rung up to say that her husband had slept in. He finally showed up, apologyless, at 0035. My only half-joking suggestion that we should all go up front and give him a good kicking went down like a lead balloon. Then when they started the train's engines up, an oil line let go on the unit we were in, and we found ourself surrounded by a pall of oil smoke. I seemed to be able to read "incompetence" in the writhing blue/grey streamers. Instead of transferring the passengers immediately to the other unit rake standing at the adjacent platform, they TRIED TO FIX THE DAMNED THING with an adjustable spanner and a screwdriver for nearly quarter of an hour! Finally, they had to admit defeat and transfer us. One of the whatever-you-call-'em railway "workers" said, as we all trouped off the train to get onto the next-door departure platform and into the other one, that the trains shouldn't be allowed to run so late at night anyway and it was just asking for things to go wrong. Presumably, it being dark, an' all. In other words, it was all our fault for wanting the service in the first place. One woman actually seemed to be apologising to him for putting him to such a lot of trouble, but I didn't hear the whole thing. I was running at the time.
And nobody else I saw actually complained. I only found out what had happened to the driver because I did. I might add that sleeping in seems to be a reasonable excuse for the railways not to run on time.
Midland Mainline has no Plan Bs. It's actually hard to see that they have a real Plan A. This kind of thing happens all the time according to those who use the service daily.
It had nothing to do with denationalisation, grasping shareholders, replacement of track, new signals, Tony Blair's birthday, Blunkett's being a site for sore eyes, or any other infrastructural issue. It was just surnormality.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
You have never been in Italy, I suppose...
Well, yes I have. The trains, at least, ran on time ... can't say I think much of the progress they're making with renovation of the city centre in Rome, though. It's been like that for damned nearly 2,000 years!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,636 |
Shall we with the train stories? Why not, I say. Mexico used to have a wonderful train system. They were a safe, inexpensive means of traveling about the country and I enjoyed travelling by train immensely. One of the trips I took was in 1975 from Mérida, Yucatan to Palenque, Chiapas. It was a trip of perhaps 9 hours. I repeated this same trip in 1999. I think it was the same train and I know they hadn't put one centavo into since the last time I rode it. The interior lights were non-functional and it was not exactly safe to be riding this train after dark. As a matter of fact, a drunk man started to give me some trouble, but I merely enlisted the aid of a nice young German guy  Yes, of Troy, he was young, verrry attractive, and with thighs to die for short shorts! across the aisle. And yet.... it was one of the most remarkable train rides I had ever experienced. I left Mérida at 6am and arrived in Palenque at 1am. If the train had been on time and the interior lights functional, I never would have seen the spectacular sight of thousands of very large fireflies looking for all the world like the night sky had come to rest in front of me.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Oh, no you don't, Rhuby! The causes of the lateness of the trains last night (20 minutes going to London and 1.5 hours going back to Wellybro) were:You deserve a reply, CapK, but for the common wheal, I will try to be briefer that is my wont.  no spares were carried any closer than, I understand, LutonIn the days of nationalised railways, before the governments(both Tory and Labour) stopped investing in the system, (i.e, from 1947-c1976) Maintenance depots were situated all over the place, and many large stations carried staff and spares enough for running repairs. Privatisation has brought about "rationalisation" - i.e. it is cheaper to run one big repair depot, but breakdowns take much longer to fix. the shunters had packed up and gone home about 3 p.m. In the period mentioned above, staff were paid proper rates for working anti-social hours, and overtime rates for anything above the contractual hours. Under privatisation, new deals have been imposed where none of these arrangements exist. Overtime is paid for with "time off in lieu." Overtime cannot be insisted on by the ermployer (quite rightly - it is outside the contract) It is not surprising that workers prefer to take the time off after their 8 hour shift (especially if it started at 6am, as is probably the case for those leaving at 3 pm.) Neither is it surpiring if it is almost impossible to get people to work from 3pm to 11pm if they are paid at the same, low rate as for normal working hours. And if staff aren't there, the employer has a smaller wage bill, so why should he worry? Locomotives break down because they are old and poorly maintained under the present system (after having been neglected by the nationalised system for years.) Private firms are slowly investing in new stock, but they have not the resources to bring the whole system up to date in the space of six years and pay out reasonable dividends to the shareholders. The answers to the second bit of your ri-post (e) are in the same vein. If you want a legitimate target for your rant about the way we accept poor service, turn your eyes toward the DVLC at Swansea, the DSS (and I sincerely hope you never have to deal with them!), the passport office, or almost any branch of local government. I will back your comment sto the hilt on any of those !! 
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