Unfit To Govern

What This Blog Is About

This is political blog reporting on the actions of the UK ConLib coalition government in order to asses if they are fit or unfit to govern our country.  It is a serious attempt to keep a check on the way this ConLib coalition government has set about Governing this country. There is very little so far which has given me any confidence that they know what they are doing or have any regard for real people.

To provide some balance to the serious material there are also profiles of people involved in our politics and historical outlines to help understand how we got to where we are today politically.

My Credentials

I graduated with an Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering back in the 70s.  Since then I’ve had a varied career, which has included being the founder director of a communications company, European manager for an Autralian company, IT and Manufacturing Director for an SME and most recently setting up as Sole Trader selling the now defunct Home Information Packs. I have a good knowledge of IT for SMEs, and website design, promotion and management. If you need help in this area my rates are very reasonable (contact me).

What prompted Me to Set Up This Blog

I am one of the very early casualties of this new ConLib coalition government. In 2007 I used my redundancy money to train as a Home Inspector and started selling Home Information packs (HIPs) countrywide. During the first six months of this year my company moved into profit and I was starting to make a modest living from the business. I had even decided to employ someone to help with the growing business, that was until HIPs were scrapped without notice on the 21st May, 2010.

Now I can hear you all saying that you didn’t like Home Information Packs and that ‘you knew the Conservatives were going to scrap them’. That is missing the point.  The relevant points are:

• Yes, it was widely known that the Tories would scrap HIPs but they had to actually win the election first.
• What is not so well known is that the Tories also indicated that prior to scrapping there would be a 100 day consultation period to discuss the way forward after scrapping HIPs.
• The HIPs were officially cancelled without any notice whatsoever
• It is estimated that that 3000 people were immediately made redundant as a result and up to 10,000 people in total are affected.

I believe that the way this was handled is an indicator of the insensitive way that this government will govern; with arrogance and a total disregard for the welfare of businesses and the people affected.   I actually first found out about the suspension of HIPs from a customer who phoned me up saying he’d just heard on the news that HIPs were gone and that he didn’t want his any more and thus didn’t see why he needed pay for one.  I have to say that the few weeks following the suspension are one of the worst few weeks in my business life as I had the largest number of HIP orders ever going through with people not wanting them and trying cancel their orders even although I had incurred most the costs in their preparation.  Even if they had announced a HIP cancelation date a few weeks in advance I would not have to put up with this chaotic situation.

There is also another aspect to this which everyone has forgotten.  Prior to the introduction of HIPs ‘everyone’ seemed to agree that our house buying and selling process is one of the most stressful time of your life due to the archaic system.  This process has remained almost unchanged since the last overhaul in 1925.  So this government, instead of being forward thinking and progressive, has scrapped an attempt to move forward in favour of returning to the ‘old’ system with no plans to even look at it.

Here is how a responsible Goverment would have carried proceeded;

• Announced the commencement of the 100 day consultation period prior to the suspension of HIPs on a specific date
• Used the 100 day consultation perod to consult on the inprovement to or abolition of HIPs and how the house buying and selling process can be improved.

Finally, no sooner had the suspension of HIPs been announced they proceeded with the same arrogance to announce the cancellation of ID cards.  As, before it’s not the actual cancellation of ID cards that I take issue with, it is way they did it.  In particular they have refused to refund those people who had already forked out for the trial phase of the plan.  When asked about this in the house of commons the Minister arrogantly replied that they had announced they were going to scrap ID cards if they won the election.  Just like HIPs they have a total disregard for the people involved.

I’ve yet to see anything that indicates this Government is fit to govern.