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[diarytypething]

One of the most hideous new words that has come out of recent political and media discourse is "non-job". Having scapegoated supposedly wasteful public sector practices, and got the general public riled up about that, they moved on to calling it "bureaucracy" - because we can all hate the idea of forms in triplicate and so on - then final arrived

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

If I weren't already de facto doing it, I'd leave a comment to the effect of "Can I subscribe to your newsletter"

Having said that, one of the Scott Adams Dilbert books talks about making sure that you aren't more than two degrees separated from the core business of the place that you work at in order to protect against redundancy.

[diarytypething]

If you followed my sporadic and shambolic political blog the readership would probably double.

Local councils have often been organised on Keynesian principles, which in the simplest possible explanation means that the government employs people because it's better than having them on the dole and it stimulates the economy. By this logic, "inefficiency" is part of their core business.

[stubbleupdate]

Is most of that posted on your journal already? I read the one about the rape bill at a late session of parliament and was sure that I'd read it before, but I'm not sure.

Also, if we're plugging our side projects, I'll give a shout out to Idea102 - Explain Everything. There's an LJ feed for it somewhere.

[bohemiabythesea]

they're up to their arses in ducks

I can't get over that one. I know that's not the major point of your rant, and I do fervently agree with the rest of it, but I will now spend the rest of my afternoon laughing at that particular image.

[diarytypething]

If you liked that, you might also enjoy March of the Sinister Ducks. It occasionally pops up on the internet, but many people don't realise that it's been around since 1983 and that Alan Moore is one of the writer/performers.

"I've recently changed my diet" is now a punchline

[stubbleupdate]

And if you like Alan Moore, you'll love Warren Ellis on Alan Moore on the phone

[bohemiabythesea]

...what?!

No, I did not know this before, but yes, it's awesome. It fits nicely with my current state of mind.

So, thanks!

[davidn]

It's always been a difficulty for me to express simply "I agree" or "I laughed at this" through the Internet without having anything to actually say, but... this was wonderful :)

[diarytypething]

Thank you. I take it you still follow the British news media enough for the themes to make sense then?

[davidn]

More or less. My entire British news updates basically come from you, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton (and they need to be on year round!)

[diarytypething]

Your view of current events must be about as serious and balanced as the stuff on Fox News, only skewed in the other direction, and probably the better part of a week behind what's actually happening if you're hearing it from me.