I didn't do it so I am not helping tidy up

The usual line from my 5 year old when we ask him to help his 3 year old brother tidy up the toys which his 3 year old brother has tipped all over the floor is "I didn't do it so I am not helping tidy up".  If only life was so simple.

I have my suspicions that I will come in for a certain amount of criticism for some of the things I write in this latest instalment.  However, I am man enough to take it (bullet proof vest and bodyguard now in place) so what the hell.

This morning I woke up to Radio 4 and then Radio 5 (two alarms because I am rubbish at getting up and my wife gets up 15 minutes after I do and hates Radio 4).  Radio 5 started talking about how the Unions are having a big meeting to discuss potential collective action (aka General Strike) to stand up the Government and oppose the huge cuts being imposed across the economy and resulting in, as they called it, "attack on our public services".

One of the people Radio 5 spoke to was a businessman whose argument was that whilst it is true that the bankers bore most of the responsibility for the financial crisis that we are in, everyone has to shoulder the burden of getting us out of it.  He went on to say that bankers have paid a price (I believe he meant financially as well as in terms of increased regulation), that the private sector generally which is no less blameless than the public sector has swallowed an incredibly bitter pill in cuts, real time wage cuts, job cuts, profitability cuts and therefore the public sector has got to swallow its pill too.

Mr. Private Businessman, I salute you.  In truth I salute you because of a specific point that many have failed to pick up on.  The current mess we are in will not be solved by playing the blame game.  The UK is in dire straits.  It is in dire straits for lots of reasons.  Labour would have us believe that it is in dire straits solely because of reckless activities by the banks and global events.  Of course they would, after all, the downturn happened on their watch.  The Tories are just as happy to bash the bankers.

Personally I expect more from my Government.  When I make a mistake (never happens of course but when it does) I do not seek to place the blame on external events.  Instead I turn around and say, the mistake has been made for which I am obviously sorry.  That cannot be undone.  But what matters now is taking the right action together to rectify the mistake.  If I am prepared to take credit when things go well due to my actions I must also take responsibility when my actions result in things going not so well.

But more than that.  When I am acting for a client and the client makes a bad decision even if that decision was made against the best of my advice I do not turn round and say, it's not my fault and therefore I am not gonig to help you out.  On the contrary, I say to the client, this is the position let's see what WE can do to sort it out.  My success is linked to my client's success.  If my client's deals constantly go stale it does not bode well for me.

Unfortunately, more and more, both in business and in politics all we see is the blame culture.  All anyone is interested in doing is passing the buck.  We are more than happy to claim the credit when things go well but the minute it does not go according to plan we just point the finger at someone else and look to walk away.  Gordon Brown was more than happy to claim the credit for the boom times but the minute the bubble burst it was not his fault but due to "global events".  He was right, the bust was due to global events but so was the boom.

So, we are all in it together and must all shoulder the pain.  Except for one thing, and here is the real kicker, the painful part, the part which everyone hates.  We are not all in it together.  Because there is a certain group of people who have the ability to rise above it all and walk away leaving the rest of us behind; that is the very rich and beyond.  Herein lies the problem.  We live in a global economy where the richest among us have the ability to literally pick themselves up and move to another place at their leisure.  What this means is that it is impossible to get them to pay their "fair share" all we can do is get them to pay the share they are prepared to bear.  There is nothing we can do about this so forget about it.  Life sucks at times.

However, for the rest of us, including working, middle and even some in the upper class who may not be quite as upper class as they like to think, we genuinely are in this together.  I do not believe that the current Government wishes to destroy public services.  They are making difficult choices and will be certainly getting some of them wrong.  But it will help no one if every individual simply points the finger and says it was not my fault and so I should not pay. 

We may not have made the million plus holes in the dam but if we don't all stick our fingers in the holes we will all drown in the flood. . . except for the rich who can afford the helicopters to escape it.