No faith? No hope, no charity

I was disturbed to read on the Manx government website yesterday that the Isle of Man is soon to host a British Irish Council officers group which is supposed to be ‘exploring the role of the ‘Third Sector’ in promoting social inclusion.’ Amongst the local examples the visitors are apparently going to hear about or visit are homelessness and befriending schemes.
According to Andrew Swithinbank, one of two Social Services clowns revealed in a Tynwald question last year to be on £100K + salaries:
"This is not just an opportunity for us to blow the Manx trumpet although we have a great deal to be proud of in how Government and the Third Sector are working together in the interests of vulnerable people. Rather it is an opportunity for mutual learning. We want to share with our colleagues from other jurisdictions the problems we have faced and the solutions we have found and the challenges ahead so that we can all learn how to build even better and stronger partnerships with the voluntary and community sector."
Well Andrew, it will take less than two minutes to explain we’ve failed miserably. Then what do you do for the rest of the conference?
You can read the pathetic bleatings of this overpaid underachiever and other chumps at http://www.gov.im/lib/news/dhss/officialsfromsix.xml, and I defy Manx readers to get past the first paragraph without laughing or swearing profusely.Seriously, if current Manx examples are being held up as ‘best practice’ for planned public sector cutbacks in the UK and surrounding islands that is pretty terrifying.
The simple truth is, in the last few years Manx public services (often third rate to start with) have been hacked away to the extent they no longer exist in any practical sense. All this has happened under the pretence of ‘partnerships’ with churches and other parasitical bodies which might have otherwise quietly died by the end of the 20th century through public disinterest.
Instead of just paying professionals to look after our disadvantaged competently, the government just slipped a few quid to the same faith-biased amateurs who caused the bigotry and general ignorance which held us back so many years in the first place. So now, unless you’re what some biblebashing dimwit (armed with digital technology but Dickensian attitudes) considers ‘the deserving poor’ you get no help. Under cretinous initiatives such as ‘befriending schemes’ run by evangelical throwbacks in our smaller communities pensioners who don’t attend church are now left to die alone and un-noticed.
For example a nonagenarian friend caring for a wife with Alzheimers moved to the UK earlier this year. It was the only way, given the handover of the relevant public services to village ignoramuses from the local chapel, he could be sure she would even get minimal care, such as the odd home help popping in.
Off-island readers – watch out for this nonsense. If such policies are ever adopted in your communities then at some future point the recently revealed Irish church-led abuse scandals are going to look like a model of social good practice compared to the total breakdown of public services you are about to experience.