As both a dog walker and volunteer managing an online community picture and video journal for a local hill in Gloucestershire, one of my pet peeves is other dog owners picking up and bagging the poo from their pets, but then attaching the tied bags to a fence, tree branch or similar, or just tossing them on the ground and leaving them behind.
THERE IS NO POO BAG FAIRY!
We probably aren’t grateful enough that local council employees already empty dog bins that are often filled to overflowing.
But for some of us to then believe that our responsibility to clear up after our own pets in a public place or in the countryside stops as soon as it’s bagged and tied is as irresponsible as it is rude and inconsiderate to others and to the area.
Animals do pick these bags up and farmers have lost livestock that have eaten discarded poo bags in fields where they can reach and pick them up.
As local authorities are only likely to pick up full poo bags as part of a litter pick on the rare occasion they have the resources to make these happen, it is left to community spirited walkers to pick these bags up and walk them to the nearest bin – as the owners should have done in the first place.
Because of the way that social media works, pictures are usually the best way to make a point.
Now that we have AI image generators, I thought I would give this one a try and see what happens.
I don’t know about you, but I think picturing the myth of the poo bag fairy turned out rather well!!!
It doesn’t take much reading of today’s news and social media streams to work out that the Conservatives are now fully into clutching at straws mode when it comes to saving themselves and the forlorn hope that they will somehow find the credibility to deliver a record fifth victory in the next General Election – whenever it should come.
That a government that was elected with an 80-seat majority in December 2019 (yes – it’s actually the same one!) should have fallen so far in the polls in less than 5 years is in itself a very profound tell about the state of the conservative party today. And that’s before we consider that we are on the third Prime Minister to have welded themselves to the keys of No.10 during the time between.
To believe that their demise is all down to a poor run of leaders would be foolish of us all, for no better reason than the Tories have themselves elected as leaders (and therefore as Prime Ministers), the best that they have got.
Yes, it could be argued that the right person didn’t get the chance when they should have got there. But that itself sends just as powerful a message that tells us the Party is filled up with people who don’t work in a democratic way, or in anything like the sense we should be able to expect from an organisation that brings people together to do the best possible for the electorate.
The truth nobody will face in politics is that the days of the big beasts of politics are now long gone. The ability to look good carrying a ceremonial sword or time served as an establishment public servant in a top job are not qualifications for leading a country at any time, least of all when we are facing the uncertain and turbulent times that we are now in.
Decades of weak leadership, then awarding top jobs to politicians who are even weaker than they are, has meant that the politicians we see leading all the political parties today, keep getting even weaker leaders. Each and every time that there is a change.
Under the current system, the only way that politics can therefore change is if the political parties change themselves. And that would mean the current crop of politicians that we see in the news each day giving up their seats and walking away in the same way that we might ask turkeys to vote for Christmas.
There is a good chance that the result of the General Election will be nothing like the polls are currently suggesting. And we should all be minded that the collapse of one 80-seat majority and the numbers that underpin it in less than 5 years can also work the other way.
However, if the Tories want to be taken seriously by anyone other than themselves again, they will have to accept that it has been a long time since any of their politicians have behaved like they are genuine conservatives.
Both the public and their own membership are crying out for genuine public representation and leadership. Not more glory-chasing and media headline obsessives who believe that they are the only ones that matter and that politics is nothing more than a game.
We were once free to ignore or mock the presence of voices such as Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson. We jumped on the let’s-call-it-extremism bandwagon that the mainstream narrative afforded us, regrettably at the expense of precluding different opinions that could have done us a lot of good, if we had the good sense to listen and hear them long before now.
We don’t have that luxury anymore. Anyone would be a fool to ignore the danger of some ‘new’ movement quickly being fashioned across the restless and frustrated corners of our society, that will be more than happy up step into the void that has been created by the absence of genuine political leadership for such a long time.
The decision of our politicians not to listen, rather than using public office to do whatever the hell they and their political party’s want hasn’t come without a heavy, steadily accumulating cost.
The ignorance of a brewing undercurrent of very normal people who are sick and tired of being the butt end of every public policy our politicians now deliver, whilst policies that run contrary to what would be good for everyone are relentlessly pursued, means that we may soon reach a tipping point when everyday British people will simply say ‘no more’.
Whilst it has become popular to blame racism for any view or thought which can be considered contra-narrative, the problems caused by the failure of the progressive multicultural project are only part of a much bigger, quickly growing problem.
It has become a cultural norm for politicians to engage in what is probably best called political gaslighting, where the mainstream media adeptly help them create the idea in our minds that anyone who suffers from any one of the growing injustices of our time is suffering alone and that everything is rosy for everyone else.
However, the victims of useless politicians are not alone. People are realising this in ever greater numbers and those responsible are on a fast track to being found out.
Even more of us are going to realise that the cost of living crisis, explosive inflation of the prices of the essentials and basics that everyone needs, the collapse of public services, and everything that real people believe to be wrong, but the narrative tells us is right, are definitely wrong and have been created deliberately, through someone else’s incompetence or design.
These things didn’t just happen to any of us in a way that politicians suggest. These are wrongs that weren’t unavoidable. And even the merest hint that we brought it all upon ourselves is not only unjust; it is an outright lie.
As more and more realise this, people are going to join the groups and movements that some very angry people lead, with consequences that could quickly be disastrous for us all.
Not least of all, because there isn’t currently any kind of sensible or reasoned choice that actually represents anything different to what we have already got.
Regrettably, it would take much bigger politicians than the ones we have already got, to recognise their own folly and for them all to step aside so that they can be replaced by genuine public representatives. Good politicians and leaders who genuinely understand, accept and are motivated by the reality that we elect politicians to make decisions which will have outcomes that are always in the best interests of us all.
It’s anyone’s guess how long we have got and what event or issue will prove to be the last straw.
However, change is coming. And when push comes to shove, we can only hope that Lady Luck is shining, and we have leaders available who will step in and do their best for us, rather than doing only what is best for themselves.
After a long time writing blogs, more and more e-books and a few attempts at vlog and podcast creation too, I’ve decided that its time to shake things up a little and start by changing my approach.
A new approach required looking at the images I use on posts and I finally decided that it was time to cross the rubicon this morning and see what would happen if instead of using a picture gallery online, I just stepped over the imaginary bridge and tried out image generating AI.
Being suspicious of anything that wants you to sign up or try a free offer, my digging around soon led my to Microsoft’s own version ‘Microsoft Designer’, and I have to say that I am admittedly stunned by what I have found.
I was writing a blog post or rather editing a page from a recently published book to put on my main blog this morning and wanted to see if I could illustrate the point about politicians only dealing with the effects of problems whilst ignoring the causes, and thought a ball of used band-aids or sticking plasters outside the Houses of Parliament might be just the thing. (You can see the result!)
WHAT KIND OF WIZARDRY IS THIS!!!
I confess, this shit is amazing – and the fact it’s available from Microsoft for free does bring with it some reassurance too, given that we should all be a little careful when giving away information that any sign-up requires from companies we have never heard of or don’t actually know.
The trouble is, the ‘wow’ response we are all having to using AI – in whichever form we are using it, is blowing minds everywhere, and we aren’t then giving our use of it or the implications of using it another thought.
Every societal problem that this country has, alludes to ways of being, to laws, regulations, public policies and the actions or activities of politicians who have either allowed or encouraged these problems to exist.
These problems are often just accepted as the causes of the problems that we face, in themselves.
Yet the problems that we see are in many cases only the effects of other problems and the real causes of those problems are hidden from view and treated as if they don’t even exist.
The solutions that politicians do come up with fail, because they rarely, if ever, address the real cause.
With the complexity of interconnectedness that exists between every area of public policy, the failure of politicians to address one problem because they’ve used nothing better than a sticky plaster to ‘fix’ it just leads to other problems developing, that successive parliaments and politicians then just attempt to fix in exactly the same way.
Imagine a big ball of used plasters that incompetent politicians just keep kicking down the road and you will have a good idea of what real problems mean to them.
We are in the mess that we are in now, because the effect of one problem has been addressed as if it’s the cause, leading to another problem or more effects of that problem which have then been treated the same. Meanwhile, all the time this has been happening, nobody has ever dealt with the real or root cause.
If we want things to change, we must elect public representatives who understand this and will take the risks necessary to fix all the causes of the problems that society faces – no matter who or what interests are involved, and how resistant they will be to changes that will be fair to all and ultimately benefit everyone.
Adam Tugwell 