We're in a blame culture here (and it's your fault...)

Accidents happen, used to be the saying.  Not any more, they don't.  One of today's society's depressing features is the fact that when something goes wrong nowadays, it has to be someone's fault.  And usually, not the person whose fault you would naturally assume.  So, for example, we have turned in to a place where hard working and caring social workers are routinely blamed for child protection failures, forgetting that the actual reason the tragedy occurred was an evil individual perpetrating a horrific crime.  Money laundering crimes?  I know what we should do: let's put all the onus on professionals like lawyers and accountants, and blame them when dirty money finds its way in to the economy.  It couldn't possibly be the fault of the person who accumulated their ill gotten gains from criminal activity, could it?  That would all be too easy.  You've been scammed out of money by cyber criminals, for making a mistake transferring funds while using an unfamiliar online banking device that the bank more or less forced you to use by making it more and more difficult to bank in any other way.  That will be your fault too, sorry.  Doesn't matter if you're 80 years old, find it difficult to use technology, and didn't understand all those warnings that appeared when you started the transaction.  It won't be covered by your home insurance policy either, because the insurers haven't been forced by legislation to include this as a standard part of your cover.  The police probably won't be able to help because it's a financial crime and they don't have sufficient resource to investigate financial crimes.

A few years ago I remember watching President Obama as he addressed the nation after a failed attempt to commit a horrific act of terror on the American people.  This attempt had been stopped shortly before a potential bomber stepped on to the plane and I expected Obama to stand up, remind the US people of the need to remain vigilant at a time of extremely high terror alert, and thank his security services for their work in preventing another disaster.  Much to my surprise he went down a different route.  It was unacceptable that the incident hadn't been stopped earlier, he shouted, banged the table and announced there would be a high level enquiry in to the unacceptable performance of his security services.  Really?  Had those security people not just saved many lives by their hard work and dedication to the cause?  It was a massive error of judgement on his part, in my opinion, and I wonder if he looks back and thinks the same way.

That of course brings me on to Grenfell.  This was a terrible tragedy, with many people losing their lives after a fridge went on fire in one of the flats, the fire then spreading quickly through the high rise tower block partly due to the inadequacy of the material used for the outer cladding of the building.  Fire fighters from all over London and beyond attended that night, trying to fight one of the most difficult and complex fires they had seen.  72 people died.  The inquiry into the fire suggested that the advice given to residents in the tower block to stay in their flats was wrong, and before we knew it news programmes and newspapers were full of stories effectively blaming the London fire brigade for the deaths.

I fully appreciate the need to learn from major disasters, and the role of the public inquiry in facilitating this.  The excellent recent safety record in the North Sea oil sector is attributed at least in part to lessons learned from the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988.  However we live in such a blame culture now that the original, and very important, purpose of those inquiries appears to have been forgotten in a horrible desire to point the finger of blame at our public services, or indeed at anyone else who can be made out as a scapegoat.  We are now in a situation where the fire service - yes, I'll say it again, the fire service - are actually being blamed as the cause of the Grenfell fire deaths.  It is completely ridiculous.  I even heard one high profile campaigner given airtime on national news to suggest that there were racist undertones to decisions made by fire fighters that evening, although this was later retracted.  Our media needs to do better than act as the medium for this messaging, but sadly I fear that ship sailed long ago.

Busy week ahead

As often seems the case on a Monday, I had quite an interrupted night’s sleep and decided to get up before my alarm went off.  Not sure why that happens; too much going through my subconscious mind, perhaps?  Anyway it means I have a bit of extra time and am using that to write a few words of wisdom, or otherwise, on this blog.

I have a very busy week ahead.  It is a busy spell at work anyway - partner appraisal season - and on top of that I have things on every night:

Monday (tonight) - Scottish Athletics board meeting;
Tuesday - regular coaching session at the Meadows;
Wednesday - partnership meeting, which is normally followed by a couple of drinks;
Thursday - weekly visit to the physio, followed by West Highland Way podcast with John K;
Friday - night out with Tuesday night running group and others from my club, Harmeny.

I should make clear that I’m not complaining, as I’d rather be busy.  I’m also going to make a serious effort this week to be more careful with what I am eating, as my lack of running is already contributing to a few extra pounds appearing, something I’m not particularly happy with.  It’s not the easiest time of year for me to cut back, and will no doubt get even more difficult as we head in to the Christmas party season, but I’ll do the best I can now and have a much more focused effort come the new year.

What else has been happening?  Still no running for me; it looks as though this issue is going to take quite a bit of time and I’ll need to be patient with it.  Patience is a virtue, I’m told.  It was the Lindsays Scottish National Short Course Cross Country Championships (quite a snappy title) at Kirkcaldy on Saturday.  As well as the competition at the front of the races - including a win for a Harmeny athlete, Tendai, in the boys’ under 15 race, and bronze medals for the team - I was delighted to see that eight senior women from Harmeny taking part in the 4K race.  What a great turnout from them and from all the other clubs who pitched up and battled their way round the muddy course.

On the political front, campaigning has now begun in earnest.  The Conservatives have made a dismal start to the campaign with various gaffes from senior politicians.  I expect their lead in the polls to reduce as the campaign goes on, much in the way it did at the last election two years ago, as their lack of credibility both as a party and as individual politicians becomes more apparent as they are put under greater scrutiny.  I find the Lib Dem messaging opportunistic, and do not take to Jo Swindon’s rather hectoring style at all.  In my opinion she is not a Prime Minister in waiting.  Despite the massive media campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, he retains strong support (in England at least) from some of the younger voters.  It’s a different battle here in Scotland where I expect the SNP to gain seats, but perhaps not as many as some commentators are suggesting.  I watched BBC’s Question Time on Thursday night.  It took place from Glasgow and felt as though the SNP’s messages were being supported by a significant majority of the audience.  Time will tell if that was a bit of a one off, reflecting the fact Glasgow has been a strong SNP area for a number of years, or if it indicated a turning of the tide towards the independence message.  I certainly hope it is the latter.

Injury update

For a few days I've felt I've been making good progress with my injury.  I managed to walk 8 miles on Saturday at a decent pace when I was up watch the Glen Ogle ultra, without any issues at all.  I stayed away from any temptation to get involved in the country dancing at the after-race party - not a big sacrifice, I can assure you - and I've been doing my exercises religiously.  So imagine my excitement yesterday morning when I did the 'raise my leg' test that my physio uses, and found that my left leg could go as high as my right.  "I'm back!", I thought to myself, and despite the hideous weather decided to try a wee run at lunchtime.

I was very excited as I got myself ready.  It's been about 5 weeks since I've done a proper run, and I've missed it a lot.  I didn't mind the rain at all as it soaked me to the skin within seconds of leaving the office, and I headed off at an easy pace in the general direction of the canal.

At first it felt good.  I managed half a mile or so, not at any great speed, but then started to feel a bit of tightness on my left calf.  This was the area that had been sore the last time I had tried to run, and was not a good sign.  However on I continued, running along the road where I fell and broke my shoulder a couple of years ago - how prophetic - but it was clear this tightness was not going away.  So I headed back in the general direction of the office and called it a day.  Two miles done at no pace at all, and it was sore.  Clearly I was not back.  My calf remained quite tight throughout the afternoon and evening, not so sore that I couldn't walk on it, but not right.  I had probably stopped on time, before doing myself any real damage, but it was clear my self styled fitness test had failed.

I'm back at the physio on Thursday night and know what the message will be: sciatic nerve pain takes a long time to go away, and as soon as the nerves feel under threat the muscles respond negatively as a defence mechanism.  I will be told that it will heal, but will take time.  And time will require patience.  Something of which I am in very short supply at the moment.

A quick update

It's been an interesting few days.

It has been confirmed that we are having a general election on 12 December. We spent the weekend in and around the beautiful village of Killin, where Sandra was running in the 33 mile Glen Ogle ultramarathon and I was wishing I could be running but was watching instead. England lost the rugby, beaten by a much better South African team on the day.  Newcastle United won a Premier League game on Saturday.  I was at a charity dinner on Thursday night where I heard one the best speakers I've heard for a long time, Paul Reid, and had a very entertaining long chat with a former Lord Advocate and senior Scottish judge.  Rangers announced an £11 million loss and tried to present this as a good thing.  Nigel Farage has never been off the television.  Andy Maciver presented a wonderfully entertaining seminar in our Edinburgh office on Thursday morning.  His thoughts: 60% chance of a hung parliament, 30% a Conservative outright majority, and 10% a Labour outright majority.  He also thinks there will be another independence referendum within the next two years.  We caught up with a good number of friends from the ultra running world, shared a few beers, and appreciated how lucky we are to have this community in our lives.  Entries for the 2020 West Highland Way race opened, it all worked, and after nearly 3 days we already have 210 entries.  There are a few interesting things going on with Scottish Athletics, hopefully positive, which will all become clear in due course.  I went to the physio on Wednesday, full of hope I'd get the ok to run again, and left disappointed.  At least I am able to walk further than before and am sleeping without pain.

It's our fourth wedding anniversary on Wednesday.  Partner appraisals have started and will continue until January.  The nights continue to arrive earlier each day.  I'm back at the physio on Thursday and hoping my improvement has continued.  I'll take my running session on Tuesday and will hope for a reasonable turnout.  The news will continue to be full of election coverage, which I enjoy.  We certainly live in interesting times.

Have a good week everyone.