We should never allow ourselves to be patronised

This week’s Mediahuis/INM Irish regional newspapers’ column

Michael Commane

Former UK cabinet minister, Brexiteer and Boris Johnson supporter, Nadine Dorries  gave an interview last month to Financial Times chief features writer, Henry Mance.

I put my hands up and admit that I’m no fan of Ms Dorries but she made some interesting comments in the interview. She’s a Liverpudlian of Irish background and is an author, whose books have reached the dizzying heights of three million sales. She attributes her writing success to her Irishness: ‘There is something in the Irish DNA that makes people write in a way that works.’

During her luncheon interview with Mance she said that the NHS could pay nurses more if it paid management consultants less. That was probably the highlight of her interview for me. I was surprised that a Tory MP would express such a sentiment. But it makes great sense. 

Let’s expand on that idea. Why should some people earn  indecent sums of money while there are others on the breadline?  How can someone who has millions ever understand or appreciate the difficulties of those who have nothing. Why do we constantly give such obeisance to the rich and powerful?  It happens all across society.

We give people names and reputations and I’m forever mystified why we place them on such pedestals.

We hold people with great wealth in awe. I don’t for a moment want to be disrespectful but I found the amount of news coverage that was given to the five people who lost their lives in the submersible completely disproportionate to the news given to the hundreds of poor people who lose their lives in rickety boats in the Mediterranean. Imagine if a tenth of the money spent in attempting to rescue the five people in the submersible were spent trying to solve the problems of those fleeing from their homeland? But that’s not the way the world works. Why not?

I’m not for a moment suggesting that we  should all be paid the same or that we are all of equal ability but we have lost the run of ourselves when it comes to bowing and scraping to those we have placed in top jobs. We are forever saying it, no one is indispensable.

Why do we allow ourselves to be bullied? Why are we so slow to speak out and criticise our bosses when we know they are not doing their jobs as they should. In short, why is the world so full of sycophants? And it’s right across society, in every nook and cranny. 

Only last week I discovered in an article I read in the English Catholic weekly, The Tablet that according to Canon Law a priest may not whistleblow against his bishop. How absurd is that?

It’s so easy to complain and criticise away from the bosses and the rich. Why don’t we have the courage and the wisdom to speak face-to-face with those who manage. 

We should never allow anyone to patronise us. I believe there is a crying need for open and honest discussion between the managed and those who manage. There is far too much insincerity, far too much game-playing. We are living in fragile times, in a time where there is urgent need for honest talk.