We can no longer be funny, or critical, or even express an opinion…

So today brought the news that William Sitwell has “stepped down” as editor of the Waitrose in-house magazine. He cracked a joke. It was an obvious joke. Surely no-one thought he was being serious. And yet he’s gone. Fired to all intents and purposes since the decision to quit was certainly not his. And this is not an isolated incident, it’s a damning reflection of where UK plc now sits…

Meanwhile across the pond people are blaming the appalling slaughter in Pittsburgh on the style and tone of Donald Trump. TheStickler is no fan of his tweets, or of much else for that matter, but really… were the often crass remarks of POTUS really the reason some lunatic marched into a synagogue and opened fire?

We live, as the saying goes, in interesting times.

It seems that in today’s United (for the time being) Kingdom it’s no longer acceptable to use irony, scathing wit, or even justified criticism – we might upset someone. Diddums. Kids in school no longer debate issues. They live in an age where foul-mouthed illiterate abuse (often via social media) is acceptable, but find someone with the cojones to point out the idiocy of a minority opinion, and he’s shot down for his temerity. The argument is not really about free speech – as the witnesses on tonight’s Moral Maze (BBC R4) noted – free speech occurred. It was the consequences that were so shocking. Someone advanced the view that this was “the money” talking – Waitrose would take a hit on their vegan sales if they didn’t react. TheStickler wonders if “the partners” were balloted to see what they thought before any decision was taken? It seems fairly unlikely given the timescales involved. So the myth of collective ownership and a collegiate corporation appears to have been exploded too. Another example of how the presentation of this lovey-dovey collective is a million miles away from the reality of the corporate boardroom where the hotshots are as ruthless, and arguably as misguided, as ever.

Complain about poor service in today’s climate and you’re either ignored or handed an excruciating “mission statement” which attempts to justify the impossible, or, increasingly, just misses the point of the original complaint. Buried in the excruciating schmooze-speak of a response there will be no apology (because no-one likes being sued eh?), no understanding, and no promise to do better next time. Really kick off in response to this, and you’ll perhaps get some discount vouchers or some other attempt to stifle the critique. But most likely you’ll just not get a reply. No-one will take ownership of the issue that caused the complaint, or – heaven forfend – learn from the experience and perhaps improve matters so it’s less likely to happen again. Large organisations are increasingly cut off from their customers (live chat instead of conversation, menu driven phone systems that tie you up in knots until you give up, email acknowledgements that inform us that our message will be dealt with within the current millennium…) and within those organisations, departments and people are increasingly cut off from each other. No-one sees the big picture, their screen presents them with what some cretinous algorithm expert has decided is required, and they act on that limited subset of data alone. The results are, unsurprisingly, all bollocks. And no substitute for proper customer service.

The country is falling apart at the seams, and rather than rebel, protest and insist that things are done better, the silent majority sit back in apathetic stupor and allow this to proceed. It’s not just the UK either, but let’s start in our own back yard before we try and fix things for the rest of the world eh? The days of Empire are (thankfully) long gone. Somewhere between then and now lies a happy medium, and we’ve surely allowed the pendulum to swing far too far into the laissez-faire space now, and it doesn’t appear to be about to swing back any time soon….

But now that Mr Sitwell has some time on his hands perhaps there’s a chance. Here’s hoping…

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