Government and People: I
| Author | Frank Elmes |
| Published date | 01 November 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6503801108 |
| Date | 01 November 1965 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
The
Promotion
Exams
FRANK
ELMES
A well-known police author treats in a bright way a subject which is
only too apt to be dull in this and a subsequent article.
GOVERNMENT
AND
PEOPLE:
I
Britons, who are very fond of government, often complain of being
over-governed. Typical of this paradox are the questions
"Why
can't the dustmen call every day as they used
to?
" and " How on
earth do they expect me to find from my fixed income another £7
on the
rates?"
An owner-occupier policeman, hoping for a rise in
pay, is as likely to exclaim at the profligate"
they"
who put up the
rates each year, as any other householder. And he is just as likely
to be angry because his child goes to a school where the toilet and
washing arrangements are just as they were when HE went to school,
as any other parent. Why in heaven's name
don't"
they"
do some-
thing about
it?
Government touches our lives at every turn. Only our private,
emotional selves remain ungoverned and often unrevealed. As
Denton Welch wrote:
No-one shall know, if I don't tell
The secret life, where all goes well.
No-one shall know, if I don't tell
The life that's lived, in my private hell.
Well or hell is all that is left to us after government has had its
say. Another way of putting it is that in all material things govern-
ment insists on butting in; only in things of the mind and spirit
are we free. Even then we must stand on guard as, sad to say, there
are plenty of ways in which most minds can be
manipulated-as
Goebbels knew very
well-for
the purposes of government. Or, for
that matter, anti-government.
But Britons like being governed and look to the legislature to find
remedies for nearly all ills. Physical ills are, indeed, provided for
by the national health scheme; economic ills require controls,
incentives, quotas and supports of unbelievable complexity, whilst
the ills caused by " criminals", that is, people who offend against
rules made by the community for their own, almost always selfish
purposes, are countered by the whole paraphernalia of police, prison,
probation officers, courts and crime reporters.
For the purposes of promotion examinations it is often assumed
that we have two forms of government in this country, central and
local. In fact there is no such cleavage; the two are interwoven by
November 1965 525
To continue reading
Request your trial