A while ago I watched an interesting documentary on TV which spoke about how our current Labour government used a system called "target driven government" basically just about everything could be measured from National Health indicators and that in turn could be used to set targets for government institutions. Unfortunately as had been demonstrated in order to meet targets certain hospitals "fudge" figures in order to meet targets and in turn get more funding.
I think the best indicators on how certain government institutions are doing can actually be found at bus stops waiting for (constantly late) buses. Wait a while and sure enough you'll encounter pensioners who have no alternative but to wait for late buses, before long they will start talking about how unreliable the buses are and they keep very good mental records on how badly the bus service is doing. Wait a little longer and you may hear a story similar to the one I heard about the health service it was a tale I started to hear several times as pensioners started to talk to each other. One story I heard was about a pensioner who suffered a leg injury when one bus collided into the back of another as he was about to get off. They called an ambulance for him even though he insisted he could dress the wound on his leg by himself. He then goes on to tell the pensioner he is sat next to how he had to wait 2 hours. He understood that people who had more pressing issues needed to be seen first and after another half an hour he decided to leave and dress the wound himself at home as he had said he would in the beginning. The other pensioner informs him that each time she has a fall or any other of her friends do that they do not bother being taken to hospital or refuse ambulances because of how bad the services are at the local hospital. When they do need to go to hospital there is a bus service that can take them. However the bus service takes almost 45 minutes to get there and the main reason for this is that is goes around every single stop to pick up people and these people are left waiting for the service for hours when it does not turn up, seldom complaining except to each other when the weather is poor.
Its not only the health service you pickup on but also issues ranging from who are the people on benefits and how some (not all) take the system for granted and laugh about it, how people who are on a minimum wage who do not believe on going onto benefits and struggle to make ends meet especially when it comes to heating in winter. How some people are on benefits and complain that its not enough but have no intention of finding employed work because they are a lot better off, but complain that they do not have enough money for "fags" and milk.
Its funny if you know where to listen you can easily pinpoint where problems are. You can find out what statistics tell you and what actually happens in reality just by listening. I have heard so many tales and it kind of tells you what is really happening. I believe that politicians are out of touch I think they have become as the ruling nobility were before we had a system of elected government. Gone is the politician who made it from the lowest depths of society the self built person who knows the plights of ordinary citizens. Instead we have politicians who have never known hardship they have been born into a privileged upbringing a new class that fails to understand the common problems plaguing people. Maybe some of them should dress up in ordinary clothes, catch a few buses and while waiting just listen to people talking about every day things. Who knows...they might learn something?