Simply Smith

Love 'em or hate 'em they have been with us from when history was first recorded and will probably be with us until Armageddon.

Since man first decided that there should be a category of person between the aristocrat and the proletariat, since it was thought wise to consign to papyrus the day to day doings of people they have existed.

What is this being that has defied the laws of nature and even increased its powers over the millennia? Why, of course, it is the bureaucrat. Most people, myself included I have to say, hate 'em.

Ask anyone (excepting bureaucrats, that is) if they think that bureaucrats fulfil a valuable function in society and you will probably get a shaking of the head and a negative response.

The public's perception of the archetypal bureaucrat is of someone (male and female) who produces nothing but, at the same time, inhibits the activities of those who wish to produce.

Of course, this has to be an over-simplification. Like all archetypes this particular animal does not exist, except in the novels of pulp fiction writers.

It's like saying that every police officer is six feet (or two metres) tall, wears large boots and says 'evening all' every verse end.

However, like every fable, there is an element of truth hidden deeply under the surface. The worst kind of bureaucrat has surfaced in North and East Devon.

It has been reported that, in order to retrieve £34.18 in excess travelling expenses, the above health authority has expended more than £200,000.

Apparently, one of the authority's health visitors did not fit into the mould of what it was to be a health visitor. It has to be said that many of her patients supported her in the course of this dispute.

So out of step was this health visitor that the bureaucrats in the authority reportedly chose a campaign of harassment. It all became very messy with the health authority taking the midwife to court.

How many of us do not fit in a mould? A mould that bureaucrats consider describes the particular job we do.

How much of what we do today consists of filling in forms?

Many applications for National Lottery money fail because the complicated forms that need to be completed are not filled in accurately?

Of course, I must differentiate between the bureaucrat and the administrator. Without proper administration much of what we do or expect others to do would fail. A bureaucrat sees a piece of paper or a completed form as having value in itself.

What he or she does not realise is that it is people and only people that have real value. Without people being served efficiently the administrator becomes a bureaucrat and deserves our contempt.

What can we do about it? Individually there is very little that a body can do to put these parasites in their place.

However, if enough of us can highlight cases like that of North and East Devon health authority, or even local examples of such waste, a climate will begin to exist where people are seen by everyone to be vastly more important than pieces of paper.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.