Lack of Kindness, Lack of Empathy

This has got to be one of my favourite songs! It came out when I was teaching English and Drama in a South East London Comprehensive School in 2003. The same year that hundreds of thousands marched on the streets of London against going to war in Iraq . It would have been easy for me to join them, as friends had come down from Wales to protest but I chose not to, believing that Saddam Hussein was a pain in the arse who needed to be got rid of! You see I haven't always been so enlightened and I can hold my hand up and admit to my mistakes and before I go off on a Ronnie Corbett ramble I'll get to the rub of this post. The lack of kindness and the lack of empathy in our world today. Kensington Council have been described as distant and lacking in emotional intelligence in dealing with the survivors and the community after the Grenfell Tower Tragedy. Here in Wales we have a First Minister who is now surely ruing his lack of empathy in dealing with one of his close personal friends. That Press Conference last night was embarrassing and insulting to the family of Carl Sargeant. Now I have no truck with the Welsh Labour Party as I have said many times on the blogosphere before but by doing things 'by the book'  Carwyn Jones fell into the 'I was only obeying orders' trap. Westminster shouts and Wales jumps. "We must be seen to be doing the right thing" whereas a layman digging ditches can see that this was not the right thing to do in terms of humanity.

People have become dispensable in Politics. It really doesn't matter who you replace with who! Unless they have innate humanity, kindness and empathy all traits deemed weaknesses in power play culture then the circle will continue. The Welsh Assembly Building like Grenfell Tower is now bereft of its 'force of nature' and if there is a march to bemoan the lack of kindness and empathy in life tomorrow, I'll be on it.