Politically correct litter

In its never-ending war on reducing bumph, Boston Borough Council has produced yet another leaflet on which it is seeking our comments.
This time it’s a jaunty little missive entitled “Service Standards: what you can expect from us.”
Heaven knows how many of these will be printed and left gently to fade in the sunlight in leaflet dispensers around the borough, before being bundled in with next year’s council tax demands.
The bottom line is that the document is a statement of the obvious - and all the information within it could be made available elsewhere at - most probably - significantly lower cost.
For instance, we would expect to be treated fairly and assume that the council - but perhaps not some of the councillors - would be open and honest with us. Goethe hit the nail on the head when he said: "In politics, as on a sickbed, men toss from side to side in hope of lying more comfortably.”
Many of the promises are almost duplicates of others - almost as if the leaflet would have been a little thin without some verbal padding.
Similarly, some pledges - when closely examined - really are meaningless.
The promise to answer 80% of calls to the council switchboard within 15 seconds is qualified with the condition “all other calls will be answered promptly .”
Then we have a promise to see all visitors within 15 minutes of arrival “or providing an
explanation of why this is not possible .”
Or what about “responding in full to all written communication within 10 working days” - or if not advising when a full response will be made.
Every promise here has a caveat which makes them worthless.
We have to say that our gut feeling it that all this leaflet represents is a politically correct piece of litter - not worth the paper it is printed on, but expensive nonetheless.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com  Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.