It's a Saturday, the first day of the Easter holidays and it's grey and chilly. For the past two weeks it's been warm, blue and calm, today it's not. But it doesn't matter, I'm on holiday.

I just sat down to start reading Max Hastings' "All hell let loose" and was overwhelmed with the following thought:

Seventy years ago whole populations were kept subservient through fear as the tyranny of their political masters led to the massive and sustained misuse of power.

I'm left thinking, "what's changed?"

We're not going to be shot, well probably not by an appointee of the state here in UK, but we are living under a tyranny where there is so much fear brought about by the tyranny of performance management, leagues, ridiculous expecations, the unwritten but eloquently expressed managerial view that only the managerial class knows what's best for me and those I serve; the constant threat of prosecution should one let out an unguarded word that may leave another upset; living with the knowledge that one unplanned reaction to an unlooked for provocative event can bring about the demise of a career, the loss of a pension and even the removal of freedom.

I could go on, and on but anyone who's not "in management" will know what I mean and those who are have chosen to rise above the rest of us, content to dwell in their land of make believe as they really do seem to think that they actually haven't lost touch with what's going on in the world below over which they seek to exercise control. None so blind and all that.

Two days ago I photographed a lone placard waving protestor on a pavement in the centre of a major British city and was accosted by him, berated by him and accused of not agreeing with him.

How sad, especially when I did, and do agree that he should be allowed to protest in a public place and that I should be allowed to photograph what goes on in that public place.

Sadder, too, that he was so self righteous that never once did he enquire as to my point of view because had he done so he would have realised that we had much in common. He was utterly unable to see anyone as anything other than a threat to what he was doing and, worse, enjoyed the place of the underdog, the put upon, the persecuted.

What a fool. I experience the place of the underdog, the put upon, the persecuted every day that I go to work. But I'm not afraid to listen. As long as management do not assume that because I listen then I believe and therefore act upon every word they utter. They won't ask, though. They will assume. They do presume to know. Fact. Can't argue with a fact, can you?

Asking requires listening and a listener will eventually meet a view that is opposed to theirs and that will mean either ignoring it, decrying it or considering it. The latter is a most dangerous place to go. Far too dangerous for all but the bravest. Going where you face uncertainty and having to relinquish control that is for the bravest of the brave and only them. You'll meet fools there because a fool is a fool because they act and react, they don't think, consider and contemplate the consequences of their actions. You can still listen to them though and you may even learn something!

I expect that the lone protestor was "in management" ...... I got the photo's, though. And I'll publish them on the net!

Dreckly.

Just as well that "we're all in this together," eh?