Trust, Numbers and The Repair Shop

Things feel a little this way at the moment

The last few months have been great haven't they? We have more or less been able to get to a place that is "normal enough" and now we're not there anymore. The unpalatable truths about Christmas cancelled, plans in abeyance and increased financial insecurity are hitting home hard and often right now. 

One of the great T.V comforters is a programme called "The Repair Shop." Members of the public present items of great emotional meaning and the experts (and they are!) fix them. 

The emotions at the point of handing back a thing of great significance: that is "restored enough" is the emotional high point of the programme. There are generally 3 and I'm pretty much wrecked by the second one!

When a piece is handed in for repair, it is clear that its meaningfulness transcends value. Memories and moments are handed across too and a very special thing happens. The experts honour the meaning and memory and ask the owner what after restoration, they would like their treasured item to look like. The public don't want or expect "perfect." They want sympathetic restoration, something that speaks to the object's journey and its relationship to the owner'

So the experts then acknowledge and honour a relationship they can't see but can experience and then they do their work. Trust is key here: under-promise, over deliver: it works every time and it constructs the narrative for a perfect modern metaphor, the scaffolding of which is here.

• The public trust the experts.
• The experts share their thoughts about meaningfulness-they can feel how much it matters.
• There's consensus on what "fixed" might look like.
• Often the experts collaborate, skill sets, ideas and creativity blend well together and produce great outcomes.
• The experts can get on with their jobs because that have what they need to hand
• They are consulted, not supervised.
  
• The experts have experience.
• The experts are well-resourced.

They produce great differences but never, it seems "as new." The blemishes are part of the story. The trust shown by the members of the public is rewarded.

So how would it be if the true story was one of broken promises, poor restorations and shattered expectations. If the producers had no regard for expertise or time for the creative, what would the end products look like? The Repair Shop wouldn't function. 

Whether it wants to be or not, our government is our repair shop. The certainties, realistic aspirations and beliefs that held things together have been damaged and damage in my view, turned into near destruction when in the Rose Garden of Number 10, an unelected influencer placed himself above the reach of the very behaviours he and his ilk insisted others follow. Behaving without precaution or humility he effectively waved away what was by then, thousands of people with the shattered remnants of their dreams for their now deceased lived ones and he did this with impunity.

Let's be clear, I believe the virus is real. I question some of the assumptions we've been encouraged to agree to. Let's look at outdoor gatherings. We were told that mass events would lead to mass contamination but here's a thing

This link takes you to the daily recorded cases

https://tinyurl.com/y5hqumme

The current trend seems to suggest that mass public behaviour, pubs, raves, etc are significant, together with families mixing in houses.

However, if we accept the best given knowledge, that the virus has a 14 day incubation period, we can ask some interesting questions. 

• Pubs opened on 4th July I can see no national peak.
• Liverpool won the PL on the 25th of June-big celebrations-dire warning, no significant spike
• Leeds United won the EFL on the 18th of July-  big celebrations-dire warning, no significant spike
• WBA won promotion on 22nd July-  big celebrations-dire warning, no significant spike
• Bournemouth Beach 25th July- -dire warning, no significant spike 
• ...and on it goes.
• Until September and then....up it goes!

The more recent increase-and I take into account that increased testing will bring increased positive results- makes uncomfortable reading. If we look at the accelerated curve, it starts to gain in steepness around 14 or so days after children went back to school.

It would be naive to attribute the increase to a single event, however the possible association between this and other "spreading opportunities" needs to be introduced into the public arena. Right now the climate seems to be in danger to shifting to one of blame, "othering," inflated claims about what is achievable, a fogging of earlier mistakes and misinformation, accompanied by dire warnings of what might happen if we don't all behave. This is not how a repair shop works.

Where has this got us? The sum total of this is that preventive behaviour is more or less where it was 6 months ago and the economy might see "stagnation" as an aspirational target! Our National Repair Shop needs to do better. That means:

• Talk to us not at us and talk sense
• Explain variations in predicted to actual outcomes and if you can't, say so
• Wherever you can, give a time frame and describe how things will look at the end of each frame
• Give jobs to experts-The Repair Shop does not, as far as I'm aware anyway, give a precious thing to someone because they are "well connected and might knock a tune out of it,"
• Understand, one of your bigger battles is to restore credibility, your credibility. Choose your themes and words well.

Unlike those who hand over a precious object to a staged but beautifully engaging programme, we have no choice with our lives and those of our loved ones. The job of Government is to protect the people it serves; the task is to show them how it's being done.

Here's How I'd Like Things To Feel

And I'd like to close with my observation that in fixing their precious items, the owners are to some degree, fixed too.

jd 24/9/2020