THERE is a wonderful parable from Douglas Adams, author of Hitch-hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy, about why we have Kirklees Council.
Well, not specifically Kirklees Council, but that kind of thing.
He said that in the Stone Age on this planet, another planet on the other side of the galaxy was threatened with destruction. The people decided to launch three absolutely huge spacecraft to save the species.
In Ark A they put their achievers, leaders and thinkers: strategists, artists, poets, captains of industry, entrepreneurs and so on.
In Ark C they put their craftspeople, the people who did the actual work – architects, builders, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, miners, welders, doctors, nurses, dentists.
In Ark B they put hairdressers, tired TV producers, insurance salesmen, personnel officers, security guards, public relations executives, management consultants, telephone sanitisers and nail polishers.
The captain of Ark B explained that his ship had been sent off first ...
It was, according to Douglas Adams, Ark B that crash-landed on Earth two million years ago, giving rise to a species of bureaucrats, pen-pushers and jobsworths, and thus, ultimately, to Kirklees Council.
It is a sign of our times that the Ark B people tend to ignore the advice of, or tax to extinction, the Ark A people – and go on to sack the Ark C people.
