The UK has lost sight of the standards that underpin good service, says Lord Kirkham
I have just travelled back from another business trip to China and Singapore to find the same old same old at home. The expenses scandal boringly rumbles on, helping make us a laughing stock overseas while our Government’s popularity now rivals that of Gary Glitter.
It only takes a short break from our shores to recalibrate values, allowing the sad recognition to dawn that standards in so many areas in our fine land have become as much of a joke as our politicians’ expense claims.
When I was a child the GP in my mining village did home visits, in common parlance, 24/7. A letter posted one day arrived the next. University degrees were hard earned by about 5 per cent of the population and, whatever the course, the graduates could invariably spell and do mental arithmetic.
Generally speaking a mate was the officer on a ship, a sexual partner of an animal, a plumber’s assistant or an Australian’s friend. Today moi, The Right Honourable Lord Kirkham Commander of The Royal Victorian Order – who has no problem with Graham, Mr Kirkham or “you” – has learnt not to flinch at routinely being called mate by all and sundry, including shop assistants and sales staff.
Our language has got sloppier, “innit”, and our behaviour less considerate. Since D-Day the leading voices of the BBC have mutated from Alvar Liddell and John Snagge to Jonathan Ross and Chris Moyles. I am all for moving on, but is this really progress?
The East is a breath of fresh air. I marvelled at the service on Singapore Airlines and at Changi Airport, contrasting it with Heathrow. There I queued, to the point of asphyxiation, in a packed corridor without air-conditioning, where the harsh concrete blocks of the walls were relieved only by the surface-mounted electrical wiring.
Our partners in the Far East have progressed faster than we have, not only through low-cost production, keen government encouragement and continual R&D, but through holding fast to standards and values.
As the pound has fallen, the interest rate collapsed and house prices declined, so too have our standards. Courtesy and politeness are virtually non-existent and you have more chance of finding a real star on Britain’s Got Talent than discovering someone on the bus prepared to give up their seat for a senior citizen or pregnant lady.
Is it dated and uncool for those in retail to tuck their shirt inside their trousers, wear a tie that fits between the points of their fastened collar, own a pair of clean shoes and
treat customers politely? Is it wrong for businesses to answer the telephone in three rings? And are you a wimp if you say please or thank you?
Perhaps I am a grumpy old retailer, or it might simply be the jet lag, but just maybe the success of our top shopkeepers owes something to sticking to old standards.
1 Reader's comment