However one that we cannot fix are those who would fail a licence, this would be between yourselves and the licensing committee. A word of warning they are trying now to bring in spent convictions which I feel is wrong as we were all mad terriors when we were young. People can change and should be given the chance in life.
Exactly.
If you give some of these guys a tiny bit of power it goes to their heads. Spent convictions should not be used against anyone. Even since starting window cleaning in 1991 I have been in situations which may have led to a conviction. Like the idiot who tried to pick a fight with me because he didn't like me taking a corner too slowly (I had a full load of water on board). Defending myself could have led to a conviction. Like the copper who tried to drag me outside when I was eating in a restaurant just because I was wearing an item of clothing that resembled something worn by a nearby troublemaker a few minutes previously.
You need to think very carefully about this. One moment of rough justice that isn't your fault could lead to your entire income being flushed down the pan. And no!! - the courts are not a safeguard. Plenty of miscarriages occur especially in magistrates courts where they automatically believe everything a copper says whether or not he/she is embellishing the truth.
Would they hold it against me because I got done for obstructing the police in 1977? Would they hold it against me because I got caught smoking dope in 1974?
Would they hold it against me because I was a social misfit until the mid 80s who didn't know which way to turn to get out of the mess I made for myself?
These power hungry t*ats would set the restrictions for becoming a window cleaner as high as they would for becoming a copper if they had half a chance. And you put one tiny little foot slightly out of line and they will remove your entire income.
At first glance a few might say that you should toe the line legally. But there are areas of life where this becomes a grey area. For instance if you wish to legally demonstrate against something a government wants to do. It's so easy for a legal demonstration to turn illegal with police arresting people pretty randomly. So your legal demonstration gets you nicked and your entire income is taken away. To avoid this risk, you would have not demonstrate against injustice. OK maybe that's not a very good example and I'm not into demonstrations anyway (my last time doing that was the picket line at Wapping when I worked in the print).
I feel that the state and local councils have grabbed too much power over individuals already.
On the face of it, licensing the trade for the benefit of us legit window cleaners seems a good thing. However, we have seen before how controls can be increased almost by stealth. Once the legislation is in place, extensions to it can be approved "on the nod" and indeed, often without publicity. If licensing becomes widespread, the councils could well try to set rates of pay like they do with taxi drivers. It would be more difficult to enforce this with window cleaners because there are far more variables than with taxi drivers. It would only need a few scammers to rip off some old people by charging extortionate amounts for window cleaning and they would be on every window cleaners case.
On top of all this there is the issue of people who cross boundaries to do their work. I live next to the border of three counties and work in all three. Then there is the cost of the licence. If the authorities agreed to enforce it, what's the betting that they would ringfence the costs of doing so i.e. the cost of enforcement comes from the licence fees rather than general taxation. The financing of enforcement generally is traditionally carried out by the fining system and from the public purse. However, more and more we see the payers financing a scheme and the fines going to central government rather than being ploughed back into the scheme. A typical example of this is the resident only parking scam where I live. Our fees pay for the wardens' wages and the general admin. The fines go to central government. I believe that the fine money should be returned to the scheme to keep the costs down.
Ultimately the customer would pay anyway as increased costs result in higher prices or a reduced standard of living for the window cleaner. I wonder how we would fare if the government imposed price capping generally to keep inflation down. That's not so far fetched either because that was done in the 1970s.
Rant over.
Now chopping up my soapbox for firewood.