Individuals trump ‘society’

I was working on a blog about trade unions and strikes, but parked it when I read about nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel. She was shot dead while standing behind mum Cheryl, who was injured, in their terraced home in Kingsheath Avenue in the Dovecot area of Liverpool. Residents say that Kingsheath is a close-knit community where children play together on the street. They describe Olivia and Cheryl as quiet, respectable people.

Rwanda or bust

If there’s one notable Tory whom the anti-Tories love to hate more than Boris, it’s Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Nadine Dorris, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Priti Patel.

Her ‘problem’ is that she’s a female ethnic-Asian from an immigrant family who doesn’t think like she’s supposed to. She’s not only a Tory but a right-wing Tory, which is not what a female ethnic Asian from an immigrant family should be. The easiest way to defeat the Tory party, ya see, is to portray them as offensive, racist misogynists – I’ve got two of those three T-shirts so I should know. Then along comes Pretty Priti (something else they don’t like about her – she looks good) who cannot, by definition, be a racist misogynist, which drives the Guardian fan club to distraction.

Racism is dead. Long live discrimination

The morning after my second Covid vaccine, I was feeling rather groggy. Not ill or flu-y but yawny and lacklustre. Not up to doing much else, I spent longer than normal eating my toast and Marmite (Help! Marmite is in short supply and I only have half-a-jar left) catching up with my LinkedIn feed, and marvelling at how many hits my blog has had this month. (It was the ‘Bodies Piling High’ post wot did it).

I was reading the kinds of articles I don’t normally bother with, such as the best UK beaches according to Which? as reported by Daily Mail Online. Bamburgh (Northumberland) was top – I wonder if the vote was taken in summer, or winter when Siberian gales blast over the North Sea. Near the bottom of the list was Weston-super-Mare (Somerset). I was disappointed with that placing because I have a soft spot for Weston. We went there a couple of times as kids, and it’s where my grandmother died suddenly in 1943 aged just 37 so of course I never knew her, but it’s still sad.

Mixed messages don't excuse murder

About two weeks ago a young woman, Sarah Everard, was reportedly kidnapped while walking home in London by a serving police officer and then murdered.

Boris is playing God

Maybe if one or more of my loved ones had succumbed to Covid-19 or were suffering with it in intensive care, I too would want a national lockdown. But they’re not, so I can think coolly, rationally and unemotionally, albeit after two strong coffees.

According to the Daily Mail (yeah, I know), the PM was told that if he didn’t lockdown us all then he would be forcing “doctors to choose between saving Covid sufferers and those with other illnesses.” 

So Boris has made the decision himself to favour Covid patients. 

Excuse me, but I would rather doctors take such decisions on a case-by-case basis, not politicians in a panicked pronouncement.

Educating Lifers - why should we?

About ten years ago, I was discussing with my Dad his time as Chief Education Officer at a top security prison. He had taken up the post just before the Open University was formed (late 1960s), their degree courses in prisons were introduced, and Dad was delighted to be an explorer in this uncharted territory.

He explained that the prison teaching staff were “… working without precedents. It was one great big experiment. The Home Office was quite generous with supplies such as books and civilian support staff. Somehow rooms were found. The tutors worked with a combination of instinct and experience. There was no link between the various prisons, so there was no uniformity. Many tutors came down from the local further education college and became involved with a far higher level of education than their day jobs; so when it came to their future career considerations, they had an advantage.”

“I remember our first degree-success,” he continued. He [the offender] was summoned to attend the daily get-together of the Governor and senior civilian and officer representatives. They sat on one side of the table and our new graduate sat solo on the other side, so spic-and-span that it hurt, speaking only when spoken to, accepting the various congratulations quietly with a poker face. He was quite successful in giving the opinion that he was far better than anyone else there.” 

Time to legislate against freedom?

If Britain today were a cheesy Hollywood movie, the protagonist would be preparing to rally the good guys with one heck of a motivational speech for defeating the bad guys, taming the cataclysm, finding the missing, fixing the broken, stopping the rain and marrying the love interest.

Would such a call to arms be a table-thumper or a dignified delivery?

Certainly British Prime Ministers, at least over the past 40 years, prefer the dignified option upon first taking office before repairing a damaged country / political system / economy / society / environment / anything they think they can achieve before the next election campaign.

Margaret Thatcher in 1979 quoted from The Prayer of St Francis: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” 

From 9/11 to PC Andrew Harper

There is something to be said for the renowned stoicism of we Brits. Don’t talk about your feelings. Don’t show emotion. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over again … penned and sung by Americans so maybe a more appropriate British cliché is to keep a stiff upper lip. Such a lip used to be considered a sign of strength and dignity. I believe it still is.

It has become fashionable to talk to anyone who will listen, and even to those of us who really don’t want to, about one’s mental health. The Cambridges and Sussexes are to blame. Is everyone trying to curry royal favour and get an invite to a Buck House garden party by opening up, being true to themselves, and “sharing”? If I hear one more footballer / actress / student / thief / yummy mummy / Influencer (whatever that is) or Royal claim “My mental health has suffered,” I swear that MY mental health will suffer.

Cummings' Reasonable Motives

Just got round to reading the local paper (Bucks Herald) to see the publication of my latest letter-to-the-editor. Also this week, the other local (Leighton Buzzard Observer) published my photo of a great tit leaving its nest in a ceramic deer head on our back wall, but that’s another story.

Back to the letter. I wouldn’t say I was unquestionably in agreement with Dominic Cummings’ dash to County Durham to secure necessary childcare for his son, rather I was pointing out the hypocrisy and nastiness of some of those railing against him.

My letter in full reads: