BBC NEWS | England | Northamptonshire | School gives pupils f-word limit
Another brilliant educational initiative. I wonder where they got 5 as the limit? Is there a sliding scale of punishment? If you use the offending word 15 times in a lesson, do you get twice the detention you would have got if you’d used it only ten times? Will the tally on the board be used to produce a league table at the end of the year? The headteacher says that he is introducing this rule because swearing is already part of the children’s (sorry, “young adults'”) vocabulary. A bit of a fatal flaw in his thinking, there, I feel. I imagine underage drinking is part of their culture as well – so is he proposing one Carlsberg Special Brew a lesson is OK, but half a bottle of vodka gets you sent to the headmaster’s office?
What’s wrong with saying, “Look, we all know you swear – as do your teachers on occasion – but a lesson is not an appropriate place for it, and it won’t be tolerated.”? Schools constantly go on about how they are preparing children (sorry, youngsters) for the world of work – you wonder how their foul-mouthed habits would go down with customers in a shop, or clients in an office.
We spent some time staying with friends in what I thought was Surrey this week- except that their local council has decided to call itself Elmbridge, presumably on the basis that it sounds nice, as there doesn’t actually seem to be a place called Elmbridge in the vicinity. But hey, why should that stop a go-ahead, hands-on, can-do sort of council making up a name for itself? Naturally, they need a slogan, and the one they’ve come up with – and it must have taken the PR boys and girls a lot of head-scratching- is “…bridging communities…” And yes, the dots are an integral part of it. I expect the dots added a few £k to the bill. Where to start with this? First, the dots are just silly and unnecessary. Second, how, exactly, is bridging being used here? They must mean something like “providing a bridge between communities” but that isn’t as snappy is it? At least, though, it would make some sense. Of course, the use of the plural communities inplies a divided community, and that the council is some sort of UN peacekeeper force called in to keep the warlike residents of Esher and Walton-on-Thames from wiping each other out. Surprisingly, they aren’t twinned with Sarajevo.
I suspect the real reason for the slogan is the feeble pun it contains. The fact that it’s utterly fatuous is, in the eyes of the councillors, clearly not an issue.
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Stones’ Angie in German poll row
If you thought British politicians were desperate to appear hip, check this out. How pathetic can you be? What’s more, the major political show on German TV – Sabine Christiansen – routinely introduces its weekly topic to the strains of an apt 60s or 70s hit – frequently the Beatles, as it happens. So this plays into their hands. It’s an invitation to be ridiculed. And have you ever seen anyone less rock and roll than Angela (with a hard g, by the way)? It’s reminiscent of Kinnock’s “all right” in 1992, or Mr Tony’s apparent love affair with his Fender Strat. I’m sure Chancellor Schroeder is loving it…
This is brilliant, isn’t it? What’s the betting that the father’s reason for stumping up an obscene amount of money for his son’s education was that he would learn some discipline? 400 offences, eh? That’s some going…
This article seems to confirm what common sense would suggest – that allowing longer opening hours at pubs leads to social problems. In the process, it also gives a good kicking to the current management and government obsession with targets, so that’s a bonus for all of us who have to labour under their yoke.
My council has now decided that every time its logo appears, it will carry the strapline “Working together for excellence”. So, what does that mean? Who are they working with? Themselves? And how are they defining excellence, given they were rated “poor” by the Audit Commission? It rivals for fatuity Lancashire’s “A place where everyone matters” – as opposed to everywhere else, presumably, where only a few people matter. I suspect this will run and run, as long as local government is in thrall to PR.
BBC NEWS | UK | New drink laws ‘lead to violence’
It doesn’t take genius, or a judge, to work this out. You have to question why a government originally elected as providing moral leadership (remember the ethical foreign policy that lasted, ooh, five minutes) is promoting this self-evidently disastrous policy in the face of common sense and the advice of the people who have to deal with the consequences of it. It couldn’t be that the govt is in thrall to business, could it?
When all this was being debated last year, a former student of mine wrote to the Guardian with an excellent idea:
“During five years in Australia, I never experienced the kind of binge drinking-fuelled public disorder that Tony Blair appears to want the alcohol industry to “manage”, as much as eliminate.
When Queensland police arrest people for being drunk and disorderly, they find out where they were overserved and then fine the bar staff responsible £1,000 and the licensee £15,000 – ergo, it rarely happens. All but the tamest happy hours and promotions are illegal.
Guy Redden”
If we must extend the licensing hours, let’s have this as well.
BBC NEWS | Education | Chaucer’s tales become rap songs
This depresses me. Why does everything have to be made “relevant”? The excuse given here is that Chaucer’s language is difficult to understand. Yes, it is. Get over it. These children will go away saying they’ve “done Chaucer” – but they haven’t, no more than someone who’s seen “West Side Story” has done Shakespeare. Chaucer – in its original form – has been taught successfully to generations of children. Now, we have to dumb it down though.
This blog has just returned from a holiday spent far away from internet access for the most part, and all the better for it. Boris the Topsyturvydom mascot cat seemed to enjoy his stay at the luxury cat hotel, but, like me, is glad to be back, as is his companion Phoebe, who makes her debut here today.
normblog: Apologists among us
Norman Geras has some serious things to say about the reaction of some to the London bombings. I share his view, and like him, was appalled at the sentiments expressed in the article in today’s Guardian by Dilpazier Aslam, which seems to suggest that the bombs can be excused as an expression of what he winningly calls “sassiness.” He’s a trainee, apparently. Lots more training to do, it seems.
