Today is definitely a day of trying to make sense of it all. Today is the day where a couple of hundred friends and family said goodbye to a 40 year old man who took his own life; a man who even in his suicide note to his family was able to make jokes in his explanation. 'If I were a Muslim there'd be virgins waiting for me, a Christian then all I need to do is crack a joke at the pearly gates, a Buddhist, well I'll be back in a minute anyway.'
I first met this man when he a two other builders were working outside the flat next door. I took them all a cup of tea out and chatted with them for 15 minutes or so. Some months later we found ourselves at the party of a mutual friend and spent the night joking about random acts of kindness being taken the wrong way; 'and then he had the audacity to make me a cup of tea, who does he think he is'.
Later that summer we both fancied a pint on the way home from our respective jobs and in a scene reminiscent of the comedian Mickey Flanagans 'out but not out out' routine this post work pint turned into an all-nighter. We discussed a mutual love of Rugby, of travel, his love of wildlife and the outdoors and adrenalin sports and surfing. For a couple of years we spent a lot of time together;parties, sport watching in the pub, the summer of 2005 and England's Ashes win, trips to watch London Irish, hikes in the Dorset countryside and a weekly meeting up with a few mates for semi-organised games of touch rugby.
He always struck me as a man who despite his constant and quick witted humour and obvious success with women, as someone who was constantly searching; a dreamer of the best type who would back up words with actions. The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago when we bumped into each other cycling in opposite directions in the Dorset village of Gussage St Giles. This unexpected event inevitably led to a few beers in the local pub where he told me he'd been dog sledding in the Arctic and he'd got his dream job as a trainee game warden in Africa and he was off in a couple of weeks. That was the last time I saw him.
I heard he was back in the country and left voicemails and texts asking him to get in touch for a catch up. But, as most of his friends would also find, he seemed to want to forge a new life away from those friends, some who'd known him as teenagers. The last I heard of him was a phone call with the sad news he'd killed himself.
Today was his funeral; today was the day that his friends and family gathered to say goodbye to him, today was the day that many 30 and 40 something year old friends and workmates are trying to make sense of it all.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
3rd of May, 1979 - The day a dark cloud descended on the UK
The first time I ever noticed a politician that wasn't a Mike Yarwood impression was the day that Thatcher became Prime Minister and stood in Downing Street quoting Francis of Assisi; 'where there is discord ...may we bring harmony'. What followed for the next ten years or so was most definitely not harmony, what followed was ten years of misery, unemployment, riots and the decimation of heavy industries. Industries in which hundreds of thousands of people, whole communities, were once employed.
I started secondary school in Sepember 1978. We had one text book between two in most classes, tired looking gym equpitment and a future that, at the very least, had a job at the end of our school days.
By the time we returned to school after the summer holidays of 1979 the Tory cuts had kicked in and for the following four years we had one text book between three, over 30 kids in a class, missing teachers and a canteen style lunch hour that had replaced large portioned cooked food with pizzas and chips. We were still ,making do with the same gym equiptment when I left in 1983 as we'd started with in 1978. Musical instruments weren't replaced and music lessons were only available to those who could pay for them.
In the wider world by 1983 we'd had riots in all of our cities, 4,000,000 unemployed, ship yard and steel works closures and no real jobs to go to after school. Work for a 16 year old was based on poor replacements for apprenticeships such as YTS. These schemes did little more than help massage unemployment figures and hide the lack of real opportunities for school leavers who wanted to work. Those that went to college and university found that upon leaving Further and Higher Education in the 80s that they were no better off job wise than those who'd left at 16.
Still to come after 1983 was the spectre of pit closures, the miners' strike, where Thatcher and her bandit like cabinet described the miners as the 'enemy within', more inner city riots and more unemployment.
Added to these assaults on ordinairy working people, whose main suffering was caused by a Tory instinct to cut, cut and cut again on public spending, was a rise in VAT from 12% to 17.5%, VAT added to fuel and the final attack, the Poll Tax. A tax that a senior Tory attempted to defend by asking 'why should a Duke pay more than a dustman'?
There are many reasons why we should all use our vote on Thursday May 6th, 2010. Not least because of the Suffragettes, Chartists and others who sacrificed so much to enable the people of today to enjoy universal suffrage. Not least because if we don't then parties such as the BNP could sneak election victories that are based on them winning with only 20% of the potential vote. Not least because the vote could easily be removed. Not least because the 1980s will be repeated if the Tories win.
Cameron and Osborne would atempt to slash the budget deficit at the expense of public spending, yet the only reason we have come out of recession and never went into a depression is because of public spending. Tory cuts will result in higher unemployment, low wages, higher taxes for those who can afford them the least and decisions based on populist and lowest common denominator political concerns,
My son is just finishing the first year of seconadary school. In an uncanny and scary parallel to the 1979 election he could return to school in the September of 2010 to be faced with the results of Conservative spending cuts; lack of books, outdated computers, no time or money for art, sport and music equiptment and, this is the scary parallel, massive unemployment, riots, industries closing and no real prospects regardless of qualifications and intelligence.
It is not my intention to tell someone who they should vote for, I'm as disenchanted with NEW Labour as are most people. But, use your vote, don't waste it, vote tactically to stop Tory cuts and to prevent BNP and UKIP gaining ground with their bigotry and hatred.
Cameron and Osbourne, two public school pygmies, do not have to live in the same world as us or our childre, our old folk and our neighbours. Don't let them return us to the bigotry, fear, and dark days of the Tory 1980s.
I started secondary school in Sepember 1978. We had one text book between two in most classes, tired looking gym equpitment and a future that, at the very least, had a job at the end of our school days.
By the time we returned to school after the summer holidays of 1979 the Tory cuts had kicked in and for the following four years we had one text book between three, over 30 kids in a class, missing teachers and a canteen style lunch hour that had replaced large portioned cooked food with pizzas and chips. We were still ,making do with the same gym equiptment when I left in 1983 as we'd started with in 1978. Musical instruments weren't replaced and music lessons were only available to those who could pay for them.
In the wider world by 1983 we'd had riots in all of our cities, 4,000,000 unemployed, ship yard and steel works closures and no real jobs to go to after school. Work for a 16 year old was based on poor replacements for apprenticeships such as YTS. These schemes did little more than help massage unemployment figures and hide the lack of real opportunities for school leavers who wanted to work. Those that went to college and university found that upon leaving Further and Higher Education in the 80s that they were no better off job wise than those who'd left at 16.
Still to come after 1983 was the spectre of pit closures, the miners' strike, where Thatcher and her bandit like cabinet described the miners as the 'enemy within', more inner city riots and more unemployment.
Added to these assaults on ordinairy working people, whose main suffering was caused by a Tory instinct to cut, cut and cut again on public spending, was a rise in VAT from 12% to 17.5%, VAT added to fuel and the final attack, the Poll Tax. A tax that a senior Tory attempted to defend by asking 'why should a Duke pay more than a dustman'?
There are many reasons why we should all use our vote on Thursday May 6th, 2010. Not least because of the Suffragettes, Chartists and others who sacrificed so much to enable the people of today to enjoy universal suffrage. Not least because if we don't then parties such as the BNP could sneak election victories that are based on them winning with only 20% of the potential vote. Not least because the vote could easily be removed. Not least because the 1980s will be repeated if the Tories win.
Cameron and Osborne would atempt to slash the budget deficit at the expense of public spending, yet the only reason we have come out of recession and never went into a depression is because of public spending. Tory cuts will result in higher unemployment, low wages, higher taxes for those who can afford them the least and decisions based on populist and lowest common denominator political concerns,
My son is just finishing the first year of seconadary school. In an uncanny and scary parallel to the 1979 election he could return to school in the September of 2010 to be faced with the results of Conservative spending cuts; lack of books, outdated computers, no time or money for art, sport and music equiptment and, this is the scary parallel, massive unemployment, riots, industries closing and no real prospects regardless of qualifications and intelligence.
It is not my intention to tell someone who they should vote for, I'm as disenchanted with NEW Labour as are most people. But, use your vote, don't waste it, vote tactically to stop Tory cuts and to prevent BNP and UKIP gaining ground with their bigotry and hatred.
Cameron and Osbourne, two public school pygmies, do not have to live in the same world as us or our childre, our old folk and our neighbours. Don't let them return us to the bigotry, fear, and dark days of the Tory 1980s.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
'Raising Awareness'. Easier than doing something about it?
Some time ago a so called 'celebrity' died of cervical cancer and , though a tragedy for her and her family, perhaps the most distubing comment to be found in the endless tabloid guff surrounding her death was the idea that this event had 'raised awareness' of cervical cancer.
The implication being that had this unfortunate creation of the gutter press and lowest common denominator television not suffered this awful fate, cervical cancer would be something that the women of the UK would ignorant off. The second implication of this was that this 'raised awareness' signalled a rise in understanding of the disease.
A student of mine tested the theory that raised awareness of the term 'cervical cancer' would in no way automatically indicate any more knowledge. As part of a marked and examined research project this particular student proved her theory to be correct and despite a very high percentage of those who answered her questionaires knowing the phrase the level of understanding of causes, treatments and preventions were shockingly low. Indeed, an ignorance of the wherabouts of the cervix was sadly also apparent.
It appears that 'raising awareness' of issues has replaced the idea of actually doing something about those issues. In fact awareness raising campaigns now appear to be self-serving endeavours that allow pop stars, celebrities, wannabes their chance in the sun, givers of money their feel good dosage and the charities themselves a chance to raise money without any real sense of what is to be done with that money.
This is in no way an attack on charity giving; though I loath everything about any televised charity event that has the word relief in it or which stars a bear with a bandana, it is clear that the money actually is destined for real projects. However, the attendant celebrity cricket and/or football tours do seem to be nothing more than exercises in the self serving awareness raising mentioned above.
Whenever I see the latest rubber band on someones wrist I cringe at the thought that the purchaser of said band is under the illusion that poverty will be made history, that sexually active teens will protect themselves with condoms, that racism will become a thing of the past and that child abuse will stop because people have suddenly become 'aware' of those issues.
History tells us that the inequities of the past were changed, not just because of awareness, but because of the addition of direct action. A black youth in Brixton in the 70s and 80s didn't need an awareness campaign to know that the SUS laws used by the police were motivated by racism. An Asian getting seven bells kicked out of him by National Front supporters needed no awareness training to know he was a victim of racism, a low income family faced with every adult having to find £60 or £70 a month to pay the poll tax neededed no one to tell them they were victims of a grossly unfair tax and an unemployed person is well aware of his/her situation.
The reaction to all of the above when I was growing up was the formation of organisations such as the Anti-Nazi League, The Anti-Poll Tax Campaign and The Right to Work. As with today's wrist band and ribbon wearing fashion these groups had their campaign badges and slogans that have become iconic in their own right. However, in addition to posters, badges and leaflets there was a sense of doing something.
The National Front was destroyed by the Anti-Nazi League because as Mark Steel says in his excellent book 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' the average NF supporter became disillusoned by the idea that he/she was likely to face a crowd just as willing to put the boot in whenever they tried to march down Southall or Lewisham. The poll tax was finally ended after the biggest riot London had seen since the peasants' revolt and, in an echo of the Jarrow Crusade, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of towns and cities in the UK to take part in the 'Right to Work' marches.
In addition there was the Rock Against Racism concerts, organised non-payment of the poll tax and, as a the ultimate expression of people power, the Brixton, Southall, Handsworth and Toxteth riots.
Ask yourself, how did women gain the vote, how did working class men gain the vote, how did the people of Poland and Czechoslovakia rid themselves of the Soviet yoke? They did it by forming and actively taking part in organisations; the Suffragettes, the Chartists, Solidarity and Charter 88 respectively.
Every act of defiance, small or big, verbal, intellectual or physical rang the death knell for the discriminations and attack on libery that the members and supporters of these movements were suffering.
I am not suggesting a call to arms or a mass chaining to railings and am certainly not implying that it's time for Molotov cocktails. We in the UK are in the happy position of living in a democracy and coming up on May the 6th is one of the ways in which we as citizens can express our support or or disquiet of those who govern us. To not use one's vote is a betrayal of those men and women who risked and lost life or liberty in order for all of us to put an X in a box. Or, if you prefer,to take the option of spoiling your ballot paper.
However, a 4 or 5 yearly trip to a church hall or local primary school is not enough. There are a myriad of organisations that one can join to help make this country and the world a fairer place; Trades Unions, Unite Against Fascism (Anti-Nazi League light?) and Fathers for Justice to name but three.
The correlation to all of the above is that they all use direct action to change things for ordinairy people and have historical precedences to call upon; Cable Street, the economic boycott of South Africa by the Anti- Apartheid Movement, the boycott of buses on Montgomery, Alabama by Martin Luther King's SNCC, education and food programmes by Black Consciousness, workers rights by the Indian Workers Association all changed things by doing as well as voting and debating.
Even if the Stop the War Coalition didn't stop the invasion of Iraq, even if the Coal Not Dole campaign faileed to stop the butchering of the coal communities in Britain and even if CND failed to rid us of unusable and expensive nukes, being part of those groups and campaigns and others like them mean two things; the powers that be can't just do things without anyone noticing, questioning and examining and ordinary people can empower themselves in a very real way by taking part.
Now, that's how you raise awareness, by making the buggers listen.
The implication being that had this unfortunate creation of the gutter press and lowest common denominator television not suffered this awful fate, cervical cancer would be something that the women of the UK would ignorant off. The second implication of this was that this 'raised awareness' signalled a rise in understanding of the disease.
A student of mine tested the theory that raised awareness of the term 'cervical cancer' would in no way automatically indicate any more knowledge. As part of a marked and examined research project this particular student proved her theory to be correct and despite a very high percentage of those who answered her questionaires knowing the phrase the level of understanding of causes, treatments and preventions were shockingly low. Indeed, an ignorance of the wherabouts of the cervix was sadly also apparent.
It appears that 'raising awareness' of issues has replaced the idea of actually doing something about those issues. In fact awareness raising campaigns now appear to be self-serving endeavours that allow pop stars, celebrities, wannabes their chance in the sun, givers of money their feel good dosage and the charities themselves a chance to raise money without any real sense of what is to be done with that money.
This is in no way an attack on charity giving; though I loath everything about any televised charity event that has the word relief in it or which stars a bear with a bandana, it is clear that the money actually is destined for real projects. However, the attendant celebrity cricket and/or football tours do seem to be nothing more than exercises in the self serving awareness raising mentioned above.
Whenever I see the latest rubber band on someones wrist I cringe at the thought that the purchaser of said band is under the illusion that poverty will be made history, that sexually active teens will protect themselves with condoms, that racism will become a thing of the past and that child abuse will stop because people have suddenly become 'aware' of those issues.
History tells us that the inequities of the past were changed, not just because of awareness, but because of the addition of direct action. A black youth in Brixton in the 70s and 80s didn't need an awareness campaign to know that the SUS laws used by the police were motivated by racism. An Asian getting seven bells kicked out of him by National Front supporters needed no awareness training to know he was a victim of racism, a low income family faced with every adult having to find £60 or £70 a month to pay the poll tax neededed no one to tell them they were victims of a grossly unfair tax and an unemployed person is well aware of his/her situation.
The reaction to all of the above when I was growing up was the formation of organisations such as the Anti-Nazi League, The Anti-Poll Tax Campaign and The Right to Work. As with today's wrist band and ribbon wearing fashion these groups had their campaign badges and slogans that have become iconic in their own right. However, in addition to posters, badges and leaflets there was a sense of doing something.
The National Front was destroyed by the Anti-Nazi League because as Mark Steel says in his excellent book 'Reasons To Be Cheerful' the average NF supporter became disillusoned by the idea that he/she was likely to face a crowd just as willing to put the boot in whenever they tried to march down Southall or Lewisham. The poll tax was finally ended after the biggest riot London had seen since the peasants' revolt and, in an echo of the Jarrow Crusade, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of towns and cities in the UK to take part in the 'Right to Work' marches.
In addition there was the Rock Against Racism concerts, organised non-payment of the poll tax and, as a the ultimate expression of people power, the Brixton, Southall, Handsworth and Toxteth riots.
Ask yourself, how did women gain the vote, how did working class men gain the vote, how did the people of Poland and Czechoslovakia rid themselves of the Soviet yoke? They did it by forming and actively taking part in organisations; the Suffragettes, the Chartists, Solidarity and Charter 88 respectively.
Every act of defiance, small or big, verbal, intellectual or physical rang the death knell for the discriminations and attack on libery that the members and supporters of these movements were suffering.
I am not suggesting a call to arms or a mass chaining to railings and am certainly not implying that it's time for Molotov cocktails. We in the UK are in the happy position of living in a democracy and coming up on May the 6th is one of the ways in which we as citizens can express our support or or disquiet of those who govern us. To not use one's vote is a betrayal of those men and women who risked and lost life or liberty in order for all of us to put an X in a box. Or, if you prefer,to take the option of spoiling your ballot paper.
However, a 4 or 5 yearly trip to a church hall or local primary school is not enough. There are a myriad of organisations that one can join to help make this country and the world a fairer place; Trades Unions, Unite Against Fascism (Anti-Nazi League light?) and Fathers for Justice to name but three.
The correlation to all of the above is that they all use direct action to change things for ordinairy people and have historical precedences to call upon; Cable Street, the economic boycott of South Africa by the Anti- Apartheid Movement, the boycott of buses on Montgomery, Alabama by Martin Luther King's SNCC, education and food programmes by Black Consciousness, workers rights by the Indian Workers Association all changed things by doing as well as voting and debating.
Even if the Stop the War Coalition didn't stop the invasion of Iraq, even if the Coal Not Dole campaign faileed to stop the butchering of the coal communities in Britain and even if CND failed to rid us of unusable and expensive nukes, being part of those groups and campaigns and others like them mean two things; the powers that be can't just do things without anyone noticing, questioning and examining and ordinary people can empower themselves in a very real way by taking part.
Now, that's how you raise awareness, by making the buggers listen.
Monday, 29 March 2010
Growns Ups Can Say No
Billy Connoly tells a story of his time in the shipyards when, at the end of a shift, grown men, war veterans among them, would hide behind walls, gates, doors waiting for the whistle to blow in order to leave their place of very hard work. He manged to find humour in the fact that men, some who'd faced bullets in World War II, were scared to be seen awaiting the end of the shift by a suprvisor with his clipboard for fear of facing some kind of disciplinary. Some years after this workers in dirty manual jobs won the right to finish six minutes early in order to wash up before leaving their factory, shipyard, colliery. This basic right to choose to leave work in a clean state was won by those workers campaigning through their trades unions.
I remember the first time I said no to an adult. I had been asked to do something that I thought was unfair to be asked to do. I said no, explained why and was listened to and congratulated on the mature manner in which I had asserted my refusal. The adult in question was a teacher whom I respected highly and respected more afterwards. That was the first time I felt grown up and the first time I felt I'd been treated as a grown up.
Workers, professional, manual, skilled, boiler suited or pin striped are able to say no to unfair changes in their working day through their respective trades unions. It strikes me that changing a person's working life through organised and equal negotiation is a 'grown up' manner in which to do this.
However, in relation to the current rail signallers and BA cabin crew disputes the members of each of those unions have gone to the negotiating table following legally supported secret ballots and with huge backing from their memberships. Yet, according to electioneering politicos from both the main parties and the press, gutter and broadsheet, the unions are to be villified for doing what they are supposed to do; represent the stated views of their members and say no to something they feel is unfair.
The irony is that history tells us that in societies where working people don't have a legal right to say no to exploitation by their employers the result has been opression countered by revolution. Bearing in mind that many of the potential voters and media consumers are working people who are now threatened by their employers using the recession as an excuse to impose unfair working conditions it surprises me that those workers currently in dispute are being so attacked.
There are 6 Million public sector workers in the UK who, because of a combination of election inspired penis measuring by politicos and the amount of money used to bail out incompetent and greedy bankers, are now the most vulnerable to redundancies, pay freezes, so called modernisations and cuts in pensions. These are the people who empty our bins, deliver our post, educate our children and help us when we're ill. They do this for pay that fares badly compared to the private sector but has been traditionally balanced by job security and decent pensions. If those latter two incentives are removed because a banker wants a bonus or a party leader wants to flex his muscles then what should those workers do? Well, whatever Brown, Cameron, Murdoch and those of that ilk think those workers, with mortgages to pay and families to support, will do the grown up thing and use their unions to say no.
I for one would rather see my taxes being used to pay soldiers, coppers, paramedics, teachers and bin men to work rather than be used as redundancy and unemployment benefits. Sod it, I'll be grown up and say NO!!
I remember the first time I said no to an adult. I had been asked to do something that I thought was unfair to be asked to do. I said no, explained why and was listened to and congratulated on the mature manner in which I had asserted my refusal. The adult in question was a teacher whom I respected highly and respected more afterwards. That was the first time I felt grown up and the first time I felt I'd been treated as a grown up.
Workers, professional, manual, skilled, boiler suited or pin striped are able to say no to unfair changes in their working day through their respective trades unions. It strikes me that changing a person's working life through organised and equal negotiation is a 'grown up' manner in which to do this.
However, in relation to the current rail signallers and BA cabin crew disputes the members of each of those unions have gone to the negotiating table following legally supported secret ballots and with huge backing from their memberships. Yet, according to electioneering politicos from both the main parties and the press, gutter and broadsheet, the unions are to be villified for doing what they are supposed to do; represent the stated views of their members and say no to something they feel is unfair.
The irony is that history tells us that in societies where working people don't have a legal right to say no to exploitation by their employers the result has been opression countered by revolution. Bearing in mind that many of the potential voters and media consumers are working people who are now threatened by their employers using the recession as an excuse to impose unfair working conditions it surprises me that those workers currently in dispute are being so attacked.
There are 6 Million public sector workers in the UK who, because of a combination of election inspired penis measuring by politicos and the amount of money used to bail out incompetent and greedy bankers, are now the most vulnerable to redundancies, pay freezes, so called modernisations and cuts in pensions. These are the people who empty our bins, deliver our post, educate our children and help us when we're ill. They do this for pay that fares badly compared to the private sector but has been traditionally balanced by job security and decent pensions. If those latter two incentives are removed because a banker wants a bonus or a party leader wants to flex his muscles then what should those workers do? Well, whatever Brown, Cameron, Murdoch and those of that ilk think those workers, with mortgages to pay and families to support, will do the grown up thing and use their unions to say no.
I for one would rather see my taxes being used to pay soldiers, coppers, paramedics, teachers and bin men to work rather than be used as redundancy and unemployment benefits. Sod it, I'll be grown up and say NO!!
Monday, 22 March 2010
Beckham's Foot and a Classical Education
I was sitting on the bus last week, idling away the 15 minute journey when I tuned into two lads of about 17 years discussing the latest travails of David Beckham.
'Well it was 'is Achilles wernit', opined one track suited youth.
'Gonna be an 'erculean task to get to the world cup now, innit mate', replied the equally sports geared sidekick.
The conversation went on to discuss football in general at which point I lost interest and latched on to another conversation in front of me between two ladies in their 50s discussing a trip both had apparently been part of in the summer.
'I loved that fort we went to', stated twin set.
'Which one?', enquired pearls.
'The one with the tablets,' said twin set, 'the letters home to their families'.
'Oh Vindolanda, yes that was a marvellous day, so interesting', said pearls.
'The vomitaririum gave us a giggle though', chuckled twin set.
What struck me was that within the time it took to complete a short bus trip, I had overheard two conversations laden with classical references. This set me thinking about how prevalent references to the Greek and Roman worlds are in our daily lives. Footballers have heels like Achilles, Cupid's bow is known to strike the odd lover or two, Mickey Mouse has a dog called Pluto and, though I've never actually heard anyone outside of an old Sherlock Holmes film say this, 'By Jove' is a polite way of swearing.
Most of us are aware of the plethora of Greek and Roman gods whose names adorn all the other rocks which swirl about the Sun alongside the Earth. The scourge of right wing Tories, UKIP and English Democrat nutters is an organisation named after a continent named after a Greek goddess, Europa. The 2nd string European football competition is similarly named, (Aston Villa 2, Tractor Builders of Kiev nil) and we even have a chocolate bar named after the Roman god of war.
Yet, I sit here with more letters after my name than are actually in my name and at no point in my compulsory schooling did I or my cohort (Roman reference there) get the opportunity to study the classics. Despite the amount of Latin and ancient Greek words and grammar in the English language and despite all the Greek and Roman names and references which surround our daily lives the study of Latin and/or Greek seems to have been back then and still now not available in Comprehensive schools. Why is this?
Why is the study of the classics, over and above a few references to Aesop's Fables, warnings not to 'fly to close to the Sun' and primary school Roman Day the preserve of grammar and private schools?
Why is it that despite the Roman and Greek contributions to Maths, Religion, Philosophy, Science, Sport, Drama, Literature, Music and construction did I gain more classical knowledge from watching 'Jason and the Argonauts' than I ever did from a dedicated course of study at O Level or at any other time at school.
Actually, I'm being a touch disingenuous here as Mr Iversen, my teacher in my final year of primary, opened the eyes of my whole class to the classical world with his holiday photos from Pompeii, Troy and Ephesus and his off curriculum study of mythology. However, I always had the feeling that this fascinating journey into Mr Iversen's grand tour was a guerrilla activity on his part.
Now, I will readily admit that I will always see the world through Marxist eyes and with that rider I will offer the following opinion. I would suggest that the powers that be in education in the seventies and eighties were no different from the mainly bourgoise who run it now; either they assumed we were not clever enough or they didn't want us to be that educated. After all, who needs a plumber that can quote Ovid or a mechanic enamoured with The Aenid.
However, the tide is turning. Marvel comics and films such as the X-Men, the Percy Jackson books, Terry Deary's Horrible Histories and the sword and sandal epics such as Gladiator and Troy are opening up the minds of the children of the great unwashed to the classical world. Add to this the possibility of a few more Mr Iversen's in the system and then maybe one day the idea that kids in Comps. can't handle Latin & Greek and the study of classical civilisations will be an idea that becomes mortus quod seputus*.
By the way, and this has absolutely no relevance to the subject of this blog, the two lads in track suits both offered their seats to an old couple who got on the bus part way through the journey and both thanked the driver when they alighted outside the local college. I would suggest that there went two children of the masses that would welcome more than panis quod ambitus*.
* apologies for any mistakes in the Latin here, I was doing metalwork that day.
'Well it was 'is Achilles wernit', opined one track suited youth.
'Gonna be an 'erculean task to get to the world cup now, innit mate', replied the equally sports geared sidekick.
The conversation went on to discuss football in general at which point I lost interest and latched on to another conversation in front of me between two ladies in their 50s discussing a trip both had apparently been part of in the summer.
'I loved that fort we went to', stated twin set.
'Which one?', enquired pearls.
'The one with the tablets,' said twin set, 'the letters home to their families'.
'Oh Vindolanda, yes that was a marvellous day, so interesting', said pearls.
'The vomitaririum gave us a giggle though', chuckled twin set.
What struck me was that within the time it took to complete a short bus trip, I had overheard two conversations laden with classical references. This set me thinking about how prevalent references to the Greek and Roman worlds are in our daily lives. Footballers have heels like Achilles, Cupid's bow is known to strike the odd lover or two, Mickey Mouse has a dog called Pluto and, though I've never actually heard anyone outside of an old Sherlock Holmes film say this, 'By Jove' is a polite way of swearing.
Most of us are aware of the plethora of Greek and Roman gods whose names adorn all the other rocks which swirl about the Sun alongside the Earth. The scourge of right wing Tories, UKIP and English Democrat nutters is an organisation named after a continent named after a Greek goddess, Europa. The 2nd string European football competition is similarly named, (Aston Villa 2, Tractor Builders of Kiev nil) and we even have a chocolate bar named after the Roman god of war.
Yet, I sit here with more letters after my name than are actually in my name and at no point in my compulsory schooling did I or my cohort (Roman reference there) get the opportunity to study the classics. Despite the amount of Latin and ancient Greek words and grammar in the English language and despite all the Greek and Roman names and references which surround our daily lives the study of Latin and/or Greek seems to have been back then and still now not available in Comprehensive schools. Why is this?
Why is the study of the classics, over and above a few references to Aesop's Fables, warnings not to 'fly to close to the Sun' and primary school Roman Day the preserve of grammar and private schools?
Why is it that despite the Roman and Greek contributions to Maths, Religion, Philosophy, Science, Sport, Drama, Literature, Music and construction did I gain more classical knowledge from watching 'Jason and the Argonauts' than I ever did from a dedicated course of study at O Level or at any other time at school.
Actually, I'm being a touch disingenuous here as Mr Iversen, my teacher in my final year of primary, opened the eyes of my whole class to the classical world with his holiday photos from Pompeii, Troy and Ephesus and his off curriculum study of mythology. However, I always had the feeling that this fascinating journey into Mr Iversen's grand tour was a guerrilla activity on his part.
Now, I will readily admit that I will always see the world through Marxist eyes and with that rider I will offer the following opinion. I would suggest that the powers that be in education in the seventies and eighties were no different from the mainly bourgoise who run it now; either they assumed we were not clever enough or they didn't want us to be that educated. After all, who needs a plumber that can quote Ovid or a mechanic enamoured with The Aenid.
However, the tide is turning. Marvel comics and films such as the X-Men, the Percy Jackson books, Terry Deary's Horrible Histories and the sword and sandal epics such as Gladiator and Troy are opening up the minds of the children of the great unwashed to the classical world. Add to this the possibility of a few more Mr Iversen's in the system and then maybe one day the idea that kids in Comps. can't handle Latin & Greek and the study of classical civilisations will be an idea that becomes mortus quod seputus*.
By the way, and this has absolutely no relevance to the subject of this blog, the two lads in track suits both offered their seats to an old couple who got on the bus part way through the journey and both thanked the driver when they alighted outside the local college. I would suggest that there went two children of the masses that would welcome more than panis quod ambitus*.
* apologies for any mistakes in the Latin here, I was doing metalwork that day.
Monday, 15 March 2010
Eastenders What I wrote.
The scene opens in the Queen Vic.
Den is behind the bar pouring Pete Beale a pint of 'best' and a 'sherbet ' for someone Pete has referred to as 'Treacle'.
Angie has given a pint to Dr Legg 'on the aaaase' for no explained reason.
The camera pans to a table where Ethel is sat with the dippy bloke in the glasses who, in real life supports Arsenal and is supposed to be the Square's version of Curly Watts. You know, the one Michelle left at the altar.
Ethel: How did your first day working at the Thames Barrier go then?
Dippy bloke: Great thanks Et. A lot to learn though, it's a very responsible job.
Just then Lou Beale rushes in all panic stricken,.
Lou: Cor lumme guv and all that and everything, they've just given it out on the radio, there's a tidal bore making it's way up the Thames from the North Sea, it's gonna be massive and we're done for if the barrier don't work.
All eyes turn to the dippy bloke.
Close up on his horror struck face as he pulls a key from his overalls pocket.
Close up shifts to the label on the key that bears the legend' Property of Thames Flood Barrier. DO NOT REMOVE.'
Duff, Duff, Duff, Duff, Duff.
Cue closing credits and BBC continuity announcer stating that from next week this time slot will be filled by Panorama.
25 years on and the characters Ricky, Bianca, Well'Ard, Phil, Grant and Peggy are unknown in a country where people care about their real neighbours and families rather than fictional stereotypes from a land where people disappear to Leicester or Manchester only to return years later to open a car lot.
Den is behind the bar pouring Pete Beale a pint of 'best' and a 'sherbet ' for someone Pete has referred to as 'Treacle'.
Angie has given a pint to Dr Legg 'on the aaaase' for no explained reason.
The camera pans to a table where Ethel is sat with the dippy bloke in the glasses who, in real life supports Arsenal and is supposed to be the Square's version of Curly Watts. You know, the one Michelle left at the altar.
Ethel: How did your first day working at the Thames Barrier go then?
Dippy bloke: Great thanks Et. A lot to learn though, it's a very responsible job.
Just then Lou Beale rushes in all panic stricken,.
Lou: Cor lumme guv and all that and everything, they've just given it out on the radio, there's a tidal bore making it's way up the Thames from the North Sea, it's gonna be massive and we're done for if the barrier don't work.
All eyes turn to the dippy bloke.
Close up on his horror struck face as he pulls a key from his overalls pocket.
Close up shifts to the label on the key that bears the legend' Property of Thames Flood Barrier. DO NOT REMOVE.'
Duff, Duff, Duff, Duff, Duff.
Cue closing credits and BBC continuity announcer stating that from next week this time slot will be filled by Panorama.
25 years on and the characters Ricky, Bianca, Well'Ard, Phil, Grant and Peggy are unknown in a country where people care about their real neighbours and families rather than fictional stereotypes from a land where people disappear to Leicester or Manchester only to return years later to open a car lot.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Michael Foot, the BBC and the 39 Steps
Rather a loose link of ideas this time but the past week has caused me to reflect on how today's Britain is so different from that of only 20 years ago.
A very good childhood friend rang me in the week to talk about the death of Michael Foot. The gist of the conversation was the fact that for both of us, Foot was a hero of us both and ranked alongside similar heroes from music and sport. This caused me to ponder the fact that there doesn't seem to be room any more for real political giants. When one compares the present cabinet, shadow cabinet and Liberal front benchers there is a real dearth of politicians from all sides that have that strength of intellect that seemed to be de rigeur for politicians in the 70s and 80s.
Apart from Vince Cable and , though tainted by his association with the extremes of Thatcher's cabinet, Ken Clarke the intellectual might of Foot, Tony Benn, Dennis Healey and though I loathed him, Enoch Powell just don't seem to exist. Now I'm sure that somewhere on the back benches there are decent and hard working MPs that will have been unfairly tainted by the recent expenses scandals who also have been tucked away from the public eye by party spin doctors for the 'crime' of being too 'intellectual'. If they are there then they should throw off the shackles of their respective parties and do what politicians should do, intellectualise and encourage weighty debate. That's what Michael Foot did with intelligence, wit, gorm and humour.
For proof of this try and listen to an archive recording of the 1979 no confidence debate that Callaghan's govt. faced. In this speech Foot showed how to debate, how to argue and did so with majestic put downs of his opposition rivals. Try the BBC Today programme website for a snippet of this speech, it will remind you of what ideologically driven politicians, as opposed to career driven wannabes, are capable of and why we need them back in the House of Commons to restore a sense of pride and purpose to the place.
The fact that the BBC will still have archives of recordings of the proceedings of Parliament is yet another reason why its present management should steel itself for the political onslaught it will face in the election. Mark Thompson, the head of the Beeb has already tried to head off the expected knifing of the corporation that the Tories will unleash if they win by proposing to close 6 Music and the Asian Network.
The Tory attack, as with that of New Labour over the years, is a response to the support of Murdoch's Sun newspaper and the expected payback that Murdoch (Sky TV especially) will expect.
I believe that Thompson is misguided with his proposals for the following reasons.
Radio 1 is a commercial radio station by any other name. Therefore sell off Radio 1 to the commercial sector where the likes of Chris Moyles will be at home. Use this money to keep the excellent 6 Music and the very important Asian Network as well as supporting Radios 2 to 7.
The BBC should continue to make Eastenders but again, sell it to ITV or Sky who can then make money on advertising revenue gained from its high audiences. Use this money to continue to make high level dramas and use the timeslot to air important programmes such as Panorama and other high brow series.
The public service remit should be relaxed for the commercial companies thus allowing the BBC to continue with the licence fee in order to make programmes that don't directly compete with soaps and celebrity programming of its rivals.
Glastonbury, the Olympics and the Ashes should be jointly produced and available as shared enterprises with Channel 4 but remain as high quality broadcasts available on terrestrial television.
In short the licence fee should be concentrated on Radios 2 to 7, BBC1 to 4 for the purposes of unbiased and well researched journalism, current affairs and news, new comedy, new and high level drama, cutting edge documentaries, new music and outlets for the BBC's archives of music, drama and comedy. The BBC is also the best broadcaster of big events such as the Olympics and Glastonbury across its many channels and should be free to carry on with those.
The soap and celebrity type of programmes sit ill on the BBC anyway so get rid of them and Educate, Inform and Entertain us.
Went to see the stage production of The 39 Steps at the weekend. Absolutely brilliant and hilariously funny. However, I couldn't help laughing at the warning signs that were placed by the theatre entrances that warned the fragile viewing public of gunshots, strobe lighting, haze and, I pause at the shock of this, cigarette smoking!!!!
Now call me cynical but with a novel, 3 film versions and a BBC TV adaptation I wouldn't have thought that a warning of gunshots was totally necessary as there are gunshots present in all those versions. I understand the warning regarding strobes, fair enough. But warning an audience that they may see the awful sight of people smoking cigarettes, well I'm sorry but most of us can remember when every house had ashtrays laid out on arms of chairs and sideboards as a matter of course. Seeing an actor holding a cigarette holder is not going to bring on a cardiac infarction. It reminded me of the absurdity of censors now describing films using phrases such as 'contains mild peril' as though kids might have their lives ruined by unwittingly seeing the child in the film 'Up' actually, well, go up.
A very good childhood friend rang me in the week to talk about the death of Michael Foot. The gist of the conversation was the fact that for both of us, Foot was a hero of us both and ranked alongside similar heroes from music and sport. This caused me to ponder the fact that there doesn't seem to be room any more for real political giants. When one compares the present cabinet, shadow cabinet and Liberal front benchers there is a real dearth of politicians from all sides that have that strength of intellect that seemed to be de rigeur for politicians in the 70s and 80s.
Apart from Vince Cable and , though tainted by his association with the extremes of Thatcher's cabinet, Ken Clarke the intellectual might of Foot, Tony Benn, Dennis Healey and though I loathed him, Enoch Powell just don't seem to exist. Now I'm sure that somewhere on the back benches there are decent and hard working MPs that will have been unfairly tainted by the recent expenses scandals who also have been tucked away from the public eye by party spin doctors for the 'crime' of being too 'intellectual'. If they are there then they should throw off the shackles of their respective parties and do what politicians should do, intellectualise and encourage weighty debate. That's what Michael Foot did with intelligence, wit, gorm and humour.
For proof of this try and listen to an archive recording of the 1979 no confidence debate that Callaghan's govt. faced. In this speech Foot showed how to debate, how to argue and did so with majestic put downs of his opposition rivals. Try the BBC Today programme website for a snippet of this speech, it will remind you of what ideologically driven politicians, as opposed to career driven wannabes, are capable of and why we need them back in the House of Commons to restore a sense of pride and purpose to the place.
The fact that the BBC will still have archives of recordings of the proceedings of Parliament is yet another reason why its present management should steel itself for the political onslaught it will face in the election. Mark Thompson, the head of the Beeb has already tried to head off the expected knifing of the corporation that the Tories will unleash if they win by proposing to close 6 Music and the Asian Network.
The Tory attack, as with that of New Labour over the years, is a response to the support of Murdoch's Sun newspaper and the expected payback that Murdoch (Sky TV especially) will expect.
I believe that Thompson is misguided with his proposals for the following reasons.
Radio 1 is a commercial radio station by any other name. Therefore sell off Radio 1 to the commercial sector where the likes of Chris Moyles will be at home. Use this money to keep the excellent 6 Music and the very important Asian Network as well as supporting Radios 2 to 7.
The BBC should continue to make Eastenders but again, sell it to ITV or Sky who can then make money on advertising revenue gained from its high audiences. Use this money to continue to make high level dramas and use the timeslot to air important programmes such as Panorama and other high brow series.
The public service remit should be relaxed for the commercial companies thus allowing the BBC to continue with the licence fee in order to make programmes that don't directly compete with soaps and celebrity programming of its rivals.
Glastonbury, the Olympics and the Ashes should be jointly produced and available as shared enterprises with Channel 4 but remain as high quality broadcasts available on terrestrial television.
In short the licence fee should be concentrated on Radios 2 to 7, BBC1 to 4 for the purposes of unbiased and well researched journalism, current affairs and news, new comedy, new and high level drama, cutting edge documentaries, new music and outlets for the BBC's archives of music, drama and comedy. The BBC is also the best broadcaster of big events such as the Olympics and Glastonbury across its many channels and should be free to carry on with those.
The soap and celebrity type of programmes sit ill on the BBC anyway so get rid of them and Educate, Inform and Entertain us.
Went to see the stage production of The 39 Steps at the weekend. Absolutely brilliant and hilariously funny. However, I couldn't help laughing at the warning signs that were placed by the theatre entrances that warned the fragile viewing public of gunshots, strobe lighting, haze and, I pause at the shock of this, cigarette smoking!!!!
Now call me cynical but with a novel, 3 film versions and a BBC TV adaptation I wouldn't have thought that a warning of gunshots was totally necessary as there are gunshots present in all those versions. I understand the warning regarding strobes, fair enough. But warning an audience that they may see the awful sight of people smoking cigarettes, well I'm sorry but most of us can remember when every house had ashtrays laid out on arms of chairs and sideboards as a matter of course. Seeing an actor holding a cigarette holder is not going to bring on a cardiac infarction. It reminded me of the absurdity of censors now describing films using phrases such as 'contains mild peril' as though kids might have their lives ruined by unwittingly seeing the child in the film 'Up' actually, well, go up.
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