Apathetic performance and a pathetic decision

This year marks the centinary of the beginning of the First World War, seventy years since the d day landings & 86 years since everyone has been entitled to vote. Three very different anniversaries but all with a connection. As a result of the gargantuant effort and sacrifice of millions of ordinary people during WW1 the powers that be kindly allowed ordinary people to vote and have their say...though it took another 14 years for them to recognise that women may have the same thinking power as men and in most cases more. Then as we all know came the greatest threat to the new found emancipation with fascism and dictatorship threatening our shores, June 1944 was the beginning of the end of that, allowing a general public to at least have the minimum say when it comes to who ruins err runs our lives. Millions of normal everyday folk gave everything for that right and exercised it eagerly thereafter. Well eagerly upto the past decade or so. The turn out for elections must leave our forefathers wondering "why did we bother in the two wars?" And that feeling must be multiplied by the events of the past week. The 60% or so who didn't bother have helped to create a very dangerous situation, not only here but all over Europe, the same Europe everyone fought to free has been handed to people who would have it return to the 1920s and 30s. Insular, nationalistic, paranoid. The excuse of "they are all the same" does not wash anymore as,clearly, they are not all the same at all. Fuelled by nationalistic media and over exaggerated statistics, a great many of the 36% or so that did vote chose an extreme party. I will repeat that figure, 36%. Not even half.... What would the situation be like if 70,or 80% had voted? I hope beyond hope that it would have been very different. All the main parties need to take a good long look at themselves as much as the general public does as the self regulated, self judged vested interests have turned people off and that now needs urgent change as it is no longer just a case of " we will win with 40% of 36%" and leave it at that, these low turnouts are now threatening to make the extreme the norm and put in jeapordy the freedom won at such a cost. One last thing to think about, there have recently been elections in Afghanistan and India. How many saw the lines of queuing people waiting in some cases hours and hours to cast their vote, a vote that means so much to them, the same vote that seems to mean so little to us. I never intended this blog to become a outlet for spleen venting but I have to mention a decision that does have a kind of link to the above. Remember my term insular? Well I cannot see any good reason why our so called Education Minister has scrapped children reading American classics such as To Kill A Mockingbird, The Crucible or Of Mice And Men in English Literature. The reason? They are not British...apparently there is another reason for Of Mice...Mr Gove hates it...good sound policy reason that one! I can remember reading all three of these in English Literature and along with the 4 Shakespeare plays I can still remember them clearly now 30 years later! They are brilliant stories and powerful and I don't think it turned me off reading anything "made in England" since. I hope that these titles and others are still passed onto students for spare time reading as they should not be allowed to gather dust on the shelf or the digital equivalent on Kindle. Maybe Mr Gove doesn't like the tragic ending to Of Mice...perhaps seeing himself as Lenny asking George (or David) "tell us again why I scrapped this book?"

Initial Thoughts

Well it's been an interesting week with lots of things to catch the eye of the average observer. Letters seemed to have played a big part in defining some of the events of the last few days. Now I'm not going to do a Dickie Valentine here and wonder through the alphabet (that's one for the kids!) I'll just stroll through the ones that caught my eye...here's four to start with...U K I & P it's been quite a week for these guys...suddenly they are everywhere (apart from Newark) and nothing they say seems to stick or is just laughed off. Some of the utterances of some of their members have been disgraceful but it's treated like they are a minority fringe, mouthing off but never going to have any power so ignore it...at your peril in my view. Now how about these letters? H&S add a number on the end, let's say...2 and we will be on the fast track to, Birmingham, and we can get there 20 mins sooner than now, and then we will can get connections to the North and to Scotland. The thing is if you want to go further on HS 2 you may have to wait at Birmingham for a little while, about decade or so. I will be honest I still can't get my head around the needs for this...apart from the slight reduction in journey times I can't help feeling that improving what we have by spending a small percentage of HS2 would be more beneficial as my overcrowded train to Leeds last week proved. Other monies could then be used to sort out our roads and get the repairs carried out that are so desperately needed rather than issuing a paltry amount and then asking councils to "bid" for some of it, looks like Ill be continuing to combine my driving with potholing for a wee while yet. And talking of cars that brings me on to our final group of headline making letters, B B C & N if was to add the initials JC to this would it be clearer? No...not that JC! The other one, the one that seems to be able to do or say what he likes because he knows, he has the support of his employer who knows that he is watched by a few million people who really now should be waking up and voting with their remote controls. Part of my job is to talk to young people about equality and diversity and how people should be treated etc... And the consequences of failing to do this, not really much point when they put on the TV and see some of their heroes behave in such a way. I mentioned consequences there which brings me to my final group of letters, if the allegations are true then BBC...Y?