After an early brekkie
spent watching "Family Guy" I set off to work for an
early shift. As I started my drive the radio was playing the National
Anthem in honour of Prince
Philip's ninety-third birthday which I thought was a nice touch.
And perhaps a sign of the times, maybe.
Is this a welcome
resurgence in national pride or just symptomatic of the current trend
of extremist jingoism?
The very next item on the
radio featured the need for school governors to have training in what
is expected from them in being
a school governor following the scandal in Birmingham. Mind you,
I blame the Government entirely. If a Government washes its hands of
all responsibility of what goes on in schools, one can hardly be
surprised when religious crackpots use schools as training grounds
for their own personal versions of crackpot-religion-inspired lunacy.
And then be even more surprised when the right-wing racists start
getting ahead in the opinion polls.
I was rather worried
about the subsequent announcement from the Education Secretary that
all schools are now to promote "British
Values". Don't get me wrong - I'm all for it in theory.
However this is something which should have been done years ago. With
many of our schools facing pupils for whom English is a second
language, promoting "British Values" is going to be
something of an uphill struggle for those faced with doing the
promoting. "British Values" is going to appear to be
stark nonsense to those who've been living in Britain all their lives
without knowing anything of its language or culture. And the whole
thing can only fuel the preconceptions and prejudices of the ever
growing racist minority in Britain today.
Ten years down the line
we might have a better society for this initiative, but for now it
will be hard work for all concerned.
It's just rather
frustrating that all this nastiness was
predicted fifty years ago.
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