Our hero Gordon Broon turned up on the radio last night on a rather tiresome programme in which 'comedian' Marcus Brigstocke is having his blanket cynicism about politics tested by exposure to practising politicoes. Showing a positively Blairite nose for a chance to look good with minimal effort, Broon was on him in a trice. He entered politics, he assured Brigstocke, so that 'everyone could have the opportunities I had' (a line not notable for its originality).
Well, the main opportunity young Gordon had was a fast-track, hothousing education at Kircaldy High School. At the age of 16 - by which time he was ready to go up to Edinburgh University - he claimed that he loathed and resented this 'ludicrous' experiment on young lives (though he cheerfully quoted his old school motto in one of his first speeches as PM). Whatever he might have thought of it, back in Gordon's day, Kircaldy High was capable of producing a future Prime Minister. In 2008, it was declared 'one of the worst schools in Scotland'. So much for 'opportunity', so much for socialised state education. There are worse experiments than hothousing, one being to deprive working-class children of the academic ladder that, historically, lifted so many of them out of poverty.
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Very true, Nige. Brown is full of contradictions. His government continues to expand university education by forcing it on students totally unsuited to the demands of academia; they ‘encourage’ teachers to raise grades year after year, thereby making grades meaningless. And by doing this, artificially promoting those from the poorest backgrounds to the point where employers don’t know the worth of one job applicant over another, the government have ensured that society is even more unjust, rank with nepotism, and bound by the rules of the old school tie.
ReplyDeleteGoethe said "when I hear talk about liberal ideas, I'm always amazed how people like to delude themselves with the sound of empty words: an idea is not allowed to be liberal! Let it be forceful, doughty, self-enclosed, so as to fulfill its God given mission of being productive. Still less is a concept allowed to be liberal; for its commission is completely different."
ReplyDeleteIn other words Gordon, according to Wolfgang, your an arsehole.