dom.blog

This evening I attended a Socialist Worker’s Party public meeting. Future employers, upholders of the brutally repressive capitalist system and petty bourgeoisie alike – don’t panic! I haven’t signed up, comrade but it was a really enjoyable evening.

I went because Saoirse spoke so highly of Lindsey German, who was speaking about women’s liberation, and because I believe it’s only fair to turn the tables around a bit for a girl who I relentlessly debate with at school. Let’s make me the minority for once!

Anyway, Lindsey spoke eloquently and perfectly reasonably about women’s liberation – a flavour of which you can read on their website. To be honest, I didn’t disagree with much, because most of it was about diagnosing the issues we face in society today. The gender pay gap? How to support single mothers going into work? The pathetically low conviction for rapes? These are all genuinely important topics to discuss, and while I don’t believe a socialist overthrow of the capitalist system is the answer, they’re intelligently argued all the same.

The fun part, however, came afterwards as we all headed to the pub downstairs and started to talk. Slowly, more and more members of the public meeting seemed to encircle our table until I was surrounded by around 20 passionate socialists. Unlike, say, religious fundamentalists, their commitment to rational argument and debate meant that is was really fun and that’s not just me enjoying being the centre of attention as the black sheep to the party though that was fun too.

I don’t relish switching from being the most right-wing person in the room to becoming the most left-wing person in the room at certain Cambridge events, I have to say

For the record, I just want to document my ongoing and repeated insistence that we’d all be much better off with an independent NHS structured on the BBC model, with a charter which keeps it separated from government on a day-to-day level. And then what happy headline greets me this morning?

Chancellor Gordon Brown is considering a scheme to create an independent board to take day-to-day control of the NHS, should he become prime minister. (BBC News)

Excellent! It’s obvious that Brown would do this to prove that he can come into leadership with ‘big new ideas’ which are neither Blairite nor anti-Blairite. This fulfils that criteria and gives something important to move forward to, rather than just more of the same. Having said all that, we do face the very real chance that Brown will never be PM, and that Cameron would pounce on the idea and, perhaps, turn it into something rather more Tory… (A cloak to privatise the NHS under not being the idea)

The Church of England wants all faith schools exempted from a planned ban on discrimination against homosexuals

(BBC News)

“Jody was not the first man to be killed, or terrorised, or beaten, or humiliated for being homosexual”

(BBC News)

Something is desperately wrong when those in charge of our children’s education are still trying to wrangle and squirm their way out of true tolerance and respect as if it was all a big game they can drag out for eternity. It isn’t. People still die because institutions like the Church have contributed, over many many years, to a homophobic culture that persists even in this relatively liberal society. I hope those many good men and women in the Church will examine their consciences and pressure their leaders to live up to their public face of inclusion.

54% of the top 100 newspaper editors, columnists, broadcasters and executives were educated privately, despite fee-paying schools catering for 7% of the school population

Source: MediaGuardian

I don’t know about you, Nic, but I’d take that as a challenge

There’s a whole raft of interesting education-related stories out at the moment, as a matter of fact. Demands to cut the National Curriculum, always a thorny issue, although I usually come down in favour of retaining it. It’s all very well to say you want a curriculum that is not ‘carved up into subjects’ – but they have the focus to actually deliver a planned programme of learning. It’s true that you don’t learn Macbeth because of any actual practical application from that specific text, it’s the skills and broad understanding which it gives, but that doesn’t mean you don’t teach Macbeth in an English lesson as part of a national curriculem.

Meanwhile, the Tories are asking for more history lessons. It’s interesting, because at Eton (summer school, I’m not part of that elite ) our history teacher told us to watch out for the almost-yearly demand for more British History from the Conservative Party – so it appears to be one of the few things left unscathed by Cameron’s regime. Of course, I’d like to have done ‘more history’ but that reflects my bias, since I’d also like to have done ‘less PE’, ‘less RE’ and ‘less pointless assemblies’ which would hardly be championed by any politican. To be fair, however, it does seem that at the moment there’s an over-reliance on teaching a few periods (WW2, American Civil Rights, ur, WW2…) in great detail but relative isolation, and that should change.

Finally! Do young children learn homophobia? Yes, yes they do. And schools should show absolutely no mercy in cracking down on it with compulsory sex-education (not the silly ones that parents can opt their children out of because it might hurt their poor ickle ears) which explicitly endorses homosexuality as a positive orientation, with gay role models and couples from an early age. It’s utterly unacceptable that “schools had asked homosexual pupils to leave as they were unable to cope with homophobic bullying” – clearly, the bullies should have been the ones to leave. Any complaints? Bring it on