Gobsmcked by Google

I have to say that I'm at a bit of a loss as to understand why the Head of Google, Eric Schmidt, would want Britain to return to a Victorian era of education.

Educationalists and historians would have us believe that schools were revered in Victorian times as a way of educating the poor so that they could benefit society. Utter nonsense, schools were revered as a way of the ruling classes being able to indoctrinate children from an early age with the right ideas and not those of revolutionaries such as Marx or Engels. They were a way of effectively preventing social unrest through programing and thus preventing potential revolution.

Schmidt claims in his MacTaggart lecture that we are simply behind in our thinking and we should combine art and science again as many of the past theorists had done.

Reading comments across the web it would appear that people are concerned that our children are only learning answers. Well that is true.

Let us look at this calmly and in particularly at mathematics. When I did my A Levels in maths I learned how to do differential calculus and integral calculus from what is called first principles. Calculus gives us the tools we need to perform theoretical physics and therefore is vital. It is not a science purely though because mathematics is without a doubt an art at a higher level. There is great beauty about it just as there is in a classical opera or painting or poem. Yet my son, who is undertaking an engineering degree did not learn these things until he was at university even though he took A Level maths.

Today's teaching is aimed at one thing, results, The schools with the best results get the plaudits and ultimately more money.

The schools with the best results do not necessarily have the best educators but they do have the best people at teaching children how to pass a test!

And that Herr Schmidt is quintessentially the challenge.

I was blessed by wonderful educators, free thinkers educated themselves by the post war thinkers, the new generation dedicated to improvement of our knowledge and understanding. Many of today's teachers are cattle fodder churned out by a system that is only interested in passing exams rather than opening young minds to possibilities of expansion.

If we have no inspiration from our educators then is it surprising that children will look elsewhere for their impetus such as rap music or TV reality shows.

The human mind is always searching how to evolve, it is its' destiny. If we do not show our children how to do this then nature will take it's course and chaos will ensue. Let our teachers become educators again and let us fall in love with learning and inspire our children to grow rather than to reach false benchmarks.

So Herr Schmidt is that really described best by Victorian schooling or is it better described elsewhere in history by people such as Da Vinci?

How quick it's forgotten!

Well Britain is getting back to normal, a bank holiday awaits, the sun is sort of in the sky and life is plodding on as normal.

I showered this morning walked out of the shower and all was as it should be. Everything that has happened over the last few weeks has been a dream.

And Dallas is back too!

My prediction was that the rioting and discontent would be yesterday's news, well now that the X Factor and Big Brother are back it is. After all it is far more interesting to chat about some wannabe or some has been than it is to deal with the nitty gritty stuff of life. Oh how the media distracts us.

Will we ever learn? Will we ever understand that we have a responsibility to our fellow man, woman and child? Will we ever change?

I doubt it, so until the next time.





Here I go again on my own, walking down the only road I've ever known......

Something rotten in the State of Denmark

What is the job of the British Prime Minister?

To run the country? To be a leader? What?

The job of the British Prime Minister is simple it is about making sure that his, or her party remain in power. In other words the job of the British Prime Minister is to keep their job!

Now some may say that is a little harsh but history tells us that as soon as the Prime Minister becomes so unpopular that they cannot win a General Election then the babies eat the mummy or daddy!

Thatcher, Blair, Brown,Wilson, Callaghan, Heath and even the great Winston Churchill all suffered the same fate in one way or another.

The problem with politics is that it has become so self obsessed that the system has forgotten that it is not the next five years that matters but the next fifty generations. Sound bites have taken over from sound ideas.

We have real challenges in this country, challenges that can be solved by working together, by unifying.

However with politicians playing games with our future is that likely to happen. Stop thinking about the polls and start doing what is right!

And I don't believe that they have the balls to do it!

Democracy may die this week!

A strong statement, an emotive statement, a statement of possible reality.

The rioting that took place was neither justifiable or righteous. It was not protest it was lawlessness. Of that most people are agreed. We are agreed we do not want to see it on our streets, our city centres or near our homes. The problem is that the knee jerk reactions have already started.

My grandfather told me stories of the German bombing raids, he told me about the fear of invasion and of how Britain stood alone in the dark nights of 1939 and 1940. He told me stories of the few. The few who stood up have left the legacy that I am allowed to write this today. They left me with my freedom of speech.

And if we start own a road of censorship then we kill that immediately. We destroy all that those brave men and women fought for, we blight their memory, forever.

If social networks are responsible for the spread of this riot then the telephone is responsible for the coordination of the flying pickets in the 1980's. There was no call to ban the telephone but there are calls to suspend social networking.

The argument that the authorities cannot monitor these communications and act upon them is nonsense. The phone hacking scandal has shown how easy it is to break into communications networks. If you really believe that communications are not monitored then you are living in cloud cuckoo land. It is an art as old as communication and it is something that will not go away. And for the sake of national security it is in many ways vital. Does it infringe my civil liberties, absolutely, am I prepared to put up with it, well to a certain extent. However for those who know me know that I will speak my mind as is my right. I am not going to commit acts of anarchy, I love my country, so I have nothing to fear. Others though who would commit these acts should fear it.

With power comes responsibility and there should be strict rules which if broken carry the penalties that are suitable. No one person should be damaged by the state or any individual who is want on pursuing anything that is outside of the law. We have a judiciary that has separate powers to make sure that this doesn't happen.

I do not want to be told what I can or cannot wear, I am no thug but I have hoodies in my wardrobe. I wear a scarf over my face in winter, will I be told to remove it when I go to work in St Paul's because it was a scene of trouble? OK that may be scaremongering but there are people who would do this because it is a little power trip. There are already shops that refuse to allow people in if they are wearing hoodies, even if the hood is down.

Must we look at the root causes of these problems, absolutely. But we have to stop playing politics. Let's face it politicians are not the best role models.

Democracy must not be allowed to die because the Police Chiefs were poor at their jobs, Politicians preferred their holidays to being leaders and Parents devoid themselves of responsibility.

Because if it does then we might as well cancel Remembrance Day because we have given up on all those who died for our freedom, for our democracy.

I will not give up on that though and I will go door to door if I have to defend our democracy and I will win the hearts and minds of the people so that we cherish our freedoms and respect our democracy.

28 Days Later?

OK you've seen the film, and now we have witnessed some of the reality of widespread civil unrest but need we really worry. After all surely this will all calm down, the police will restore order and arrests and convictions will see the guilty punished.

In the short term that will happen, but what about the long term?

I was listening to Radio 5 Live this morning whilst going about my daily business and sat next to me was my 10 year old son listening attentively. There was the usual hogwash spouted but two callers took my attention for very different reasons.

The first, an elderly sounding Caribbean gentleman spoke about the fact that there were no role models out there for our youth and when he had the temerity to stand up for his argument by suggesting that corruption was rife in power brokers he was rudely shut down by the presenter who clearly was showing personal bias. Oh no I hear you shout the BBC would never do that well that they did because when Valerie the deputy head came on he was very pally because Valerie was upstanding on discipline and moralising.

Now why is my 10 year old hoody wearing son so interested in all this.

Well he was home educated until last year because of a system that closed ranks on him when he needed help and understanding not discipline and berating.

Like the good middle class family does at the age of 4 a school was chosen for him. But he suffered terribly from nerves. He was so bad that he suffered from heart palpitations, endless sleepless nights, bed wetting, clingyness way beyond normal, and a terrifying fear of being away from his close family.

And what was the schools response? He was attacked in front of his mother by a teaching assistant who was then defended by her award winning Headmistress who made up a wonderful story of lies that was believed by her moronic Governors. When we took this to the LEA they basically said we can't do anything and because we were being threatened with legal action over keeping him away from school there became no other option to withdraw him and home educate.

Now that was something we were not really keen on for a whole raft of reasons so although he was given the best education we could we ultimately looked for other schools.

At the two following schools both were not about understanding the needs of the child but about puttng the needs of the teachers first, discipline was what was needed. So for years he was kept at home whilst we tried to do the most difficult of jobs and that was home educate a young person and work.

It blasted holes in the family relationship and in reality the family fell apart. The strain was terrible.

Then a school was finally found that actually understood that children are different and have different needs. The headmaster is a kind and wonderful man who has a passion for his students and his staff, a true leader. As a result my 10 year old son has completed his first year at school and is flying now with confidence and ability.

I was badly beaten as a child because I had a mother who although loved me had no idea what my needs were. I swore that I would never discipline a child with violence. I swore that I would be understanding and caring and although there are times when my children and I have had major challenges I believe that we have worked together to overcome them. I have done the best job that I could do in supporting them and whilst the mistakes made have been many they have turned out pretty good kids and now young adults.

So what were my 10 year old's comments about Valerie. Well he said that he would not like to go to her school because she sounded like Cruella. He was glad that he went to the school he did. He was angry at the rioters for being stupid idiots, his words, not mine, and that they know it's wrong to steal.

So am I blaming the teachers, no not really, well not those at the coal face. I am blaming those who play politics with children's lives though for their own gain in a system that is designed for the adult not the child.

A child is not born evil but learns those concepts from those around them. The Caribbean gentleman was right we need positive role models who can interact with young people and work with them.

Young people need to show understanding of their interdependent place in society and society should not write off a young person because they don't fit in nicely and do what they are told.

Non of this excuses what has gone on in the rioting and the looting. It was wrong. Long term though if we do not start radically rethinking and changing our strategies then it is likely that this sort of thing will continue.

And the Saints go Marching In

No this is not a reference to Southampton Football Club or the transfer of yet another player of talent from the South Coast to London. This blog is about the saints that are sent to save us.

Well maybe not saints I guess but there were calls for them to be brought into the field of battle, along with the army, the police, the vigilantes and the Women's Institute. I think I heard all of that on twitter last night as the hysteria got worse and the rumour mill heightened.

People were and are scared. I am among them as my daughter lives just outside Ealing and my son just down from Grove Street and Upper Parliament Street in Liverpool. But the hysteria that is surrounding all of this is merely sharpening the swords of the extremists. And I'm not talking about disaffected groups I'm talking about the extremists in power.

A few years ago I watched a double episode of Spooks, and an interactive TV programme about dealing with national emergencies. They say fact is stranger than fiction but what if? The more hysteria that is generated means that out of fear we naturally move to what seems like good solutions in the heat of the moment but in reality and the cold hard light of day it just plays into the extremists hands.

World War 2 came about because Germany under massive pressure economically and politically was allowed by honest decent Germans to become an experiment in fascism. Stalin was allowed to rule for so long because ordinary decent Russians were fooled into thinking that his idea of Communism would deliver them from the evils of the capitalist West. Are we going to allow that to happen here in Britain.

Putting the Army on the streets turns us immediately into Syria, or Egypt or Libya, all places that we condemn for their use of violence against their own people. People did not die in defence of this country to allow this to happen. We didn't do it when 7/7 took place, we didn't do it in the 80's or during the G8 demonstrations, the miners strike, the Poll Tax riots or the student demonstrations so we should not do it now.

If the Police can't handle 3 or 400 kids throwing stones then you have to ask why?

And that is the real debate here. Policing ain't what it used to be. Is that the fault of the Police? No, it is the fault of the policy makers of my generation and the last 40 years who have slowly but steadily turned the Police into tools of the state and political pawns to show that they are tougher on crime than previous generations.

Once upon a time the police lived within our communities, they were known by name, they knew you by name. Now they are led by savage political animals who are interested in power and politics not the streets on which we live. Inspectors are fast tracked, political correctness takes precedent over real policing, and those bullied at school join up to hide behind a uniform so that they can bully back even if ever so subtly at times.

Real policing would have stopped this before it all started, they would know their communities so well that they would be able to identify the ringleaders and the trouble stirrers and could cut off the head before the body could trundle behind flattening everyone.

The police are not to blame for that is like blaming the dog for wagging it's tail, the real culprits are my peers who have allowed this occur. We took apprenticeships out of manufacturing and our manufacturing industry failed, we did the same with the Police and we have civil unrest.

It is time for parents to stand up and take responsibility for their children's actions. It is the time for calm heads not knee jerk reactions. It is the time for people to say what can I do to make this better not worse.

For if this does not happen then for some people St Peter probably will be waiting and that is a thought that is too scary to contemplate.

A Horse, My Kingdom for a Horse

So London burns and memories run deep.

Back to the 80's to Brixton, St Pauls and Toxteth, to Orgreave,to the mines of England and Scotland and Wales, to the streets of Belfast, to the Poll Tax riots. I've witnessed them all man and boy. Toxteth is my spiritual home, in Liverpool, and my son has a job there whilst following in my footsteps at the greatest of Red Brick Institutions. I work often in St Pauls and I lived on the edge of Brixton. I have walked with a heavy heart at the closures of communities following the power politics of the 80's. I know many a Yosser Hughes.

It was greed then, it is greed now. Will we ever learn.

Back then though the disaffected were genuinely disaffected. We didn't bury our dead because the cemeteries were closed. Back then there was a genuine fear that we could not go on if the mines closed and the ghetto's became unruly and untenable. I say ghetto's because that's what it was like in some places.

I was privileged, the middle class white boy from the top of the hill. I was so privileged that I went to a school that was 90 percent non white, that had more races than there are colours of the rainbow. A school where distrust and dislike simmered under the surface. I went to a school that epitomised England in the late 70's, early 80's. It was tough, it was dangerous, there were drugs and there were knives and even the odd gun or two yet through all that it was beautiful.

I was privileged because instead of going to Millfield, where I could have gone, I chose to stay, to have the best teachers and the best friends a person could have. Our teachers taught us how to fight, not with the weapons or our fists as most had been used to, but with our minds and our hearts and our thoughts and our words. With the sword of humanity and the shield of humility.

They taught us to open our minds, break down the walls and believe that by hard work and application we could build something better without losing sight of our basic human nature.

My maternal grandfather was a Union man, strong and proud, an engineer for 40 years till his death in 76, the worst year of my life. My father, strong and proud too, a Thatcherite till his dying day when his body could recover no more from the plague of the whisky and the vodka that brought the cancer, that brought the stroke that killed him. Opposing ideas but united in one love, me.

I think neither of the left or the right or the centre. I am independent in thought as my teachers inspired me to be and today I am shamed to be English.

I am shamed because it is my generation who lost their way. With greed and I'm all right Jack overcoming everything. If ever there was a Merchant of Venice scenario it is today. The Banks, will obviously play Shylock, the Politicians, Morocco and Arragon, the media Gratiano, the moral majority, Antonio but who out of this whole mess will play Portia. Who will have the wisdom to sort it all out.

Because this rioting is wrong, poverty is wrong, greed is not good! Put down your bricks and stones and build, not destroy, with the tools you carry. Be united in humanity and work within your communities to stop the rot.

We need to stop all this hysteria now or indeed it will be the winter of our discontent.

An Eye for and Eye? Really you think so!

It has come to this bloggers understanding that the MP's of our great nation will once again be called on to debate the ultimate sanction - the death penalty. Let me be loud and clear about this, any society purporting to be civilised cannot enter any rational notion that the death penalty is acceptable.

TIMOTHY JOHN EVANS

DEREK BENTLEY

These are names that are forever etched on my mind and should be yours. Two innocent people who were wrongly hanged in a world that believed the killing of children and police officers to be abhorrent. Today there are calls from the far right in British Politics to bring back those days for it will stop murder.

Wrong! There is no overwhelming evidence that even suggests that the death penalty will prevent murder. If someone sets out to commit murder by any means then there is nothing except their own mind that will prevent that from happening. Unless of course we have just moved into the world of Minority Report and pre-crime has been established!

The Death Penalty is just a social revenge, no more, no less. I do not want the state or any other person to carry it out in my name. I have worked all my life to preserve and to save life. I have worked to give people a better quality of life and I cannot defend any system that will allow the sanitised murder of another human being.

You may think I am being naive, possibly. You may think that I am being soft on crime, nonsense. I do not think the way we treat our most heinous criminals as good. I think it is wrong that these criminals of the worst possible inclination are allowed to litigate against the state because of a few cuts and bruises they sustained, but I cannot for the life in me do anything but wonder at those who would have the trap door swinging again.

For those of you who saw the execution of Saddam Hussein on the web, and I confess I watched it like many others, it was no better than leading a lamb to slaughter. I have seen many programmes with the execution scene being acted but I felt that I had to know what the real thing looked liked so that I could confirm my absolute hatred of Capital Punishment. It confirmed to me once and for all that we must not allow the zealots the opportunity to bring this back.

People say to me what if it were my child that had been murdered wouldn't you want revenge? Of course that would be my primary emotion following sadness and then anger. But in the cold hard world of reality I seek to improve the human race not to send it back to the dark ages. And in return to those who ask me the above question I ask the question, what if your child was innocent but falsely condemned and executed? Would you shout large for hanging et al then?

You will have a myriad of views on this emotive subject I know however for once stand back and silently remember that we are civilised and should know better.

It does not mean give those convicted a cushy life, far from it but we cannot revert to something that is inhuman.