Turn again Dick Whittington

The local elections are over, the race for the Mayor of London is over, people have voted in our great cities for mayors and those decisions are over.

So what is the vision of the future?

And there lies the challenge. A pathetic turn out at the polls yet again says more about the disillusionment of the electorate with the political class than it does about the democracy of Great Britain. And by doing so the British  public have in effect legitimised a system and Government that is sending this country back to the Victorian era.

Welfare

It is the mark of any civilised society that we look after the poorest, frailest and most in need of support. Instead of this happening what we are seeing are families being forced to relocate, disabled people being thrown into isolation and the elderly left to the kindness of charities and the food parcel. This tells me that we  are one step away from the workhouse again and if Tony Nicholson is given the right to get a doctor to end his life we are one step away from euthanasia of those who cannot defend their own rights. Didn't we fight a war to stop that sort of thing happening or have those in power so easily forgotten this?

Education

Education is a right, education is a must but it is not about literacy and numeracy and a set of opinionated tests that say nothing about the ability of child but all about the ability of a school to get children to exhibit Pavlovian responses from their students. What happened to the idea of expression. I am a scientist, Physical, Medical and now Psychological sciences have dominated my life, but look around and see children who have no concept of aesthetics. I see adults who have not read a book since school but can tell you exactly how Plato or Socrates work because of their life experiences. Experiences that have developed because their teachers motivated them with passion to learn. I worry that that is being destroyed by the want to drive scores and grades and I worry that the present system drives the life out of the teaching profession.

Sport

I look at the Barcelona players after being defeated by Chelsea and I saw men, not boys. To a man they stayed on the pitch and shook hands with their opponents they were honourable in defeat and sportsmanlike in their demeanour. I look at premiership players earning £100000 a week moaning to referees when they get booked and batsmen refusing to walk when they are clearly out and I think this is not how I played and it  is not how I want my children to play. It is how we lose as well as as we win that is important. The game must always be bigger than the individual

Society

Alcohol, drugs, gambling, sexism, racism and inequality. They're all there in abundance and whilst we should seek to include the positive and exclude the negative we only ever play lip service to the things that we would not talk about in polite conversation. We are a society that firmly believes in a Look after thyself first rather than Love thy neighbour attitude. In this we exclude great wedges of our society. Instead of educating people about the dangers of alcohol, drugs and gambling we sweep the challenges under the table. Instead of educating about inequality and promoting tolerance we still stay entrenched in a them and us attitude. We are still a system of class not a system of equality.


So what of the future?

We need leaders who will include, not exclude. We need leaders with empathy for all not support for corrupt practice. We need educators not invigilators.

WE NEED INSPIRATION, PASSION, ENLIGHTENMENT AND COMPASSION


And we need it......................................NOW!