Education

Its all abaht educashun innit?

Yep, that might apply if I'd gone to School in the late 80'/90's, but I didn't. I am a 70's schoolkid and that's why I can read, write, add , multiply, divide and converse, without having had to go to University to do it. Alright, I am at the Open University now, but if the Careers Officers had bothered to tell me that Uni would be 3 or 4 years of sex, dope, more sex, drink, even more sex...with maybe 3 hours of studying per week, with an honours degree at the end and a good job with good pay, then I might have stayed for A Levels and then gone to Uni. But they didn't. They said it was like school, that it was hard work, that it was "unattainable to people like you". Well, fuck them, I bet I earn more money than they ever did. But then their job was to judge people who had no idea what they wanted to do and then send them out to companies or jobs where we could be knocked into shape by the system.

My school, like so many others, was a rough suburban, city edge school. We had a grammar stream (I was in it), and therefore the strange inverse snobbery of the "comprehensive" system kicked into place. If I was intelligent then why wasn't I at Grammar School (not posh enough, and my mates wanted to go to this school), if I was intelligent then I was posh, therefore I was a swot, therefore I could legimitately be bullied, because swots were weeds, and weeds wouldn't fight back. They saw the flaw in this argument when I decked Wanker Gibson for nicking he fags I had nicked from my mum. After that I knocked his mate over as well, and he cried to the Teacher. I got a whack from the teacher, who kept my fags, but winked at me as well. That's when I knew I was as good as the others. I would never be the toughest, and would lose a few fights, but not many gambled on the fact that they would win. As with most bullies, they get scared off at the thought of a fat lip, sore bollocks (I knew where to kick)...even if they won! Nobody likes getting hurt, or worse still being seen to get hurt. I also knew that humour was a great winner, so my reputation as a funny little geezer grew. With that, came the confidence and belief and the humour came even easier. I can take the piss, but in an inclusive manner that doesn't hurt or upset people. I can take stories and anecdotes and colour them in to make people laugh. I do this because it is better to be liked than disliked. Those who don't get me, don't often like me, and I don't often like them. They are hard work, and have no lives. They are the serious ones.

Anyway,more on my past another time. The point is that under the Tories the institutions that suffered the most were...

1.) The schools, by virtue of under-investment, shit pay, sale of assets, lack of morale, bad press from Thatch and gang. Private education was encouraged, state education was discarded. Is it any wonder the standards fell during those years. DC is a governor at 2 schools, and I know that this patronizing bunch of bastards are actually keeping their promise of greater investment to try and bring the schools back to the standard they should be. Unpalatabe to a lot of people who think even more should be spent, but the fact is if 100% of our GDP was pumped into schools, those people would be moaning about the roads, the libraries, the railways etc etc ad infinitum. Teenager and Baby go to state schools. Sure private education has a higher chance of giving them a better education, but it ISN'T guaranteed. There are privately educated drop outs and heroin addicts as well. I am happy for them to get a few knocks, have a few ups and downs, make mistakes, get into scrapes, get hearts broken etc. That is as much a part of education as being shown or taught things in a class. I also value having some of my money for my life, and the life I provide them, such as 3 holidays per year, violin lessons, singing lessons, guitar lessons. That's my balance for my family, and me.

2.) The hospitals. Same as the schools. What about this though. If Thatch had her way and te NHS was dismantled for a private service then if you had a heart attack, you would then be excluded from any policy for further attacks as you are a high risk. The very thing you need the most, you can't have, and there would be such a minimal state system the chances are you would have no chance. Sure, get BUPA if you can afford it, it helps alleviate the load on the NHS, but the fundamental backbone of health care in the UK is the NHS. I will pay more tax to keep it alive. Again, Blair and the other nannies are keeping their promises here, and people forget just how bad the Tories let the NHS become. They were strangling it deliberately to justify the spread of private health care!.

I am still fundamentally a socialist, but a champagne one!

Later, GrocerJack