Education & politics

Over the last few days the subject of debate on the television between the parties. In particular the discussion has revolved around what will happen to the Year 6 SATS. For those of you not up on the discussion the Tories are planning to abolish them and replace them with Year 7 testing. Now it is well established practice that almost all secondary schools test their new intake as they do not entirely trust the SATS results. After last year who can blame them. So there is some sense to the proposal. I will state here and now that I am not and never have been a Tory supporter.

Ed Balls, who many parents think is part of the problem with education and not part of the solution, accused the Tories of effectively attacking the parent's right to know how their school is performing and of attacking teachers. What utter patronising nonsense. League Tables are a construct which actually does not answer many fundamental questions relating to choice. They are a blunt instrument which shows which schools can teach to the test. Teachers were, in my day, trusted individuals who were able to give parents a clear picture of how their child(ren) were doing at school. What parents really want is to know that their offspring can read, write, add up and communicate effectively as a basic minimum. Having seen some of the results that turn up at universities across the country the comprehensive system and the education policy of all governments have failed utterly. The nonsensical idea that 50% of the population are actually capable of the academic rigour required to undertake a degree should be put to bed. As an ideal it is good but it has never been the case that this proportion of the populace have been academically able to take a degree. The degree has been devalued to the extent that only those with postgraduate qualifications can demonstrate that they are academically able.

Teachers should be allowed to teach. Yes there have to be tests and assessments but at primary level they must not be the pinnacle and most important thing.

The glorious leader, not Lord Mandelson of Sith but the Prime Minister, told his fellow Labour MPs that he would change and be open and transparent. Diane Abbott didn't believe him and a mere one week later she has been proved right. The Iraq Inquiry will be held behind closed doors it is unclear who can be called and what evidence can be seen. What is more important is that no blame will be apportioned. Blame is exactly what this inquiry should be apportioning. People in government either actively or recklessly misled Parliament and the country at large as to the reasons for going to war. Some of that negligence may well be of a criminal standard. People have died as a result of the lies told by the government. Members of the Cabinet may actually be liable for prosecution for war crimes. The opposition parties and any Labour MPs with a conscience should not rest until a full public inquiry is delivered. If anybody has committed a crime then they must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

But that being said the prosecuting authorities seem reluctant to prosecute politicians who are in government.

But we watch with interest for developments.

Avoiding the football

Hi everybody,

If you are not one of those people who is bothered about whether England can beat Andorra this evening then I have a few film recommendations. At 9pm on E4 we have Tim Burton's Batman. This original vision of the Dark Knight story was excellent. The show was stolen by Jack Nicholson as The Joker but overall it is just great entertainment. At the same time on Film 4 there is Dodgeball. Those who know me would testify to the fact that I think Ben Stiller films are very hit and miss and in my opinion most of them are miss. Dodgeball is one of those rare films that is actually quite good. From 10pm onwards you have a choice of 3 offerings. Mad Max is a film I never really got in to. In fact I once spent a Sunday afternoon at the ABC cinema in Mansfield watching all 3 films back to back and still came out no wiser. On FiverUSA there is Terminator 3 which is possibly the weakest of the films in the Terminator series thus far. I have yet to see Terminator Salvation and will probably wait for it to come out on DVD. Lastly on BBC1 there is Insomnia. It is a good watch although it is probably not a film you will watch again. The performances from Robin Williams & Al Pacino are excellent.

Go Ireland by the way and hope that you beat India in the cricket today.

Tomorrow film wise there are two films to look out for. At 9pm on Virgin1 there is Dark Angel. Nothing to do with the Jessica Alba series but a Dolph Lundgren film in which an alien comes to Earth and wreaks havoc because he likes collecting endorphines. At 10.35 on ITV1 is Total Recall. This is one of those rare films of a Philip K Dick novel that is actually a good film. I have never been a fan of Blade Runner or Minority Report but absolutely love this film. It is rip roaring entertainment that doesn't take itself too seriously. Arnie is, well, Arnie. Ably supported by Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside and Ronny Cox. These two gentlemen are both actors who you will watch probably not knowing who they are but going "I remember him in...". They both play fabulous villains.

Enjoy

Media update

Hi everybody,

Since my last set of reviews I have had the chance to see a number of films and read a number of books and added some new music to my burgeoning collection. If you have any sense then avoid The Da Vinci Code. There are better ways to waste two hours - watching paint dry springs to mind. If you want to see a remake of Day of the Dead then just visit any supermarket on a Saturday morning and watch people move around aimlessly as if they have joined the undead.

16 Blocks was a film that I was expecting to be disappointed with largely because of the presence of Mos Def. However, it is an excellent film and well worth the watch. The plot and acting are absorbing and enthralling.

Star Trek was an odd numbered film and so hope was not high but fears were misplaced and it was an excellent film. The only drawback was that I always kept expecting Zachary Quinto who plays Spock to start trying to cut peoples heads open with his finger.

Bookswise I was pleasantly surprised by Runes of the Earth by Stephen Donaldson. I had not particularly liked the second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

On TV tomorrow you can look forward to Blues Brothers 2000 ITV4). It is not as good as the original but follows essentially the same plot and is still entertaining. On ITV 2 there are Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and The Mummy Returns.

Musically recommmendations are Queensryche American Soldier and Heaven & Hell's first studio album.

In sporting news I am now a week into my enhanced fitness regime. I am going to the gym every other day, playing badminton once a week and swimming as well. Tai chi classes are on hold for a couple of months.

Grumble of the week is the Passport Office who required me to fill out an entirely new form because in one section I had forgotten to put my title.

Politics - a very strange business

Well this week has been a tumultuous one in politics in the UK. But in all the gloom surrounding the Labour party I have managed to find a silver lining. The loss of Caroline Flint is no loss at all to the country. I am perfectly happy to let her fester on the backbenches. She is without doubt one of the most condescending and objectionable of MPs I have ever come across. She talks down to people, interrupts and sneers at people who do not agree with her. So to see her resignation in a fit of pique yesterday was a particular treat.

I suspect that after tomorrow's European election results it would take a miracle of biblical proportions to save the Labour party. Purely on figures in the local elections the Lib Dems finished second to the Tories. Consevative Central Office must be hoping, praying and keeping everything crossed that their glorious leader Dave has no skeletons in his closet or doesn't do anything stupid before the election.

One criticism of Labour is that they have lost touch with real people. From my perspective they were never in touch in the first place. On arrival after their much trumpeted no more sleaze we had Ecclestonegate, Hindujagate to name but two. Our current glorious leader raided the pension funds creating many of the black holes that now engulf them. He sold off the gold reserves. He abolished MIRAS thus attacking middle England and many hard working families. He got the NHS to increase staffing and gave them money to do so. He then increased National Insurance thus taking money back. Then there was the war in Iraq which was illegal, there was the dodgy dossier and the hole cut and paste of an unsourced American student's PhD thesis. No WMD. The way in which they managed to avoid ANY criticism following the Hutton and Butler inquiries.

The complete misjudgement on the Gurkhas.

Then we have the expenses scandal. In this our local MP insisted that she was entirely justified in taking taxpayers money to furnish her London flat. MPs should only be allowed to rent furnished properties and the sooner she is gone along with other MPs the better.

It seems that now 24 hours is a long time on politics. I urge you all to use your vote wisely but in any case at least use it. We need a change of system which allows independently minded MPs of whatever persuasion to buck the control of the whips and to actually give us a parliament of which we can be truly proud.

Sainsburys, Porsche drivers and other animals

Well gentle reader what delights do I have to share with you at the moment. Sainsburys in Huddersfield have just redeveloped their Shorehead store. During the course of the revamp all of the signage was left in place and this is the point of my rant. The store opening times stated clearly that the store was open until midnight. I arrived at 9.50 and at 10pm an announcement came over the tannoy insisting that everybody left as the store was closing and anybody inside was made to feel very uncomfortable by the staff. Note to Justin King if the sign says that you are open until midnight don't be surprised when people turn up at 10pm.

I have also had occasion to use Asda in recent weeks and if Sainsbury's don't get their act together sharpish I will be taking Alison's money up there!! But I did get a degree of satisfaction in smiting a Porsche driver in the car park. I was about to leave when a woman in her 50s driving a Porsche pulled into a parking spot by a parent and child sign. I challenged her and got a mouthful of abuse for my trouble. So I enlisted the three car parl attendants who said that they had told the store to remove the signs because they expected such incidents. I left two of them lying in wait for the gobby Porsche driver.

Oh by the way if you happen to know which 3 year old was responsible for the design of the new car park take their crayons away as their dad clearlt didn't notice their contribution to the design process. Second note to Justin King - disabled people need their car parking spaces CLOSER to the store NOT further away.

It is my birthday next weekend and my battle with the reaper goes ever on. I got my first birthday card today. It was from Matalan. I am waiting with baited breath to see which friends and family remember my impending slide down towards the grave.

I have been watching series 2 of The Wire. I don't think the story is as good as series one but it is still better than most TV. Congratulations to Leinster who won the commentators nightmare final against Leicester.

Toodles

Rugby Tours, Marriage Prep and life in general

Well hello everybody after a couple of weeks away and regular nagging about not posting I have decided to put you all into my misery. Last weekend Tom went on his annual rugby tour this year to Leamington. The weather was outstanding and the rugby was excellent as well. In previous tournaments Tom's team have lacked discipline and focus at times and have underachieved. This year they stepped up to the plate and showed what they could do when they tried hard. Unfortunately it was a long day and the last match was against the hosts and it was possibly a game to far. They lost concentration and lost the game to finish second. Their record for the day was Played 5 Won 3 Drawn 1 Lost 1. The festival was one of the most well organised I have ever seen. Photos to follow soon.

The hotel was OK but for my money the hotel last year was better. What is continually frustrating is that the hotels take the booking knowing that there is a bunch of young kids coming but make no provision in the sense of the swimming pool for them. This year I didn't travel on the coach. This caused a bit of annoyance in some quarters but Tom and I were quite happy with the arrangement. I drove down instead. I am coming to the conclusion that websites giving directions are about as much use as chocolate fireguards. I still had to resort to accosting a man with a dog and asking him for directions. In fact the directions I had sent me off in completely the wrong direction at one point. However, that aside I was less stressed and was able to have my music blaring out of the speakers as I avoided the large amounts of roadkill on Warwickshire's roads.

One annoyance over the weekend was that an arm dropped off my Wayfarer sunglasses. I had a screw loose apparently ( a line that I used many times and strangely nobody disagreed). On Monday as I was going into work I called in at Rayner's opticians in Huddersfield to see if they could fix the problem. They are about the only optician in Huddersfield left to try as everybody else has annoyed me at some point. The two blonde assistants (it just had to be really) were extremely helpful and set to work fixing my loose screw. When the work was done one turned to the other and said (with a straight face) " Do we charge for a screw and how much?" Her colleague replied "£1". I have to admit to nearly corpsing at this point but managed to retain my dignity and spare the ladies blushes.

As some readers may know, Alison and I are part of the deanery marriage preparation team. The team are currently in a state of mild narkiness with the priests as we set out limits and numbers we could cope with and we have been just ignored. At the last session we got the feedback forms from the couples attending. Two criticisms thrown at the team were that we were pushing the Catholic teaching and we were too gender specific. This midly confused and irritated me. In each couple there was at least one Catholic. They were getting married in a Catholic church and had been to see a Catholic priest about getting married. They were on a marriage preparation course designed by the Catholic church. What were they expecting to get, lectures in how to do it according to the church of the flaming sword of Las Vegas? Also since part of the course focuses on the differences between men and women that is only to be expected. The church's position on the subject hasn't changed in 2 millennia and isn'tlikely to in the next 2.

Well rant over for now. Reviews and photos to come probably next week as Tom has his end of season awards on Sunday. Off to chill out with my tai chi class this evening.

Toodles.
J

Stuff

Well everyone this is a post relatively free of film previews. That is largely due to the fact that the Radio Times is a day late due to the bank holiday. But I will rectify this situation in the next few days (always assuming there are any films worth watching.

So what else do I have to share with you. Well Tom played a rugby match against Rochdale RFU recently. It was the first time I have ever seen punches being thrown such young players. The referee was the chocolate fireguard type who wouldn't have seen anything even if it had happened right in front of him. In fact he was a disgrace. The only more biased demonstration of refereeing I have ever seen was at Sandal RUFC. Despite all this Tom's team won.

Some of you may know that I have recently taken up tai chi. This is my latest bid to actually do something to improve my fitness and battle my ever expanding Yorkshire front. Despite the fact that I haven't eaten any chocolate in 6 months I still haven't actually lost any weight. I haven't put any on though. I was expecting a gentle session in line with all the images you ever see but got a full on workout. Unfortunately my badminton playing days may have gone for a while due to my availability and childcare issues.

So having got through Holy Week I was not looking forward to the Good Friday service. Last year nobody noticed Jenni misbehaving because of the chaos engendered by Fr Vitalis but we couldn't be that lucky two years running. It was Fr Peter this year, he is the university chaplain and a great preacher. He tolerates Jenni far more than I do. During the reading of the Passion he said it would be alright for people to sit down as this was the word of God not an endurance test. Jenni was relatively well behaved and went up for the veneration of the Cross. I was worried when Jenni just stood there and looked at it but she then looked at me looked back at the Cross and bowed toward it and walked off.

On other church related matters the deanery's usual reconciliation service was abandoned for a day of reconciliation this year. There would be priests available all day to hear confessions. When we arrived there was a queue, no surprise there. Unfortunately there was only one priest available. He finished on the dot at 11 am and the people who had come in at the end of the queue jumped to the front without any thought or consideration. But I have come to expect such behaviour from the people of Huddersfield given that it occupies 9th place in the insurance scams league table.

Well coming up are Tom's rugby tour and also I am counting off the days before we go on holiday. Rainy Donegal days await.