Speaker’s Corner
Hey
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Morning has broken….and what a morning !
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Rain is teeming down, running in the gutters with abandon, and the dark grey sky is so low that you could touch it.
As I sit at the keyboard I can hear a swishing sound, as passing cars rush heedlessly over the rain soaked road.
Everything smells so heavy and rich. I love it.
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Many times in the past, Big H and I have discussed moving abroad permanently, to somewhere like France or Spain, in just the same way I suspect that everyone else does, but we have never decided to take that final step.
When I have been on holiday to a really sunny place, the thought of being there permanently is indeed beguiling, but in the final summation, it is not my home.
There is a lot to put up with in the UK nowadays, but there are a lot of countries where no one would dare to make certain statements in public because of the possibility of being arrested. I think that we are really very lucky to have a long tradition of free speech.
The problem now is that free speech and political correctness have become confusingly tangled together..
How can you deal with the problem if you are not allowed to mention, “the elephant in the room!”
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If a small segment of any of our mix of cultures is causing problems, then we should all tell the truth and we should all, every section of our society, get strongly behind the settling of it.
To my mind if everyone can see a problem, but because of political correctness no one can speak of the causes of it, then it cannot be fixed.
If everyone can see that a certain section of society contains a problem that is not being fixed, then everyone else becomes afraid of , and avoids, all of that particular section of people, all of them becoming seen as something to be distrustful of.
Surely this causes more divisions, along with a growing racial or ‘lifestyle’, distrust.
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I am still of the opinion that all most people want, is for their families to be happy, and for their their society to be healthy and vital.
They want to be able to live in peace and provide a good lifestyle for their family. To be able to live their life in a way that is meaningful to them, within a safe and democratic, free society.
Who could ask for anything more.
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We are all exactly the same in our wants and needs and hopes.
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I do however feel that a family cannot abnegate all responsibility for some of it’s members. I think parents have to exercise control over their own children all during their childhood and be held responsible for whatever things their children do.
It is a long, hard, time consuming job which calls for self sacrifice, worry and sleepless nights, but is also wonderful and rewarding, and worth a hundred times the effort given.
We should also take proper care of our sick, the mentally ill, aged and the fragile and disadvantaged members of our society, in a decent and comprehensive way. How come billions of pounds are spent every year by our Governments upon stupid things, but there always need to be cuts made in services which are necessary for the health, happiness and safety of our own citizens.
Why does our Government not stop pouring out money wastefully, and fix the poverty, neglect and desperate need here in the UK.
What else could possibly be more important for us, our society, our future, our planet…or our own souls.
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It is harder now for a lot of our younger society members because they are often at a loose end and can see no point in looking beyond tomorrow. I think that they don’t feel meaningful or important to society in many cases.
When I was young there were always opportunities at every level. Many of the boys that I grew up with began apprenticeships for two or three years once they left school, in order to learn a trade which would set them up for life and gave them a great deal of pride in themselves and their accomplishments. They were earning their own money and had a belief in their future.
At that time young people were streamed into different styles of schools during their education. There were basic schools, Secondary Modern Schools and Grammar Schools. At eleven we all sat our 11+ examinations and then we went to whichever one of the different schools was dictated by our resulting marks .
It was a popular system with the children I knew because no one was made to do work that was too much for them and they could be prepared for making different choices of careers. I think that there was also a 13+ examination for any children who might have developed late and now needed to be reassigned to a school which would stretch them more. I believe that Big H was changed over to a Grammar School at this point because he was a slower developer.
In those days no one kept trying to make everything ‘equal’ for everyone.
I do not see that as either possible or desirable. Some people are incredibly academic, others are better with practical things. We all have different capabilities and talents to offer.
We were happy with the system because each child was streamed with others who were similar and therefore they could shine .
Now I think that the brightest academic children are being held back so that everyone can progress at the same speed and this must be both boring and frustrating for the very quick ones with an instant grasp and understanding. It also seems unfair to those who are slower because they know this, and therefore keep quiet if they do not understand something fully, because they do not want to be seen as stupid.
This means that they fall behind instead of being stimulated and they also become frustrated and bored.
I see this type of thinking as another failure of political correctness in schooling.
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School felt like a safe place to us in those days. The teachers were always respected and no one caused upheaval in class or answered back . If we had even thought of it, we would not have acted on it, because our parents would have been angry and we would have been in trouble with them at home.
We all had to behave ourselves because the policemen used to patrol about the streets every day on regular rounds. They knew everyone in their local area and were well acquainted with with any problem children or families. They were also well liked by the people and they would often be asked for advice or help by people who would wait for them to walk by at the usual time. The officers would be told if neighbours were worried about an old person or suspected a child might be being neglected in any way.
Everyone knew their local officers by name because they saw them on the streets, in person, year after year. These policemen knew all the different generations of families etc. and were mostly quite wonderful to have around.
If young tearaways were hanging around or disturbing people then the policeman would send them on their way with a warning about him having a strong word with their parents if there were any problems in the future.
Smaller children would be given a ‘swift clip around the ear’ if they were causing problems. It was a system that worked because the schools, parents and Police all worked together, hand in hand , to set the children onto a good and meaningful path for life.
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After the 11+we all moved to our new schools.
Secondary modern girls were taught the basics but also did practical learning such as shorthand and typing.
Grammar schools added subjects such as Physics or Latin and French.
Every child being stretched to their full capacity.
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My goodness, heavy thoughts to match the heavy skies.
I am obviously not an expert on such matters, all my observations are purely my own personal opinions, but sometimes I think that if we live in, work in, and love our society at a grass roots level, then we collectively ‘are’ that society.
So perhaps we should say what we think more , and collectively make a voice for good basic education, good behaviour, good teaching of care and duty to others, good trusted policing methods, good social behaviour and pride in our wonderful British tradition of free speech and democracy for all.
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J
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