Been Busy

I've been busy, so no ramblings for a while. But looking at the news I still get quite confused. Like, in politics, is anything actually happening? We are, apparently in a major financial crisis currently (certainly if someone has a quality job they need doing, I'm up for it! My 'busyness' isn't that fulfilling), yet there doesn't seem anything concrete or dynamic coming out of government at present.

Labour seem less able to come up with competing ideas than the Lib Dems (coalition partners though they be), who are relentlessly suggesting ways to accelerate disaster in a variety of areas. It is clear each party, without regard to national emergency or well being, are instead searching for some magic formula, perhaps one that has worked before to win an election.

Not anything of substance, or a policy they actually intend to follow up, just some story, or 'narrative' that wins votes. A bit J K Rowling, with 1984 potential.

The same confusion reigns with education. Firstly, kids and teachers were wailing about exams being marked in a way that required the child to have done well. It did seem strange at first, but then we found it was only English exams and that some had benefited by some work getting soft marks back in December. So a tiny issue.

Then we hear that Gove wants to introduce formal, more difficult exams with no coursework and the teachers (unions) are up in arms. And what is the complaint? Er, that it comes from a Tory government it seems and that's it. Otherwise the objection is to educating children properly, or teachers to do their job properly, or just raising standards.

I appreciate these are all things that were safe under the union's pet, Labour, where teachers were excluded from criticism, exams were relentlessly made easier so teachers could crow about 'achievement' without actually doing anything and overall standards dropped like a stone. At no point then or now, you should notice, do the teachers unions mention the children.

They want to meddle in the formation of education policy and delivery and yet are only an organisation to represent the working conditions of their members. While they refuse to stick to their remit they should be ignored as a noisy rabble of no substance.

In the East, we continue to lose soldiers in Afghanistan, not just to violent murderers posing as religious people, but also Afghan forces. And yet we still haven't heard why we went there or what we are there to achieve. But Blair continues to accrue wealth apparently, from despots and tyrants around the world, immune to the consequences of his misrule, the financial chaos or the deaths attributable to him.

The 'convenient' Catholic might find that the man with no morals has no soul. If he does in fact have an ounce of belief in his body, then he will be more than aware that the master that awaits him has brimstone aplenty.