rodshaw
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The primary school my grandkids went to was pretty decent. The kids seemed happy enough and most of the teachers seemed fine, despite the pressures they were under to perform and meet targets. The school tried to promote inclusivity and all that, although this inevitably included respect for different religions. Fair enough in the context of mixed backgrounds, I suppose. But one thing that made me do a double take was a large poster in the hall saying ‘British Values’. I didn’t like that – it seemed to give a message that wasn’t inclusive at all.
Their secondary school has counselling facilities, which I thought was good. But it’s a whopper – about 2,200 students. Parent-teacher reviews are mostly conducted online. There is a strict time limit and when your time is up, apparently the interview just cuts off. I can’t see educational establishments in a socialist society operating in quite the same way somehow.
Well, my ability to form a socialist consciousness wasn’t questioned by the Party when I joined in 1977 and it’s been alive and well ever since. But I don’t let it get in the way of watching a good game of footie now and then.
Here’s an article I wrote on football for the Standard in 2008. (Don’t know why the bullet points are all numbered 13 by the way).
https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2008/no-1246-june-2008/football-capital-idea/
Not much has changed since then really, apart from acceleration of the process where the top teams, and the whole circus that surrounds professional football, are increasingly commercialised and profit-driven.
I still enjoy watching it though.“Great. I hadn’t heard of this comedian.”
I like it when he says he used to go to church but then he grew up.Be-Bop Deluxe with a gem from 1975. This passed me by at the time and it was only a year or so ago that I caught up with it on an OGWT repeat. I prefer this live version to the studio version, which is somewhat over-engineered.
Lead man Bill Nelson is still making music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TZOMrH_qaQThe Jehovas meet their match.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-3trxxFFgHear hear, Paula. Some matches have been brilliant and you can’t beat it for drama (though I do like Shakespeare too). May the team that plays the best footie win, I don’t really care where they come from. But please not on penalties.
And it gives us a chance to boo arch capitalists Mr Pres and Mr Fifa for their skulduggery. Of course in a socialist society there would be no international football but as it’s there why not enjoy it. And there’s nothing to say that it wouldn’t be replaced by some kind of inter-regional competition where the regions are more or less equivalent to countries. Unlikely maybe but we just don’t know.You don’t always get vilified and drawn into a slanging match of hatred and contempt if you bring up the subject of nationalism.
I was totally taken by surprise recently by the attitude of a neighbour who called round. She is Muslim, as are her whole family. She and her daughter wear a hijab. She started talking generally about world problems and how she has her faith to fall back on. I didn’t comment on this but as she obviously wanted to know what I thought about the state of the world, I took a deep breath and said I thought we needed to abolish national borders altogether and make ourselves free to go wherever we liked, and that we should also abolish governments and get rid of the ruling class. Was she shocked? Did she run for the door? No, she was genuinely interested and actually asked me for some sources.
That said, I wouldn’t describe her as one of the lumpenproletariat – she is an intelligent woman and obviously curious. Of couse, if she gets to see the WSM’s stance on religion she will back off and maybe never speak to me again. But as yet, none of her family have come round to beat me up.
Sport and health may not necessarily go hand in hand but there again I would say most top sportspeople try to keep as healthy as they can.
By ‘sport’ in the Roman context I assume you mean ludus or ludi (they certainly didn’t say ‘sport’, which as far as I know has a medieval French origin), and yes, I know they could get pretty bloody and the partakers probably didn’t think twice about falling ill by moving about quickly in 33 degree heat in the open sun for the glory of it all.
The only reason for this in today’s society is the money imperative.“Do you know the way to San Jose? – Dionne Warwick
Written by Burt Casino-Card-Game & Hal David”Quiz question – what was Burt Bacharach’s first credited tune?
