2017
December 1 2017
This weekend, or even on 1 December, seems to be the time when most of us put up the Christmas decorations and, therefore, within a month we will have gone though Christmas.
I say “gone through” because there are parts of this annual event that quite scare me. Ostensibly the real reason for our celebration was that birth some 2,000 years ago but even the more religious of you seem to have forgotten that. If true, it was a lowly birth to a fairly poor couple in less than auspicious surroundings. Okay, three kings arriving with gold, frankincense and myrrh moved it a bit up market but those of you who celebrate by either getting into debt so that you buy expensive presents for others, usually children, or those that have procured, earned or inherited vast sums of money that you can now spend, are slightly missing the point.
Of course it is nice to receive gifts; maybe it should be nicer to give but I’m not sure that idea is catching on. But smothering your off-spring with gifts is not, and never will be, a substitute for giving them your love and your time. Most people will have at least four days off from work over the Christmas period; some as many as ten days. This time should be family time as much as possible. Don’t forget the old relations but, to be honest, and from personal experience, we like a bit of time on our own. Use the time to bond as a family and don’t bond in front of any sort of screen too much.
Yes, watch a few films and drift into an imaginary world but don’t let ipads, tablets etc. become your star to follow. Do something, make something, play something, go somewhere but do it with time and as a family. Whilst the internet can give you every bit of information you may want, it also, without a doubt, removes a large degree of your creativity, your ability to solve your curiosity on your own. Having access to everything isn’t the brilliant panacea some would have us believe.
As a child, some sixty years ago, I would look forward to Christmas with just as much excitement, hope and enthusiasm as the children of today. I would have a pillow case, empty, left at the foot of my bed on Christmas Eve. The next morning my sister and I would go into our parents’ bedroom, probably far earlier than they wanted, and all sit up in bed and open our presents. We might have ten or eleven each. That was it. And that was exactly what we wanted.
We would play with our toys in the morning, have Christmas lunch maybe with a grandparent or aunt as a guest, and then play more in the afternoon.
The Queen would make her speech which newspapers wouldn’t report beforehand, we would play some more, at least one game as a whole family, watch comedy without a single swear word and go to bed totally happy.
Bigger, better and more expensive gifts do not lead to bigger, better happiness.
It seems many have already done their Christmas shopping so my grump will probably be too late. I promised never to say “it was better in my day” so I won’t do that but I will repeat that some of what happens these days’ scares me. A lot.
Parts of this blog first appeared in 2015. Sadly times haven't changed.
December 4 2017
I am pretty upset to learn that the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on social integration, the Labour MP Chuka Umunna, has said that “we are more divided by age today than at any other time in modern history, with Brexit a defining issue of the gap between generations.” His comments came following the publication of a YouGOv poll.
Studies show, and I would whole heartedly agree, that connecting with people of different age groups makes us more trusting and bridges the generational divide. A few people thought, when these grumps started, that I would be going on and on about the young generation and saying “it wasn't like that in my day”. Certainly I have said that many times but my moans are more about my generation and the one after it than the young.
Returning to Brexit, 62% of over 65s think it was right to vote leave while only 19% of 18-24 year-olds share this view. Worse still nearly 75% of young people who voted to remain believe us oldies are prejudiced while almost the same percentage of oldies believe young people are unwilling to work hard. Not only that but 39% of older voters say we should leave right away, which seems to me as though 2 in 5 of my generation are stupid.
These youngsters would be happy to see pensions cut so we could stay in the EU while the oldies would accept reduced wages to get out. As the youngsters aren't living on a pension and the oldies aren't, in most cases, receiving a wage, this one thing should not be surprising. It's human nature to protect your own interests.
I would make one, probably controversial, point. I believe that the majority of my generation are less knowledgable about the social world than today's youngsters. Many led a sheltered life by modern standards, finding out about the world through the fairly closed media rather than the wide social media of today. That will always make for a division.
Society is affected by how well generations mix and understand each other. The American poet, the late Rod McKuen, said that “we must learn to celebrate not criticize each other's differences” . Generationally this is even more true. You cannot judge someone based on your life because their opinions are based on their surroundings, their experiences and 40 or 50 years apart these are totally different.
We are now living longer so any divisions will become greater. Brexit, or the format of the referendum question, was possibly the most stupid act by any British PM since Chamberlain waved his piece of paper, saying we would have peace in our time.
I now believe we should have another vote and that referendum should give us a far wider choice. More will follow in the next days or weeks.
December 5 2017
I have to return, again, to the question of children and social media as today the BBC has been running a news strand about how children as young as 10 are using live video links to communicate with anyone, anywhere. In its investigation, the BBC asked a 20 year old women to dress as, and claim to be, a 14 year old girl. Within a few minutes of logging on to “periscope”, she had 2,000 people following her and was being asked to remove items of clothing and, as I understood it, being confronted by the sight of a naked man streaming himself on to her screen.
My first statement is one that should be obvious to everyone. Of course this will happen. There are some very perverted, very weird and very nasty people in our world and modern forms of communication allow them to function far better than in days of old. Of course there were still paedophilic groups of men around who used their “power” to abuse children. Ask Wilf Self's brother Jonathan if you need confirmation but their scope, their ability to “contact” any child was not there.
Apparently, when asked for a reaction, Periscope said that they did not tolerate such behaviour. I have news for them. As such behaviour takes place on their site they do, whether accidentally or deliberately, tolerate it otherwise they would ensure it wasn't there. I have heard these pathetic excuses for far too long from these companies. Stop it before it happens not after. Don't say we take every precaution when it still happens because that means you don't. You may take some precautions but not every.
There are 3 simple ways to stop this..
- We can ban all these sites from existing but that impinges of our, human beings, freedom
- Parents can ensure that none of their children are allowed access to such sites but if you go round a friend's house where parents are less strict you may still be open to such images and behaviour
- The tech companies can prove how clever they really are by developing some sort of program that eliminates the predator.
None of them will happen so, possibly, the only way is to educate young people as to what might happen when they go on a live streaming site, give them a source to go to when something unpleasant seems to be about to happen and just keep an eye, as responsible adults, on the whereabouts, on-line wise, of our children. It is not an easy task and yet another example of how every step forward, every apparent progression, has many unwanted side-effects.
December 6 2017
I think this site is going to become an “I told you so” site and, at my age, I feel entitled to adopt such an arrogant attitude. Running on from yesterday's blog, I see the BBC has taken upon itself, in a most worthy way, to set up a programme aimed at educating and informing young people about being safe on-line. I heartily commend them for this but I did suggest it yesterday.
Now, changing the subject but remaining with the “I told you so” theme, researchers in the US have discovered that having too many toys is bad for young children. I have been grumping about this for years; the proof is in my December 2015 grump. The researchers brought together 36 toddlers and put them in a room first with 4 toys and then with 16. Guess what, the youngsters, when they had fewer toys, were more creative and less distracted than when they had the greater number of toys.
Figures tell us that Britons spend more than £3 billion on toys each year and that a typical child owns 238 toys in total. Well, unless you are counting each piece of Lego (Meccano in my day) as one toy or each Dinky Toy Car as one, I was not a typical child. In total, for all my childhood, I had less than 20 toys at any one time, possibly less than 10. I was not deprived, I was happy.
By the way, this is not the first time such research has been done and with the same findings. German researchers in the 1990s conducted an experiment where toys were taken away from a Munich nursery for three months. After just a few weeks, the children re-adjusted and their play became far more creative and social. They published their findings in a book, The Toy-free Nursery.
It seems obvious to me that you will appreciate something, a toy, far less if you have innumerable substitutes still in the cupboard. Fewer toys leads to children using their imagination and their resourcefulness far more and those are skills that are far more precious than a cupboard full of toys. Oh and of that £3 billion we spend each year about £2½billion is wasted as parents claim their children only play with 15% of their toys regularly.
Enjoy your Christmas shopping.
December 7 2017
Recent tweets from the White House have revealed that the capital of the United Kingdom will now be at Turnberry Golf Course. Meanwhile the capital of Mexico has moved to Carlisle as there is a old ready-made wall nearby while the capital of Germany will be in the Sudetenland, for historical reasons. The White House has been moved to the London Borough of Bromley where it will occupy the building previously used by the Bethlem Hospital, commonly known as Bedlam.
There is no official reasoning for the first three moves but the last one is long overdue and medically approved.
December 8 2017
There is one thing I do not understand about the thinking of a party in government. Let me make a simple analogy. Two building firms pitch to build a new housing estate. One wins and begins the planning and development process. No one in their right mind will ask the other firm what plans they have for building this new estate.
And yet our strong and stable, her words not mine, leader keeps questioning what plans the Labour party have. Why? Whatever their plan is they can't implement it because the government, strong and stable as it is, is the only party that is doing the negotiating. Should strong stability prove a failure, and every effort is being made to prove this to be so, then we can all elect another government and, before we do, they can tell us their plans and, once they are in power, we and all opposition parties can hold them to it. That is the role of the opposition. Not to be asked to plan for something it can never do. This is what democracy is all about.
And finally I have to just say something about the agreement announced today between the UK and the EU. I have never in my life seen such a bodge up, a fudge, a completely meaningless piece of wording. Read it. It's 15 pages and 96 paragraphs. And it's total make-believe. It states what might happen and what could happen if what might happen doesn't happen. Then it lays down what mustn't happen if neither of the above happenings happen.
But do you know what is the worst thing about it. It took innumerable grown up adult people nearly nine months to produce and it's the easy bit. I shall be amazed if we leave the EU in my lifetime, my children's lifetime or possibly my grand children's lifetime.
I refer you to a piece I wrote on 30 March 2016. It's in the archives.
December 11 2017
Imagine if you will a strange little scenario. You and I reach an agreement over a certain matter. We sign a document saying what the agreement means and then a few days later I tell you it wasn't an agreement it was just a statement of intent. Not very business like is it? So as not to upset anyone we then agree it was a gentlemen's' agreement which is about as meaningless as the original agreement has now become.
Your imagination has taken you into the land of make-believe which leads me back to the words in last Friday's blog. If it's not impossible to say, then I think make-believe has come true far sooner than I expected.
December 12 2017
Some time ago, when a story appeared about parents getting fined because they took the children on holiday in term time as it was cheaper, the DfE said that “It is a myth that missing school even for a short time is harmless to a child’s education.” Our evidence shows missing the equivalent of just one week a year from school can mean a child is significantly less likely to achieve good GCSE grades, having a lasting effect on their life chances.” Somewhere else it says schools may only close in exceptional circumstances. Wintry conditions in winter is not exceptional it's expected.
Can you imagine what we are actual telling children here. I lived in Leeds in my childhood for 3 years. I went to school in blizzards. The car journey took 2 hours instead of 40 minutes. To get home I walked across a place called Woodhouse Moor, on my own, aged 9, in at least a foot of snow, caught a bus and made it home. On a games afternoon instead of rugby we went to the school field, divided into 2 teams, built a snow wall and had an organised snowball fight. No one died. No one even got injured. We had fun. Our teachers stood in a field in the snow supervising us. We learnt to respect them and we learnt that whatever happens, life must go on.
If parents are fined for taking their children out of school for a holiday, then I want these namby pamby, health and safety, can’t go out it’s snowing, schools, to be fined too. I fully expect the head teacher and staff to cough up £60 for each child who has had their life chances ruined forever by missing one day of school.
Oh, and to the BBC reporter standing in a snow covered street, the road conditions are not dangerous. They are difficult and drivers have to take care. If they were genuinely dangerous I would expect any reasonable authority to ban driving. Rant over.
December 13 2017
Following on from yesterday's blog, I had a few comments made which I thought I would address today. Firstly, unlike my friend the POTUS, I don't exaggerate or deny events. A few means a few, 9 in total. Most were supportive, some very supportive.
One of the moderately against comments was that, in blaming the heads of schools, I was getting it wrong. My understanding is that in the majority of cases the decision to close a school, in, as I said yesterday, exceptional circumstance, lies with the head. In a small minority of cases an LEA can order a blanket closure but this is quite rare. Therefore, I stand by my comment.
More tellingly was the suggestion that these heads only closed their schools for fear of being sued by parents if little Johnny slips on ice and gets hurt. Presumably they would be sued for neglect. However children must learn to deal with situations that happen in their lives and starting at a young age seems a good idea to me. Tell them the playground is slippery, maybe stagger playtime so fewer kids are there at any one time, but let them still play. No way is that neglect. If, outside school, a child has a fall is that parental neglect? In most cases the answer is no. These things happen, they are part of growing up.
Indeed I would venture to suggest that making children aware of the dangers of snow and ice and then stopping them from enjoying the benefits of winter play, of negotiating slippery ground, is far more abuse than neglect.
However, if teachers are still worried that some parents might sue, make each parent sign a form which says allowing kids to have the freedom to experience different weather conditions and any injury that may ensue is not neglect and cannot be actioned against. We really must let young people learn from experience and not be sheltered.
December 14 2017
This headline, in today's Daily Mail shows everything that is now wrong with British society, British journalism and indeed British life. It is pure, unadulterated bullying and humiliation. It denies the premise that any of our elected MPs are allowed to have their own opinion, their own view and follow their own conscience.
The editor-in chief of the Daily Mail is a man called Paul Dacre. From what I have seen over the last 20 or so years he is a man from a fairly privileged background (Evans deme) who thinks that he is the voice of middle Britain instead of becoming, in my humble opinion, the voice of lower gutter. I first came across him some 55 years ago and he was pretty insignificant then and I would have been so pleased had he remained so.
This is my generation and I am embarrassed by him. The words above the pictures are trite at best, sick at worst. I do not feel betrayed by people with a conscience so please leave me out of this. They are not self-consumed even if they may be slightly discontented with how this government are becoming more dictatorial and less democratic which is what this vote was all about. I would defy Dacre or any of his underlings to actually define a Marxist but to label Jeremy Corbyn as one, in such a derogatory way, is cheap.
The press, or the written word, has always had tremendous power among the masses. To abuse that power, to try to brainwash their readers, to fail to factually report events and to imply that the view they print is gospel, is not the way I want to see the media behave. It's easy to do and I am sure, well maybe not sure but to me it appears, Dacre has checked out the work of another Paul, one Paul Joseph Goebbels to whom the truth would never get in the way of his personal, and his leader's national, agenda.
December 15 2017
As Christmas approaches, this will be my last blog until Monday 12 February 2018. I shall hide in an alcove in Westminster Palace for a while, called a parliamentary recess, and then I am out of the country for a few weeks.
I'm sure there will be many things I could have grumped about during this break but I will store them all up and explode out of my recess on my return.
Thank you for following my wanderings, where they have led us I have no idea.
