Well, it's been nearly a year since I last blogged here, since I last got slightly miffed or moved about something. Well, not quite, but I have mainly been venting in 140 characters or less over on Twitter. But today I am miffed. Quite peeved if you will because David Cameron and Michael Gove have been speaking in public once again.
Michael Gove wants British values taught in schools and Cameron has given this his full support saying:
Freedom
Well, building on the Blair/Brown governments' removal of the right to freely protest David Cameron's government has overseen mass electronic spying on UK citizens, allowed foreign intelligence/spy services access to our emails, and generally left the populace less free to display dissent and dissatisfaction.
Tolerance
There is plenty of tolerance. Unless you are unemployed, disabled or ill. Then you are a work-shy scrounger who deserves to be harried to death by the DWP under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith because you are using tax-payers' money for frivolous luxuries like rent, heating or food. And woe betide you if you have a box room you use to store medical equipment because that is a spare room you need to pay extra tax on. This sort of sponging is something Cameron's Britain won't tolerate.
Respect for the rule of law
Whose law? A traditional British value has been not respecting the rule of law. From rebel barons forcing King John to sign the Magna Carta, the Civil War where Charles I was beheaded through to the suffragettes breaking and rebelling against the law to give women the vote, the British have not been very good at shutting up to respect the rule of law and not rebelling.
Respect for British institutions
What sort of institutions? Physical or metaphorical? It is easy to respect our scientific institutes, our museums and theatres. These are hotbeds of original thinking and subversion. Our satirical institutions from Shakespeare and Swift through to Private Eye and Spitting Image are worthy of respect, bursting the pompous bubble of the ruling classes. But I don't think these are the institutions Cameron and Gove are referring to. There's the institution of fair play, but that's not only British. Any culture with a gramme (or an ounce if you're still imperial) of compassion will believe in fair play. The same with gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation or religious equality. There's the increasingly irrelevant institution of the Church of England, but they can't even agree on the role of women in their society, so why should they get a say in legislation impacting people outside their members only club?
Insisting that young people are taught to respect the status quo (rather than the Status Quo to whom exposure can lead to denim overdose), can lead to a generation of children who grow up believing that mass surveillance, accepting the role society has given them and not making a fuss is normal and to be applauded.
Bugger that for a game of soldiers! I'm up for a traditional British rebellion. Who's got the sharp axe?
Michael Gove wants British values taught in schools and Cameron has given this his full support saying:
"I would say freedom, tolerance, respect for the rule of law, belief in personal and social responsibility and respect for British institutions - those are the sorts of things that I would hope would be inculcated into the curriculum in any school in Britain whether it was a private school, state school, faith-based school, free school, academy or anything else."On the surface very laudable, but lets look at these British values a bit more closely.
Freedom
Well, building on the Blair/Brown governments' removal of the right to freely protest David Cameron's government has overseen mass electronic spying on UK citizens, allowed foreign intelligence/spy services access to our emails, and generally left the populace less free to display dissent and dissatisfaction.
Tolerance
There is plenty of tolerance. Unless you are unemployed, disabled or ill. Then you are a work-shy scrounger who deserves to be harried to death by the DWP under the leadership of Iain Duncan Smith because you are using tax-payers' money for frivolous luxuries like rent, heating or food. And woe betide you if you have a box room you use to store medical equipment because that is a spare room you need to pay extra tax on. This sort of sponging is something Cameron's Britain won't tolerate.
Respect for the rule of law
Whose law? A traditional British value has been not respecting the rule of law. From rebel barons forcing King John to sign the Magna Carta, the Civil War where Charles I was beheaded through to the suffragettes breaking and rebelling against the law to give women the vote, the British have not been very good at shutting up to respect the rule of law and not rebelling.
Respect for British institutions
What sort of institutions? Physical or metaphorical? It is easy to respect our scientific institutes, our museums and theatres. These are hotbeds of original thinking and subversion. Our satirical institutions from Shakespeare and Swift through to Private Eye and Spitting Image are worthy of respect, bursting the pompous bubble of the ruling classes. But I don't think these are the institutions Cameron and Gove are referring to. There's the institution of fair play, but that's not only British. Any culture with a gramme (or an ounce if you're still imperial) of compassion will believe in fair play. The same with gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation or religious equality. There's the increasingly irrelevant institution of the Church of England, but they can't even agree on the role of women in their society, so why should they get a say in legislation impacting people outside their members only club?
Insisting that young people are taught to respect the status quo (rather than the Status Quo to whom exposure can lead to denim overdose), can lead to a generation of children who grow up believing that mass surveillance, accepting the role society has given them and not making a fuss is normal and to be applauded.
Bugger that for a game of soldiers! I'm up for a traditional British rebellion. Who's got the sharp axe?
