What’s Gone Wrong?

What’s Gone Wrong?

When I was young, I had no sense

 I bought a fiddle for eighteen pence .

The only tune that it would play

Was over the hills and far away                                Clancy Brothers

What, if anything, has gone wrong with our society in recent years?  Those like me in their twilight years, focusing on staying alive, will inevitably look back with affection at the ‘good old days’ when summers offered wall-to-wall sunshine while winters allowed for snowball fights and tobogganing.  With such illusionary childhood memories in mind, I thought it wise to qualify the title of this nonsense with ‘if anything’.  After all, as the Clancy Brothers suggested, the young have no sense.  Further, it might be unwise to reveal all my thoughts in answer to the question, for fear of contravening the modern rules pertaining freedom of speech.

There are, of course, dangers in looking back to the old days and I shall attempt to take note of Lord Acton’s aphorism:  “Only a foolish liberal would judge the past by the standards of the present.  There are many foolish liberals in the socialist camp; we can do without them in ours.”  Not being much of a fan of the modern concept of liberalism I rather sympathise with his Lordship.

It is surely the case that demographic changes have had a significant behavioural impact on the conduct of our everyday lives.  Such impacts might include a predilection for foreign food, familiarising ourselves to the Calls to Prayer rather than church bells, unpleasant mass protests about the UK’s foreign policy and watching our Ps and Qs for fear of being labelled a racist.  So, on the ‘safety first’ principle this debate may not be as wide ranging than it might have otherwise been.  That said, it might be reasonable to suggest that the Ps and Qs restriction overlaps with the issue of freedom of speech; bravely fighting to preserve that precious asset is the Free Speech Union (FSU)..    

Ancient and Modern Chilhoods    

“Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.”                                                                                                        Herbert Hoover      

A useful starting point to these random thoughts might be to consider the role of manners in the nation’s widespread descent into unpleasant behaviour.  The widely accepted fundamental mantras in my childhood were that ‘little boys should be seen and not heard’ or ‘only speak when you are spoken to’ – as, or if, they applied to girls I have no idea.  Such strictures never worried me since not only was I ill-at-ease with adult company but also what adults said or did were of little interest or understanding to me.  In addition there were a number of ground rules such as calling every adult male ‘Sir’ and always writing a thank you letter if one received a present – regardless of its value, which proved to be particularly onerous to me since my Aunt sent me a two shilling postal order every Christmas for two decades.  Those thoughts applied in equal measure to schoolteachers and parents, thereby ensuring that children were not confused by conflicting rules or advice. In sum we were blessed with simple understandable boundaries that conditioned our behaviour. Thus, although children recognised those boundaries they did not always accept them supinely; indeed much energy was devoted to pushing at them, thereby demonstrating nascent signs of creativity.

The only real diversion between school and parental disciplinary methods was that, in the latter’s case, some transgressions triggered corporal punishment – be it with a cane, a table tennis bat or the monstrous Jokari bat.  I welcomed the immediacy of corporal punishment and it seemed a lot better than the nugatory activity of being confined to the classroom writing hundreds of lines; it also allowed for status enhancement if one didn’t blub.  Unlike many of my peers, my Dad never deployed corporal punishment which may have resulted in the oft repeated accusation that I was ‘a spoilt brat’.

In the early 1950s, like many households, our family found the cost of a TV prohibitively expensive; so, during my first cognitive decade, extra mural activities for acquiring some basic knowledge of the outside world were limited to the array of comics such as the Beano, the Dandy and the Eagle.  The Eagle had an educational streak with the centre page fold telling us how to build a battleship ship or offering inside knowledge of the futuristic Fairey Rotodyne.  The other home brew of knowledge acquisition was limited to Winnie-the-Pooh which happened to be my Dad’s favourite book – fair dos since it is laced with wisdom.

Boarding school subsequently broadened my knowledge of the world.  The school bought a 9inch TV set equipped with a drop down magnifying glass mounted on leather straps; unfortunately parallax distorted the image for those not sitting directly in front of the screen.  That TV set opened up a whole new world by introducing us to Muffin The Mule, The Penguin Family, The Flowerpot Men and the Woodentops (not to be confused with the Brigade of Guards).  Matron’s bedtime readings from Enid Blyton also offered a useful motivational addendum by revealing the exploits of The Famous Five. 

If any parental or teacher philosophy did exist, I guess it offered an extension to the mantra that children should be seen and not heard.  In practice that meant ‘get lost, amuse yourselves and be back in time for tea’.  At school that philosophy translated into such activities as tree climbing and building underground hideaways modelled on WW1 trenches – a competitive obsession that would never pass muster in today’s Health and Safety (H&S) dictatorship.  That said, with seventeen children drowning in the May 1926 heat wave, it seems that H&S can never close all the loopholes of danger.  Perhaps therefore, in all stages of life a balance needs to be struck between pushing at boundaries and totally complying with them.  In military contexts particularly, ‘fortune favours the brave’ but, in general, progress often depends on risk takers – just don’t tell the children.     

Activities at home focused on: bicycle riding, air gun shooting at crows (and missing), go-carting in summer and tobogganing in winter and exploring isolated deserted outbuildings.  After tea we naturally reverted to parental control that often involved sitting outside the pub imbibing Tizer and Smiths Crisps.  We were never allowed inside a pub which inspired flights of fancy, prompting such questions as ‘what on earth are those silly grown-ups doing in there?’ 

To my dismay, a couple of years ago on entering our local pub I noticed that a child sat atop of every bar stool!  Such a scene triggered the thought that it represented a wider picture of fundamental changes in society.  Now, as an adult, I felt a twofold reaction:  First, even grown-ups deserve some time on their own and secondly the children are merely spoilt brats.  On reflection it illustrates deeper issues such rites of passage and, for want of a better word, privileges.  For example, the first time I entered a pub was when I had reached the legal age to drink alcohol; I remember the privilege with absolute clarity – not least because I had chosen Watneys Red Barrel which might have deterred me from drinking forever.  Thank heaven I persevered, as the saying goes – per manendo vincimus. 

The ‘first’ of anything represents a rung on the ladder of joining the adult world; everlastingly imprinted on our minds are other such seminal events as:  Successful two-wheeled bicycle ride, long trousers, breaking voice, nocturnal emission (my mother, bless her, accused me of spilling coffee on my pyjamas), watching category A films, driving lesson, passing the driving test, owning a car etc.  Some of those events represented nature taking its course and might therefore regarded as a Right, for example growing older is a Right, assuming survival via general good health; whereas others might be described as rites of passage.  In old age, the Right to grow older has diminishing appeal with mentally draining efforts being devoted simply to stay above ground.

 My mother never worked and some may argue that, out of economic necessity, in today’s world both parents work.  It might also be justifiably argued that the world out there is a nasty place.  In combination those two factors may lead to off-loading children to a baby sitter and limiting a child’s freedom (my sole experience of being abandoned was to be locked in the airing cupboard by the WRNS baby sitter to facilitate her tryst with a matelot boy friend).  With less time available to be with a child, parents often feel guilty resulting in over-compensating by submitting to every demand a child makes; of course, that carries inherent dangers in the Internet age.  All these factors fuze to create what might be described as ‘the small brat syndrome’.  Whether blame lies with the parents or society as a whole the elemental problem is that too many young have been denied that rites of passage lessons and have developed the attitude of: ‘I want it and I want it now’. 

As we now know, caving in to the instant gratification mantra of ‘I want it now’ leads to deep seated problems in the Internet age as suggested by Martin Vander Weyer:  “But let’s also recognise that most of the interpersonal nastiness today is in the lawless arena of social media…”   Daily Telegraph 29 May 2026.  However, manners seemed to have been in decline prior to the all encompassing influence of the Internet and social media.  For years now, I have been carved up by, mostly female, shoppers who slam their trolleys in front of me before offering an over the shoulder insincere “sorry”.  One particular incident sticks in my memory; I remonstrated with a women driver for speeding the wrong way down a supermarket car park road in order for her to grab a parking slot.  On hearing my protestations, she got out of the car, put her head through my window and shouted “get a life.”   She clearly thought securing a parking space took priority over the risk of driving over a pedestrian who might have been looking the other way by complying with the designated traffic direction signs.   

The aforementioned absence of the mother in the post nuclear family home might raise another question: Does the reduced feminine influence in those early years of childhood impact on a child’s development as a good citizen?  I am not qualified to answer that question but I can suggest that there are other equally important questions about the family.  In my childhood society widely disapproved of divorce; indeed, I can remember that the whole school knew that one of our fellow pupil’s parents were divorced.  Today such a situation would be commonplace and barely worthy of note.  In addition, by their choice, a high percentage of families operate with a single parent.

Single parent families are not unique to the current generation notwithstanding it now appears to be a growth area.  At both my primary and secondary schools a number of pupils had lost their father in WW2.  Further, young(er) widows were not a rarity thanks to such factors as industrial accidents, poor health care and shorter life expectancy of the male (exacerbated by the principle that the man should always marry a woman half his age plus seven years!).  Notwithstanding these considerations I hold the, possibly misplaced, belief that the immediate post war period witnessed the production of better citizens than is the case today.  It seems to me that the mixed menu of liberty (e.g., the freedom to play away from the grown-ups) and discipline somehow produced well mannered citizens.  William of Wykeham gave credence to the importance of the latter as far back as the 14^th Century when he opined:  “Manners maketh man”.      

Aside from such factors as the immigration Tsunami, certain decisions or trends have made child rearing a challenge and one has already been mentioned – both parents working.  The traditional urban way of life, particularly in London and a multitude of other cities such as Coventry, Liverpool, Birmingham or even Southampton, suffered a set-back as a result of bomb damage in WW2.  Swept aside were the old ways of Granny living two doors down helping with baby-sitting etc, and community bonding activities like regular street parties, everybody knowing their neighbours etc; no doubt Nanny State thought this was a good thing and her consequential actions were well intentioned.  In broad terms the re-alignment meant thousands of families were uprooted to be re-housed in Basingstoke or Essex or New Towns or corralled into badly designed high rise blocks of flats within, or on the edge, of their town or city.  My cynical nature pushes me to believe that there was a degree of social experimentation in such a policy – not only by Government but also by trendy architects.  Some, if not many, of these high rise experiments, such as Roehampton and Sheffield, produced disappointing outcomes.            

Growing up in the decade after WW2 children were only too aware of the concept of privileges. With rationing in place for the first decade of my life the opportunity to gorge favourite fruit or vegetable day-after-day never arose either at school or at home. In similar vein sweets at school were limited to three per day on Mondays to Fridays, six on Saturdays and none on Sundays (a policy that may have allowed me to hang on to most of my teeth despite the contemporaneous temptation for dentists to drill for the reward of half a crown a pop).  Today, the concept of privileges is history and has been replaced by a world of Rights for parents, children alike and from society as a whole that demands an annual improvement in the quality of live – naturally without any extra effort from the citizenry.  Such thoughts prompt the follow-up question: Has the Welfare State blunted ambition, indeed if all the goodies come up with the ration truck why should anyone bother?

Some years ago the newspapers ran a story about a man who had sired multiple children with a wife and his mistress.  He commuted between his duplicate loved ones who lived in separate valleys and lived the good life on State Benefits.  While contemporaneously his situation may have been atypical, many might feel it is now commonplace and hardly worthy of note. It is perhaps inevitable that the progeny of such a family structure should instinctively feel that the State is there to meet their every need, including luxuries.  Without stretching a point too far, Irving Wallace, in his book The Fan Club, might have hit the nail on the head with this thought:  “Familiarity breeds no attempt.”  [In truth, the point is somewhat stretched since his words referred to sex but why waste a good quotation!]

The move from the concept of rearing children in a world of known boundaries (propitiously our school was bordered by Boundary  Lane), rites of passage and privileges maybe spurred other consequences.  In today’s world of a large cohort of the young demanding instant self-gratification, we may be in danger of creating a two tier approach to child rearing.  If so, perhaps the first concept to be lost is that of teamwork.   GB Shaw identified the consequential long term problem: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”     

Childhood Mores – Into Adulthood

“If your children are no better than you are, you have fathered them in vain indeed you have lived in vain! – Gorky                                                                       

As society struggles to understand DEI, Trans Rights, Islamophobia, Health & Safety Laws, the Internet and the purpose of HR departments, children are passing through their education years.  For sure they can cope with the Internet more effectively than most adults but not so in other areas.  Whither education is the next question?  One immediate reaction to that question might be to express concern about the re-writing of the school curriculum particularly in the elemental subject of History; so let’s hope it doesn’t focus on the nation’s perceived guilt in regard to slavery.  

Due to frequent house moves as a child, I attended a number of schools which, in the early years were topped up with Sunday school attendance.  The one common factor was discipline.  Teachers were respected and, in some cases probably feared.  Although, the bark was usually worse than the bite, the perceived presence of fear is not really appropriate; respect however is.  In my own case I had a deep respect for our history master who defied all the odds by facilitating my A Level pass, yet his nickname of Brute or Brutus may not have been propitious.  Above all else, children subliminally or knowingly, seek boundaries; they are not stupid and are not taken in by the empathetic teacher who wants to ‘be your friend’, indeed such a relationship creates confusion. 

Nature should be allowed to run its course, allowing children to enjoy each step of the way without the burden of any responsibilities other than complying with certain mores such as good manners; to me the Ten Commandments offer a model framework although I cannot claim to have satisfied all their requirements.  Some steps represent major physiological changes such as breasts for the fairer sex and the breaking voice of the young male.  While natural changes inevitably take their course it seems inappropriate either to accelerate or to compress the growing up years; childhood should be embarking on an enjoyable road of discovery, laced with rites of passage rungs on the ladder to adulthood. It is therefore disappointing to witness modern imperatives to burden children with information, or even responsibilities, at an increasingly early age.   Foreshortening those precious all too short years might usefully be depicted as ‘lowering the earnesty threshold’.

As already identified, drinking one’s first alcoholic drink is one example of those rites of passage but there are other seminal moments.  No doubt there are indeed many more but I will focus on two: The facts of life and politics.

In my formative years education lay in the hands of village schools where we learnt very quickly that girls were unquestionably the enemy.  If I remember correctly girls stayed longer in the Primary schools than the boys and, in any event, they matured more quickly than us boys – both physically and intellectually; at Thursley Village School those differences translated into bullying that made for an uncomfortable life for the boys.  Hence the ‘enemy’ status accorded to the girls.  

Whether or not girls were truly the enemy matters not, the fact is that they were of no particular interest to us boys.  Of course the rite of passage day had to come when we needed to know the justification for the Almighty’s decision to create girls; the acquisition of that knowledge arrived at school with an extra mural lecture on the facts of life. 

Courtesy of a timely Pools win my unemployed Dad felt able to bear the cost of despatching me to a boarding school at the age of thirteen years.  Prior to that posting my parents had never discussed sex.  That parental cowardice meant my introduction to the facts of life became the responsibility of a uniformed, albeit retired, Chief Petty Officer aided by an Aldis slide projector.  Armed with a billiard cue he indicated parts of the female body.  “This ‘ere is the Mons Pubis” he shouted as he stabbed the cue onto the screen before banging on the floor and shouting “Next slide.”  For the most part we were revolted by the biological revelations and this method of sex instruction delayed our interest in the matter for many a day much more effectively than consuming pints of Bromide (the Army’s solution). This may all sound a bit extreme but my underlying point is that there are developmental dangers to a child if such an important matter is dealt with too prematurely.  Sex perhaps would be best handled by a sense of mystery although there has always been a leakage to the young as manifest by this playground ditty that children sang to the tune of a renowned carol:

We three kings of Leicester Square

                                Selling ladies underwear

                                No elastic

                                Quite Fantastic

                                Penny a pound a pair

Even as a teenager I, and as far as I know for my contemporaries, politics held no interest – such matters belonged to the grown-ups.  With adulthood being officially sanctioned at the twenty one years of age there seemed to be no need to become involved in politics; indeed, my only brush with politicians before that had been to find myself six feet from Harold Macmillan at the Royal Tournament and mistaking him for God.  Yet now, not content with reducing the age of majority to eighteen years the Government seeks to lower that to sixteen.  Worse still we recently witnessed Angela Rayner MP debating with, what appeared to be, pre-pubescent children.. Hands off childhood is my reaction to both lowering the age of majority and infecting schools with politics; bearing in mind the trenchant political views of the teaching unions the latter takes on a serious hue. 

Determining a single reason for education sector’s direction of travel would be an impossible task.  That said, many might argue that there are malign influences at play in the education sector such as the avowedly Hard Left National Education Union (NEU).  Francis Foster, author of a recently published book (Un)educated suggests that teaching now focuses on ‘what to think’ rather than ‘how to think’.  He also cites examples of slavery being a uniquely British activity and, worse still, spawning class discussions on Gaza that is not part of the curriculum.  So, teachers seem able to go off piste to impart their prejudices on the gullible young.

The neutrality and apolitical nature of teachers in my day allowed for the uncomplicated pursuit of knowledge.  Trade Union power and contemporary politics played no part in our learning process with teaching focusing on the basic building blocks of the three Rs.  To me such an approach seemed logical based on the principle that one had to know the rules before they could be bent, broken or challenged.  Many, if not most, of our teachers were non Graduates who, after demobilisation into a world of sinking employment opportunities, drifted into the education sector.  They were well grounded with a firm belief in the need to ensure pupils understood the basics of a subject before moving on to the next level – a skill that many Graduate teachers lacked.  Streaming represented an important overlay since subjecting a child to lessons that were beyond their understanding or skill-set lowered his or her morale and impaired real learning.    

Who would have guessed that by 2026 we would be living in an age in which knife crime in school has become commonplace and a Batley teacher has been in hiding for five years for fear of his life; meanwhile a Labour Council issues this guidance on discipline during Ramadan:  ‘Muslim pupils facing punishment should be allowed home to break their fast’.  Furthermore, children are being herded into Mosques to ape Muslim prayer procedures as well as witnessing mass street praying.   Lest children consider wondering if this all part of the education process, a recent Army recruiting advertisement depicts an Imam offering prayers to a patrol on Brecon Beacons potentially to assuage their wonderment.  In the long term however, special treatment for a particular religious group seems likely to add to children’s confusion and smacks of divisiveness. It might also be observed that identity politics confuses adults, let alone children.

With the RAF policy of putting a stop on recruiting white pilots and certain police forces delaying acceptance of white applicants by a year, childhood confusion may be inculcated with the certainty that society has developed a new policy of inequality of opportunity.   That policy has also been reflected in such key Government sectors as MI5, MI6 and GCHQ with the introduction of the policy of prioritising their recruitment to those with an ethnic minority background.  The response to any criticism of such preferential treatment is that the Government is trying to ‘level the playing field’.  Whatever happened to recruitment being based on merit?

Allegedly well intentioned measures to accord preferential treatment to certain sections of society seem to be unhelpful; with white working class boys languishing at the in the basements of the houses of learning, unhelpful may be an understatement.  With those white children in the nadir of education development should there still be widespread talk of ‘white privilege?  In England Your England Leftie George Orwell, at his prescient perceptive best, wrote:  [ours] “is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality…in Left Wing circles it is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being English at it is a a duty to snigger at every English institution…”  Of course we are no longer a great country but his observation has stood the test of time.    

The approach to religious activities back in the day seemed simpler.  When asked to declare one’s religion by an ‘authority’ (schoolmaster or recruiting sergeant) a delayed response resulted in ‘Anglican’ being recorded.  Such an assumption prevailed at prayers that followed the school’s morning parade when the Executive Officer cried “Fall out the Roman Catholics”.  We Anglicans thought this very unfair since not only did the RCs avoid prayers but they had plenty of time to amble to the first lesson of the day whereas the Anglicans had to move fast.  As an agnostic, even I can see the value of morning prayers and, for that matter, the Ten Commandments; in my book they were both an aspect of inculcating boundaries into the young and part of the acceptance of the discipline agenda, as was the need to run not walk on the quarterdeck.  In combination these little elements imbued good citizenship and as Talleyrand once allegedly opined:  “Only a fool mocks etiquette”.  

Up The Education Ladder

Having devoted much of my secondary education to O Level examination resists, at some considerable expense to my parents, it seems wholly inappropriate for this author to hold forth on the subject of education.  Worse still, being awarded the Concise Oxford Dictionary for leaving proved to be the only prize I ever won at school – the Headmaster considered correct spelling to be an essential for later life. It has to be said however, that a lack of knowledge has never stopped me offering an opinion on any subject or issue.

In 1965, as Secretary of State for Education, the cut glass accented Tony Crosland of Highgate set about dismantling Grammar Schools.  It is reported that his wife Susan quoted her husband as saying:  “If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to destroy every fucking grammar school in England.  And Wales and Northern Ireland.”  To me her revelation suggests that her husband’s schools’ plan smacked of vindictiveness which, bearing in mind he served in the Parachute Regiment during WW2, seems somewhat incongruous.  .  However to the more forgiving, Crosland bowed to Trade Union pressure which, in view of Susan’s admission, seems unlikely.

Why anybody should think the dismantling of an internationally widely respected education system should have been a good idea is beyond me.  I understand his thinking to be that those who failed the Eleven Plus were condemned to a lifetime in the Conference League Division of society notwithstanding that examination re-sits were offered at thirteen years of age, allowing late developers to realise their true potential.  Whatever the intended result of whittling down the Grammar Schools, it might be suggested that the plan amounted to a lowest common denominator (LCD) approach to education and therefore dampened aspiration.  The aim of education is surely to achieve equality of opportunity rather outcome which perhaps runs counter to socialist thinking which might be summarised as:  Somewhere, somehow, someone is better off than I am and that should not be allowed.

 “People think there’s a rigid class system here, but dukes have been known to marry chorus girls. Some have even married Americans.” – HRH Prince Philip

Class warfare?  The present Government has arguably built on Crosland’s LCD approach by vindictively imposing VAT at private sector schools.  It seems perverse to threaten the economic viability of Public Schools that offer a widely recognised quality education; indeed such recognition has led to opening variants in the Middle East and the People’s Republic of China (PRC).  A particular tragedy of the policy is the damage that has been wreaked on middle class parents who can no longer afford the fees.  It is notable that the very rich have not been impacted by the measure; their position will always be safe since in the last century many schools had well advanced plans to re-locate offshore to Ireland and Europe.  The VAT raid has resulted in a fall in 30,000 private sector pupils thereby increasing the burden on the state sector.  In their LCD drive the Government has also sought to clip the wings of Free Schools.    

The fortunes of the late developer are an important aspect of these education thoughts and damaging their life chances is not a ‘good thing’ as indeed Sellar and Yeatman might have suggested.  Crosland might have thought that his Comprehensive Schools’ idea may have solved the late development challenge but keeping bolshie children at school for no particular benefit to them appears not to have been the solution.  A better option might have been to admit that non-academic children would more likely prosper if they were released into the outside wide world, suitably equipped with the three Rs. 

So, there may be two categories of late developers – those at eleven/thirteen and those beyond their teenage years.  History is replete with success stories of the latter category.  One example is the founder of Pimlico Plumbers Charlie Mullins who left school at fifteen and secured an apprenticeship.  Lord John Prescott offers another example; he often whinged about not attending a Grammar School but he is not atypical in ‘doing OK’ possibly having been given a fair wind by studying at Ruskin College.  However, a shining example for me is a now retired Four Star General who failed his O Levels and had to undertake a year of remedial education.  This author offers the final example – armed with a single low grade A Level he passed the Staff College Examination while contemporaneously two Graduate neighbours both failed.

Two subsequent political decisions had a deleterious impact on developing the young.  First, Edwards Heath raised the school leaving age (ROSLA) thereby condemning wholly disinterested pupils to an extra unrequited year at school for no good purpose.  Heath’s action greatly irritated me since, at the time, I served in a Junior Leaders Regiment. Up until the change, the boys (no girls back then) had two years to complete their faltered education and transmogrify into soldiers.  By compressing the two year course into one, in addition to removing the education module, important character forming extra mural activities were cut thereby reducing the fun in parallel.  Back then, those young men formed 93% of the Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess.

Second, under Tony Blair’s three Es policy the national aim was that up to 55% of the young should go to university.  Graduates in the 1960s represented 8 to 9% of the population and with that consequential rarity they were highly regarded by employers across the board with the FCO having a particular regard for classicists.  Many Technical Colleges became universities and apprenticeships withered on vine.  After nearly three decades of such thinking the worm has rightly turned.  Mention of Mr Blair reminds me that one of his early destructive acts was to abolish the Assisted Places Scheme that allowed for the children of the poor(er), blessed with bright children, to benefit from a Public School education; such an act of vandalism runs counter to my belief that education is the primary key to curing the curse of social immobility. 

My standard newspaper reading practice is to eye the cartoon, read the Obituaries before turning my attention where I often remain to the detriment of further reading.  Working on the assumption that a newspaper obituary is generally confined to achievers, my feeling is that former Grammar School pupils predominate.  Of course, that does not represent either a scientific examination or statistical undertaking but intuition suggests that Grammar Schools generated a high calibre product – in other words encouraged children to realise their full potential.

Further Down The Education Ladder

As a learning parent, I gradually developed the view that the LCD approach had penetrated the Primary School sector.  On open days my daughter’s school teachers plastered on the wall a single page of each child’s work.  Perhaps inevitably, those pages were riddled with spelling mistakes although a teacher always corrected only one of them.  On challenging the teacher she responded that “correcting too many mistakes might upset the child.”  Children are not stupid so why allow mistakes to run and run?  Thought I.  In similar vein no child in the class was allowed to learn the four times table until EVERYONE in the class had learned the three times table.  Such attitudes convinced me of the need for streaming, after all holding back an intelligent child can create long-term behavioural challenges. 

Not all children can either show signs of being intelligent or actually be intelligent which, along with stifling the progress of the brighter child, is an issue that can and should be addressed.  At my primary school a report of A+ for Effort and B- for Progress kept dummies like me from losing heart although how Effort was assessed remains a mystery!  The school also offered the Star Prize option for maintaining the morale of the less academic pupil.  The accumulation of Twenty Stars triggered a prize on Speech Day.  Quarter, Half or sometimes a full Star were awarded for such achievements as:  Not blubbing after a penicillin injection (canings did not qualify), doing a good deed or scoring a handful of runs playing at number eleven in the batting order.  On the one hand it is surely a ‘good thing’ that even non-academic children can win a prize but on the other the prizes’ market should not be flooded for fear of devaluation.  In the latter regard, in the mid 1980s  I attended a school prize giving day that lasted for three and a half hours because everyone had allegedly merited a prize: now that is devaluation writ large.    

There is much gnashing of teeth about the size of classes.  Aside from children with special needs the optimum size appears to be 26 to 30.  Part of the thinking is that if a class is too small interactivity is greatly reduced.  On a 2009 secondary school visit in the PRC I discovered that there were eighty to a hundred students in a class.  Students sat at serried ranks of individual desks facing the teacher – not for them the hollow square of pupils facing each other.  After the visit many pupils approached for a chat – some with gifts – eager to talk in English and clearly well motivated. I concluded that discipline fostered well behaved educated children.

Education By Experience

Today it is assessed that there are 298,000 households in which no member of the family has ever worked.  Such a statistic is all the more worrying bearing in mind that children often tend to ape the behaviour of their parents.  Against such a background it is sad that the Government is snuffing out work opportunities for the young via its minimum wage policies. 

Without claiming to be unique among my contemporaries, from the years of fifteen to eighteen I found temporary employment.  In my case, the major imperative for so doing was the paucity and intermittence of pocket money.  Aside from mowing lawns for elderly neighbours, in the hope in garnering a tip, I found financially and educationally rewarding work in the following sectors: Post Office parcels for two consecutive Christmases; hotel dishwasher and laundry boy; hospital porter at St Luke’s Hospital in Guildford; and Allpest Ltd.  These were essentially dilettante experiences – dipping into experiences without any long term career intentions.  However, in the round they offered a valuable life learning experience.    

A recent article in the Daily Telegraph suggests that I am not alone in espousing the educational value of teenage working.  Under the title of The Saturday jobs that shaped us some commented on their experiences:

“Few things are more character-building than a paper round.”

                “If you can meet the demands of the average Harpenden   Waitrose customer, you can handle anyone,”

                “I discovered the joy of female camaraderie.”

                “It gave me some much-needed perspective.”

Tolerance and Intolerance

Political discourse today is framed by aggression and intolerance with the pointless bear pit of Prime Minister’s Question Time. It is inevitable that children are influenced by such behaviour even if they have little interests in politics. The days of well mannered TV debates of Wedgwood Benn conducting fireside chats with political opponents have long gone. Some may also remember the Tory Bottomley family holidaying annually with the Labour Callaghan family on the Isle of White.  Such civility would now be regarded as treacherous behaviour.

The intolerance is not confined to politicians but has cascaded down to society as a whole.  The recent sacking of a female member of a committee for raising concerns on a legitimate issue offers a recent example.  Elsewhere, Christians in silent prayers on the street are arrested while at Speakers Corner they are shouted down, abused and assaulted by believers in other faiths.  How ironic that the traditional renowned venue for exercising freedom of speech should descend to such intolerance of others’ views.   The days of soap box dissertations from Lord Soper have long gone. 

Another area that society has perforce borne down on is nicknames.  On the one hand nicknames can be cruel but on the other their Invention fosters imaginative thinking as well as, on occasions, according some personality to someone who otherwise lacked any.  The wit and wisdom of nicknames is a common thread in our society with schools and the Armed Forces being particularly adept at inventing them.  What might be called functional nicknames such as Chippy (Carpenter), Scaleyback (Signaller}, Donkey Wallopper {Cavalry), Canon Fodder (Infantry), Drop Shorts (Artillery), Snotties (Midshipmen) or Sparks (Electrcian etc required no imagination while others do.  Descriptive nicknames that embraced mannerisms, looks and behaviour, although running the risk of causing offence, stirred the imagination, producing examples such as: Stretch or lofty (tall); the Rock, (steady and reliable), The Skull (bald[, Captain Hurricane (blond, tall and imposing),Twee (an effete youngster), Dodger (fleet of foot) or  Crabs (regular visitor to  the VD clinic). 

Other acceptable choices might include the alliterative/rhyming slang, encompassing such nicknames as:‘Knocker’ Noakes,‘Granny’ Grantham and ‘Bones’ Rowland-Jones.  Surnames can also spawn some goodies such as:  ‘Slippery’ Eeles; ‘Streaky’ Bacon; ‘Chalky’ White; ‘Brock’ Badger; ‘Dusty’ Miller; and ‘Dicky’ Bird.  The combination of initials and surname also offers a fruitful hunting ground for one’s imagination (e.g.,‘Podge’ POJ Nicholson).  However It behoves parents to be cautious of their choices when naming their children and the judicious use of vowels is to be recommended; for example naming a child Peter Richard Arthur Thompson might be unwise.  Pushing the envelope of offence any further in today’s world has become unacceptable.  Such nicknames as – Shags (acne victim), Percy (well endowed),  Loppy Lugs, Wing Nut, or even World Cup (for ears) are condemned to history.

Despite strictures against causing offence, I confess that my favourite nickname has all the makings of being hurtful.  By common consent the ugliest man in the RN was an Engineer Officer who, despite his challenging looks, actually achieved Flag Rank (Vice Admiral).  In recognition of his ill-favoured looks he became universally known as ‘Venus’  – the Roman goddess, whose functions encompassed love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and  victory.  In those days we were more robust and the Admiral was well aware of the risqué appellation.    

Unhelpful Political Clichés

Words are the money of fools” Thomas Hobbes

There is unquestionably a growth of clichés, particularly in the political arena and their repeated use has created a widespread perception of insincerity.  Politicians today have opted for inter-connected clichés like ‘at this moment in time’ rather than risk offering ‘er’ or ‘um’ as a means of allowing for some thinking time.  Today, however, the cliché has become a quick fix either to appear genuinely concerned about an issue or to close down a discussion.

The worry is that the young absorb these clichés which risk of dominating or foreclosing further discourse.  Consider these, some of which play the loathsome empathy card (NB. Kind words are not acts of kindness):

“I hear you; full force of the law; action is in hand; fulsome praise (now changed from its original meaning); action is being taken at pace; my heart goes out to; togetherness;    I feel it too; lessons have been learned; lessons will be learned”

The world of clichés has spread to factitious warning orders on TV and Radio.  To the older generation it seems quite extraordinary that the airing of harmless programmes like Round The Horne or The Two Ronnies are preceded by a health warning; in both cases the word play and nuance surpassed most modern alleged humour.  It is equally disappointing to witness the propensity of today’s alleged comedians to sprinkle the ‘F’ word over their scripts and seem unable to differentiate between satire and nastiness.  Yet warnings about watching or listening to today’s comedians are seldom heard; frankly, they manage to make Bernard Manning appear saintly.  

As a child I listened to Round The Horne .  As far as I know I turned out to be a reasonable citizen although it is accepted that some may dispute that claim.  The old way of reducing any risk to the young involved a simple warning such as ‘unsuitable for children’ with film threat grades of X, A and U.  Tuning in to watch a murder film the expectation is that there will be some bloodshed so the double indemnity of issuing a warning seems superfluous if not confusing.    

Hors d’Oeuvre

Not being blessed with an ordered mind, this offering lacked any initial framework or, for that matter, any research.  Shooting from the hip has been my approach and by merely sitting at the keyboard and typing, I have now realised that there some outstanding topics that deserve to be addressed.

Multiculurism.  I have avoided any real discussion on Multiculturism since I do not really understand its aim.  Its main impact seems to be the erosion of our Judeo-Christian based society and attendant culture.  In a rare honest moment of honesty Sir Keir Starmer, revealed his true thinking by describing our new model society as:  “an island of strangers.“  Contrary to his quickly withdrawn   outburst of honesty, we plough on with diversity which does not seem to be a good goal bearing in minds its anti-cohesive primary definition:  “The state of being diverse, variety.”  

It might even be argued that creating such racial bodies as The Black Police Association damage efforts to achieve a cohesive society; for my money there should be a single police association speaking with one voice.  As implied, the aim of any society ought to be social cohesion; to me the basic elements of such a society are:  Laws common to all citizens that are applied equally to all and a national primary language.

The Real World.  It seems to be the case that too many politicians are remote from the anxiety of reality.  Without any quality control such as a qualification or coal-face work experience that remoteness has become starkly apparent.  However the example offered now suggests that others do not take a wide view of society’s direction of travel:  A media journalist asked a well spoken lady from Hampstead Heath for her opinion on immigration; she replied that it was a good thing since it offered her a “wider choice of restaurants.”  Bearing in mind that many cannot even afford to eat out, her response seemed to be both insensitive and lacking any consideration of any wider issues.

Sloping Shoulders.  The drive to govern via quangos (stuffed with illiberal progressives), special advisers, inquiries and, kicked down the road, studies suggests a move to governance by sloping shoulders.  This results in citizens not knowing who to hold responsible for what as well as their forgetting about the issues as studies or investigations drone on for months or years – at huge taxpayer cost. 

Motivating The Young:  Emile Coué’s mantra of thinking that “Day-by-day in every way I am getting better” is laudable but how is it achieved?  The placebo effect can work but, in this case, it’s a big ask.  Raising false hopes by encouraging up to 55% of the young to study at university has produced generations of indebted adults, many of whom perceive themselves to be unfairly employed in low paid jobs that do not match their unwisely raised aspirations.  Aspirations are a crucial component of any young person and, rather than blunting them, society needs to discover how to keep ambition alive.  The basic tenet must surely be to achieve equality of opportunity rather than outcome. 

The World of Work.  With the introduction of AI in particular, serious thought needs to be given to providing job and career opportunities to future generations.  Historically, in the world of work, the UK has operated a quasi class system in which an architect has more perceived status than a plumber, notwithstanding the latter may well earn more money.  The status of a title can even trump the wish for a pay rise, for example I used to meet many employees from a bank who all sported the appointment title of Vice President!  Perhaps we need to focus apprenticeships and other training methods on such areas as:  Plumbers, Electricians, Builders including Civil Engineers, Stonemasons, Medicine and reviving traditional arts or practices.  Whatever opportunities are created, it needs to be the case that work is financially more rewarding than sitting at home on benefits.

Value System. Something has gone wrong with the nation’s value system.  Back in the day we applauded aspiration and the milestones of success such as Passing the Eleven Plus; now that does not appear to be the case.  It seems perverse to me that a successful entrepreneur who spent a decade in poverty is described as ‘filthy rich’ whereas a Lottery winner is offered congratulations for the achievement.  There is no skill in a Lottery win.

Certainties.  When asked what his aim was Rudi Dutschke of the Red Brigade allegedly replied: “The opposite of what exists at present.”  I sometimes wonder if his intention has been taken on board by politicians in the last few decades.  To many of my generation the UK has become unrecognisable.  DEI, the perceived rise in violent crime, large scale demographic changes, the broadening scope of the Welfare State, supine politicians focusing on garnering votes, mass demonstrations on foreign policy issues et al.  Such factors appear to have changed the manner in which the police operate.  In days gone by the police mingled with communities, indeed our village hosted a policeman up until the mid-1990s.  Now the police are so isolated that many no longer regard them as wholly friendly forces.  In fairness, dealing with crime is much more complicated than the days when the ‘enemies’ like the Kray Twins and the Richardsons were known and handled accordingly.    

The Welfare State.  The exponential growth of the Welfare State has had a profound influence in our attitudes.  Suffice to say it has given a fair wind to the concept of Rights trumping that of privileges.  As Sherelle Jacobs put it (DT 29 May 2026): “The state is spending 25 times as much on benefits for the young than it does on helping

them find work” 

Flags and Citizenship.  In my youth the Union Flag filled us with pride as did a Passport that offered protection from Her Britannic Majesty’s Secretary of State. For some inexplicable reason we are now being invited to minimise pride in that Flag.  It is bewildering that a token of our unity is to be so discarded after all it is the one outward symbol of our nation.      

The End

Years ago when I had hair, teeth and a potential future, the task to write Standing Orders For Disco Nights.  The Adjutant returned the said voluminous document with a single amendment:  Delete: “End” Insert “Termination.”   This, I suspect, a clever wheeze to suggest that he had read the document right up to the last page.  In later life I discovered that senior officers probably played the same game by opting to comment on split infinitives rather than on the contents of the document itself.  Although, I am now free to write the above nonsense without supervision, I have found the process too demanding to offer sensible detailed conclusions.  So, I offer this sole observation: 

Thank God I grew up in a country that was more at ease with itself