I WANT TO ASK MY CONSULTANT........

When will my body will stop rejecting food.? A perfectly healthy meal wasted because my body thought it was that little possessed girl out of the Exorcist - in that Projectile vomiting scene. And no, I didn't get to do the coolest bit: my head didn't spin round.

Grammar Schools: the Sequel

Y'know, I'm no great Daily Mail enthusiast but I think this columnist is right on the money. That's an old, old policy to which he is referring. The Tories were in power for eighteen years and, while they made all the right noises, they did very little at parliamentary level to actively support Grammar (note the spelling) schools. And before other forumites protest that they were stymied at every turn by Labour-controlled local authorities, you may care to remember that this was also the case with the Right to Buy policy (council housing) and the reforms of the NHS. Labour local authorities opposed them on ideological grounds at every turn yet the Tories managed to steamroller their policies through. One might ask why they failed to do this with Grammar schools.

Maybe it's because Grammar schools weren't so high on their list of priorities, after all.

In Response to the Tories' U-turn on Grammar Schools

This seems to have caused something of a furore.


I'll wager that the average grammar school was more intellectually and socially diverse than my Catholic school which had an unfortunate habit of selection via the backdoor. (With lots of emotional consequences for the pupils of that school even if they did go on to excel in higher education. Catholic Guilt, anyone?)

BTW: Many left-leaning middle class parents of school aged children wriggle out of the dilemma they have created for themselves by reverting to their childhood religion, feigning commitment and sending their children to some Catholic school miles away from their homes which just happens to be highly-placed in the league tables. But they'll stop at nothing a get their children a 'decent' education, whatever the cost, in the long term, to that child's emotional well-being, while preserving (ostensibly, at least) their political integrity.

They have their cake and devour it with relish.

Will Somebody Please Get Me Out of This Rabbit Hole?

And this one, I think, will run and run. The Jade Goody/Big Brother story is still occupying column inches, still causing mass hysteria. Ms. Shetty is being interviewed around the clock and people are still comparing her favourably to Ms. Goody. Much has been made of Jade Goody's lack of intellectual prowess in comparison with that of the 'college educated' Ms. Shetty. Apparently she has appeared in fifty Bollywood films and speaks ten languages. Which begs the question: why on earth was she appearing on Big Brother at all. The programme is named after the manipulative, omnipotent dictator of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. I'm surprised Ms. Shetty was unaware of this. Big Brother is also renowned for the bullying and vulgarity of many of its housemates. Surely Ms. Shetty viewed footage of past shows before she agreed to compete.

Media luminaries are lining up to inform Ms. Goody that she is not exactly the brightest star in the sky. Well, guess what, people, Ms. Shetty sounds as though she has had a better education than Ms. Goody because she has. There is a deeper issue here, one that the media is steadfastly refusing to confront. Is is right to gloat over the fact that a damaged young woman has been so poorly served by our education system?

I don't adhere to the concept of collective guilt so I don't believe Ms. Goody's conduct represents me. It has been suggested that we, as a nation, should be ashamed and embarrassed by Ms. Goody's behaviour. I disagree. Any embarrassment we feel should not be a result of what happened in the Big Brother House but by the way in which a minority of the population reacted: screaming for lynch mob 'justice' (an oxymoron if ever there was one) whilst being cheered on from the sidelines by our so-called intelligentsia. I'm surprised I didn't hear calls of 'Burn the witches.' Now, where is Matthew Hopkins when you need him?

Stalled

Entropy- everything disintegrating around me. Notable events of the last week - bought myself a PSP - a sleek, black PSP (I can't work out why anyone would want a white one). Currently playing Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Mother visited over the weekend - she bought me a new double bed as an early birthday present. And the debts keep accumulating. I am very behind on my IT course - I am stuck. I don't feel as though I can (or even want to) carry on.