If you want to know what really drives Death of a Nightingale, read what follows. As I put it in the Prologue “I am interested in the microcosm, and I am interested in the whole which the microcosm reflects.”
Yes, Inclusion and Special Educational Needs are very important, especially to those involved in them. Even more important is the overall state of things.I am afraid, Helena, that you were wasting your time with the “Power Report.” All your work, and you haven’t made the slightest difference. Things are as bad as ever, perhaps somewhat worse.
From the Prologue
The recent Power Report pointed to “the weakening of effective dialogue between governed and governors” and “the rise of quiet authoritarianism within government.” If I can remove the wrapping paper, it is saying that our democracy is often just a sham, and that the problem is not so much spin as twist. It is a serious criticism of those who wield power – the subtle and not so subtle pressures they exercise – the patronage they use to get their way.
It should be no surprise that lawyers, accountants, academics and others, from time to time compromise strict standards of professional behaviour and play word games instead. I have seen it happen. If the System does look itself in the mirror, it needs to recognise that the mirror itself is a distorting one. Will it do even that? Sad to say, the report has already been allowed to gather dust as reports of this kind invariably do, and everything goes on as before.
From Notes & Quotes
10 The Power Inquiry
This Inquiry was set up by the Joseph Rowntree Trust in 2004 to mark its centenary.It established a Commission under the chair of Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, to investigate why the decline in popular participation and involvement in formal politics has occurred, to provide concrete and innovative proposals to reverse the trend and to explore how public participation and involvement can be increased and deepened.
Its work was based on the primary belief that a healthy democracy requires the active participation of its citizens. It is completely independent of any political party or organisation. It works across the political spectrum and, most importantly, with people who feel that the political parties do not represent them anymore. The Commission published its final report, Power to the People, in February 2006. The report outlined 30 recommendations for change, but most importantly it argues that there is a need for a re-balancing of power between the Executive and Parliament, between Central and Local Government and between the Citizen and the State.
As I said in Blog 1 the “credit crunch” is only one slice of a wormy apple. The system needs a complete detox to remove the toxins from the body politic.
Let me try a different route to make the same point, a piece of political satire that I wrote a few years ago. It says it all, another way.
From Alice in Blunderland
The Mad Hatter’s Committee Meeting
The Mad Hatter was in the Chair. “Order, Order” he cried, and Disorder clumped noisily out of the room.
“The Minutes of the last meeting” he said imperiously.
The White Knight asked which Minutes he wanted. “The Minutes that go on for days and days, the Minutes that go on for hours, or the Minutes that go on only for seconds?”
“That’s a difficult one” said the Mad Hatter. “Shall we take the Minutes as read?”
“I can’t read.” said Doormouse.
“Pretend to.” said the Mad Hatter.
“How do you pretend to?” said Doormouse still reluctant to agree.
“Like you always do.” said the Mad Hatter, getting just a little bit irritated.
Alice looked around the table. It was a well attended meeting. The White Knight and the Knave of Hearts were the professionals present. The Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the White Queen, the March Hare, Caterpillar, Tweedledum and Tweedledee were all in their place. Doormouse was under his. They were the lay members.
The two professional members looked down on the lay members. Their chairs were six inches higher. Accordingly the lay members looked up to the professionals.
And a very small black fly had settled on the wall behind the Mad Hatter’s Chair.
“The Minutes are agreed.” said the Mad Hatter.
“Apologies for absence?” asked the Mad Hatter. “Humpty Dumpty” said the White Knight. “He had a serious accident since we last met.”
“Any correspondence?” asked the Mad Hatter.
“Yes, two matters.” replied the White Knight. “We have just had a brand new Plan from the Ogre Queen. It’s on the table. It is an all singing and dancing Plan.”
Alice noticed that an attractive book on the table suddenly started dancing a highland jig and at the same time sang the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.
“What’s in the Plan?” asked the Cheshire Cat.
“There’s meetings”. “Great.” said the Cheshire Cat. “New partnerships.” “Wonderful.” said Caterpillar. “And there’s much more delusion.” said the Mad Hatter. “Don’t you mean Inclusion?” said the White Knight. “A Freudian slip” said the Mad Hatter with a wry smile. “More Inclusion at a rate of 20 per cent per anum.”
“Don’t you mean per annum?” Interjected the March Hare. “Well it definitely says per anum” replied the Mad Hatter.
“It’s a bit of an enema” said Tweedledum. “Enigma” said Tweedledee.
“Either way I move we buy it” said the Mad Hatter with some finality.
“Can we afford it?” asked Doormouse suddenly waking up.
“We get paid to buy it, twice the actual cost” said the White Knight helpfully.
“I am still not sure we can afford it” said Doormouse.
“Go back to sleep” said the Mad Hatter. And Doormouse did as he was told.
“Then that’s agreed?” Nods all round, including Doormouse who was nodding away with the rest of them.
“We don’t need to consult anyone do we?” Asked the Cheshire Cat, almost rhetorically.
“Roundabout midnight any day next week would be suitable” replied the White Knight. “I just don’t understand” said Alice, looking very bemused by all this.
The Mad Hatter turned to the Knave of Hearts “Would you explain to Alice our consultative procedures?”
The Knave of Hearts was something of a magician. One of his favourite tricks was to make people completely vanish. Another was to make people appear who didn’t exist at all. He quite liked to don his pointy wizard’s hat on these occasions.
This time however he conjured from thin air a mortar board and a somewhat tattered black gown. There was no limit to the things that he could conjure out of thin air. Most usually it was facts, figures and concept papers that bore no great relation to reality Ever since he came across the Latin tag De minimis non curat Lex, he had called these his tiny mini mice. He much preferred this to his small porkies.
The Knave of Hearts, in a somewhat didactic mode, then conducted a short tutorial. “To understand our consultative procedures you must understand the meaning of consultation. The word consultation derives from the two words ‘con’ and ‘salutation’. I am sure you know the meaning of both. All you have to do is to put the two together.”
“We have actually written to the Ogre Queen respectfully suggesting that Christmas Day should be designated an Annual Consultation Day when all the year’s consultation can take place. Is there another day in the calendar with more salutations than that one?”
Alice felt that she had to agree. “No there isn’t” she said. “And it is a day of goodwill” chipped in the March Hare “and we need as much of that as we can get.”
“But we have not reached that eminently sensible state of affairs.” continued the Knave of Hearts,” So the next best time is when people say goodnight to each other. I suggest that we consult next Sunday night.”
“Agreed” said the Mad Hatter. “Now what’s the other letter?”
“We are going to be inspected by the two blind mice.” said White Knight.
“My God” said the March Hare. “No, by two blind mice” said the White Knight.
“I thought there were three of them” said Caterpillar, suddenly getting a word in edgeways.
“One of them has just had a successful cataract operation” said the White Knight. “Why isn’t he here then?” asked Caterpillar. “He’s back in hospital with post traumatic shock … seeing things for the first time knocked him gaga.”
Alice noticed that that the visit from the two blind mice caused no great concern. “Aren’t you worried?” She asked.
“We’ve just bought the Plan” said the Mad Hatter.
“Off with our heads if we hadn’t” observed the March Hare.
Alice saw that everyone was laughing hilariously.
“Let’s get down to the main business of the meeting” said the Mad Hatter. “There is a resolution on the table, moved by the Knave of Hearts and seconded by the March Hare. – ‘The Moon is made of cheese’ – Knave of Hearts over to you.”
“I like cheese and I can’t do without it” started the Knave of Hearts.
“Not totally relevant” said Caterpillar. “Not relevant maybe, but very important to all of us” replied the Knave of Hearts, just a trifle aggressively.
“Anyway” he continued, “you can see for yourself it’s made of cheese. It’s round.” He said this with great authority. He combined a certain je ne sais quoi with a real sense of je ne sais pas du tout.
At this point the March Hare intervened. “I second the motion.” he said firmly. “I have the evidence. I’ve been given a piece.”
“Where is it then?” asked Alice unable to contain her curiosity.
“I’ve swallowed it” replied the March Hare. “And I’ve swallowed the hook, the line and the sinker that came with it.”
Alice’s curiosity turned to incredulity. “You swallowed the sinker? Wasn’t it a bit indigestible?”
“It was, the very first time I swallowed it” replied the March Hare, “but you get used to it. It is now a regular part of my diet.”
Tweedledum interposed “That’s my experience too.” And Tweedledee agreed. “Me too” he said.
“Well” said the Mad Hatter “two people have said that the Moon is made of cheese, one has actually eaten some. Can there be any reasonable doubt here? I frankly will go further. I think that the Moon is made of the best English Cheddar.”
“An amendment” intervened Caterpillar. “I believe it’s Wensleydale.”
“Cheddar” replied the Mad Hatter firmly, and Caterpillar crawled under a leaf on the table.
Alice was still unconvinced. “What about the moon-rock brought back from the moon landing.?” She asked.
“American propaganda against the Russians” replied the Knave of Hearts. “The landing was filmed in the Nevada desert and that’s where the rock came from.”
“Well I’ll eat my hat” said the Mad Hatter and promptly did so.
There was a respectful silence while this was going on.
When he finished, he asked whether the motion was agreed. “Nemine contradicente” said the White Knight. And with nobody quite knowing what that meant, they all nodded their heads including Doormouse who was still nodding away quietly under his seat.
At this point a very strange thing happened. The small black fly on the wall behind the Mad Hatter’s chair suddenly took off, whizzed three times round the room at great speed,. buzzing all the way.
Doormouse opened his eyes. The White Rabbit sat upright with a jolt. The White Rabbit, by the way, is known affectionately as “the politician”. His political affiliations are however unknown. Alice thought he belonged to the Lib Dems. He had taken no part in the proceedings. He had not been asleep like Doormouse, nor had he been fully awake. He had been lost in his daydreams. The sudden buzzing of the fly disturbed his reverie.
“Where am I?” he asked, gazing around. No-one answered. No-one even heard.
For at that very moment the small black fly suddenly turned into a wasp, and stung the Mad Hatter right on the tip of his nose.
The meeting was then adjourned.
With credit to Lewis Carroll
This was born out of bitter experience, the same bitter experience that provoked me to write Death of a Nightingale. I also had the realisation that that experience could happen anywhere, any time in the UK.
It is why I begin the Prologue with the following:
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
TS Elliot, Four Quartets, Little Gidding 1942
However, way back in the halcyon days when I was a card-carrying member of Jo Grimond’s Liberal Party, as naïve at the time as everyone else, I recall Jeremy Thorpe appealing for funds at the Party Assembly. In a deep Cornish accent, he said “It be milking time, it be.”
Well, it’s “milking time” here. In blog 14 I explained where your contribution will go – to help children with special needs get a holiday in London that they would not otherwise be able to afford. Yesterday the charity could afford to pay for four of them. Today it is five. There are still six to go.
This is the payment that I ask for services rendered – if you have enjoyed reading what I have written, and if you share my concern.
So, please go to Make a Donation on this website, and make one.