If you are not a lawyer, you may be unfamiliar with Clapham and its famous Omnibus. Lawyers, you see, say that a reasonable person is “the man on the Clapham Omnibus.” Not a woman, you will note! Ah well, there’s some lawyers for you.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century Clapham was a part of South London favoured by the wealthier merchant classes. Samuel Pepys lived there. Later evangelical Anglicans and social reformers lived around the Common, especially those like William Wilberforce campaigning for the abolition of slavery and child labour and prison reform. Later still, in the twentieth century, it was a commuter suburb, and out of favour with the upper classes. It was then that a reasonable man was spotted on a ‘bus there.
In Death of a Nightingale there is one character who I say quite specifically you would not expect to see on that ‘bus. He is the mandarin from the Department for Education and Skills, James Harrington.
This is how I describe him:
He exudes quiet authority, and he smiles through cold teeth. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford. His father was a district commissioner in the Punjab during the Raj. He watches his own back very carefully, as well as the backs of others. His job is to deliver policy as quickly as possible. Nothing happens otherwise. Hence ends justify means sort of person. His suit, shirt and tie, Savile Row. You would not expect to see him on the Clapham Omnibus. Not the ordinary man in the street.
And this is how I introduce him
Act One Scene 3
Regional officer Judy Fotheringham is joined by a civil servant from London, James Harrington. The Westborough City Council’s Director of Education, David Harding, and its head of Special Needs Gerry Thompson arrive soon after. They discuss the closure of Brighouse School. It has been thwarted by strong campaign by parents to keep it open. Over 15,000 reasoned objections persuaded the Minister to reject plan to close the school.
JUDY FOTHERINGHAM (on the telephone) Yes, I did listen to the repeat of “Yes Minister”. I do admire Sir Humphrey.
James Harrington knocks and enters
JAMES HARRINGTON Are you talking about me?
JUDY FOTHERINGHAM (still on the ‘phone) God has just walked in. I’ll ring you back later. Bye (To James) Hello, good to see you again.
JAMES HARRINGTON Nobody’s ever said I had a divine presence before. Mind you they thought my father had when he was a District Commissioner in the Punjab. But people do turn to me for the occasional miracle. I don’t object to being called Sir Humphrey, but I do have to correct you about Yes Minister. We only like to think we’re wise and knowledgeable. I am not sure we always are.
JUDY FOTHERINGHAM Last night’s programme was really cruel. Did you see it?
JAMES No, I missed it.
JUDY FOTHERINGHAM It was all about the Dome and Government waste, not the waste of £800m so much as the public view of it. Hacker said the problem was not so much its viability as its visibility.
JAMES HARRINGTON I don’t disagree with him. We paid a terrible price at the time.
JUDY FOTHERINGHAM And, Hadrian didn’t say that twelve million people would visit his Wall in the year of its completion, and that that venture was a good deal more ambitious than the Dome.
JAMES HARRINGTON You really mustn’t allow yourself to be upset by the media. Whenever this arose my father – he was a wise old bird if ever there was one – he always said that the Pharaohs weren’t put off their grand design for the Pyramids by carping criticism in the Alexandria Times. I’ll tell you something else. Have you heard the Latin tag “Audi alteram partem”?
JUDY FOTHERINGHAM My Latin’s not very good these days. Doesn’t it mean something like “You have to listen to both sides of the argument”?
JAMES HARRINGTON Pity you didn’t have a classical education. In the civil service manual, “Audi alteram partem” is translated to mean that “you can drive your car on the wrong side of the road. ” Politicians watch our backs and we watch theirs. They provide the safety valve for the system. If we get it very badly wrong, they lose their seats. It works. Mistakes self-correct … in time.
As I have said, you would not expect to see him on the Clapham Omnibus. The person exercising authority does not need to be reasonable; effective and competent, yes and, in a much better world than ours, accountable, but reasonable? No. We should have no expectation there.If reasonableness is there, it is a bonus.
But that is not to say that there are no characters that I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see on the Clapham Omnibus.
And, it doesn’t have to be a man. I am very comfortable nominating a woman for that role. In Death of a Nightingale the English teacher and school governor, Joan Errington, the partner and confidant of the head teacher Margaret Williamson fills it perfectly.
In the words of the old saying, she has the serenity to accept the things she cannot change, the courage to change the things she can, and the wisdom to know the difference. She listens. She thinks. She is well balanced. And she cares. She makes a major contribution to the ethos of Brighouse School. I am sure that there are many like her dedicated to teaching children with special needs.
This is how I describe her:
In her thirties, very committed to her job and to the School. She takes a personal interest in some of the pupils and takes them to local theatres. She sees her work as a vocation. She loves and respects the head teacher. She prefers to appear studious with spectacles, rather than attractive with contact lenses.
Early on we learn that she took Tracy, a pupil at Brighouse School, to the RSC and gave her a love of drama. Although all my characters are fictitious, I know two people not totally dissimilar in real life.
I now set out three extracts from the stage version of the play. By the time you have read all three, you will get to know her as well as I do.
Act One Scene 10
Margaret Williamson, head teacher, is distraught. She has been pressurised by the Local Education Authority to commend the planned closure of her school to its parents. She shares her distress with her partner, Joan Errington.
(They snuggle up together on the couch)
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I think I know the answer.
JOAN ERRINGTON What?
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I’ll resign.
JOAN ERRINGTON That’s a silly thing to do.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON No, it’s not. It’s the only thing to do.
JOAN ERRINGTON Just put that idea right out of your head.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Don’t you understand. I’m pig sick of this job. And I’m pig sick of the world we’re living in. Every damn thing is a cynical charade, and I’m now given a lead role.
JOAN ERRINGTON If everyone who didn’t like their job resigned, there’d be a hell of a lot of vacancies.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON (Begins to cry) Don’t you understand, I just can’t do it any longer. I can’t look kids in the face. I can’t look my staff in the face, or the governors. And, what’s more, I can’t look myself in the face either.
JOAN ERRINGTON You must.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I can’t.
JOAN ERRINGTON What about us?
MARGARET WILLIAMSON What about us? It won’t make any difference if I’m not here.
JOAN ERRINGTON Of course it will make a difference. But anyway it’s a waste. You’re a wonderful teacher and a wonderful head. You can’t give all that up. What about your pension? What are you going to live on? What will you do with yourself?
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I’ll find something. I won’t be the first teacher to throw in the towel. Now will I?
JOAN ERRINGTON Look, whoever takes your place will do what you’ve said you’d do, and probably without any conscience at all. What on earth are you going to gain?
MARGARET WILLIAMSON My conscience. My sanity.
JOAN ERRINGTON Oh, come on. That’s self indulgence.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Self Indulgence. Self Indulgence. Oh my god. How can you say that to me? You of all peo ple. What a horrid thing to say. I don’t think you understand me at all. I want out. I want out altogether. Out, out, out.
JOAN ERRINGTON You’re just trying to make a martyr of yourself.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON If that’s the best thing you can say you’d better go.
JOAN ERRINGTON Oh, be sensible.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Go … Please go.
JOAN ERRINGTON I just hope and pray you’ll come to your senses. In a year’s time all this will be a bad dream.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Just leave me alone. Leave me alone.
It is of course Joan Errington who, 24 hours later, finds Margaret Williamson comatose having taken an overdose.
In the second Act Joan slowly fully understands why.
Act Two Scene 3
Eileen Winterton, chair of governors at Brighouse School, meets up with Joan to try to understand why Margaret has tried to take her own life.
JOAN ERRINGTON Well, just say she’s a casualty of the world we are living in. That’s certainly where you have to start.
EILEEN WINTERTON I do worry about that. Especially this bit of it.
JOAN ERRINGTON So do I. You’ve read 1984?
EILEEN WINTERTON Yes, but it’s not as bad as that, surely?
JOAN ERRINGTON It is, and it isn’t… what is a free society these days?
EILEEN WINTERTON We’re not living in a dictatorship. We’re a long way from that.
JOAN ERRINGTON I’m saying something different. What I am saying is that in one sense you are free, in one sense you are not. If you want some of the goodies today you have got to accept Big Brother.
EILEEN WINTERTON Who is Big Brother? The PM?
JOAN ERRINGTON Whoever is the PM. It’s the System. We live in a dependent society. We depend upon each other. There’s nothing wrong in that. But we also depend upon the State, and far too many people are totally dependent on it.
EILEEN WINTERTON That’s very true.
JOAN ERRINGTON People at the top of the pile can be every bit as dependent on the State as people at the bottom – probably more so. More to lose, or to win. And the price you pay for the State being kind to you, you obey it or you comply with it. You toe the party line, or you keep your head down, right down below the parapet. You cooperate. You do what’s expected of you.
EILEEN WINTERTON I suppose that is a bit Orwellian.
JOAN ERRINGTON It is the way it’s going. Then there’s “Spin”. What is “Spin” if it’s not another word for “New Speak”? Can you believe anything you are told these days? Take the words ‘”parental choice” or “parental preference”. When parents can’t, mustn’t, to talk to a school where their children might go, or when the schools they are supposed to choose from don’t exist, – they have been shut, democratically of course, but shut all the same – you might as well say “parental rhubarb”.
EILEEN WINTERTON I’m afraid you’re right.
JOAN ERRINGTON And there’s far, far too much politics in education full stop.
EILEEN WINTERTON It has to be. The State provides the money.
JOAN ERRINGTON Yes, but it keeps meddling. It should demand standards, but it shouldn’t keep meddling and trying to control us all the time, and it’s all this social engineering I can’t stand, and I don’t think Margaret could stand it either.
EILEEN WINTERTON I am curious, Joan, would you like to be a Head Teacher one day?
JOAN ERRINGTON I would not. Too much pressure from too many sides. I wouldn’t have wanted Margaret’s job for all the money in the world.
EILEEN WINTERTON We do get it wrong, if that’s the case. Teachers like you have so much to give.
JOAN ERRINGTON It makes me so sick at times, especially now. When terrible things like this happen – you know I’m very, very close to Margaret – you really start to think. I’ll give you a strange thought. The word ‘Equality’ is a lot of the problem. It’s mucked up,fucked up education for years. We are not all equal.
EILEEN WINTERTON No, that’s heresy. Surely there’s got to be equality of opportunity?
JOAN ERRINGTON What does that actually mean? What does it mean? Don’t you see? All kids are different, very different, our kids especially, and they need different kinds of opportunity. Fair play is what they all want, not equality. The needs of gifted and talented youngsters are every bit as important as the needs of kids in our school, from the country’s point of view maybe even more important. Those that trumpet equality don’t begin to understand that. If kids are not given the opportunity that’s right for them – and they’re all different – they’ll never meet the challenge of the times.
EILEEN WINTERTON Then, of course, they’ll never be included in it.
JOAN ERRINGTON Yes, and this country needs them to be.
EILEEN WINTERTON I’ve always thought that another word for Equality is mediocrity.
JOAN ERRINGTON And what’s even worse, for many people the quest for Equality is simply built on envy.
EILEEN WINTERTON Or guilt. Well, the opposite of envy is ambition. Envy somehow diminishes you. Ambition enlarges you.
JOAN ERRINGTON Interesting you should put it that way. Emma – she’s for ever quoting the Bible — she keeps saying there’s no sin in ownin’, but there is a sin in covetin’.
EILEEN WINTERTON It’s not surprising that, a lot of kids have lost their way.
JOAN ERRINGTON They’ve never been shown it, Eileen. – you know, the way to live that’s right for them – that’s what education should be about. What these kids want is not equality ofopportunity. It’s just, well, opportunity.
………
JOAN ERRINGTON (Stands up to leave) …….You know, I’ve just really seen it. It wasn’t the pills that kept her going. It wasn’t me either. It was the kids, and she did so worry about the world they’d have to grow up in. She knew, you see, she knew. In those twenty four long hours she suddenly realised that whatever she did, do the bidding of the LEA or resign, whatever she did, she’d lost everything that made her life worthwhile.
While Harriet Harman makes much of gender inequality in her Equality Bill – too much in my view, all-women short lists for parliamentary candidates, for example, from which I understand her husband is exempted – her Government presides over more inequality than I can ever recall – MPs expenses, banker bonuses, public sector pensions, State power against the citizen, for example in Tribunals (Visit Post 44) job security in the public as against the private sector. It is not just an unequal Society. It is an unfair Society too. Sorry, there’s me ranting again. If you want to read more visit Posts 4 and 5 of this Blog.
Back to Joan Errington and the play.
Act Two Scene 5
Margaret Williamson seeks to find peace within herself by confessing to the governors that she had succumbed to pressure and agreed to betray the school by siding with the Local Authority’s plan to close it. She has invited Eileen Winterton, chair of governors, Frank Jones, chair of finance who has resigned in protest, and Joan Errington to her home.
JOAN ERRINGTON I knew, of course. Margaret told me, before it all happened. She said she felt like a little lump of plasticine in the hands of the LEA.
FRANK JONES But you didn’t want to say.
JOAN ERRINGTON I couldn’t say, could I? And anyway, I am still not sure what we can now achieve by starting up the fight all over again. I really can’t see it helping the school and the kids. I think that NHS bod, John…
EILEEN WINTERTON Lavers?
JOAN ERRINGTON Yes, John Lavers was probably right. We should draw a line. All I really want to do is to teach. Can’t we get back to that simple idea? I will let you into a secret, when I was at school my first love was politics and sociology. The trouble is that these subjects make me angry, and you can’t teach in a permanent state of anger, hot or cold. It’s not good for you and it is certainly not good for the kids.
FRANK JONES You made the right decision. But why English?
JOAN ERRINGTON Three reasons. First of all I love it. Secondly, I think that every generation has a responsibility to pass on its heritage to the next. That’s what teaching is about. Finally, I think we all take our own heritage for granted. We shouldn’t. We’ve given over half the world English.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I bet the Romans didn’t appreciate what a wonderful gift Latin of all l languages was going to be to the world either.
JOAN ERRINGTON I bet they didn’t. Anyway I, connect with politics and sociology at the same time, and without the aggro. Just think of the great tragedies, Hamlet.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Yes, indeed (sadly) “To be or not to be”.
JOAN ERRINGTON Your winter of discontent, Margaret? Think of Othello.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Poor, poor Desdemona (feeling sorry for herself again)
EILEEN WINTERTON I could name one or two Iagos today.
FRANK JONES I’m beginning to see what you mean.
JOAN ERRINGTON I’ll give you one or two more. “The best of times and the worst of times”.
EILEEN WINTERTON Tale of two cities?
JOAN ERRINGTON Yes, Charles Dickens. Fiction and fact aren’t all that far apart.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON There’s poetry too, Joan isn’t there? “I wandered lonely as a cloud”.William Wordsworth.
JOAN ERRINGTON Oh dear. (A look of real sadness)
MARGARET WILLIAMSON Sorry Joan, but it’s been like that recently. How about then (ironically),Cat on a hot tin roof?
JOAN ERRINGTON Yes, we mustn’t forget great American writers who had their own way with English.
FRANK JONES I thought the Americans didn’t do English any favours?
JOAN ERRINGTON No, not at all, Frank. Just get the poems of Emily Dickenson out of the library,and start there. And after that come back home and read the poems by Rupert Brooke. You know he was one of the lost generation, died during the First World War.
“… thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.”
Ah me, once upon a time. You see politics, sociology and the human story are never far away from teaching English. I can very easily keep my early interest going with our wonderful English language, and without any torment. That’s what I want to give to our kids. And it’s for life, not just for exams.
EILEEN WINTERTON More strength to you. Look, I don’t want any teacher to martyr themselves. It’s not worth it. You are all much too valuable. I think we are going to have to accept the inevitable if they carry parents with them. Joan, you just keep teaching. And Margaret, don’t feel the need to share your thoughts with anyone else. You’ve got a career to start up again. Don’t sight of that, for heaven’s sake.
MARGARET WILLIAMSON I’m grateful for that. Joan, one thing I must ask you. Have you forgiven me?
JOAN ERRINGTON Well, almost.
MARGARET Only almost? Oh dear.
JOAN ERRINGTON I wish you hadn’t asked me. It’s the way it is, for you and for me I think.
Why do I choose this moment to write this pen portrait of Joan Errington?
In a few months time there will be a General Election in the UK. The city of Westborough, where Brighouse School is located and where Joan Errington lives, is an unusual constituency. It is a three way marginal.
Joan Errington is not wedded to any political party. I am sure that she is quite undecided which way to vote. She is tempted not to vote at all, but she knows that she should. She is one of many; a floating voter feeling that any moment she is about to drown!
Are any of the three main political parties wired into her worries and her needs? Do they even begin to understand them? I wonder.
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