Layer 436 . . . Jon Snow, Schools, Education, Universities, Classics, News, Journalism, al-Jazeera, Egypt, Revolution and Fully Evolved Humans

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"My problem with my school was this: I wasn't interested in the things that people wanted to teach me."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y203s

Poor Jon Snow. A good man who had the misfortune to be brought up as an over-privileged child in a mega-bourgeois family; son of a father who considered him a failure because he couldn't or wouldn't learn Latin and Greek.

I nearly wrote 'geek' just then. Jon's certainly not that. He's not peculiar, or dislikable, or overly intellectual. Not a geek in any way. He's a hands-on journalist, reporter and writer. Right now he's out in Cairo - getting his hands dirty and putting his personal wellbeing on the line.

The man has soul. He would like to play the piano really well; he reads uplifting, inspiring and informative books; he rides a bike every day; he paints watercolours. He was thrown out of university for being a radical ringleader and organiser of a week-long sit-in. His home's in Dorset. He has an affinity with Africa and music by bands such as Orchestre Baobab. He enjoys classical music for all the right reasons. He's not pompous, or a fake, or insecure, or a poser. He's a fully evolved human being.

Whilst at school he decided to start a student newspaper. After university he worked in a day centre for homeless young people. He became a journo because he had a burning curiosity and was always asking questions. And because he wanted to get back to Uganda, where he'd done a year on VSO.

Snow declined an OBE because he believes working journalists should not take honours from those that they report on.

In 1976, Snow rejected an approach by the British intelligence services to spy on his colleagues. At first he was asked to supply information about the Communist Party, but he was then asked to spy on certain "left-wing people" working in television. In return he would have received secret monthly tax-free payments into his bank account, matching his then salary.

He refuses to wear any symbol which may represent his views on air; in the run up to Remembrance Day he condemned what he called 'Poppy Fascism' because "in the end there really must be more important things in life than whether a news presenter wears symbols on his lapels".

- Wikipedia

I've always hated the way everyone in politics and the media goes around wearing poppies when you know these same people supported the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. Bloody hypocrites. Snow's the only media figure who obviously feels the same way. I probably have more reasons than most for supporting Poppy Day, but I refuse to wear one because it's just 'the done thing', and it's done by conformist, image-conscious 'patriots'.

I once phoned Jon Snow at Channel 4 News to offer him some information and clarification on the subject of education. Amazingly he took my call personally, and spoke with me in a respectful, genuine and unhurried manner. The man has quality.

So here's a guy who's been the main man at Channel 4 News since 1989, but suffered from the bad opinion of his teachers and of his own father because he wasn't sufficiently 'academic'. Here's someone who's of outstanding character and intelligence, who never completed a university degree. Here's a bloke who enjoys his chosen profession and has resisted opportunities to climb the greasy corporate pole because he's not interested in wealth or status or honours.

He's not ideallistic, or left-wing or pursuing any personal agenda - he's more Lennonist than Lenninist - he's a believer in truth and peace and love.

Mr Snow's a living example of someone who's done well in life, in the sense of being both personally and professionally successful, without having enjoyed school and without being academically a high achiever. I reckon he has too much sense to get into big debates about schools that are bent on teaching a set academic curriculum, instead of encouraging pupils to pursue their own learning agendas and passions. Those debates go nowhere because the Establishment has closed views on the subject of traditional educational hierarchies.

You can imagine the hours, days and weeks he wasted on trying unsuccessfully to memorise Latin and Greek when he could have been passionately engaged in pursuing his real interests. He was the victim of a pushy father and a public school system that's geared to producing Latin and Greek scholars because that's what's required to get you a place at the Oxbridge college of your choice.

Here's a headline from the front page of today's Guardian:

Universities admit 'soft' A-levels damage chance of top places

Students who 'avoid challenge' of traditional subjects miss out on places at Oxbridge or 'redbrick' institutions

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/04/university-places-traditional-subjects-a-levels

Top universities will today issue guidance which acknowledges officially for the first time that they favour students who study traditional subjects at A-level.

The guide compiled by the Russell Group, a lobbying group for Oxford, Cambridge and 18 other leading universities, confirms rumours that have circulated for years that they favour those subjects over newer ones such as business studies or photography.

It also reveals an overwhelming preference for science and maths subjects – even for seemingly unrelated degrees.

The new handbook, seen by the Guardian, is a sign that universities are having to cave in to ministers and teachers' calls for far more information on how admissions tutors decide who they award places to and why.

By not studying at least two of the following subjects – maths, English, geography, history, any of the three pure sciences or a classical or modern foreign language – "many degrees at competitive universities will not be open to you," the guide, produced in collaboration with the Institute of Career Guidance, states.

It asks students to question why they are not taking traditional subjects: "Are you trying to avoid a challenge?" It states that while there is no "set definition" of a "hard" or "soft" subject, so-called "hard" subjects are like the ones the top universities prefer and are more theoretical. It gives media studies, art and design, photography and business studies as examples of "soft" subjects and states that they are "vocational or have a practical bias".

"If you plan to take more than one perceived 'soft' subject, some caution may be needed," the guidebook warns.

Just over 7.2% of pupils in England attend private schools but make up over a quarter of the intake at the 25 most selective universities, and 46.6% at Oxford. It's thought this may in part be because state school students do not receive proper guidance about what it takes to get into an elite university when they are making their A-level choices.

So here's the Conservative approach to equal opportunities - you let kids know before they embark on A Levels that pursuing their actual interests will probably disqualify them from getting a place at one of the 'top' universities. Job done.

[Last June] David Willetts, the universities minister, told vice-chancellors he had been "pushing for greater transparency from universities for some time". The advice teenagers received on university courses was "of absolute importance … so that [they] don't miss out on a particular course or a place at a particular university through not receiving the right guidance at the right time," he said. Willetts said the handbook was a "welcome step towards levelling the playing field for prospective students".

Thank goodness the government has given our children a more level playing field at last. Truly wonderful news - that kids will now know in advance why they won't get places at the elite universities.

Science and maths A-levels are recommended for degrees in archaeology, anthropology and geography among others, and law degrees do not require law A-level. History may be useful instead, the guidebook states. For history degrees, some universities do not require history, but believe English is useful.

So don't study law at A Level if you want to do a law degree. Don't study history if you want to do a history degree. Study English, Latin and Greek instead.

You couldn't make it up.


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Here's the latest from Snowblog:

http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/

Snow brings you insights, revelations and perspectives. Join Jon for a ringside seat to follow the news.

Egypt - Reaping What The West Has Sewn
February 3, 2011 10:47 am 18 Comments

Pray, what was OUR role?

So we have witnessed the Egyptian army with American-supplied hardware and training so far failing to act decisively to protect peaceful protesters. What an end to this soiled ‘Western’ support for Mubarak.

The scales are falling from many eyes one week into this insurrection. Here for assorted mainly non-Egyptian reasons is the sorry tale of a client state. A state where a corrupt autocrat became preferred to the vision he conjured of the extreme alternative that awaited any decision to allow the Egyptian people to decide.

How convenient too, that this favoured autocrat not only sanctioned torture in his own land but was willing to undertake it for Britain and the United States when invited to do so. Some here have told me that domestic torture surged courtesy of the blessing bestowed upon it by Coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We reap what we sow.

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The Day of Departure

Sorry Gil - the revolution WILL be televised - thanks to al-Jazeera, 24 hour news and citizen journalists using wi-fi and the Internet. Amazing scenes on the streets of Egypt, and elsewhere. The atmosphere is festive and celebratory. Will Mubarak depart today? The new leadership have been forced to say the people have a right to remain in Tahrir Square, Liberation Square. The army appear to be there in order to show solidarity, and to be on standby to prevent anyone smashing the place up. But this is a non-violent movement. The new Prime Minister has apologised for the behaviour of the pro-Mubarak thugs.

 http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Revolution_Will_Not_Be_Televised

http://www.gilscottheron.com/lyrevol.html

 http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x28ijn_the-revolution-will-not-be-televise_music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS3QOtbW4m0

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2011/feb/04/egypt-protests-day-departure-live

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/04/day-of-departure-hosni-mubarak

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Layer 243 . . . A Quiet Night in the Village

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There's ice on the pond opposite the Village Store, where business is still brisk as it's only 10.00pm. Outside, on the pavement, next to the curb, there's a guy in a sweater, holding a cordless electric drill. He's just standing there, breathing in the cold air - not going anywhere, not doing anything - just holding his drill.

A police Astra comes revving down the road from the roundabout, lights flashing, siren on . . .  swings right at the junction and disappears.

Further on, 30 yards down the road, the cops have created a bay in the bus lane using cones and flashing blue lights. At the far end of it stands a BMW copmobile, a white estate with its back door open, showing all kinds of cop gear in the back. 20 yards further on from that stands an anonymous white van, whose presence is explained by two open flaps above its back doors, with two cop video cameras looking out - down past the road beyond the BMW and its cop pen. No doubt the telephoto lens are focused way back up the road at the traffic approaching the pen - checking number plates for the wanted, the illegal, the bad and the ugly. A car approaches . . . tiny red lights blink next to the cameras, an instant check is made, a message comes back from the central computer, and the car is waved into the bay.

Another 20 yards and there's a rasta corner shop in what, years ago, used to be a local bank. A door is open. Inside, the shelves are sparsely stocked, several bredrin are chatting loudly, and raucous laughter reverberates through the door.

Across the road stand the Turkish Coffee Shop and the Turkish minimarket. No-one ever seems to go in or out of the coffee shop, and the grocery never closes.

Another 20 yards and a BMW Flashmobile Dopedealer Coupe stands with its engine idling, its driver grooving to some cool sounds, with his buddy inside the Nigerian takeaway, scoring some food.

2 more minutes down the street and a small gaggle of drinkers and smokers is hanging around outside the corner bar. Inside it's busy - all the seats taken, including the bar stools. You weave your way through to the back room where there's jazz going down - a drummer driving, a bass guitar funking, a rhythm guitar swinging, and a sax grooving. It's a nice, tight sound - nothing outstanding, but not too loud, so people can chat or listen.

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What's the word on the street tonight?

Nelson Mandela's 1990 release is being celebrated. 20 years of freedom already. He's still getting around at 92.
Alexander McQueen seems to have committed suicide.
"Rebel MP" Hoon will retire at the next election.
A woman who put poison in her lover's curry is given 23 years.
Bill Clinton's been taken to hospital with chest pains.
Our Master of the Rolls has said that the Binyam Mohamed case shows MI5 to be devious, dishonest and complicit in torture. By implication, so is our government. Our Foreign Secretary has been going round the TV studios giving a very passable imitation of Blair in full-on brazen smarmy liar mode.

MI5 faced an unprecedented and damaging crisis tonight after one of the country's most senior judges found that the Security Service had failed to respect human rights, deliberately misled parliament, and had a "culture of suppression" that undermined government assurances about its conduct.

The condemnation, by Lord Neuberger, the master of the rolls, was drafted shortly before the foreign secretary, David Miliband, lost his long legal battle to suppress a seven-paragraph court document showing that MI5 officers were involved in the ill-treatment of a British resident, Binyam Mohamed.

Amid mounting calls for an independent inquiry into the affair, three of the country's most senior judges – Lord Judge, the lord chief justice, Sir Anthony May, president of the Queen's Bench Division, and Lord Neuberger – disclosed evidence of MI5's complicity in Mohamed's torture and unlawful interrogation by the US.

So severe were Neuberger's criticisms of MI5 that the government's leading lawyer in the case, Jonathan Sumption QC, privately wrote to the court asking him to reconsider his draft judgment before it was handed down.

The judges agreed but Sumption's letter, which refers to Neuberger's original comments, was made public after lawyers for Mohamed and media organisations, including the Guardian, intervened.

They argued that Neuberger had privately agreed with Sumption to remove his fierce criticisms without giving then the chance to contest the move.

In his letter, Sumption warned the judges that the criticism of MI5 would be seen by the public as statements by the court that the agency:

• Did not respect human rights.

• Had not renounced participation in "coercive interrogation" techniques.

• Deliberately misled MPs and peers on the intelligence and security committee, who are supposed to scrutinise its work.

• Had a "culture of suppression" in its dealings with Miliband and the court.

Sumption described Neuberger's observations in his draft judgment as "an exceptionally damaging criticism of the good faith of the Security Service as a whole".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/10/binyam-mohamed-torture-mi5

This devastating verdict upon a secret intelligence agency – contained in the original paragraph 168 of the Master of the Rolls's judgment – was drastically watered down in the published judgment, though Lord Neuberger later admitted he may have been "over hasty" in submitting to Mr Sumption's critique of his original words. The court should now agree to the publication of the original paragraph so that the public can judge the three versions of it now in circulation. Parliament cannot claim to exercise effective oversight of MI5 if (as one of our most senior judges apparently believed) it has been "deliberately misled". This is a desperately serious state of affairs, whatever spin Mr Miliband puts on it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/11/binyam-mohamed-torture-missing-paragraph

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Further to comments in recent Oxzen postings about the poor getting even poorer over the past 10 - 20 years we heard today that in South Africa (and for sure elsewhere) the number of people living on a dollar a day has doubled in a decade.

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Our housing minister, John Healey, is in deep shit for telling the BBC that, for some people, having their home repossessed "can be the best option".

Earlier, figures showed repossessions in the UK had reached a 14-year high.

The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said 46,000 homes were repossessed in 2009, the highest number since 1995.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8510997.stm
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Layer 48 Eevnin Stannad, Standards, Evil Bastards.

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News from Yahoo:

Astrologers Tell Nepal’s Deposed King To Stay In Palace.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20080531/tod-uk-nepal-king-astrologers-a914664.html

Man Wins Compensation For Too Many Germans.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080531/tod-britain-germany-tourism-offbeat-6058bda.html

Michael Jackson ‘Incapable Of Performing Ever Again’.

http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/31052008/364/promoter-jackson-incapable-las-vegas-show.html&e=l_news_dm

David Beckham To Captain England Again

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/31052008/58/int-football-becks-given-armband-caribbean.html

I’m giving up on the Guardian. Yahoo News is fucking hilarious. You couldn’t make it up.

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Do newspaper vendors still stand and bawl, selling their wares on London’s pavements? I remember well the street cries of yesteryear: “Eevnin’ Stannad! Stannad! Ge’ Yoowwa Stannad!” How they echo down the years. Surely those guys don’t still exist?

I bought a copy of the Evening Standard at lunchtime yesterday. It calls itself ‘London’s Quality Newspaper’ and it’s a pile of poo. Always has been. Best avoided whenever possible. In normal times you wouldn’t want to stink your house out with it, but these are not normal times.

There it was yesterday, piled up on the counter of the newsagent, with the single-word headline ‘ENOUGH‘. Accompanied by a large picture of a knife, smothered with blood.

“Eleven teenagers stabbed to death in London this year. Children killing children. Today the Standard sets out our charter to beat knife crime.”

Interesting? How were they going to handle this? Well - for a start they had knife crime and their ‘charter’ all across the first seven pages, interrupted only by adverts for the House of Fraser, The Phantom of the Opera, Heathrow Connect and Air Berlin. Not bad.

But what about the charter itself? The new five point charter. Unsurprisingly they want more searches, more prosecutions, tougher sentences and compulsory therapy. But what’s this, at number 2? Something about education and ‘cultural change’? Hmmm.

Here it is in full:

2. Train children in “peer-to-peer mentoring” and use citizenship and personal, social and health education to teach the simple message: respect cannot be won at the point of a knife.

Education will be important to ensure future generations grow up without any illusions about the devastation knives cause — and with the skills to avoid getting involved.

Schools should focus on compulsory personal, social and health — as well as citizenship — lessons on teaching children about the importance of treating each other with respect.

But the responsibility goes far wider than schools to embrace every section of society — from parents to the media responsible for creating films, music and computer games that can influence young people's behaviour. The Mayor's advisers, among others, believe that investment in youth clubs and mentoring schemes, particularly for those excluded from school, are vital to divert youngsters away from crime.

On another level, Sir Alan Steer, the leader of the government's behaviour task force, urges parents to take greater control over the music their children listen to. But this culture change will take many years to achieve.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23488573-details/The+Standard

Compulsory PSHE and citizenship - right on. Cultural change. Yes. Many years to change. Exactly.

And on page 4 there’s more good stuff. Mayor Boris Johnson is “understood to be concentrating on the root causes of youth violence in order to improve the situation long term . . . ” “The Mayor’s Office is committed to putting in place measures needed to restore young people's sense of hope and engagement.”

Ray Lewis, deputy mayor for young people, said there was "no magic solution" but he would look at what was driving teenagers to violence in the first place.” He also said, “It is also imperative that we look at why so many young men, and increasingly women, are growing up angry and disengaged from society."

Deputy Mayor for policing Kit Malthouse (how many Deputies has this guy got?), said, “The long-term solutions to youth crime are complex and will require a wholesale cultural shift.”
Suddenly I feel the earth moving. People talking about identifying root causes of disaffection and aggression. People talking about offering hope and engagement. Recognition that young people are growing up angry and disengaged from society. People talking about the necessity for a wholesale cultural shift. Amazing.

And credit where it’s due. This is a Tory paper, and these people are part of the Tory team now running London. Maybe there’s hope yet.
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Layer 3 Making the News

No doubt what was the main news story yesterday. The Olympic torch was carried by a relay of ‘celebrities’ through the streets of snowy London, heavily guarded by a jogging phalanx of security heavies - the British team running through the crowds in well-drilled columns wearing fetching highlighter yellow jackets, the Chinese squad alongside them in heavenly blue. We’re still awaiting the final points score, but commentators seem to think it’s likely to be close, with both sides claiming victory.

Said a spokesman for the Brits, “Our hours of training really paid off - our lads gave the protesters a proper thrashing. We scored heavily on both indigenous and oriental protesters - in knockdowns, hand-offs, handcuffings, arrests, kicks and punches. We even did well on bonus points for duffing up cameramen and journalists. The Chinese fought hard, but we had home advantage and got a real lift from the screams, yells and boos of the crowd.”

The Chinese spokesman, however, remained optimistic that after all the security video has been properly assessed the ‘Blues’ will emerge victorious, and said, “Hua doh chin chang plotesta nok dan kik chop bangup plison ha ha! Doh!” There was even a suggestion that the Chinese had dared to go for a bonus million points for roughing up one of the torch bearers. Maybe two million extra for ‘jostling’ and pissing off ‘Lord’ Sebastian Coe!

Clearly the Chinese repression and subjugation in Tibet has become a cause celebre here and elsewhere, but commentators seem to think that our lads have again shown the world that Britain refuses to bow down to thugs and disruptive elements, and did a great job in demonstrating that democracy rules in our country. Protestors and subversive elements here are allowed to protest without fear of violence or victimisation, and the Olympic spirit of peace, friendship and unity will continue to burn brightly, as indeed will the Olympic flame.

Today it’s the turn of the French, who are aiming to outdo the efforts of the Brits by escorting the Olympic torch through the streets of Paris with gendarmes on cycles, motor cycles and roller blades. Damn those Frogs! Chic indeed, but surely this is going too far - putting style before substance? How do they think they’re going to kick and punch properly whilst encumbered by roller blades or having to grip handlebars? Surely this is just a cover-up for their basic lack of fitness and agility? Hop off you Frogs! If you have the energy that is! Can’t wait to see it on Match of the Day. Come on you Bleus!

Other news stories include the credit crisis and the death of Charlton Heston. Clearly a slow news day. Not that the cultural significance of Charlton Heston should be underestimated - who could ever forget him addressing a mass rally of the gun lobby, raising aloft his favourite bazooka, glaring at the massed ranks of fellow crazies through cold, blue, dead eyes, and yelling, “Over my cold dead hands”. You can’t part a good man and his rifle. Stand by for a TV season of Charlton’s greatest hits, and a reappraisal of the splendid model of manhood he provided for wimps, peaceniks and fags around the world. He’ll be sadly missed.

Interesting news story on the radio today - increasing numbers of people are snooping on their partners, checking out their emails and investigating what they’ve been looking at on their internet browsers. Talk about the surveillance society! Freedom of expression. Freedom of information. Freedom of association. Freedom of communication. Freedom of internet browsing indeed. We’re all becoming activists in the Brain Police.

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The guy on Thought for Today wants us to see our divided society in terms of religious believers and secularists. Not, you notice, rich and poor. Well - it’s a thought. I’ll have to get back to you on this.

Labour's Jim Knight and Tory education spokesman Michael Gove were Today debating violence in schools and what should be done about it. An unedifying and tedious discussion. How to deal with the increasing number of violent incidents, parental and pupil accusations, and pressure on schools? How to address the tripling of the numbers of teachers leaving the ‘profession’ or taking early retirement? The conservative viewpoint versus . . . . . the conservative viewpoint.

Not a word, of course, about any measures to address the lack of interest in learning, or the appallingly low levels of emotional, social and spiritual intelligence we find in our schools. And that’s just the staff.

How long will it be before our so-called leaders start talking about the need to change the way in which schools operate and change the curriculum on offer, so that developing EQ and SQ is seen as even more important than developing IQ? How long before they recognise that the least academically able pupils often simply cannot get down to a proper focus on academic achievement and attainment until their issues with emotional, social and spiritual intelligence are properly addressed and provided for?

Oh yes - nearly forgot. (How could I forget this?) Front page news in the Observer yesterday was our Prime Minister’s brilliant idea that the way to address teenage violence and gun crime is - to form army cadet corps in our state schools and give our kids weapons training. Yes - teach them how to shoot! Safely. Forget Scouts and forget Woodcraft Folk - bring on the military drills and the shooters. Out with the dib dib dib! In with Rambo!

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My son turned up early yesterday, having negotiated the snowy early-morning streets on his motorbike. On Friday he’d arrived here with shoulders and neck looking quite red with sunburn. Yesterday he was shivering and practically frost-bitten. Damn this global warming. Though from a purely aesthetic point of view I wish we had more really cold, snowy weather in this country. The whole landscape or cityscape is changed so dramatically, turning mundane rooftops, shrubs and trees into stunningly beautiful surfaces, shapes and silhouettes.

Not that I appreciate it quite so much in April, when we should be expecting warm weather. I don’t recall seeing this much snow in April in decades, if ever. Cherry blossoms, magnolias, willows in bright green leaf - looking amazing when dressed with glistening white snow.

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I love being in rooms full of books. I just love books. Good books. I could spend days browsing books, immersed in books. I love the stimulation, the brain fodder and the spiritual uplift they provide. Yesterday I came across and had an opportunity to browse books by Pamela Stevenson (on Billy Connelly), by David Gentleman (on the British coastline - surely the inspiration for the TV series?), by the guys who produce QI on TV, and by the Coventry kid, David Icke - all of which I’d love to read were it not for the fact that I’ve already got a pile of 50 books I need to read at home.

Icke is intriguing. I don’t disagree with his thesis that the world is run by sinister right-wing conspiracies, but draw the line at the idea that the key players are shape-shifting reptiles, and that the earth is hollow, with an advanced civilisation living below the surface of our planet. Maybe his book details all the evidence for his fascinating views, but somehow I doubt it. I also doubt the book cover’s claim that this book will change my life.

Nevermind. That’s the title of the Nirvana album I came across yesterday. I've never listened to it, though I do like the song and the video of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. I never got into grunge, being too much of an ex-hippy, and therefore too inclined towards idealism and too wary of anything or any ‘youth’ movement rooted in nihilism and despair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKbfoikeg

God knows it’s hard to stay positive and idealistic and believe in the possibility of improving society and raising up its members to higher states of consciousness and enlightenment . . . but I still feel somehow that it’s desirable and necessary to at least try. Ex hippy cum would-be bodhisattva cum would-be zen master?

I love browsing friends’ CD and record libraries too. Being a lover of music it’s always stimulating to realise and to remind myself that there’s so much out there to discover and enjoy. I can never understand my own kids’ attitude that they don’t like certain types of music and never want to listen to it. I just want to hear whatever is available and then make up my mind whether I like it and want to play it - whether to bring some new stuff into my current hot hundred and give it some play time.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/simon_jenkins/article3689920.ece