The truth about the Mexican Jumping Bean is now finally out.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
[name change] good lord, bad lord
Voting record (from PublicWhip)
How Lord Stoddart of
Voted very strongly against introducing a smoking ban. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly against introducing ID cards. votes, speeches
Voted very strongly against Labour's anti-terrorism laws. votes, speeches
- Voted strongly against equal gay rights. votes, speeches
- The Lord Stoddart of Swindon—To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any Ministers attended the Bilderberg Conference in Ottawa between 8th and 11th June; if so, whether they attended in a Ministerial or private capacity; whether they made contributions to debates; and, if so, on which subjects. [CO] (HL7569)
... yes, I speak of 'Lord' Black of Crossharbour who has today been convicted on three counts of fraud and one of obstructing justice by a jury in Chicago. He was found not guilty of nine other charges of 'racketeering, wire fraud and tax evasion', so comparisons with Scarface are entirely inappropriate even if the locations of their convictions are similar.
It is reported that the Conservative Party has 'withdrawn the whip' as a result of his conviction as he sat as a Conservative in the House of Lords. From all I have ever heard about him his downfall couldn't have happened to a nicer person.
[power] it's my baby, mine
The mechanism of power is an interesting study and it needn't be party political. Take the issue of the adoption of school textbooks. Let's say
Wishful thinking.
Comes the year 2003 and there have been many textbook changes over the years. The latest set of very expensive materials were bought in 1999 by the parents of the school on the recommendation of the Head and embracing the new National Curriculum.
"New" is a very popular word in education.
Now a new set of more feminist-friendly, multi-cultural, humanistic, grammar-and-spelling-lite glossy textbooks, called "Relative" have attracted the attention of the vocal Young Turkettes in the school.
Heads, being Heads and always looking for some advantage to sock it to the opposition up the road, agree to look at the matter and detail three of the Turkettes to investigate and report. Exhaustive process and a huge amount of work is done, a whole bunch of texts are brought in for perusal, fourteen page reports are written and so on and so on and everyone feels important in the process.
The Head concludes his remarks with, "So anyone wish to add anything? No? All right, "Relative" is our new text K-11."
The Young Turkettes who were instrumental in adopting the text get down to using it and expect everyone else will be doing the same. However, a proportion of the staff come into the staffroom in the next few weeks with, "Oh this text is impossible. I've tried to work with it but it's hopeless," or "Oh, for goodness sake - let's get some decent texts."
Angry words are thrown about. The Young Turkettes insist:
"Look, we all put a lot of work into adopting this text. There was discussion, we viewed many texts on approval and this turned out to be the best. Anyway, it's school policy for ten years and it's your job to go along with it."
The Head backs them in this, not wishing to outlay another $5 000 so quickly. End of discussion. For now.
Things change, staff leave, new staff are recruited. Suddenly, in one year, there is a new generation who were not involved in the adoption of that text, for whom it wasn't their "baby". One New Turkette, who fancies herself as an uber-teacher, has her own pet text and starts to get people around to consider it.
The Head does not act to quash her, in the interests of "fair discussion".
Closed discussions are held in certain teachers' rooms and a brand New Policy is presented to the Head [even though the old policy is barely one year old]. Another group also has a New Text Policy and presents it to the head and yet another exhaustive debate and slanging match ensues.
The New Turkettes in Room 301 increase in power and eclipse the remaining Young Turkettes to the point that a new set of very expensive texts, workbooks, exam maximizers, CDs and info-sticks are adopted, requiring parents to outlay $300 for the materials, $2000 for a new laptop and a nominal annual administrative charge of $500 for training the teachers to use the new materials.
Everyone hopes that that's the end of the matter.
Not a bit of it. Fourteen months later a new group of new teachers, the new GenYs, think the whole thing is just so unwieldy and a new process begins over again.
Lesson
Policy decisions are usually adopted after exhaustive discussion and the people who were involved in that decision inevitably see it as their "baby".
Any new person who missed out on that process or anyone who didn't involve him/herself at the time does not feel involved and often tries to create his own new "baby" in which he is a key player, even though the current policy is still quite new.
So, fundamental issues which have already been decided, already adopted, are floated as if they're once again up for discussion, never having been previously discussed, with the New Man right in the middle of the process feeling he's "contributing". In other words, "important".
In this situation, unless it is nipped in the bud and the new person agrees to abide by agreed policy decisions for a certain period of time, what inevitably follows is Room 301 instability.
Leaving schools aside, was there ever a field of endeavour illustrating this like football?
How many times has a consortium of interested ex-players, local businessmen and so on presented a glossy New Plan, got themselves into power, only to be replaced next year by a different bunch of glossy New Direction groupers, only to be replaced a year later by the new saviours of the club, the New Strategies group?
Result - instability.
On the other hand, look at ManU.
ManU is not new.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)