Dumbing Down
I was very unimpressed at the question I was asked by the BBC last week. They were asking one question of all major party candidates in Cumbria and the North East.
So was it something relevant to the problems facing the country, like
* How will you protect NHS services? or
* How should the government's deficit be reduced?
Was it something relevant to the needs of the area, like
* Do you support New Nuclear Build?
* Would you give local planning authorities more discretion to give
permission to build allow the number and kind of houses which the area needs?
No, their idea of an important question was, "Where did you go to school?"
I believe that candidates for councils or parliament should be judged on what they have achieved and what policies they support, not on decisions made on their behalf when they were children.
For the record I went to state primary schools and then to a secondary school which was then a direct grant school, although it was subsequently forced to go independent.
The results of the poll were given on the NE and Cumbria section of the BBC Politics Show this lunchtime. I was pleased to see that most of the MPs and candidates featured, and most of the members of the public interviewed, told the BBC that it is people's policies and knowledge of the people they seek to represent, not where they went to school, that is important.
So was it something relevant to the problems facing the country, like
* How will you protect NHS services? or
* How should the government's deficit be reduced?
Was it something relevant to the needs of the area, like
* Do you support New Nuclear Build?
* Would you give local planning authorities more discretion to give
permission to build allow the number and kind of houses which the area needs?
No, their idea of an important question was, "Where did you go to school?"
I believe that candidates for councils or parliament should be judged on what they have achieved and what policies they support, not on decisions made on their behalf when they were children.
For the record I went to state primary schools and then to a secondary school which was then a direct grant school, although it was subsequently forced to go independent.
The results of the poll were given on the NE and Cumbria section of the BBC Politics Show this lunchtime. I was pleased to see that most of the MPs and candidates featured, and most of the members of the public interviewed, told the BBC that it is people's policies and knowledge of the people they seek to represent, not where they went to school, that is important.
Comments
Isn't the Old Albanian Lodge looking in a few years time to be "the only Lodge in Hertfordshire with a sitting MP as Master!". That's if Chris Whiteside is elected MP for Copeland, it shows where his loyalties/interests really lie.
And now in response to all this nonsense about my old school ...
First of all, St Albans School was not allowed to continue with the Direct Grant status which would have maintained the ethos of the school, because the then government abolished that status.
All Direct Grant Schools were forced to choose between a change in status to being completely independent or a change to no independence at all.
I can tell you that very few people connected with the school at the time approved of that choice, and that most people considered that it amounted to being forced to go independent.
Secondly the school is not the Freemasons' national academy, with or without the correct spelling and proper use of the apostrophe. There are schools which have a strong connection to freemasonry, such as the Royal Masonic School for Girls, and they don't make any secret of it. St Albans School is not one of those schools.
Perhaps if "Anonymous" and Tim had been fortunate enough to go to a good school such as St Albans School, whether that school was an LEA school, or an LEA supported school (as SAS was when I went there) or private (as it is now) they would have learned to use the English Language properly and how to spell words like "academy" and "independent."
Thirdly, I have been unable to trace the quote from "anonymous" about the lodge for old boys of the school, but if anyone did say such a thing they were wrong.
I have never made any secret of the fact that am a freemason. I am proud to be a member of an organisation which has an excellent record of helping those in need, for example by making one of the largest donations to help victims of the Asian Tsunami, giving donations to help flood victims in Cumbria, and providing fifty ambulances for the St John Ambulance.
I included this in my declarations of interest both when I was a councillor in St Albans and now as a Copeland councillor.
But I no longer hold office in the Old Albanian lodge. "Anonymous" has his facts wrong, and his conclusions about my interests and loyalties are based on a premise which is the opposite of the truth.
I was there from 1972 to 1979. I apologise for the spelling mistake.
Freemasons are really good at helping themselves. I recall an incident when an ex-pupil in my year was not prosecuted for being twice the drink driving limit. The fact that his father and a senior police officer were both masons is of course entirely coincidental.
Is your surname Springham by any chance?
Now running through my memories to recall all the people called Tim in the 1972 intake. Your posts read a bit more like Tim Springham than Tim Skinner, and of the Tims in our year they were the two I would have thought most likely to pop up on this blog.
On your second point ...
We live in a world where no group of people is entirely free from the odd case where someone falls short of the standards which that group aspires to. Trying to prevent someone from being prosecuted because of a personal connection when the evidence would otherwise mean that an action would be brought against them is wrong whoever does it.
And incidentally, using a masonic connection in that way would be a breach of masonic rules as well as police ones.