Cor, Ray!
First of all, you say that I have elitist assumptions, and then that I'm an
aristocrat! Your argument is full of non sequiturs and assumptions as to
what I believe -- as opposed to non-value descriptions as to what is
actually happening.
At 21:04 26/04/01 -0400, you wrote:
>So after this nightmare of bad attitude by police and military what you get
>is the answer to all of these problems. Privatize and do away with the
>only control that the average person has (elections). Well that is an
>elitist assumption if I ever heard one.
I'm not necessarily saying that we *should* privatise. (Remember that all
of the following is in the context of a Labour Government -- still to the
left of the Democrats in America.) In the State education system, the
Ministry of Education is now experimenting with business-sponsored schools,
speciality schools (with selective intakes). Senior politicians are also
talking about giving the universities once-and-for-all endowments from the
public purse and then cutting them loose. They're also watching the
American experiments with vouchers and charter schools very closely.
Meanwhile, independent (private) schools are thriving and, in the State
system, teachers' morale is collapsing. Unless huge changes are made in
their schedules by the autumn (reducing hours of work from 50-odd to 35
hours, reducing hours of form-filling for the local and national
bureaucracies), there'll very likely be a prolonged strike.
I have already described that the police forces are almost completely
demoralised and are steadily going downhill and do not need to say more. In
the Army (we have no conscription -- and, indeed, it would be politicially
impossible), the number is now well below the full complement of 110,000
and a senior General says that there's no hope of filling it in the years
to come -- despite great attempts to recruit boys and girls directly from
schools in the most poverty struck areas of our cities, and despite
actually trying to recruit beggars and buskers from the streets.
Do they have a draft in the
>English military? Oh yes the other bad thing was education. Unions came
>in for a little compliment but not much. Well over here privitization of
>health care has caused a local medical teacher I know to recommend that the
>best deal for his specialty is the military or socialized medicine. Not
>much pay but the perks are good and the early retirement provides payment
>for medical school expenses and gives a capital nest egg once retired for
>further work. You can also do research if you are so inclined. Oh yes and
>they are officers. Gee Keith are you really that much of an aristocrat?
>Or has English culture just folded up its collector's tent and gone awol?
>Maybe they need to drag old Jeremy through the streets of London and let him
>see what he has created and then bury him.
>
>By the way I know a nice young couple that has just moved to Bath and is
>interested in choruses.
>
>Regards,
As to our friends, put them in touch with me if they want to join a choir
and I can give them some thumb-nail descriptions of the different choirs.
We have all sorts here -- including one snobby bunch singing modern stuff
whose conductor is presently fixated on a composer who recently asked its
basses to sing an octave and a half above the tenors for 30 or 40 bars
(measures to you)! Not asked, actually, but told them. The rehearsals
ruined their voices so much that when they sang in performance in Wells
Cathedral they simply couldn't sing at all -- even when in their normal
register. (Nobody in the audience noticed, of course -- the music was so
weird!) The basses were idiots to accede to such a stupid request. Yes, we
have the lot here! -- the pretentious well as (most) choirs who still
(thankfully) sing purely for their own enjoyment whatever audiences they
attract (often in smaller numbers than the choirs themselves!).
No, English culture or music hasn't gone entirely AWOL (despite the fact
that the Government has excluded music from the basic school curriculum).
The sort of culture that you and I are interested in is now confined to the
"genuine" middle class -- about 25% of the population. Of course, the same
25% is also running the rest of the show (that is, the economy, industry,
academe, the vast panoply of NGOs and voluntary organisations, etc). Wow!
Does that make me an aristocrat? Honest, Ray, I'm only describing reality,
not what I wish. (Incidentally, this 25% still vote in General Elections,
but recently I've even heard of one or two intellectuals who say, as I say,
that not voting at this juncture in history is probably more constructive
than voting for any of the existing parties -- two of them still deep in
sleaze.)
Anyhow, best wishes, and I'm glad we're still friends.
Are we?
Keith H
___________________________________________________________________
Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org>
6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727;
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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