|
A happy society needs more than just wealth and
health
by
Simon Heffer
[Daily Telegraph -Wednesday-August 1-2007]
ONE THING DAVID CAMERON HAS GOT RIGHT
- is his diagnosis of what he
calls the
" Broken Society"
IT IS BROKEN
And he is almost right when he says we must look for
means other than economics
TO FIX IT.
Had he not set his face like flint against tax cuts,
he might see how returning money to people not only spreads
PROSPERITY
-lifting people
OUT OF POVERTY
-but also creates a a sense of
INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY
and
EMPOWERMENT
-that helps a society cohere.
But the pursuit of
MATERIALISM
-is not, I would be the first to admit
THE WHOLE ANSWER.
A society needs to encourage not just
WEALTH
and
PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
-of its members, but needs also to have a care for
their
INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT
TOO
It is what Matthew Arnold, writing 140 years
ago in
Culture and Anarchy
called a need for
"sweetness and light"
It is a civilising process. We used to be good at it.
We were especially good from about the time Arnold wrote-the Education
Act, with compulsory schooling for children, was introduced three years
later -up until the 1960's.
THEN SOMETHING WENT WRONG
Arnold superscribed his book in Latin tag
Estote ergo vos perfect:
"Be ye therefore perfect"
PERFECTION
and the ambition that went with it, have slipped from
the agenda. And they have gone because of a
HATRED and FEAR of ELITISM
Sitting down the other day with the rock star, poet,
constitutional reformer
ENGISHMAN
and
PATRIOT
Billy Bragg
[Let the people speak!]
www.makeitanissue.org.uk
I learnt a striking fact.
The Bard of Barking was en-route to a women's
prison where he was delivering, as rock stars do, six guitars. As part
of the rehabilitative process, these women are being encouraged
TO MAKE MUSIC
IT IS A BRILLIANT IDEA
Some of us may struggle to comprehend popular music, but
there is a qualitative difference between having the wireless on as
wallpaper and imbibing one song after another, and actually seeking to
acquire the skills to
MAKE MUSIC
To do it anything like properly requires
NOT JUST SKILL
BUT
COMMITMENT
It is creative, and stimulates further
CREATIVITY
And creativity is central to the civilising process,. It
is easy to become idealistic about such things, but imagine there might
be fewer of those women of those women in
PRISON
- IF SOME YEARS AGO, they had their creativity stimulated
in a cultural fashion
RATHER
THAN IN A CRIMINAL ONE
*
The problem now is that most people, especially when
younger, have precious little
ACCESS
to or
ENCOURAGEMENT
-in the creative and civilising processes. In schools,
Music is Cinderella
-subject.
Teachers who might want to encourage an
INTEREST
-outside the curriculum in
BOOKS
or
POETRY
-or the
PAST
-often meet blind resistance from the parents whose role
it would be to assist the enterprise in the long hours and days
OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM.
Neither the broadcast media -with the occasional
distinguished exception, such as
Melvyn Bragg's brilliant Radio 4 series
'In Our Time'
-nor the popular press find it safe or desirable to
discuss
IDEAS and CONCEPTS
Most television programmes on the main networks are
DRIVEL.
Even so-called intelligent ones are formulaic and lacking
in discursiveness, because of the presumption of a short
ATTENTION SPAN.
We still fail to teach properly the languages that open
up new
Worlds of Culture.
And local authorities, which once made high -quality
investments in
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
now seem to regard their role -if they regard it at
all-as being to provide
MASS rather than HIGH CULTURE
It is no wonder there is a lack of cultural ambition
among our people, because any squeak of
INTEREST
is in effect suffocated at
BIRTH.
I took down from my shelves the other day, perhaps 20
years after I first read it, one of the most moving and important books
of social commentary I know:
'The uses of Literacy'
by
Richard Hoggart
With profound humanity as well as severe intelligence,
Professor Hoggart writes of his upbringing in great poverty in Leeds in
the 1920's and 1930's, and how he liberated from it by
EDUCATION
It is a book that unashamedly teems with elitism and
seeks no favours. It was founded on an assumption that the STATE would
educate children from the humblest backgrounds to a point where they
would not merely be schooled but
CIVILISED
Professor Hoggart, who wrote as a socialist
(and who, at his now great age, presumably still is one) argued the
importance of making these benefits more widely available,
It was
Culture and Anarchy
for the working classes,
written not by a son of Arnold of Rugby, but by a child of the
SLUMS
of
Hunslet.
It is an ambition that. 50 years later and though
no fault of the professor, has entirely failed.
I do not mean to make this another argument in favour of
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS
though they would help. Instead I
would suggest that all of us -not just the
STATE
but
EVERYONE
-with means to do so -needs to become committed to the
spread of
CULTURE and CREATIVITY
in our
SOCIETY
This is what Billy Bragg does when he takes guitars into
PRISON.
To get away from the current, and entirely
destructive, vogue in
EDUCATIONAL POLICY
-it must not be vocationable.
Children should be taught
MUSIC
not because they might one day become world-famous pop
idols, or play in an orchestra, but for what even we atheists recognise
as being
"to the glory of God"
There is a higher purpose in
CULTURE
than
MAKING MONEY
*
TO BE CONTINUED
*
* *
[Font Altered-Bolding & Underlining Used-Comments in
Brackets]
* *
|
THE PEOPLE HAVE
SPOKEN-IS THE EU COMMISSION LISTENING?
*
Ditch the EU TREATY after IRISH
REJECTION
SAY VOTERS
by
Daniel
Martin
Political
Reporter
[Daily Mail-Wednesday, June
18,2008]
MORE THAN HALF of voters believe Britain should
drop the controversial European Treaty in the wake of its
rejection in last week's
IRISH REFERENDUM'
The poll comes as the Tories launch a last-ditch
bid in the
HOUSE of LORDS
today to delay the
RATIFICATION OF
THE TREATY.
And
10,000 people
have signed a
PETITION
on the
DOWNING STREET-
WEBSITE
within the past few days
JUNE16-2008
, calling on the
GOVERNMENT
NOT TO RATIFY THE BILL
[WHY DON'T YOU?]
Downing Street
website is
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Abandon-Lisbon/
*
JUNE 18-2008
|
*
IF YOU CAN SAY
'WE WANT OUT-WITHOUT
A DOUBT'
THEN
[Only an ultimatum by millions of
subjects that the new EU TREATY can never be accepted such as signing
the
RENUNCIATION of EU CITIZENSHIP
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Optout
Details from petition creator
With the signing of the Maastricht
Treaty the people of Britain were given
DUAL CITIZENSHIP
-both
EUROPEAN and BRITISH
The extra tier of citizenship was
thrust upon the people without their consent -and in many cases
knowledge.
The PEOPLE of GREAT BRITAIN should be
allowed the option of opting out of the EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP if they so
wish. The GOVERNMENT will then be able to provide those who have opted
out with
BRITISH DOCUMENTATION
-only such as British (not EU)
passports, driving licences and other national documents.
EU laws will also NOT APPLY to those who
HAVE OPTED OUT OF EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP
*
Let the people speak!
www.makeitanissue.org.uk
*
www.noliberties.com
[Latest Addition - June07]
*
www.eutruth.org.uk
*
www.thewestminsternews.co.uk
*
www.speakout.co.uk
*
Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION
to the EU
www.telegraph.co.uk.blogs
*
GORDON BROWN WANTS TRUST-BUT WHY WON'T
HE TRUST YOU?
HELL ON EARTH IN IRAQ
*
67% want powers back from
EU-ICM poll-June 21-2007-95%
of British people want a
REFERENDUM
*
PETITION
FOR A
REFERENDUM
SIGN TODAY ON LINE
telegraph.co.uk/eureferendum
*
July 18-2007
ALSO
JOIN THE 10 DOWNING
STREET PROTEST
Readers can add
their support to the growing clamour for a
REFERENDUM on the '"REFORM TREATY" by signing up to
a 10 Downing Street 0n-line petition
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/EU-treaty-NON/
The Petition
reads as follows:
"We the
undersigned petition the Prime Minister to guarantee
that the British people will be permitted a binding
REFERENDUM on any and all attempts to resurrect the
EU " CONSTITUTION" (and any or all of its content)
regardless of nomenclature."
Deadline for the
PETITION is 31st January,2008
Eurofacts 27th
July 2007.
*
'The Spirit of England'
by
Winston Churchill
In London on
St.George's Day -1953
*
VOTE
-2007
TO
LEAVE
THE
EUROPEAN
UNION
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE
TO SET YOU
FREE
THE
UK
INDEPENDENCE PARTY
www.ukip.org
THE QUESTION THAT THE
VOTER MUST ANSWER
‘DO
YOU WISH TO BE GOVERNED BY YOUR OWN PEOPLE, LAW AND CUSTOM OR BY THE
CORRUPT ,EXPENSIVE UNACCOUNTABLE AND CORRUPT ALIEN BUSYBODY BRUSSELS’
-SIMPLE IS IT NOT?
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE
FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER
BUT
SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS
WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES.
*
ONLY
PRO-PORTIONAL
REPRESENTATION
WILL
BRING
DEMOCRACY
BACK
TO
THE
ENGLISH
PEOPLE
*
SCOTLAND
-ITS PARLIAMENT -WALES-ITS
ASSEMBLY-ENGLAND-STILL
AWAITS ITS PARLIAMENT-WHY?
*
Home
Rule
for
Scotland
WHY
NOT
HOME
RULE
for
ENGLAND
*
[All underlined words have a
separate bulletin]
|
