Dead cats and elephants in the room – part 1

It’s been a bit of a disappointing time recently in St. Mary on the Wold.  The weather, as in many places in the UK, has been at times baking hot, exceptionally windy, or torrential rain, sometimes all on one day.  This has resulted in problematic gardening, with the members of the Gardening Club reporting by the ‘lotties’ facebook’ page that their runner beans, potatoes and outdoor salads veg haven’t done too well this season. Well, that’s the thing about gardening, for keen gardeners there is always something to do or complain about.

Local farms in this arable area have not fared that well either as I wrote about recently, with harvest yields of barley, wheat, rape and linseed in some cases down by up to a reported 40 percent – something that people who think this doesn’t matter would do well to reflect upon the next time they notice – or fail to notice – the price increases or shortages of various products in their supermarket of choice. Something else to think about, in what used to be called the ‘silly season’ by the main stream media, as Parliament, politicians and much of the civil service holidayed during the month of August, as did, in the not so far off past, most of industry and commerce.

What was once the silly season has become the saga of the ‘dead cat’ as this mystical animal is thrown onto the MSM’s table by – who knows? – anyone wanting their moment in the sun it seems this year, with politicians, scientists, educationalist, lawyers, judges, the odd farmer and the occasional celebrity all getting their chance of fame on a variety of subjects (courtesy of the BBC), but strangely, not that I can recall, any advice or instruction from theatrical luvvies, who seem to have gone to ground for some reason best known to themselves.

One of the best ‘dead cats’ thrown on the table this month was the total shambles of the ‘A’ level and GCSE results, with government spokespersons and the Secretary of State making more twists and turns than Torvil and Dean performing a triple salchow  at Sarajevo – God knows how long ago that was – but it was one of the few occasions when we in the UK had something to be proud of, which is not what you could say about the performance of our world-beating educational system that, in the last 25 years, has failed millions of pupils.

Twenty five years ago, mark you, when the then Department of Education first reported that the UK was behind many developed countries in numeracy and literacy, it said the same in 2003 when it noticed that poor numeracy and literacy translated into lower wages for the poorly-educated workforce, goodness who knew.  Reports in 2012 and 2014 showed that 17 million adults had problems and in the years 2015 to now, some 8 million primary school children leave early education with poor literacy and numeracy skills, all of which goes someway to explaining why half of the adults in the UK have the skills of 11-year-old school children. Out of 34 developed countries we rank 17th in literacy and 15th in numeracy. Some progress then by various governments and the teaching establishment over the last 25 years; what an indictment of Ofsted, and the teaching profession in general, who, as many parents have noticed during the present predicament, have done little to help many thousands of children learn anything.

More ‘dead cats’ thrown around by government ministers, the teaching establishment and unions, all arguing about a safe return for staff and pupils to work and demanding more ‘guidance’ but nothing about the elephant in the room, which is the education system from top to bottom has failed not only pupils but the country as a whole and continues to fail pupils at all levels from primary schools through to universities, which for many  observers it seems following their recent pronouncements are hardly worthy of their name.

The Wuhan flu has – in a shorter time than Brexit – provided the political and media class with more ‘dead cats’ to throw while ignoring all the ‘elephants in the room’.   It matters not a jot to the unions, the main-stream media and many business people that the country has run up billions in debt which will one day either have to be written off or repaid while people on furlough have, according to one teacher at least, enjoyed a well-earned break.   Most of the public sector is still refusing to go back to work, as according to their narrative it is much more productive and environmentally friendly for them to work from home and safer of course – which doesn’t seem to matter when it’s the late summer holiday and these millions of people who are afraid to go to the office or visit crowded places cram into cars and head off to the coast or west country causing mayhem on the road network and real concern for locals living in the most popular areas.

All of which makes another good ‘dead cat’ story but in the real world China is now back at work and their GDP last month was the fastest-growing in the world – not that I or anyone I know agrees with much of what goes on in the Peoples Republic of China, but it’s worth remembering that they are our main competitor on the world stage.  They see things in an entirely different way than the good citizens of Audi Avenue who, with their faux outrage at the situation in China, are quite happy to buy cars and car parts produced there, along with millions of smart-phones, electronics and thousands upon thousands of tons of Christmas ‘tat’ which for some reason masses of people find irresistible during the annual orgy of conspicuous consumption from October to February.  Or was last year’s the last display as the coming economic reality and rising unemployment starts to bite even the often smug middle income earners living in the leafy glades of suburbia?

For this, as I wrote many months ago now, was not the middle income earners’ crisis and neither is it yet, although many should view what is being reported in the press with concern.  Up to now it’s the working class which has carried the brunt of the crisis.  The self-employed and those employed by small business are the ones who have faced real hardship and the often patronising comments of the political and media class, looking down on them as they queue for a half price burger and chips, or a full English breakfast at some establishment that much of middle income earning middle England would never dream of visiting.  The only queuing they are known to do is at the ‘upmarket’ supermarket, when they discuss, in hushed tones of course, how well Olivia and Adam have done in their A level and GCSE this summer and how Olivia is so looking forward to getting off to uni having secured a place to study yet another humanities phoney degree.

Part 2 of Dead cats and elephants in the room will be published here tomorrow.