Immigration and needed legislation

We see many migrants in Calais taking considerable risks to reach the UK. Despite travelling through countries and across continents, they want to settle illegally in England; they believe jobs, accommodation and opportunities are readily available. The grim reality is very different.  Gangsters and criminal elements are ready to exploit them and make their lives miserable.  In the UK there is a surplus of unskilled labour and housing is very limited indeed.

Legislation is needed to prevent migrants from travelling illegally through countries in order to choose or enter the country that most appeals to them. Theses migrants should be enjoined to apply for asylum in the first EU country that they enter, if they are claiming political asylum or sanctuary.
I suspect that the majority, a substantial majority, are economic migrants who have no concern, care or cultural comprehension about their ultimate destination. They want the benefits and blessings of a country that they have no love for, but they wish to get money and jobs even if it means breaking laws and disrespecting the established culture.

Some migrants are very needy people who have suffered greatly as a result of political, religious and ethnic turmoil. They need help from charities, communities and compassionate people. They should never regard the UK as some sort of world job, health and social benefits service or welfare facility. This crisis calls for an international solution which looks at the root causes and prevents unnecessary suffering.  The people smugglers, slave traders, dodgy migrant transporters and  unscrupulous merchants who deal in human misery must be arrested and brought to justice.  They must be stopped as soon as possible as they have made money immorally. They are really wicked gangsters and callous criminals without concern, care and compassion.


1 August 2015

In the USA, in some states, people without visible means of support and money are arrested and put to work on chain gangs. Chain gangs may not be the best way forward, but putting them to work on various projects must be better than their current soul destroying existence.

Something rotten in the state of Russia?

The latest news and scientific evidence seems to show that Alexander Litvinenko was murdered on British soil by agents of the Russian state. The suspects have been named, and it is said to be beyond reasonable doubt that polonium was used to liquidate the former spy. He died in hospital as the result of a Russian state sponsored assassination.  Suspicion now falls on Vladimir Putin as the political gangster behind this hit. Did the Russian Don order the poisoning that ensured that Alex now sleeps with the fishes?

On teachers and teaching

It is been controversially said that teachers are grossly underpaid as child minders, but grossly overpaid as educators. Food for thought?

Some of the most unpleasant people that I have encountered were secondary school teachers. I've worked in a factory, in a hospital, in banks, and for many years as a civil servant in the Home Office, Cabinet Office and Ministry of Justice, but when it comes to nasty individuals then secondary school teachers take the biscuit, the awards for unpleasantness and underhanded behaviour.

I studied at ULIE and gained a PGCE, but that did not prepare me for the teachers I met in staff rooms in secondary schools. What a cynical, mendacious, mean spirited bunch they were! I thought it would be a most noble profession, full of dedicated and vocationally minded folk. How wrong I was!

It came as no surprise to me that when I left teaching to return to the Home Office, there were more trained teachers outside the profession than in it.  Today many teachers are leaving in droves for a number of reasons.What a waste of talent and training. One of the factors I would humbly submit is the pressure of teachers to work long, exhausting and too often unrewarding hours for poor pay.
In terms of the hours worked the pay is pathetic. It's peanuts, and when you pay peanuts to good workers you get monkey business!

Some of the teachers in positions of responsibility for staff and career development are clearly not up to the job.  Some heads of department may have good classroom skills, but when it comes to staff management then they are often ill equipped and out of their depth. Some them may be able to handle kids, but they cannot handle their own staff. They fall and fail woefully. This can also apply to head teachers, who may have been, once upon a time, good class teachers, but when they are expected to be budgetary, staff and facilities managers they are well out of their comfort zones and they often struggle to do jobs that they are not suited to do.  Good teachers have been promoted out of the classroom and into desk jockey jobs as bureaucrats and bad bosses.

Every secondary school needs a good administrative system, but putting good teachers into it is not the answer. It just perpetuates the painful problem.

O taste and see

Some people never will see the glory of the King, Master of everything.
They're blind to His majesty and might.
They live in the darkness of the night
And they shall never taste and see
The extent of His grace in eternity.

Witham, Essex, and Dorothy L. Sayers

Yesterday I visited Witham, an Essex town which is associated with Dorothy L. Sayers.  There is a statue in her honour.

There is a Dorothy L. Sayers centre at the local public library.

And the house where she once lived has a distinctive plaque on it.

Love your neighbour as yourself?

How does loving your neighbour work out in practice, in today's society? Well, one way is to show care and consideration to the needs of the elderly, the infirm, the weak and the vulnerable who live in our street, community and area.

Car parking can be a real problem in busy streets and roads with no driveways and front garden parking.  Sometimes there are troubles, tensions and tantrums over parking in these areas. It is, therefore, sad to see selfish and inconsiderate parking which makes life difficult for carers of the needy by creating parking problems and by preventing these carers/drivers from parking, delivering, helping and dropping off these needy residents and neighbours.

This selfish arrangement certainly causes conflict and controversy.

13 July
I saw the same arrangement again this evening.

Jesus said that you should love our neighbour as yourself.  I should share the verse in New Testament Greek, which the family responsible for this arrangement would understand.

 Ἀγαπήσεις τὸν πλησίον σου ὡς σεαυτόν.