Our kids can attend demonstrations but not go to school… madness!
WHILE your kids are sitting at home bored out of their brains, guess what the German kids are doing right now? Yes, sitting exams.
There will be no exams in the UK this year. And incredibly there’s even the suggestion they won’t happen NEXT year, either.
Read our UK schools reopening live blog for the latest news & updates
German schools have been back for ages. More than a month.
Danish kids have been back since April. All European countries have had their schools open, partly or fully, since May. Except one. The UK.
It is becoming horribly clear that we have an inept, leaderless government. It has made mistake after mistake during this crisis.
It was too slow to react when Covid first struck. Lockdown was too late.
Thousands of elderly people in care homes were left to die.
Unforgivably, doctors and nurses were not given personal protection kit.
We were slow to start testing for the wretched virus. We were desperately slow to close our borders.
But nothing is more revealing about this government’s incompetence than the fate of our poor children.
Deprived of education. Deprived of being with their friends. Kids like my daughter — who asked the other day if we could please move to Germany, asap.
The Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, is hopelessly out of his depth.
He has now conceded that schools might not even reopen in September.
That is grotesque. A huge blow not only to the kids, but also to the economy.
Getting the schools open is the key to rebooting our wrecked economy.
Perhaps worse still, most kids have been receiving hardly any virtual lessons.
Why? With decent planning every school pupil in the country could be doing a full day of lessons, every day, via computer. That this hasn’t happened is a disgrace.
Of course, the loathsome teaching unions are partly to blame.
They have been obstructive at every possible opportunity.
We remain stuck in chaos – show some leadership, Boris
It seems that the teachers quite enjoy sitting on their ar*es doing nothing while the kids rot at home.
Who’d have thought it, huh?
But the main problem lies with Boris Johnson and his team (with a few noble exceptions).
He flip-flops on a daily basis. What he, or Health Secretary Matt Hancock or the hapless Williamson tell you on a Monday will have been reversed by Tuesday lunchtime.
There is no strategy, no planning, no direction, no imagination.
McDonald’s has reopened. Non-essential shops are opening. Pubs will be back in business. Teenagers can wander around the country on demonstrations.
But schools remain shut. Where is our sense of priority?
If Boris is to rescue his rapidly dwindling reputation, he must do the following.
First, tell the teachers that schools WILL reopen, come what may, in September.
All of them, for all years.
Insist that exams MUST take place next year.
In the meantime schools must be given an imperative. A full day, every day, of virtual lessons for every pupil.
It is remarkable that this has not happened already.
Nowhere in Europe has seen any significant increase in transmission of the virus as a consequence of schools reopening.
The rest of the world is getting back to normality. We remain stuck in chaos.
Show some leadership, Boris.
We voted you in with such a sense of optimism last December.
Prove to us that the optimism was not horribly misplaced. Get the schools open NOW.
Why so skimpy, Helen?
ACTRESS (kinda) Helen Flanagan has said she will block “creepy men” who comment on her recent social media post on body confidence – complete with obligatory lingerie shot.
Hmmm. I would be more convinced if she didn’t keep posting photos of herself with hardly any clothes on.
Who, exactly, are they for?
Frankly, I DO give a damn
THE race warriors have got it in for Gone With The Wind, one of the greatest films ever made.
This is because there were “concerns about racial injustice”.
Incredible.
Don’t these morons know that it was the first film in which a black actress received an Academy Award?
The film has been withdrawn from HBO.
Do you remember how we used to feel sorry for people in totalitarian states such as the USSR and Iran when they were not allowed to read the books they wanted to read or watch the films they wanted to see?
The same thing is now happening here. One by one our freedoms are – gone with the wind.
Sadiq's statue witch-hunt
THE endlessly vapid London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is going to start pulling down a few statues.
He says London’s statues should reflect the “diversity” of the city.
No they shouldn’t. They should commemorate great men and women who were vital to either London or the UK. You don’t bung statues up on account of skin colour. You bung them up on account of achievement.
Upset by gag? Get over it
THE identity politics agenda has finally caught up with Little Britain.
I wondered how long it would be before Matt Lucas and David Walliams were forced into making some sort of cringing apology.
Even 15 years ago their blacked-up characters seemed to be pushing it a bit. I reckoned then that the thought police would catch up with them.
But what about wheelchair fraudster Andy Pipkin? Isn’t that disablist?
Or that character who wets herself all the time? Isn’t that hurtful?
Truth is, most humour hurts someone. The sensible advice to people who are hurt by a funny sketch is – get over it.
She’s Priti on point
BRILLIANT speech by Home Secretary Priti Patel in the House of Commons.
Harangued by Labour about racism in the UK, Patel said that she “would not take lectures” from Labour on the issue.
Priti drew on her background, when she was racially abused in the street and called a “P**i” in the playground.
She attacked the horrible notion that people from ethnic minorities should “conform” by supporting the Labour Party.
That was a racist idea. It is very hard for Labour to have a go at the Tories about racism when two of our most senior offices of state – the Home Secretary and the Chancellor of the Exchequer – are held by excellent MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Sexercise
EXPERTS have been explaining the best ways to lose weight when making love.
Apparently the different positions have very different outcomes.
The boffins say that the missionary position – which is the one used by all decent, God-fearing people like myself – is the worst.
They say it only uses up about 40 or so calories. I don’t think that’s bad – 40 calories in five seconds!
They say if you really want to shed those pounds you should use the “squat” or the “butter churner”.
I’m like, WTF? I had to look those up. Disgusting.
And if I could do the butter churner I wouldn’t need to lose weight.
Let’s have our Phil while we can
HAPPY birthday, then, Prince Philip – 99 years old on Wednesday. And he doesn’t look a day over about 96. We will miss him badly when he’s gone.
It’s not just the being rude to people I always liked about him. It’s his sense of duty. His self-discipline, his loyalty. Philip has always known the importance of the monarchy. Always known that his role is to support the Queen.
I wonder if any of the younger generation of royals will serve our country as well as he has done?
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London is the new Detroit
NOW that lockdown is being eased, people are buying houses once again. And the estate agents report that affluent Londoners are DESPERATE to get out of the place.
There’s been a huge rise in Londoners looking for properties in the country. I don’t blame them. I think I’d rather live in Kabul than London.
But I wonder if our capital city will end up like Detroit, in the US. There, the well-off fled, sick of the crime and the danger. Now it’s a ghost city, inhabited by the very poor and criminals.
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