Benefit Street, Brighton.

I expect it would sound suspiciously like conspiracist nonsense to link the current climate in America to the education system? Yet, deconstructed from  an historical perspective, it becomes an inevitable outcome. Because from the beginning of civilisation, education has always been a jealously guarded tool by which and through which, the elite rule. In our culture, it led  to the marginalisation of women, the power of the Church, both absolute monarchy and democracy, and a rigid class system. Because of our violent nature, we ruled through, and gained power by, violent means. Thus, keeping the lower sectors in complete ignorance ensured a steady supply of human cannon fodder; not merely quiescent but, when prompted, actually eager to make the ultimate sacrifice.  Universal education would lead to a questioning of this ancient system. It also led to various reforms and the eventual demand for education to be made the Right, enforced by law, of every person in the land. Ric

I’ve been giving this some thought lately.  Mainly because I kept thinking that this man was surely a ridiculous chimera; or that  at any moment Michael Moore was going to appear and admit that the whole Drumph-bumph is merely a satire for a new movie. Then I realized that people were actually supporting this bombastic buffoon. And I started reading their posts on chat-rooms and forums. I’ve engaged with one or two in various fora  and realized that they were exactly the same kind of people as Trump. Thousands of little MiniMe Trumps.  They truly think he is America’s Great White Hope.  And they unblinkingly accept every ever word he says as the truth. So the big no-no which lurks at the back of every conversation with a Drumph-supporter is that they are, in great droves, badly-educated.  It would be tempting to write them off as predominantly working-class or dirt-farmers – except that, as the man himself tells us – some of them are really important people. From all

It’s not true, of course.  Making a generalization about an entire culture is never going to work.  Besides which, those who can afford to go travelling to other places in the world  have usually managed to fork out the odd few thousand in order not to make  children in foreign climes run from them in terror  when they open their mouth to say Bonjour. So it’s not travelling Brits who gave rise to our reputation as having the worst teeth in the world. (And yes.  We STILL have it.) It’s those one encounters inside the country that present sights not usually seen in developed countries. People with one lone, yellow fang dangling down from their jaw; those with mouths like old pianos – yellow-brown with black spaces in between; people you would hate to sit across from at a dining table; and those whose gnarled and twisted teeth seem to defy all logic and give rise to acute curiosity about whether they actually ingest all food through a feeding tube? And me. A scant fe

I've made it a rule, throughout my career as a writer, never to write something when I'm really angry.  Or, at least, not to send it until I've gone through it again with a cooler mindset..  But then again, I've never liked rules. So yeah: I'm angry.  And yeah - frankly my dears, I don't give a damn: I'm going to press the "Post" button as soon as I'm finished. Because I've just come from this site:  http://bit.ly/1nn0xLU   and the discussion concerning proposed further marginalisation of the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. The discussion centres around what   comes across as a rather flippant idea to further deprive the lowest sector of society - people who are unable to work because they are - either temporarily or permanently - looney tunes.   In Machiavellian terms we - the citizens of la-la Land, are a pretty safe bet.  We have no power.  We are not "organised".  We have no Voice. We are also conveniently si