Having taken voluntary redundancy in order to return to university and complete the studies required to qualify as a solicitor I find myself with a dilemma. The opportunity of doing so relies upon achieving a training contract and these were already thin on the ground before the recession began to bite. With the prospect of a double-dip recession or, at best, slow and uncertain growth in the economy this shows no sign of improving and for a man who will be approaching his forties, the chances of taking one of just a few thousand places in a field where there are sometimes hundreds of applicants per place the odds are against success. I need to be pragmatic about this; the qualification will be little problem to achieve, but using it could prove nigh-on impossible. Without a network of contacts, without much directly relevant experience, without an impressive first degree and with my age, the economy and the financial imperative to earn immediately against me I have little hope of completing the journey I had started out upon. Better to lose a couple of hundred quid course deposit now than five grand cash and eight grand in debt on course fees for a qualification I can’t use.
And the dilemma is “what do I do instead?”.
I suppose my main driver in returning to study law was the financial security for my wife and I- capitalism is vile but one has to exist within it and make the best of it as things stand. I also hoped to be in a position to provide help to people who need it and can’t get it- my Aunt runs a charity providing refuge to victims of domestic violence and free legal advice would be of inestimable value to them. Another driver was a sense of unfinished business; although I never really saw myself becoming a solicitor I did embark upon that journey and for someone who rarely finishes what he starts, it seemed “a good idea”.
When I decided to use the opportunity of redundancy to become a solicitor, my other possible course of action was to retrain as a teacher and- with the legal profession proving a non-starter to me- it would be fair to assume that the silver medallist will be my fallback position. And it probably will be, though I can’t help the nagging feeling I have that I should maybe consider other options first.
In any case I am off to visit my Aunt (the aforementioned charitable Aunt as it happens) and her son and daughter-in-law to be, both of whom are teachers and will hopefully help me to clarify my thoughts on teaching. And so, I’m going to gather my thoughts on the way there.
Teaching is often seen as the easy option for graduates who fail in their chosen career (“those who can’t teach”) but I don’t think that I deserve that tag. I don’t actually have a chosen career unless you can count “being Keith Richards” as one. And yes, I did fail at that. No, my view of teaching isn’t in any way negative in the way that it might be for people using it as a safety net. Informed by the great teachers I had in some very bad schools, I have a far higher opinion of the profession and- as with my decision to stop caring for adults with learning disabilities because I wasn’t able to do the job justice (nor stop the counter-productive direction of the trust that I worked for)- I worry that I won’t be a great teacher. I know that I have the qualities to do so- patience, resilience, the ability to engage and connect- but I still have the fear. If I didn’t respect the profession, then I wouldn’t have.
When I was considering transitioning to teaching last year I was focusing upon teaching young adults but I feel differently now. Give me the boy at five and I will give you the man- or whatever the saying is- sums up my feelings at the moment. To provide the positive intervention that I would hope to and make the lasting impact that the children deserve, I think I would want to engage with them at an earlier age; primary school certainly, perhaps as young as infant classes. The more I think about it the more “right” it “feels”- and here again is a cause for anxiety, is “feeling right” sufficiently strong to support a career change like this? If I follow it, then one would hope so.
I think I am pretty set upon that course of action and my plan to get there begins as soon as the decision is made- or as soon as is necessary in case the decision is made should I exhibit a hitherto undiscovered streak of indecisiveness.
And what does this mean for my idea of considering other career paths? Well, in truth, I don’t want any of them. I could make a career in training, management or something or else retrain as an accountant but these are ideas based upon financial security alone or, even worse, expedience. And I deserve better than an old age filled with regrets.
At least I hope that I do.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Fantasy Football Team
Most years I'm cajoled into doing a team in one way or another. This year at the behest of my good friend Postman Dave, I have built a team through the Daily Torygraph's competition (though I haven't paid them for the pleasure because they really don't want grubby money from the likes of me).
And here is my team- Style Over Content FC (fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk).
It is now just a matter of hours before the season starts and I have sacked Duff from the team above in favour of Bolton's Martin Petrov.
Since originally posting this I have been persuaded to join two enter teams in two similar competitions. Here is my team to challenge my former team-mates, work colleagues and drinking companions, it is called I AM FUCKING SEXY (http://fantasyfootball.metro.co.uk):
And this is my team for the Baggies forum I post upon as Viva Fisher!, this team are called Fisher Apathetic (fantasy.premierleague.com):
I'm going to update these teams progress below and add any notes (eg- substitutions etc) with the picures above.
Style Over Content - Week * Week Score * Running Score * Position *
I AM FUCKING SEXY - Week * Week Score * Running Score * Position *
Fisher Apathetic - Week * Week Score * Running Score * Position *
And here is my team- Style Over Content FC (fantasyfootball.telegraph.co.uk).
It is now just a matter of hours before the season starts and I have sacked Duff from the team above in favour of Bolton's Martin Petrov.
Since originally posting this I have been persuaded to join two enter teams in two similar competitions. Here is my team to challenge my former team-mates, work colleagues and drinking companions, it is called I AM FUCKING SEXY (http://fantasyfootball.metro.co.uk):
And this is my team for the Baggies forum I post upon as Viva Fisher!, this team are called Fisher Apathetic (fantasy.premierleague.com):
I'm going to update these teams progress below and add any notes (eg- substitutions etc) with the picures above.
Style Over Content - Week * Week Score * Running Score * Position *
I AM FUCKING SEXY - Week * Week Score * Running Score * Position *
Fisher Apathetic - Week * Week Score * Running Score * Position *
MadMenYourself
Had a first bash at the Season 4 MadMenYourself feature tonight. In anticipation of rewatching the whole thing from the start.
Here's the result:
Here's the result:
Saturday, 7 August 2010
The New Politics
So, how do we feel about the "new politics" a couple of months in? Let's have a quick recap of what they have actually done since taking office:
The Coalition's budget made deep and immediate cuts because A) when they came to power and opened the books things were far worse than they had imagined and B) Clegg had changed his mind in favour of them on the private advice of Mervyn King though he continued to argue publicly against them. Well, A wasn't true because "Sir Alan [Budd, Head of Osborne's new OBR] said yesterday that Alistair Darling was being too pessimistic: on almost every measure, the public finances look like being in better shape"[1] and B wasn't true because "King said today: "I said nothing that was not already in the public domain. In the telephone conversation I basically repeated what I had said at the press conference"[2]".
Well that's not very "new politics" is it? But what about the nature of those cuts?
Firstly and most obviously Michael Gove plans to scrap the Building Schools For The Future programme. If a school was getting a new building or even repairs or renovations of an existing one, it isn’t now. Even if he still claims that it is[3]. Education budgets will instead be spent on the rolling out of the Academies programme which was rushed through Parliament without the usual scrutiny because Gove invoked an extraordinary Parliamentary procedure which is normally reserved for emergency responses to catastrophic security threats[4]. Under this Act “Free schools” could be “set up by parents and private groups with state funding”. This legislation also allows schools to remove themselves from national standards of pay, national curriculum requirements and to introduce selective admissions policies. It also pledges to cut funding for failing schools and pump more money into schools with high success rates[5]. Admissions policies which guarantee higher rates of government funding for selective privately-owned schools? You can draw your own conclusions.
There are also Iain Duncan-Smith’s planned Welfare reforms which include having the Disability Living Allowance statuses (which are currently decided on the recommendation of GPs and specialists) overturned without scrutiny by unqualified civil servants and placing arbitrary caps on housing benefits for the poor which will lead to increased homelessness and destitution[6].
We also have the movement of the ludicrously wasteful funding of Trident from the Treasury to the Ministry of Defence which will see thousands of troops return from Afghanistan to redundancy. The MoD were already faced with 20% cuts and now have to fund this £130bn white elephant[7]. There are only so many ships and guns you can go without before you have to start throwing soldiers on the dole after all.
I’m aware that I have a tendency towards verbosity, so I’ll try and rush through a few more things before I stop making sense.
Other highlights are:
And, finally, Health- the one area of public spending that the Tories pledged not to cut. Andrew Lansley (who is personally financed by a private healthcare provider [9]) has taken the 'ringfenced' NHS budget and- in spite of the Tories' pre-election calls for "no more top-down reorganisations"[10] put it towards a top-down reorganisation which will give GPs the task of managing their practices as well as working in them. As this is already a full-time job for thousands of public-sector workers, what this means in practice is that they will be made redundant and replaced by private healthcare providers. It is, in effect, a large-scale privatisation of PCTs paid for by the public for the benefit of private companies.
In conclusion then; the “New Politics” coalition have rushed through a sweeping programme of change which in essence hands money earmarked for schools and hospitals to private companies and have hit the poorest with tax rises while offering businesses and the very rich tax freezes and even a cut in taxation rates. That these seismic ideological changes are based upon lies and misinformation should really surprise no-one, though many LibDem voters will feel betrayed as their intention was (in many cases) to stop the Conservatives and avoid the kind of social carnage this will wreak across the country.
“New politics”? Only if you can’t remember the 1980s.
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7827761/This-Budget-is-George-Osbornes-moment-to-be-radical.html
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/28/mervyn-king-nick-clegg
[3] http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Michael-Goves-Is-Forced-To-Apologise-For-Mistakes-On-Building-Schools-For-The-Future-Hit-List/Article/201007115660983?f=rss
[4] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/tories-use-terror-laws-to-rush-academies-bill-through-house-2030336.html
[5] http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23857439-michael-gove-hoping-to-push-through-academies-bill.do
[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/welfare-reforms-are-onslaught-on-the-vulnerable-2040855.html
[7] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7920328/Armed-forces-stunned-by-Trident-bill.html
[8] http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-28/half-of-u-k-public-sector-pay-deals-ended-in-freeze-ids-says.html
[9] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6989408/Andrew-Lansley-bankrolled-by-private-healthcare-provider.html
[10] http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/07/health-service-nhs-cameron
The Coalition's budget made deep and immediate cuts because A) when they came to power and opened the books things were far worse than they had imagined and B) Clegg had changed his mind in favour of them on the private advice of Mervyn King though he continued to argue publicly against them. Well, A wasn't true because "Sir Alan [Budd, Head of Osborne's new OBR] said yesterday that Alistair Darling was being too pessimistic: on almost every measure, the public finances look like being in better shape"[1] and B wasn't true because "King said today: "I said nothing that was not already in the public domain. In the telephone conversation I basically repeated what I had said at the press conference"[2]".
Well that's not very "new politics" is it? But what about the nature of those cuts?
Firstly and most obviously Michael Gove plans to scrap the Building Schools For The Future programme. If a school was getting a new building or even repairs or renovations of an existing one, it isn’t now. Even if he still claims that it is[3]. Education budgets will instead be spent on the rolling out of the Academies programme which was rushed through Parliament without the usual scrutiny because Gove invoked an extraordinary Parliamentary procedure which is normally reserved for emergency responses to catastrophic security threats[4]. Under this Act “Free schools” could be “set up by parents and private groups with state funding”. This legislation also allows schools to remove themselves from national standards of pay, national curriculum requirements and to introduce selective admissions policies. It also pledges to cut funding for failing schools and pump more money into schools with high success rates[5]. Admissions policies which guarantee higher rates of government funding for selective privately-owned schools? You can draw your own conclusions.
There are also Iain Duncan-Smith’s planned Welfare reforms which include having the Disability Living Allowance statuses (which are currently decided on the recommendation of GPs and specialists) overturned without scrutiny by unqualified civil servants and placing arbitrary caps on housing benefits for the poor which will lead to increased homelessness and destitution[6].
We also have the movement of the ludicrously wasteful funding of Trident from the Treasury to the Ministry of Defence which will see thousands of troops return from Afghanistan to redundancy. The MoD were already faced with 20% cuts and now have to fund this £130bn white elephant[7]. There are only so many ships and guns you can go without before you have to start throwing soldiers on the dole after all.
I’m aware that I have a tendency towards verbosity, so I’ll try and rush through a few more things before I stop making sense.
Other highlights are:
- A public sector pay-freeze which includes the lowest-paid (the £21,000 limit is pro-rata and hundreds of thousands of public sector workers are part-time) and contrasts with pay-rises in the private sector[8].
A VAT rise (which the LibDems expressly campaigned against) which hits the poor hardest since VAT is a regressive tax.
The scrapping of a free school meals programme for the poorest children.
Cutting of the rate of Corporation Tax- including for banks.
Shelving (rather than scrapping) the plans to cut Inheritance Tax rates for the very rich.
A refusal to remove the charitable status of private schools meaning that, in effect, they are subsidised by the very families who have seen a cut of £670m in the budget for state schools.
The imposition of the much-derided Labour proposal for a National Insurance increase but, significantly, only for employees and not employers.
And, finally, Health- the one area of public spending that the Tories pledged not to cut. Andrew Lansley (who is personally financed by a private healthcare provider [9]) has taken the 'ringfenced' NHS budget and- in spite of the Tories' pre-election calls for "no more top-down reorganisations"[10] put it towards a top-down reorganisation which will give GPs the task of managing their practices as well as working in them. As this is already a full-time job for thousands of public-sector workers, what this means in practice is that they will be made redundant and replaced by private healthcare providers. It is, in effect, a large-scale privatisation of PCTs paid for by the public for the benefit of private companies.
In conclusion then; the “New Politics” coalition have rushed through a sweeping programme of change which in essence hands money earmarked for schools and hospitals to private companies and have hit the poorest with tax rises while offering businesses and the very rich tax freezes and even a cut in taxation rates. That these seismic ideological changes are based upon lies and misinformation should really surprise no-one, though many LibDem voters will feel betrayed as their intention was (in many cases) to stop the Conservatives and avoid the kind of social carnage this will wreak across the country.
“New politics”? Only if you can’t remember the 1980s.
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7827761/This-Budget-is-George-Osbornes-moment-to-be-radical.html
[2] http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/28/mervyn-king-nick-clegg
[3] http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Michael-Goves-Is-Forced-To-Apologise-For-Mistakes-On-Building-Schools-For-The-Future-Hit-List/Article/201007115660983?f=rss
[4] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/tories-use-terror-laws-to-rush-academies-bill-through-house-2030336.html
[5] http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23857439-michael-gove-hoping-to-push-through-academies-bill.do
[6] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/welfare-reforms-are-onslaught-on-the-vulnerable-2040855.html
[7] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7920328/Armed-forces-stunned-by-Trident-bill.html
[8] http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-07-28/half-of-u-k-public-sector-pay-deals-ended-in-freeze-ids-says.html
[9] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6989408/Andrew-Lansley-bankrolled-by-private-healthcare-provider.html
[10] http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/07/health-service-nhs-cameron
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Friends Shaking Hands
Funny how songs can transport you back to a previous time in your life. I heard Louis Armstrong’s “Wonderful World” earlier, a song which always puts me in mind of a time many years ago when I fell for a girl who was already in a relationship. Though our love was transient, it felt deep and our parting was as amicable as these things can be. For reasons I forget she was unable to leave the relationship immediately and so for a period we carried on in secret (I’m not proud of this but it was a nice relationship and is a nice memory). On occasions we would be brought together in public with her boyfriend or mutual friends and had to be discreet and so we developed a code; we would greet each other with a handshake and a "how do you do?" following the suggestion of the great Satchmo who sang:
I see friends shaking hands
Saying "how do you do?"
They’re really saying
"I love you"
I see friends shaking hands
Saying "how do you do?"
They’re really saying
"I love you"
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