You’re back!
Did you enjoy the Queen’s speech? It was good to hear her reaffirm the “British values” you are responsible for “delivering” in schools. This raised a question in my mind, though, about an arrangement your party was trying hard to make with the DUP.
Many of us parents are explaining to our children how the election went and how you’ll stay in power. Young people these days are very interested, as I’m sure you’ll now know. Inevitably, this has required us to describe who the DUP are and what they believe in.
It can go without saying your government wouldn’t want to govern by relying on people with links to terrorism (how would we explain that to our children?). If they’ve seen on TV or read that the DUP were “endorsed” by the UDA, and they ask who they are, we can explain that the DUP aren’t duty bound to repudiate every Tom, Dick or Harry who supports them.
And it hasn’t been too difficult for us to explain why the leader of the DUP met with someone described as a leader of the UDA. It must have been to tell him this paramilitary lark really must stop. I don’t suppose it matters that someone can be universally described as a leader of a “paramilitary” organisation, does it? Or that the leader of the DUP, which your party was reaching an agreement with, meets recognised leaders of such an organisation. At least that’s what we’ll have to tell our children. The fact that this came a few days after UDA members allegedly shot a man dead in a car park in the seaside town of Bangor is neither here nor there, we can explain.
I’m wondering though, if you, as the leading figure in education and the person in charge of the programme teaching so-called British values, might consider offering assistance to us parents when we come to explain how a Commons voting arrangement with the DUP would help uphold these values.
I confess that as I’ve worked through some of this stuff, I’ve turned to Wikipedia. I thought I’d offer a model to my children of not relying on newspapers as a source of information. Why not, I thought, surf through the DUP MPs and councillors to see what they stand for?
Now I know a big deal has been made in the press about some of these elected representatives’ views on the creation of the universe, and gay marriage. Again, these are things children and young people take a great interest in. But hey, I say, and I’m sure you’ll agree, if a party with the greatest number of seats can’t govern because of a few quibbles over Adam and Eve, we’ll never get the show on the road.
Back to the elected representatives and their British values: one of these is Sammy Wilson, someone renowned for his genial disposition. Like you, he’s very interested in education, as he used to be the DUP’s education spokesman. He’s a keen supporter of academic selection in schools.
Anyway, according to Wikipedia (and referenced by a book by Ian Wood), some years ago the UDA released a document calling for ethnic cleansing and repartition of Ireland with the goal of making Northern Ireland wholly Protestant. Some areas with strong Catholic/nationalist majorities near the Irish border would be handed over to the Republic of Ireland and those left stranded in the “Protestant state” would be “expelled, nullified, or interned”. Interestingly, Wilson, the MP for East Antrim – you’ve probably seen him in the House of Commons lately – said that some parts of the plan were a “very valuable return to reality” and it showed that “some loyalist paramilitaries are looking ahead and contemplating what needs to be done to maintain our separate Ulster identity”.
To be honest, I’ve found this particular part of the DUP a bit harder to explain, though I’ve found it useful to say: “Come on! This was 23 years ago and so cannot possibly be a point of view still held by someone considering going into any kind of voting arrangement with the Conservative party.” Again, is there any chance that you could clarify any of this for teachers and parents keen to teach British values?
In the meantime, any hints on how to explain this fairer funding thing to our children? How come you’re putting “more money” into education but schools are having to cut staff and courses? I’ve read that your difficulty in explaining this to the electorate lost you the support of most teachers and hundreds of thousands of parents and grandparents. I guess we were not up to the mark in understanding it. We’d love to hear some explanation from you and some details on how you’re going to stop schools having to get rid of teachers.
Yours, Michael Rosen
