Gail Cartmail blog

Out of touch and out of control

In years to come I will remember two dates.

The first is the TUC March for the Alternative, 26 March when half a million people demonstrated against the coalition government’s austerity measures. The second date is last week’s TUC Day of Action, 30 November.

Under the cover of Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch walked into a bar. The server says “don’t worry about it mate, we haven’t got Sky either” (thanks to Frank for that joke).

I heard another joke about Cameron with the punch line: “which is why he says ‘reform’ when he really means privatisation.”

Animal Farm?

I read George Orwell’s book Animal Farm at school. It made a great impression, in particular the line that “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others”.

In the 1960s and ‘70s higher education opened up to young working class men and women many of whom enrolled at the newly built ‘red brick’ universities.

Chalk on slate

I remember the 11-plus examination that selected children and very much determined their future.

Failure was a fast ticket to secondary modern schools where pupils left at 15. The children who passed went on to grammar school, Latin and hockey.