The solstice is past. Rejoice.
One response to “British Values and Education”
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A friend of mine, blogging about Remembrance, remembered that: “[t]he Lancet estimated that over one million people were killed in our invasion of Iraq” (http://www.2ndcouncilhouse.co.uk/blog/2013/12/05/their-blood-runs-red/). There is no link between progressive values and the UK. We hide or deny our state sponsored genocide and torture, as British imperialism has always done. The Amritsar Massacre was not an anomaly but our modus operandi (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/23/british-empire-crimes-ignore-atrocities). Our much-vaunted kindness to animals, surely the most heart-warming of ‘British’ values, along with our famous fairness, is not compromised by fox-hunting rather, as we torture animals to death in every university it is seen for the sentimentality that it is. Those of us who are not naive to the real motivation of this animal torture (exactly the same as the human torture) know that ‘getting in-vivo experience on my CV’ (as a friend of mine put it) is attractive to those who seek the material gain and prestige accompanying advancement in Academia. The eventual aid to humans of a tiny proportion of this sadistically inflicted pain is convenient – and keeps the funding flowing. All these values we can wrap up in the Union Jack. And then set it on fire. when these values can no longer be associated with that flag and when the explicitly anti-RC Act of Settlement is repealed and when liberal clergy have successfully railed against the sectarian marches (http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/orange-order-and-glasgow-council-at-war-over-marches.20248665) so that citizens and visitors can walk down (and across) the streets of our cities any tine they like wearing any colours they like, then AND ONLY THEN is it the time to talk about forcing parents and guardians to pay a premium if the values they want their children to be educated in differ from those of the British state.
Previous Posts
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Sermon for RSCM Music Sunday
Here’s what I said on Sunday evening for the Royal School of Church Music – Music Sunday Massed Choirs Evensong Video available here. Just a few thoughts before our prayers – a few thoughts about what we are doing here tonight. I had it in mind to preach such simple things tonight. I was going…
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Sermon – Pigs Might Fly
Here’s the sermon that I preached on Sunday morning. (The video is also available on the Cathedral website). Because of the peculiarities of the clergy rota and the fact that we’ve had one or two special things going on like baptisms and hosting visiting preachers, it feels like a long time since I’ve been in…
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The Forum: Frikki Walker
Last Sunday the speaker at our Forum meeting was Frikki Walker, St Mary’s Director of Music. His forum was a tour de force and kept the audience entranced as he educated, opined and inspired us. Together we talked about favourite music, the composer he would most like to be locked into a church with, what…
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It’s Time
Just watch this video – there’s people and places that you may well recognise. I’m very pleased to be one of the faces in the video above, which has been produced by the Equality Network to galvanise the last months of the campaign for equal marriage in Scotland. Political leaders, celebrities, thinkers and so-called ordinary…
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