Cameron’s making the running on disability issues
David Cameron with his son
This piece on “The Independent” website by David Cameron today (The five lessons I learned as the father of a disabled child) will resonate very powerfully with professionals working with disabled children, and with the parents of those children. Most of those people will agree with every word of it, and even those who don’t will agree with much of it.
I feel strongly that this is a powerful electoral battleground that the Conservatives are opening up, and hope sincerely that Labour responds in kind quickly and sensibly
I’m headteacher of a special school – and I’ll certainly be blogging on this in the next few days. Watch this space
For anyone who thinks David Cameron is cynically exploiting the sympathy value of his dead disabled son for a few votes – think again ! He has a well known history of championing the rights of people with learning difficulties in particular, not least in Oxfordshire where his constituency lies, and is one of only two politicians ever to have approached me as a head teacher to ask my opinion (long before he was leader by the way). The other was a certain Mr John Bercow – who I personally feel has a lot in common with David Cameron, and can’t understand what the Tories have against him. But what does a raving Socialist like me know !
Jessica wins the history prize
Jessica smiling - for a change !
One day I’ll get back to doing political stuff on my blog, but tonight was my daughter’s school leavers night at middle school before heading for Upper School in September, and when your iPhone’s in your pocket, and you can send the pics straight to your blog, there’s no contest really.
Very proud of her winning the school history prize, particular because I love history but was never good at it at school, and because both my children ridicule my love of museums.
I’m very proud of her !
Her choreography to Black Eyed Peas was pretty good too !
– Post From My iPhone
Worst lyrics ?
The worst lyrics to a song ? Well this is my entry – do you know of one better ?
It’s Summer and the weather’s not too good – we’ve got to have some fun somewhere haven’t we ?
(This was from William Bell in 1968 when it reached 86 in the US top 100 – lyrics by Bell and Booker T Jones)
Listen, people, listen
I`m gonna sing you a song
About a man who lived good
But didn`t live too long
He was born in Macon, Georgia
A poor boy without a dime
He found his way to Memphis
Singing These Arms Of Mine
(CHORUS)
Otis, Otis Redding was his name
Without his soulful singing
This old world won`t be the same
Now he traveled on to Frisco
New York and abroad
Everywhere he sang
The people would applaud
One day he left Georgia
Wisconsin bound
But he didn`t get to sing that night
The plane he was in went down
(CHORUS)
He was a soul music singer
The king of the Memphis sound
It makes me feel so sad
Cause now he ain`t around
He died with his guitar
Close to his hands
But his soul lives on today
In the heart of a million fans
Talking about
(CHORUS)
Otis, Otis Redding was his name
His picture oughta be hung
In the music hall of fame
Otis, he was known as Big O
Otis, we gonna miss him so
Otis, ooh, yeah,
We gonna miss him so
-
BBC News Headlines- US rescuers comb tornado-hit area
- Oklahoma tornado: Survivors' stories
- In pictures: Monster tornado hits Oklahoma
- VIDEO: Newly homeless face their loss
- VIDEO: "I just tried to be the best dad"
- Ahmadinejad to contest bar on ally
- Vitamin C can kill drug-resistant TB
- Tax and energy to dominate EU summit
- Notre-Dame suicide a 'political act'
- Stockholm suburbs gripped by riots
Subscribe
- RSS Feed for NorthernHeckler
- Flu Jabs do not give you flu ! January 30, 2013In my Facebook feed this morning was a link to this “News” story :Piers Morgan receives flu vaccine injection from Dr. Oz, then gets sick The article relates that celebrity UK journalist Piers Morgan, appeared in US television having a flu jab, live, in an apparent attempt to convince the public of the safety and [...]northernheckler
- So snow causes a few problems – stop whingeing about it. January 19, 2013Every so often there is some snow in the UK. Not very often. Actually it would be probably better to say – about once a year, but actually not even as often as that, about twice every two years – but sometimes we go three or four years in between – we get some snow [...]northernheckler
- Facebook stories on Delhi Murdered Woman are not all they seem January 3, 2013A lot has been put on line already about the horrendous gang rape, and murder of an Indian student in Delhi. Many of you will have come across variations of this post which is pretty much “viral” on Facebook : The post shows what appears to be, pictures of the Indian student – on the [...]northernheckler
- Profiteering ? December 9, 2012A quick blog this. This afternoon I visited Bletchley Park – home of the legendary codebreakers – it was a Christmas Fair – mainly in aid of Milton Keynes College, and was quite a fun event. While I was there we had a coffee in the Cafe in Hut 4 – one of the original [...]northernheckler
- Election Special November 16, 2012I’ve decided I’m going to try and blog more often. Here’s my starter for 10 … I’ve wrestled with my conscience about whether to vote in yesterday’s elections for Police Commissioners. It struck me right from the start that these elections would be marked by a mixture of total apathy, and by outright opposition. If [...]northernheckler
- Wishful thinking on the Olympic clap-o-meter September 3, 2012Lots of activity on social networks tonight about current Chancellor & wannabe PM George Osborne getting booed before presenting a medal at the Paralympics, and ex Chancellor and ex PM Gordon Brown getting cheered. Brilliant – sounds fantastic. Have a look at the videos and see what you think Here’s George : And here’s Gordon [...]northernheckler
- Phonics – 100% successful ? I’m sorry but that’s simply not true. June 18, 2012I spotted this article on the BBC News website today : BBC News – Teachers’ unions urge rethink of phonics checks – Have a listen to the interview half way down the page. It’s an extract from the Radio 4 Today programme (18th June 2012), and features John Humphries interviewing both Mary Bousted of the [...]northernheckler
- Pantomime, Pasties and Election failures, some observations and a moan April 1, 2012This has been one of the weirdest 10 days or so in politics for some time, and pretty much all of the bad stuff has happened to the Tory led coalition government. Pretty much. The Budget was always going to be a toughie for George Osborne – but because everyone knew that, to an extent [...]northernheckler
- David Lammy doesn’t know the law on smacking children January 30, 2012UPDATE : Since clicking the ‘Publish’ button I spotted the article on Liberal Conspiracy which covers pretty much the same ground as this article – Give it a read, there’s a link at the bottom. The Daily Mail in this article on David Lammy MP’s recent comments regarding the smacking of children, Labour MP: Smacking [...]northernheckler
- We’re all in this together December 5, 2011I spotted two news articles today, which were reasonably interesting in themselves, but didn’t have me salivating with rage or frothing with indignation. Taking them both together though, they threw up a couple of interesting numbers. The first article was this 37 Tory donors with a combined fortune of £10,258,000,000, have gifted the Tory party [...]northernheckler
- Flu Jabs do not give you flu ! January 30, 2013
