PASSPORT TO PIMLICO...
During my now early morning habit of swiping my mobile phone for basic news, my attention was drawn to an article in The Guardian regarding an ongoing race row. Written by a journalist called Nazia Parveen it tells of unrest felt by pupils at Pimlico Academy in London. Apparently back in September 2020 the little loves, you know, those with a chip on their shoulders the size of a plank, tore down a Union Jack that had been erected outside their school and took it to a large nearby housing estate and burnt it. The reason for this vandalism was due to their fact that they felt the flag was insensitive and inappropriate and that it should be removed. Funnily enough, that attitude is exactly why if I had children of school age now I would move heaven and earth for them never to attend a school populated with oiks like that and work all hours to send them to a private school.
Over half of the school's pupils are residents of this ghastly blot on anyones landscape. I have viewed photos of the building blocks that make up the ironically named 'Churchill Gardens Estate', it is truly depressing. I didn't see mention of it in the article, but surely there is, has been or will shortly be, a petition to rid the ghetto... sorry, sorry... estate of any reference to one of Britains finest? One of Britains finest 'Whites', that is! It's a hop and a skip, let alone a jump away from slavery when mention is made of Britains Second World War Saviour. I do not look forward to, but expect the day when it is renamed 'The BAME Estate' or the 'The BLM Estate'... Perhaps 'Black Pride Gardens' might be more endearing to the residents. I was going to say 'ratepayers', but I wonder how many do contribute to the services they so readily criticise? Or what about the 'Windrush Estate'! Now that's more like it, though I can just see some wag painting the following underneath the name board: 'Where were the U-Boats when you needed them!
It was a month before the flag burning incident that the pupils started a petition against the schools' newly imposed and allegedly strict uniform policy. No doubt seen as invoking their human rights, the sad saps were upset that hairstyles should not be full to the point of blocking the view of pupils sitting behind them. What on earth is wrong with that, other than being told to do something they didn't want to do. More interested in their rights than someone elses ability to see the blackboard no doubt. Did I just write the word 'blackboard'! I'm so so sorry, I promise on Nelson Mandela's life - and not overly-recent death - that I will in future refer to all coloured boards as just 'boards'! Oh how cleansed I feel, purged of guilt, free from accusations of anti-wokery... or it could be that I really couldn't give a monkey's and it will forever be a blackboard, though 'giving a monkey's' could be a vote-loser in parts of our once great capital and the main reason why, as a Battersea Boy, I rarely soil my shoes in that dirty, drug, knife, gun and generally crime-ridden hole that London has become.
Another of the schools' policies involved colourful hijabs and the management's desire to restrict the degree of brightness of this headgear. Another complaint centred around the lack of black and ethnic history being taught and focusing on British kings and queens. Unbelievable! An un-named teacher who resigned over the issue said, 'If you are only hearing the perspective of the white, middle classes - it becomes very restrictive and shuts off our ability to build empathy with those from different backgrounds - it becomes isolating for students from minority backgrounds.' I'd love to meet this ex-teacher and very glad she wasn't teaching my children! As is all too common in this country now, any request to an ethnic minority to conform to a traditional school theme is immediately perceived as racist, pupils claiming that new policies penalise Muslims and those with afro hairstyles. The petition shows exactly who has the say in school management, and it certainly isn't the managers, more a case of the monkeys being in charge of the zoo... what's that I hear you say? You can't use that phrase for fear of upsetting somebody? Tough!!
The petition, according to the quote in The Guardian reads: 'We as students have the right to express ourselves however we choose, and also have the right to have our natural hair whether it be big hair (or) small hair or loads of facial hair or no facial hair'. Notice the use of the word 'rights' - twice it features, and that is the crux of the matter. No thought to smartness, pride in collective manner, discipline... OBEYING THE RULES!... oh no... its rights that count for the ethnic not-so-small minority. Deference to migrants decades ago has wrought havoc within what we termed 'British Society'. Doffing our collective caps to every minority group that throws an anti-colonial tantrum leads to the slippery slope of change, and for what? Surely there is more to running our third world country than spending/wasting time and money on placating and pacifying those that struggle with our culture and society. If I was confronted by one of the baying hounds of self-serving cultural inadequacy I'd mention, very politely of course, that there is an alternative to the constant sneering and sniping that manifests itself from the likes of the pupils and parents who signed this petition. The alternative is simple and appropriate to anyone of any colour or race - if you don't like it here you don't have to stay... Bugger off to pastures new, they are always greener, so I understand. Why are we so soft in this country? Gutless, absolutely gutless!
With such 'diversity' in south west London, I wonder just how much longer will it be before a passport is indeed required to visit the inner sanctums of the 'Republic of Pimlico' - twinned no doubt with Kingston, Jamaica!
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