Mother's plea for the life of her child.
Nobody could have listened unmoved to the plea from Lil Begley broadcast by the BBC. She was so distressed by her brave broadcast that she was admitted to hospital the same night. Anyone watching would wish that the women in Iraq could be released and Ken Bigley restored to his family.

But just a minute. The BBC could have filled the airways with pleas from mothers, Iraqi mothers, pleading "save the life of my child", "don't bomb my family" in the run up to war. They chose not to.

They could have broadcast the feelings of the relatives of the prisoners being tortured by the Americans in Guantanamo bay. They chose not to.

Instead the BBC repeat the story that the Americans "only have two" female prisoners. They have dumbed down their news coverage from Iraq to the point that Nicholas Witchell can just read scripts which might as well have been written by the military and get away with it. They really have become Blair's Broadcasting Corporation now.

Diplomat lets the cat out of the bag
If you see Osama Bin Laden putting up election posters, don't be surprised if they are for family friend, George W Bush. It is unsurprising that Osama Bin Laden prefers to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.

British ambassador to Rome, Sir Ivor Roberts, described President George Bush as "the best recruiting sergeant ever for al-Qaida". Sir Ivor obviously has a different definition of the word "diplomatic" than the one the rest of us use!

This revelation, although overstated, is not that far from the truth. The worldwide upsurge in anti-American resistance has led - in the absence of mass socialist movements - to a growth of fundamentalist militancy.

Thousands of American troops have been brought within striking distance of groups who are always identified by the media as "linked with Al Qaida". This is intended to discredit any and every opponent of American imperialism but a by-product is an enormous boost to the importance and prestige of Al Qaida.

John Simpson (BBC foreign correspondent) has made no bones of the fact that Al Qaida received arms, training and finance from the CIA.

Bush and Bin Laden are two terrorists who clearly need each other.

MNUA
I must not use abbreviations
I must not use abbreviations
I must not use abbreves.
I mst nt u abbreves.
MNUA
MNUA

On being the worst
If you cannot succeed in a school environment you might want to make a virtue of necessity and make "getting more detentions than anyone else" or "doing as little work as poss" or "being bottom of the class" your aim in life.

The constant testing, practising for tests, rehearsing tests....in short the things the government think education is all about....could be a factor here.

Pupils who are working together (for example on a media studies project) often seem less interested in "being the worst" because that would mean letting the other members of the group down.

In claiming that "townies" are the only people opposed to hunting, the Countryside Alliance seem a little two faced. I live in a small town in West Sussex. When the Countryside Alliance have support in the town they say this is because they are "country folk" and when they have opponents it is because they are "townies".
Whatever your views on hunting, if you live in the country you see the Countryside Alliance at close quarters and hear their views on racial minorities, asylum-seekers, trade unionists and various other people they would cheerfully set the dogs on.

Hunt supporters clash with police
As I write this Channel 4 news is reporting thuggish behaviour by pro hunt supporters. These are the two-faced people who complain of the lawless behaviour of animal rights protestors. Personally I am not an animal rights activist...I stroke the cat occasionally but that is about it....but this is a turn up for the book.

OFS***
Now Playing: Nothing is good enough
OFSTED has a habit of making damaging and superficial observations on teachers' lessons.
"Nothing is good enough for people like you
Have to have someone take the fall.
Something to sabotage
Determined to lose it all" (aimee Mann)
This is because of the structure of lesson observation. Anyone who observes a lesson has a little form invented by a Whitehall mandarin which insists that "points for improvement" must be included...so nothing is ever good enough.

Do not forget that OFSTED inspectors can be asked to teach a demonstration lesson to show teachers what they ought to be doing. I suggest you choose the class with care and videotape the results for staff training purposes .....or the Christmas party depending on the outcome.

One adviser in West Sussex has had the courage to do this and rose in my estimation and the estimation of the other teachers who were there to observe. Don't tell me how to be a better teacher. Show me

Poetry Corner
I have heard of the poetry corner
But your poems
Your poems just won't stay in the corner
They are out on the rooftops shouting
Singing in your heart
Crying in the darkness
Getting under my skin
It is that kind of poetry
It just won't behave
Just won't go stand in the corner