According to the Telegraph the riots are all down to teachers

I was left open mouthed, but not entirely surprised this morning when headlines started coming in that a teacher had been in court for looting. As a teacher myself I tweeted that I hope this person would no longer be able to work with children, and that I hoped they would be properly punished by the courts. It is now known that the person in court is not a teacher, but works with children at a school. This did not, however, stop David Hughes, a man who is apparently the chief leader writer for the Telegraph publishing on his blog an absolute rant against the teaching profession.

This is what he wrote

A teacher is charged with looting – why am I not surprised?

By David Hughes Politics Last updated: August 10th, 2011

57 Comments Comment on this article

One’s capacity for shock has been rather depleted by the events of the past few days but a riot-related item this morning did manage to raise the eyebrows. The BBC is reporting that the first person up at Highbury Magistrates Court on looting charges was a 31-year old school teachernamed Alexis Bailey. She pleaded guilty to being part of the looting of the Richer Sounds store in Croydon. If this is what teachers get up to, is it any wonder that children have been queuing up to ransack shops? It prompts the question of just when was it that schools stopped punishing theft and instead started turning a blind eye to it? You can date this profound shift to the time youngsters started to heave all their books in and out of school each day in gigantic rucksacks because they could not leave them in their desks in case of theft. The difference between right and wrong became blurred. Before the change, theft was severely punished in all schools: teachers would come down like a ton of bricks on any light-fingered pupils. Then for some reason they simply threw in the towel and told children to protect their own stuff because the disciplinary system could not. Such moral ambivalence has helped spawn the rampant criminality that has had us all so transfixed.

One wonders how such an ill educated fool gets to be a chief leader writer for a national newspapers when virtually everything he has written is either rubbish, or if true, largely been done not because teachers have asked for it but because governments have sought to impose it, in and in the main that has been Tory governments.

Note his main argument that 

You can date this profound shift to the time youngsters started to heave all their books in and out of school each day in gigantic rucksacks because they could not leave them in their desks in case of theft. 

So breaking down his argument, this stems back to when children have to take their books around with them (and home) and the end of each day, in case of theft. So we are talking about after school hours, in evenings, at night ? In essence his claim is that the fault is that teachers failed to protect schools after school from thefts and break ins. Is that a teacher's role ? If so, what an utterly ridiculous argument.

Many people on the left have sought to blame the riots on cuts, EMA and tuition fees. They are wrong, as can be clearly seen by the type of people going before the courts.

But equally the right are wrong to turn to their usual targets, which as we've seen since Michael Gove because education secretary, always seems to involve attacking teachers.

Now you can't access the blog any more written by David Hughes, but you can access the cached version HERE.

Next time David Hughes writes about education, remember what he wrote and see what his real agenda is, which is basically to blame teachers for the nation's ills, even riots.

The Newspaper that cried "Wolf"

The Telegraph is reporting that Nick Clegg came under fire in Afghanistan.

Yet 24 hours earlier they reported the completely made up story that Nick Clegg would support a minority Tory government. This Telegraph story has been denied by Nick Clegg's team and consisted of quotes like "The Telegraph has learned " and "sources say", but with no direct quotes from anyone. Most people are under the impression that the "Torygraph" was living up to its name and printed the story as a favour to their Tory friends in order to help the Conservatives squeeze the Lib Dem vote in Crewe and Nantwich.

The problem though for The Telegraph is why should we believe anything they have to say if they lie so willingly about people. it makes me wonder if Nick Clegg did come under rocket fire or whether its a Hillary Clinton story and actually he was given flowers by a child instead.

Iain Dale in the Telegraph - Sorry Iain but comparing Ashdown with Cameron is like comparing chalk and cheese

Iain Dale has written about the press criticism of David Cameron's trip to Rwanda in the Telegraph, and for much of the article tries to justify "Dave's" 24 hour round trip photo opportunity as part of Cameron's learning curve about the world and events.

Perhaps David Cameron does need to learn about these things. However, Iain, you cannot attack the press for being critical of Cameron when he does go the North Pole or plays at being a school classroom assistant or if they ask about his carbon footprint for a 24 hour trip to Africa because on each of these occasions David Cameron has actively courted the press in order to present himself as a media savvy, cool sort of bloke.

Iain goes on to compare Cameron's various trips and journeys with Paddy Ashdown's own travellings after the 1992 election.

"After the 1992 general election Paddy Ashdown, who had just fought his first election as LibDem leader, took three months off to tour Britain to try to reconnect with normal people.

What he found inspired him and set him up for the next five years of leading a political party.
He believes those three months were crucial to the success the LibDems achieved at the 1997 election, when they gained their highest number of seats for 70 years"

I'm afraid Iain that David Cameron is no Paddy Ashdown.

Firstly, Paddy didn't have a team of press men with him, PR gurus, advisers and TV crews. Paddy toured Britain and stayed with people across the country in an unobtrusive way. He wanted to be part of their lives , see what they saw and learn from them. He did not go around the UK looking for a sound bit, a TV interview or front page news items. This is where Cameron has gone wrong.

If David Cameron genuinely wants to learn about the world and the problems in the UK, then why doesn't he do it privately ? If you focus too much on press coverage, don't be surprised if the press don't give you the coverage you want.

Update : I realise now why iain was so keen to defend Cameron. It appears Iain is joining "Dave" on his trip.