The Lords returned yesterday. The main business was a debate on the role of the charitable sector in strengthening civil society, introduced for the Government by Lord Taylor of Holbeach. Thirty-seven peers spoke in the debate. It was an extremely good debate, notable for the fact that no less than seven new peers made maiden speeches.
Perhaps the most notable of the seven – all good – speeches was that by Baroness Benjamin, better known perhaps as Floella Benjamin. She recalled that much had been said about her time as a presenter of the children’s programme Playschool which she first presented in 1976. (Was it really 1976?) However, perhaps her most striking observation was that:
“I was born in Trinidad and came to Britain as a ten-year old child 50 years ago. I was spat on and told to go back where I came from, but how differently things have turned out. I believe that I am the first Trinidadian female Peer and I follow in the footsteps of another ‘Trini’, the late Lord Learie Constantine.”
You can read her remarkable speech here.
I was in the chamber for another of the maiden speeches, that by Baroness Ritchie of Brompton. She drew on her extensive experience in local government and the voluntary sector. I and a number of others who share the same office were present, primarily because she has joined our office. She is one of three peers who have recently joined, so our crowded office is going to be even busier than usual.
O, for the old says when the dukes had a bench of their own and no one dared sit there even if the house was full. Except an Archbishop or two !!! o well G and T time again.
The only remarkable thing about euphemising the various Children Institutions is that none of them had the “expertise” claimed by the new noble Baroness Beckenham, nor the clear-mindedness, nor the “influence”, to have the Rights of The Child amended from the proposed and pushed-through wording
(“) In the event of a difference between child and parent in a family, the child shall conform to the rellgious tenets of the parents (“);
when modern communities and the “brittle” society desperately needed and do now even more so need cooperative win-win-win know-how
“In the event of a religious difference between child and parent, the family shall resolve the matter by win-win-win participatorily cooperative problem solving (such as the Method III first established and published by Dr Thomas Gordon for People, Parents, Leaders, and Teachers to educate their charges in the use of)”.
If such is the case, that none of the professional and institutional experts and supporters could get the lawyers and legislators to construct our Rights declarations and legislations majorly upon a Method III winj-win-win cooperative ratherthan competitive basis, then in some complicitude-sense the new baroness would remain one of the “wolves in sheep’s clothing” as far as responsibly bringing-up, educating, enabling and empowering children, especially deprived and disadvantaged children, to be independently responsible, and co-constructively-response-able, citizens of the coopertive-win-win-win kind; instead of the adversarially dominated fixed-mindset inculcees that conformist directivism mass-produces.
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0221St09Oct
I am sorry JSDM has completly lost me. What on earth is he saying regarding mainden speeches, sounds like a little rant to me.
Not majorly a ‘rant’, VISCOUNT, but an attempt to identify and address respectively the main Context, sub-contexts (internally), and most especially therein some sort of real super-context (externally-relevant).
I shall clarify shortly.
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0457W131010
dear dear dear JSD, the only thing you need to clarify is your sanity. Don’t worry about sub this and that etc etc. Just listen to the debates . They are not for metaphyisical breakdown and reconstruction by you or me, but just simple comment. That is the ethos of this blog dear boy.
Simple comment it shall be then.