Who Are These People?

You may have seen this:-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/may/29/school-application-fraud-case

A mother who faces jail and a fine for trying get her child into the school she considered the best. My blood literally boils at this. Harrow council is suitably smug and self-satisfied at apprehending and prosecuting this fiendish and socially disruptive criminal. What would happen to their social engineering plans if everyone was allowed to choose the best education for their children? Why, the council might have to take account of the needs and desires of the people it professes to serve. Can you imagine the effort that would entail?

Note:

But council investigators found tax records placed her at a different residential address, two miles away from the popular school.

It’s heartening to appreciate the investigative skills and capabilities of the council - or should it be The Council. Capitalisation conveys the true status of this organisation more effectively, I feel. Or, given the ease of access to the tax records of a private citizen (is there such an animal any more?), The State Machine is a phrase which comes more immediately to mind. Jacqui Smith must be delighted to see how effectively the sharing of personal information across government organisations can nail really evil people – hold on – wasn’t that aimed at terrorists? Ah, but then, if you haven’t done anything wrong you have nothing to fear. However, if you have done anything wrong, you are fair game. That’s the brave new world Jacqui Smith wants us to live in.

But the explanation is clear:

David Ashton, leader of the council, said: “Of course we understand that parents feel very strongly about their first choice of school. However, our first duty is to ensure that the admissions system is scrupulously fair and seen to be so.”

This, of course, is Council Code. Decrypted it becomes much clearer:

Sentence 1:

For their own selfish reasons parents feel very strongly about their first choice of school but that is of secondary importance to The Council.

Sentence 2:

The really important thing is that no effort be spared in ensuring that no citizen succeeds in bypassing The System.

Maximilian Robespierre would no doubt approve:

Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country.

And look what happened to him.

Tags: council, Harrow

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