A Product of a Blairite School

An incident took place today. Nothing special, but actually that’s the point. What happened is part of the ordinary life here in the UK.

I was walking down the street when I past a guy, about 22, but could have been a bit younger. He was pushing a trolley of food bought from a near-by supermarket, although he was well out of the grounds of the store, so I guess he was “borrowing” the trolley.

He was eating a samosa from a plastic bag. When he had rammed the last of what he wanted into his mouth, he dropped the bag on the street just as a past him. Inside the bag were large greasy crumbs that would be a feast for any rat.

Our eyes met and he knew what I was thinking. After we past, I turned back and told him he had dropped something. He just gave me two fingers and spitting bits of samosa from his mouth told me to f-off.

“It’s your country.” I commented. In my head the sentence was formed as if to say “You should take pride in where you live”. Aren’t you the same person who sings the national anthem at football matches with such gusto and reverence? Don’t you think that En-ger-land is the greatest nation in the world? Didn’t you fight the Nazis in the war and so free Europe?’

But what surprised me was the tone and therefore the inference in my comment. It was one of dismissal of this country. It has failed and I can’t save it, so I want nothing more to do with it. You can have it, my foul-mouthed, ignorant animal of a fellow-country man. It’s your country.

I carried on walking. The samosa filled abused continued, but I couldn’t make it out and thought best to ignore it.

To me, the entire incident is indicative of people today in the UK: Everything from eating in the streets and stealing property to being disrespectful, abusive and aggressive. More and more I feel like an alien here. I feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. Like a family member who has stayed to long in the family nest.

Then I got to thinking that this guy was mostly educated under New Labour: Ten years in office for Tony and ten years in school for this guy. If only Blair had put into Education! Education! Education! the amount of money he had put into War! War! War! we would have kids leaving school after ten years of smaller class sizes and well-paid, highly motivated teachers that didn’t feel threatened and didn’t face abuse on an hourly basis. Kids would be better educated, better motivated and better role models for kids that come after them.

This is the legacy of Tony Blair. He toppled Sadam, but cheated the British people out of a useful education.