Gordonbrock School

A very nice man gave me a flyer for the "SaveGordonbrock" website while I was enjoying a pint in the Wickham Arms.

It's likely my boy will end up there (Gordonbrock School, not the Wickham Arms - well, perhaps not yet) so I'll claim an interest.

So, to the website I went, and I also followed the debate on the Green Ladywell blog. Those opposing the plans seem to be doing so from an almost entirely aesthetic standpoint. In fact, the campaign website makes no argument beyond that of putting some nice photos of the school up and asking for the Council to leave it alone.

I am passionate about the built and historic environment, but even I need reasons other than architectural to oppose the rebuild.

My son might go here in a couple of years. I want to know whether a new school building will improve his education and that of his peers. What the Victorian Society thinks might be a consideration, but it's a very slight one.

Downtime

I have not blogged for half the year. Not that anyone has missed me. Not that I expected that anyone would.

A few things have got in the way. I've moved house. From nearer the Ladywell Tavern to nearer the cemetery. This has filled many an hour, when I'm not with, T now two years' old and taking him round his manor, which extends from the tractor on Blythe Hill Fields to the train on Hilly Fields (and occasionally, the roundabout by One Tree Hill). Work is busy (although it might be about to get less busier - watch this space).

In short, I have had other things to do, but I hope to blog occasionally but more frequently in coming weeks. There's plenty to talk about. Lots happening locally, lots of places to see in coming weeks (including a welcome trip back to the West Country), lots happening politically, lots happening culturally.

EHRC

The controversy at the Equality and Human Rights Commission continues to fill the column inches.

I do not claim to know what the real issues are, other than what I have read, but there are some very telling comments being made.

Take the view of outgoing commissioner Ben Summerskill that: "Trevor is a brilliant communicator . . . but he has not been successful in running the commission . . . it's an issue about old fashioned management."

Really?

A failure of management does appear to be at the root of many of the EHRC's problems, as it's audit travails and resignation of its CEO show.

But this level of management should not, if my understanding of quango operations is correct, be the day to day concern of Trevor.

Has he been sticking his nose into the affairs of officers a bit too much, or have officers not had the strategic direction and support that would empower them to do their job properly?

Cockerel

Has anyone else heard the cock crowing in Ladywell? I think it's somewhere up Chudleigh Road.

Flintoff

Oh, Fred. Freddie. Why did it have to end like this?

Whether he was a great cricketer, or simply a very good one doesn't come into it. He's Fred. A huge, immovable lump of Englishness. A boozer, a bowler, a batsman.

I'm happily hetrosexual, but Fred's enormous frame almost excites me. Just to see him charging into bowl raises the hackles in a way I can remember no other sportsman can.

Well we ever see his like again?

Thanks for the memories, Freddie.