Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Citizenship as credo

So former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has called for children to pledge an oath of allegiance to the queen, as part of a review of citizenship carried out at the request of the Prime Minister.

And he gets a well-earned round of derision. Simon Jenkins, for instance, points out that the man's paternalism

has nothing whatsoever to do with the civic space in which ordinary Britons live, breathe and conduct their politics, which is based on neighbourhood, community, village, town and city.

There's no need to rehearse the critique here - hopefully this folly will drown quickly and silently.

But there's another question to be asked, which is why a lord of the realm (is that the way to refer to them?) was invited by a Labour prime minister to carry out such an exercise? Why not a panel for example, including several citizens and those who work among citizens? It might have saved some embarassment, but the likelihood that it probably didn't occur to anyone close to the PM is as scary as what Goldsmith came up with.

12 Mar 2008 22:18:38 | Citizenship and democracy

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Shifting institutions A few weeks ago I had an absorbing discussion with a friend who works at a college, about the systematic reduction of funding, and other obstacles introduced by government, to minimise the contribution of further education institutions to community education. My friend's college, with a distinguished tradition of socially-committed work at local level with people on low-incomes, is being forced to abandon it. It's hardly contentious to record that the present government has presided over a shameful starvation of learning opportunities for people who lack chances, in spite of the originally earnest tone of social inclusion educational policies ten years ago. Since that conversation, it happens I've started doing some work under the current lottery-funded programme for community libraries, and been surprised at how many of the bids I've seen include the provision of spaces and activities for various forms of stuctured and semi-structured learning. One legitimate response to many of these might be, how come the education sector is not already doing this? And then I spotted a note in Monday's Guardian in which it is claimed that: Schools are having to give moral guidance to pupils which should be given by their parents at home... For some children, schools have had to take the place of the institutions that used to set the boundaries of acceptable behaviour. This is from a report of a speech by the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, who says that: For many children, school and its values, its clear boundaries and moral framework, are the only solid bedrock in their lives.' Well, something's going on here - schools claiming they have to carry out a parental role, libraries expected to do the work of schools and colleges, colleges obstructed from providing community education... The roles of institutions are shifting, and I suspect that most of those within the institutions think they occupy terra firma.
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Green cheer I've been in the Lake District for a few days, which got me pondering the way in which landscape (any landscape, it doesn't have to be A Grade) seems to make people more agreeable. With impeccable timing, here's Natural England, arguing that people living in towns and cities should have: an accessible natural greenspace less than 300 metres (5 minutes walk) from home; statutory Local Nature Reserves at a minimum level of one hectare per thousand population; at least one accessible 20 hectare site within two kilometres of home; one accessible 100 hectare site within five kilometres of home; and one accessible 500 hectare site within ten kilometres of home. There's a glossy, a report on accessible natural greenspace in towns and cities, and a report on green networks with multiple uses in and around towns and cities. Confession: the image is from Scotland, not the lakes.

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