The Writing On The Wall

Well, here are some words - words of imperishable wisdom to boot: 'I wish all our wishes come true.' Got that? I took these words down verbatim from a marble plaque on a wall behind Gordon Brown, as seen on TV last night. The wall was the wall of a 'state of the art' (i.e. new) school building over which Oour Gordie was enthusing. Nice bit of marble it was too, and properly incised lettering, no expense spared. It was surrounded by similar plaques, all bearing similar vapid 'wishes', presumably the work of pupils (the words, that is, not the skilled stuff like letter-cutting). Literacy and numeracy may be at pre-1870 levels (or lower), but we have the finest schools in the world, thanks to 10 years of Labour government and masive expenditure of taxpayers' money. Stands to reason - at least it does to Gordy, who automatically equates big spending (sorry, 'investment') and new buildings with things getting better. In fact, when it comes to schools, it's probaly more true that the shabbier the buildings the higher the educational standards (certainly applies to my old school). Can anything that could truly be called education be taking place in a building festooned with such fatuous mini-mission statements? What's wrong with 'Abandon hope all ye who enter here'?