A night of shame and morning of dispair

Last night Henri cheated his way into the World Cup Finals.

This morning DUP and SF debated the future of education on the radio.  I know football can be a cruel game but cheating is cheating. Next time my nine year old sneaks and sly tackle on some other kid he’ll tell me he is just doing what Henri does. “Its the refs job to spot fouls dad”.

One bad example.

The second comes from those who are meant to have the interests of our children at heart. We now know the crisis in education goes much deeper then the stand off over the 11plus and the creeping privatization of  education.  This time it is the DUP who are playing hard ball over kids futures.

As the BBC reports today:

The Education and Skills Authority was due to take over the functions of the education and library boards and other bodies like the CCMS on 1 January.

The DUP has refused to back the new authority, and the deadlock is unlikely to be broken by the end of the year.

Despite this, education bosses warned no contingency plans are in place.

Their concerns were echoed by Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) chief executive Donal Flanagan, who has advised his staff to “disengage” from assisting in the creation of the Education and Skills Authority (ESA).

The DUP is opposed to the ESA because it is unhappy with the treatment of controlled schools, attended mostly by Protestant children.

So the message from the football pitch and the Assembly is clear. Win at any cost. Don’t worry about the consequences or the signals it sends to children.

Victories are solutions!