A letter to the Radio Times

Viv and I have a subscription to The Radio Times: we like to know what's on TV. There’s so much rubbish on that we don’t like to miss the one or two good programs, like Secrets of the London Underground or reruns of Ever Decreasing Circles.  

But like much of the mainstream media it has got caught up in peddling liberal ideas. The 21-27 May issue landed on our doormat on Tuesday, I flicked through it and as soon as I saw the article on page 9 my blood pressure shot up: ‘Enough Tudors and Stuarts’, I read, ‘by Troy Deeney’.


‘Let's  teach all our children about black history’,  it starts.


Troy is a career footballer, I believe.


I’ve sent off an email to the Feedback pages of RT:


Hi


Troy Deeney (RT, 21-27 May)  has missed the point about the study of history in schools.


History is taught because it explains the way things are in the UK: our language, our customs, our laws. It is not about us as individuals. The Tudor and Stuart period tells us, among other things, why there is a tube station in London called 'Monument', and why there are many pubs called The King's Head and The Royal Oak. 


Some of my ancestors came over from West Cork at the start of the 20th Century, but I learned almost nothing about Irish history - including the civil war in which my relatives fought -  in school. 


History taught in school is about our nation, and what we have in common, not what makes us different or what might be used as an excuse to stir up racial tension. 


Regards


Phil.


I await with interest to see whether they publish it.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is society over-medicated?

In my previous blog entry , I described my experiences of the effect that certain medication - in that case, antidepressants - can have on someone’s judgement and character, and the effect on their relationships and even those around them. I also referred to an NHS report from 2016 that contained some startling facts, including: ‘ 48%, of adults had taken at least one prescribed medicine in the last week, and almost a quarter, 24%, had taken three or more’   ‘...commonly  used  prescribed  medicines were antihypertensives (by  15%  of  adults) and  lipid-lowering  medicines (14%);  followed  by  proton-pump  inhibitors  for reducing  acid  in the  stomach  (11%); analgesics and  non-steroidal anti-inflammatory  drugs (11%); and antidepressants  (10%)’ The idea that ten percent of the population could be taking something to cause them to behave in the way my ex wife did should shock people. What effect might this level of medication be having on society? *** It's not just antidepr
Read more

And you wonder why I'm sceptical on matters medical?

One of the (many) things my ex wife used to criticise me about was that I was sceptical about, well, almost everything. Ever since I was a child I have been wary of believing what others tell me; there are dark episodes in my past that may at least partly explain that. The fact is, I do have an ‘enquiring mind’. I don't like being told something, and then being told to believe it ‘because I say so’. I’m awkward; I’m probably somewhat ‘on the spectrum’; but I believe that I should be able to understand almost anything, if the person I’m listening to can communicate effectively, and that I should also be able to satisfy myself that what they are saying is, in fact, correct. If they can't, and I can't, I won't trust them. I’ve therefore earned a reputation for being sceptical on, among other matters, medical topics. Some may think that I’ve developed this attitude only in response to events in the last ten years or so, but that’s not the case at all: I have had my concern
Read more

The roots of my character

Image
  This is my first blog entry for a few months. I had to take time away, Viv has had some time in hospital and follow up treatment, life has been, unfortunately, just too busy for writing. Things are now settling down so normal service is slowly being resumed. *** We got home from the shops a couple of weeks ago and there was a red card through the door, from the Royal Mail: I had been sent a parcel from Allied Newspapers that they had been unable to deliver. I had no idea what it might be. The card said they would try to deliver it again on Monday, when we were also going to be out; it mentioned I could request it to be sent to my local Post Office using their online tool.  Several clicks later I thought I had achieved that, but no, they still tried to deliver it on Monday. Moreover, even two days later their online tool didn’t show the parcel being at the Post Office, but at the sorting office. The opening hours of that are 8am to 10am daily (yes, very customer-friendly), so we drove
Read more