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Hoddy

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Everything posted by Hoddy

  1. Eurotrash - I’m sorry, but I just have to disagree with you. You write, “He was giving a lesson about freedom of expression.” I just can’t see how you can do this if you invite/allow some of them to leave before you start. I have on occasion said something that a whole class would find really outrageous in order to make the point that as long as I was not advocating breaking the law, I was a free born English woman who could hold any opinion I wanted to. I have no argument with defending our (UK and France) core values - they do seem to be under attack in the UK too though from a different quarter. There would be little point in the UK in suggesting that people go back to their country of origin since many of them have been here for two or three generations. In my opinion we ought to be teaching all our children to live as law abiding citizens and explain why they have to pay taxes, for example. I would like our science teachers to tackle the problem of consanguineous marriages. I would want the equality of women taught in all lessons. Like your ex-guardsman friend I have little time for religion because I am heavily influenced by personal experience. I had to identify the body of a former pupil who was the victim of an ‘honour’ killing because no-one from her community would do it.
  2. "but which is never addressed for fear of reprisal." It is never addressed because politicians are afraid to tackle the subject except in an authoritarian way. In my opinion attacking people’s core beliefs will, in most cases, only reinforce them. This is why I think the teacher made a mistake in the way he tried to tackle the subject of the cartoons - he began by accepting that they were too offensive for some of his pupils to look at. I can only say again, without condoning in any way what happened, that teacher should have considered more carefully what the point of his lesson was.
  3. I found that article most interesting Norman because it illustrated very well the difference between moslems in France who originated in North Africa and moslems in the UK who, until recently, originated in Pakistan. I used to work in a school where over 40% of our pupils came from ethnic minority backgrounds and I feel that we were frequently let down by our political masters. Any suggestion that there were problems was met by with the accusation that all teachers were racist. This was in spite of the fact that the top performing group in our school was Sikh girls, closely followed by Sikh boys. When I contacted our political masters because one of our pupils was being sent ‘home’ for a forced marriage I was told that it was not the local authority’s policy to interfere in matters of cultural difference. Both the UK and France need to do something about it. This does not mean as one of our former pupils wrote ‘cultural acceptance does not mean accepting the unacceptable’. I think it does mean that we have to discuss these issues very carefully and with respect and I still don’t see how one can even begin to do that if half the class is missing.
  4. You can't do that if you've suggested that some of the class leave.
  5. While in no way condoning what happened I have to ask myself what was the point of this lesson. When I trained to be a teacher we were taught that the starting point for any lesson was to be able to clearly identify your aims. So what was the point of this lesson and how did he hope to achieve them by inviting the pupils it was perhaps particularly aimed at to leave the room ?
  6. Caroline as you can see from the posts on this thread your father was held in very high regard here. It wasn’t just that he was willing to share his extensive knowledge, but that he always delivered it in an understandable way which didn’t belittle the questioner. The forum is poorer without him. Please accept my condolences.
  7. I took a school trip to Moscow and St Petersburg. I had a universal plug which I lent out , but eventually it disappeared. One of the kids luggage disappeared and we struggled to find even a toothbrush for him. I had a little personal triumph though. I was in the lift with one of my boys - a huge lad with bright red hair and two French women were speculating about where we from. They were extremely embarrassed when I told them in French that we were English.
  8. Louiseau like you I’m pleased to see some posters who I thought were long gone putting in an appearance. Also like you I remember the heady days of Dick and Mikki and I also stayed at Coco’s B & B. In particular I remember delicious pain perdu. The forum software in those days was very poor. It wasn’t possible to delete a whole thread and I remember Gay and I spending an entire Saturday afternoon deleting individual offensive posts. Things usually got worse later in the evening ……. Among other things I remember a rumour going round that the moderators were able to read private emails. We couldn’t then and we can’t now, but people just didn’t believe it and I always suspected that there was just one malicious person somewhere trying to foment trouble. The things that have upset me the most have been people for whom I’ve done personal favours referring to me as a gauleiter and such like. The board is much less lively than it used to be perhaps because it’s not so fashionable to have a holiday home in France these days or maybe because we are all older and perhaps consume less red wine. I still believe in its usefulness though. As you say it’s good to see some former posters coming back.
  9. OK this is absolutely my last word on the subject. There is no rule about other forums. As I have said dozens of times before we have/had long standing "gentleman's agreement" not to discuss matters which arise elsewhere. Very long experience shows that it always ends in unpleasantness as it has done this time. I have been on the receiving end of some really unpleasant nastiness. I am making one last appeal for this to stop NOW>
  10. Maybe you should stay off forums if you can't abide by the rules.
  11. In a way you've identified the whole point Noisette. Even if remarks posted elsewhere would have someone "leaping for their legal eagle's number" it should not have them bringing those problems on to this forum.
  12. If this forum gets closed down I shall hold you personally responsible. I have asked repeatedly that matters which arise on other forums are not brought on to this one. You know that I am trying to keep things going single-handedly and yet you choose not to co-operate.
  13. For me, like Judith, it's Aberfan. It happened on my birthday and so I'm reminded of it every year.
  14. Indeed it is Norman. I thought she had died some years ago. Very sad anyway.
  15. My elderly neighbour recently gave his grandson E10,000 towards buying his first house. They were both visited by the tax authorities and, yes, my neighbour had the money 'under his mattress'.
  16. Don't they hide their money (where?) Exactly Lori. About fifteen years ago my neighbour proudly presented his grandson with a donation of E10,000 towards his first house.The authorities demanded to know where it had come from. He had thought it was safe under his mattress.
  17. I think I can explain the resurrections of old threads. We seem to have had a spate of people posting on old threads when what they have to say is completely irrelevant to the forum. I think a lot of people are spending much more random time on the internet. I delete them as fast as I can but it doesn't stop the old thread showing up as 'current'.
  18. My experience is closer to Mint's than Megan's. I grew up within the sound of the Meynell kennels on days when the wind was in the right direction. The dogs were big strong, related to each other and the huntsmen knew them and probably their grandparents too and they obeyed him. La Chasse near me in Perigord was a bunch of four or five men with a motley crew of assorted dogs which only met on hunt days. The proceedings usually began with a swift dram or two to counter the cold. The aim of the two hunts was different. The English dogs were out to hunt down and kill foxes. The French dogs would have been no match for a boar; their aim was to flush them out of the maize so they could be shot. This is where the many mistakes Mint mentions happens. As for the general attitude to dogs. When ever I've mentioned that it might be better if a dog was neutered you might have thought that I was suggesting depriving them of their human rights !
  19. Norman wrote : I think that the balance between local and outsourced products, especially things of strategic importance such as medicines will have to be re-considered, as will the relative remuneration of work and investments. On our lunchtime news the managing director said that he had contacted the NHS offering to produce scrubs. He has still had no reply. Frustrated he contacted local hospitals and is producing scrubs for them He bought the cloth from another local supplier who is wanting to use another type of cloth which is genuinely re-usable. The jury is still out on that one. I don't understand what is going wrong. This company has the machinery and the skills to produce much more than they are doing and it would be much better than them being furloughed as they are at present.I wouldn't be surprised if things like this were repeated in many other parts of the country. We need a serious re-think about the whole economy.
  20. I'm OK thanks Wooly - three weeks in isolation isn't improving my temper. Thanks goodness I don't have children at home.
  21. I would not confine this to just footballers. I think that any company that is paying large salaries, bonuses and dividends should not be claiming furlough compensation from the government - in other words my taxes.
  22. Hoddy

    Dead

    My living room has never been so sparkly ! I am trying to garden, but it's a bit too cold. We have been self isolated since Tuesday - quite difficult to keep it up.
  23. 'main drains' - luxury ! Our buckets, we had two, were collected once a week by Hookey Smith who had lost his hand in WW1 and came round with a special kind of trap pulled by a pony. This went on until the polio outbreak in the early 50s. Meanwhile the newspaper blew about in the fields
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