The abuse of power

As Richard Littlejohn has said on more than one occasion, the more powers you give to the police, government or local authorities the more they will abuse them.

A case in point is Poole Council in Dorset who used laws designed to track terrorists to see if a family were really living in a school's catchment area.

The council admitted using powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) on six occasions in total.

James Welch, legal director for Liberty, said, "It's one thing to use covert surveillance in operations investigating terrorism and other serious crimes, but it has come to a pretty pass when this kind of intrusive activity is used to police school catchment areas.

"This is a ridiculously disproportionate use of RIPA and will undermine public trust in necessary and lawful surveillance."

Tim Martin, the head of legal and democratic services ("democratic services"? eh?) at Poole Borough Council, said, "The council is committed to investigating the small minority of people who attempt to break the law and affect the quality of life for the majority of law-abiding residents in Poole."

Where do they find these people?* He will go far.

The child in question is THREE-YEARS-OLD.

Martin added, "An investigation may actually satisfy the council that the application is valid, as happened in this case."

So, in other words it was a waste of public money.

* I know, I know - the jobs pages of The Guardian.

Mind your language

If someone shovels shit, they are a shit shoveller. Calling them an "excrement removal technician" doesn't alter the job they do.

Dustmen have become "refuse collectors" - which is rather ironic since quite often these days they refuse to collect the rubbish.

Now the madness of changing job titles has reached school kitchens. On BBC Breakfast this morning I saw an item about dinner ladies being taught to cook and having learned, returning to their "unit". Apparently, a school kitchen is now a "unit".

According to today's Daily Mail: "Those with catering qualifications prefer to be called 'school cooks' or 'school chefs' while servers want to be known as 'lunchtime supervisors' or even 'food advisers' following Jamie Oliver's healthy meals revolution."

English for English schools...not American

And on the subject of education: when will the Americanisation of schools stop?

Why are exams now called SATs?