be in gainful employment. He has one of those high-powered I-work-from-home-now kind of jobs, computers or consultancy or something, to fit round Zoe. Mind you, he can’t be doing that well, or why would he still be living in Moss Side? We’re still at a very early stage so I haven’t asked exactly what he does, nor where Zoe’s mum is. It’s just been a couple of drinks. We haven’t even been to bed yet (what, after two dates? What’s going on, Becs, I hear you say, this is not like you), but obviously Zoe is a complication, and I have my reputation to worry about. I mean, I’m his daughter’s teacher for Chrissakes!
So, what’s with you? How was your Easter holiday? And what have your coven of (Ips)witches been up to?
Love and hugs,
Becs xxx
From: Margaret Hayton [[email protected]]
Sent: 15/4/05 23:32
To: Rebecca Prichard [[email protected]]
Dear Becs,
Going out with a parent! Does the head know? Isn’t it against paragraph 32(b) of the Primary Teachers’ Penal Code? Up there with smoking within view of a minor, saying ‘inches’, or setting out a sum vertically before Key Stage Two? Punishable by public flogging at the wall-bars by the chair of governors? I suggest you locate Ed or Ethan immediately, to lead you back to the straight and narrow.
(By the way, I’m not sure you can have a lone male ABIE. They are normally female – or else come in pairs, dressed in matching rainwear.)
The main excitement here is that on Saturday I am going to meet my elusive MP, the slippery Mr Richard Slater – he’s invited me to his constituency surgery to talk to him about asylum seekers. He holds it in some obscure community hall – I’d always imagined these things went on at the town hall, or the local Party HQ. Anyway, I’m very glad of the opportunity: I really want to convince him of how appalling it is that when someone comes to this country thinking it will offer her safety, and she’s homeless, even a voluntary organisation can’t offer her support, if they are funded by the state. It’s just a nod towards the knee-jerk xenophobes who think we’re going to be swamped by immigrants making bogus asylum claims and sponging off social security – and what does it mean? People like Nasreen (I don’t think I mentioned her – she’s an Albanian girl living at Witch House), all on her own in a strange country where she barely speaks the language and certainly can’t read a form, unable to make use of the services she requires when she’s homeless and in need.
Trouble is, I’m sure he’s not going to listen. He is reputed to have been quite a lefty at one time, when he was on the city council. Persephone says he supported financing the Multi-cultural Centre, and helped find the new premises for the Women’s Aid refuge after the old one was torched by someone’s ex-partner. But then, she says, he took being New Labour so seriously in ’97 that he freshly minted himself. From what you read in the local press, he’s now so sensible that he makes a pair of lace-up Start-Rites look like a walk on the wild side. He even abstained on the war in Iraq – I mean, he actually abstained ! If he didn’t agree with military intervention then why didn’t he vote against like a decent human being? It’s like saying, ‘Hmm, should we violate international law and embark upon a war that will cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis? Well, maybe not, but I don’t really have much of a view one way or the other. Now, where were we, about those EU cabbage subsidies . . .’
Love,
Margaret xx
PS. ‘Abecedarian’ is a cool straight 8.
From: Rebecca Prichard [[email protected]]
Sent: 15/4/05 23:34
To: Margaret Hayton [[email protected]]
If you nod towards a knee-jerk xenophobe (1.5 points), aren’t you are in serious danger of getting clocked on the head? Sounds like you need to give him a good bashing about the brains with a copy of the
So, what’s with you? How was your Easter holiday? And what have your coven of (Ips)witches been up to?
Love and hugs,
Becs xxx
From: Margaret Hayton [[email protected]]
Sent: 15/4/05 23:32
To: Rebecca Prichard [[email protected]]
Dear Becs,
Going out with a parent! Does the head know? Isn’t it against paragraph 32(b) of the Primary Teachers’ Penal Code? Up there with smoking within view of a minor, saying ‘inches’, or setting out a sum vertically before Key Stage Two? Punishable by public flogging at the wall-bars by the chair of governors? I suggest you locate Ed or Ethan immediately, to lead you back to the straight and narrow.
(By the way, I’m not sure you can have a lone male ABIE. They are normally female – or else come in pairs, dressed in matching rainwear.)
The main excitement here is that on Saturday I am going to meet my elusive MP, the slippery Mr Richard Slater – he’s invited me to his constituency surgery to talk to him about asylum seekers. He holds it in some obscure community hall – I’d always imagined these things went on at the town hall, or the local Party HQ. Anyway, I’m very glad of the opportunity: I really want to convince him of how appalling it is that when someone comes to this country thinking it will offer her safety, and she’s homeless, even a voluntary organisation can’t offer her support, if they are funded by the state. It’s just a nod towards the knee-jerk xenophobes who think we’re going to be swamped by immigrants making bogus asylum claims and sponging off social security – and what does it mean? People like Nasreen (I don’t think I mentioned her – she’s an Albanian girl living at Witch House), all on her own in a strange country where she barely speaks the language and certainly can’t read a form, unable to make use of the services she requires when she’s homeless and in need.
Trouble is, I’m sure he’s not going to listen. He is reputed to have been quite a lefty at one time, when he was on the city council. Persephone says he supported financing the Multi-cultural Centre, and helped find the new premises for the Women’s Aid refuge after the old one was torched by someone’s ex-partner. But then, she says, he took being New Labour so seriously in ’97 that he freshly minted himself. From what you read in the local press, he’s now so sensible that he makes a pair of lace-up Start-Rites look like a walk on the wild side. He even abstained on the war in Iraq – I mean, he actually abstained ! If he didn’t agree with military intervention then why didn’t he vote against like a decent human being? It’s like saying, ‘Hmm, should we violate international law and embark upon a war that will cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis? Well, maybe not, but I don’t really have much of a view one way or the other. Now, where were we, about those EU cabbage subsidies . . .’
Love,
Margaret xx
PS. ‘Abecedarian’ is a cool straight 8.
From: Rebecca Prichard [[email protected]]
Sent: 15/4/05 23:34
To: Margaret Hayton [[email protected]]
If you nod towards a knee-jerk xenophobe (1.5 points), aren’t you are in serious danger of getting clocked on the head? Sounds like you need to give him a good bashing about the brains with a copy of the
Similar Books
