Human rights down under

Leaving aside the irony in Australia returning a criminal to the UK there is a singular contrast with our treatment of Stephen Lawrence’s killer, whom the courts ruled could not be deported. Few will be surprised at Australia taking the action it has, and Raymond Horne is just the latest in a line of paedophiles deported by the Australian authorities, but he has lived in Australia since he was five, and has no friends or family in this country. Leaving aside the consequences of deportation (as those who treat men like Horne are concerned that the stress may make him more likely to reoffend), there is something particularly inhuman in sending someone who is to all intents and purposes, and notwithstanding what he has done, an Australian, back to a country he now has no connection with save by accident of birth. Our government pleads that this is simply international law, as it suits their purposes (they too want to deport non-UK criminals: it is just that they have to find them first). But it reflects no credit on Canberra.

Teacher knows best

Mary Boustead, the General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, wants the focus of teaching to change, to equip pupils with the skills, such as teamwork and the ability to research, required by employers.

“Is the world going to collapse if they don’t know ‘To Be, or Not to Be?’ Our national curriculum should be far more focused on the development of life skills and ways of working than whether or not we teach the Battle of Hastings.”

Although she may be right when she say that a new curriculum should not focus on “regurgitation but more interpretation of knowledge” she is in danger of our throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We already have the least curious generation ever. We run the risk of following it with the least knowledgeable.

The curse of the BlackBerry

A rather depressing article in The Sunday Telegraph, about the world of work. Once work was work, and home was home, but now no longer, or not for a lot of people, if a report by Continental Research for Mitel is to be believed.

Getting away from work is growing harder, with more than half of companies encouraging staff to check their emails while on holiday. Businesses are taking advantage of mobile gadgets such as the BlackBerry to ensure that workers are never out of touch. But critics fear that the blurring of the line between work and leisure time is putting employees under strain.

For the lawyers who work for us, the BlackBerry is still a status symbol. Although they may be ubiquitous in the City, we do not give them out to everyone. Consequently the day IT produce one, you know you have made it (well, think you have). Which makes it all the more puzzling for my team that I handed mine back some two and a half years ago, fed up with the endless email traffic, and the invitation to discourtesy that BlackBerries offer. Not a meeting passes without someone playing with one under the table. I’m with Jim Norton, a senior policy adviser at the Institute of Directors, who is reported as commenting: “Anyone who works 100 per cent of the time will not be working very effectively.”

The going rate

Somewhat surprised to read in the Daily Telegraph that Ashley Alexandra Dupré, the 22 year old aspiring singer who was Eliot Spitzer’s nemesis, charged £500 an hour. This is almost certainly less than the hourly rate charged by M’learned friends in killing (at least in most of the UK papers) the story that linked The Emperors Club VIP with one of our part time military peers. But probably more fun.

A modern man

Leaving aside whether or not A levels (or more correctly A2s) are getting easier, the youngest (a boy) is now only concerned that this summer he beats his four sisters. It is a percentage game. I have pointed out to him that even if he gets better grades, this will not make him the most intelligent of the five. His answer was that I lacked male solidarity!