Pistis reclaims 'as if...' (weekending May 28th 2022)

 

‽istis reclaims: ‘as if…’ (weekending May 28th 2022)

This week:

·        when a Prime Minister might have resigned (as if…);

·        when a President might have entered into peace talks (as if…);

·        when the profits of energy companies and the dividends of shareholders and the owners of the means of producing that energy may have been hit with a massive windfall tax by a Conservative Chancellor (as if…);

·        when BBC Radio 4’s programme ‘Start the Week’[i] encouraged us to consider that co-operation within and between organisms, creatures and animals (and perhaps even us) may be more the norm than previously thought,

‽istis ponders ‘as if…’

This week’s main ‘as if’ though might be not so much the exclamatory tone of a realist/pessimist/sceptic (“As if!!!”), but more perhaps the ‘as if’ of someone imagining feeling as if they were another, imagining thinking as if they were another, imagining behaving as if they were another – living in the light of all that imagining, all that as if…

With apologies then, for it’s more ponderings on the empathy/sympathetic imagination theme that cropped up last week and has made an appearance in other previous blog entries….

·        What if party-goers (and those who may have let them party or turned an eye) had, just for a moment, tried to think and feel as if they were the Queen on the evening before Prince Philip’s funeral and then behave accordingly; as if they were the person standing in the rain, in a flower bed to get near the window of a care home to try and explain yet again why they could not come inside and hold a hand‽

·        What if policy-making was undertaken as if ‘nothing about us, without us’ (that’s "Nihil de nobis, sine nobis" for all you types who perhaps like to throw in a Latin phrase to quite possibly prove to their parents and peers that the expensive education was not wasted and just how clever they must be…) was the over-riding principle – including the views and wishes and feelings of the excluded and discriminated against, those disabled by society and the organisation and arrangements of society‽ What if the idea of a Rawlsian ‘space’ where we did not know where or how (personally, socially or geographically) we individually would turn out to be living, or who we individually would turn out to be - was practice not just theory‽

·        What if foreign policy was formed and informed by Presidents and generals thinking as if it were their own cities and towns and schools and hospitals and shops and homes that were being bombed, as if it was their grandparents and parents and partners and children (or even themselves) who were being killed or raped, or who were hiding terrified, or who were fleeing; or who were left lying dead, unburied in the streets of their home town; or who were left scarred or traumatised…‽

What if we could just for a moment imagine living as if the driving survival imperative was indeed for the ‘fittest’ to thrive and pass on their genes - but that ‘the fittest’ was defined as that which/who can best meld and co-operate; was the organism that thrives in symbiotic co-existence rather than ‘fight to the death’ dominance…  was the person/persons who could see themselves as part of a greater whole and could help build, maintain and promote a place where my wellbeing is utterly and inextricably linked with your wellbeing‽ 

Perhaps, possibly, maybe just consider and try to imagine how different you and I might then find each other to be, and how different we might then find the world to be, the world that we had all created together…

As if, eh‽

© Pistis                                                                                                                    

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

[i] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017k6s Thank you Adam Rutherford, Frans de Waal, Seirian Sumner and Nichola Raihani

Pistis ponders becoming inured (weekending May 21st 2022)

 

‽istis ponders becoming inured (weekending May 21st 2022)

This week ‽istis ponders and is very troubled by what may be the risk of a process of becoming inured as

‽ the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), as of May 19 2022, verified in relation to Russia's military attack on Ukraine

·        a total of 3,838 civilian deaths during.

·        256 were children.

·        4,351 people were reported to have been injured. However, OHCHR specified that the real numbers could be higher.[i]

‽ the numbers of people ‘internally displaced’ in Ukraine, many leaving their homes with little more than what they can carry, reportedly exceeds 8 million…[ii]

‽ images of pallbearers being kicked and beaten and of mourners for a journalist being stunned with grenades – perhaps fade[iii]

‽ the specific number of inflatable boats attempting to cross the Channel with people seeking safety and sanctuary and maybe just a chance, is difficult to recall[iv]

‽ as warnings of climate crisis are perhaps assuaged by talk of ‘techno-fixes’[v]

‽ as the daily experiences of domestic violence, abuse and coercive control for millions are possibly hidden behind what seems like a soap opera trial[vi]

‽ as an appalling report of a child who had their life literally ‘shaken out’[vii] maybe brings the daily reality of abuse for some children and young people momentarily into the public consciousness

…and on, and on – wherever you are, whichever country or continent; whatever acute crisis or chronic, desperate and distressing situation you may have thought about, or heard of, or read about, or experienced very, very directly......…‽

So ‽istis seeks out a definition: anure - ‘to accustom, to accept something undesirable’[viii]; ‘hardened by frequent exposure, especially to something bad’, ‘to accustom to hardship, difficulty, pain, etc.; toughen or harden; habituate’[ix]. Or, perhaps in some contrast, several definitions in law: to have a particular effect or result; a term used to indicate to whose benefit or advantage the particular action or process has been done for…[x]

And perhaps, possibly, maybe in these two areas of definition there could be a clue…‽ 

The effect of becoming inured, becoming hardened, accustomed, habituated - may be an unconscious/subconscious/innate survival mechanism, a way of coping after an exposure to too much reality, too much pain, too much that may disturb and distress? It may bring a benefit for me, limiting distress to ‘me and mine’ rather than an overwhelming ‘you and yours’?

 Yet, if somehow we could bear to recall, bear to remember, bear to retain, bear to think and feel what it might be like; if we could bear to live with a little more unfettered ‘sympathetic imagination’[xi], well just consider how different the world could be…

© Pistis                                                                                                                    

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

---

[i] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293492/ukraine-war-casualties/  & see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War#Total_casualties for other statistics

[ii] https://www.migrationdataportal.org/ukraine/crisis-movements

[iii] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-61437601

[iv] This data covers the 24-hour period 00:00 to 23:59 19 May 2022.

·         Number of migrants detected in small boats: 106

·         Number of boats detected: 3

·         The Ministry of Defence does not believe that any migrants arrived on their own terms in a small boat from the English Channel.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats

[v] For example: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-61524740

[vi] For example: an estimated 1.6 million women aged 16 to 74 years experienced domestic abuse in the last year https://www.womensaid.org.uk/information-support/what-is-domestic-abuse/how-common-is-domestic-abuse/ & https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61527595

[vii] https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/foster-mum-admits-shaking-life-26928928

[viii] Mirriam -Webster Dictionary: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inure

[ix] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/inure

[x] https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/inure

 [xi] ‘By the imagination we place ourselves in his situation, we conceive ourselves enduring all the same torments, we enter as it were into his body, and become in some measure the same person with him, and thence form some idea of his sensations, and even feel something which, though weaker in degree, is not altogether unlike them.’ Theory of Moral Sentiments Adam Smith. See: https://www.adamsmithworks.org/speakings/sympathy-fellow-feeling-and-the-imagination, for example.

Pistis reclaims good fortune (weekending May 14th 2022)

 

‽istis reclaims good fortune (weekending May 14th 2022)

In a couple of weeks when

‽ someone in the UK has come forward with the EuroMillions winning lottery ticket to claim a new record £184million[i]

‽ a colleague has apparently won a ‘beast’ of a Triumph motorbike for less than £10 of raffle tickets

‽istis has chanced upon an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week programme considering ‘Curiosity, Ingenuity and Experimentation’[ii]

‽istis ponders good fortune… and finds (guided by carefully crafted algorithms) some relevant attributed quotations[iii]:

·        ‘Oh, but you must travel through those woods again and again... said a shadow at the window... and you must be lucky to avoid the wolf every time... But the wolf... the wolf only needs enough luck to find you once.’  Emily Carroll.

·        ‘Everything in life is luck.’ Donald Trump.

·        ‘People always call it luck when you’ve acted more sensibly than they have.’ Anne Tyler.

·        ‘Luck affects everything; let your hook always be cast; in the stream where you least expect it, there will be a fish.’ Ovid.

·        ‘Luck has a way of evaporating when you lean on it.’ Brandon Mull.

·        ‘Diligence is the mother of good luck.’ Benjamin Franklin.

Several quotations suggest that perhaps there may be something more than random chance going on: ‘Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.’ Ray Kroc.

And ‽istis recalls the ‘lucky’ gold winning ‘last man standing’ 2002 Winter Olympic speedskater, Steven Bradbury, safe in last place when all those in front crashed out. Bradbury is quoted as saying:  "I'll accept this gold medal. But not for the 90 seconds of the race - I'm going to take it for the 14 years of hard work." And later, it appears that Bradbury was in the right place, at the right time and was able to help save the lives of four very ‘lucky’ young people in rough Queensland surf[iv]

 In the ‘Start the Week’ broadcast there was talk of serendipity, the importance of ‘continuous endeavour’ and a reference to what may be a ‘general truth’[v] in an aphorism attributed to Louis Pasteur: ‘Fortune favours the prepared mind.’ Even the EuroMillions winner heeded the marketing advice: ‘Be in it to win it’ , believed that 'It could be you!'and bought a ticket… knowing the odds or otherwise. Years of risk assessments and reviews of serious incidents have perhaps left us with a sense of caution for ‘low probability events sometimes happen’ [vi]

 So where does this leave our ponderings and wonderings this week‽

• Perhaps, possibly maybe we might attribute just a little bit more to the endeavour of those who appear lucky?
• But what if the circumstances that support anyone’s capacity to ‘endeavour’, that lead to a mind prepared, are also extraordinarily complex and ‘chancy’?  
• That perhaps whether we are apparently ‘winners’ or ‘losers’, we may all be ‘hoping against hope’[vii] in a world where so much is possibly beyond our control?
• That a worthwhile endeavour for us all may be one where we seek to create the conditions of good fortune, build a ‘right place’ and a ‘right time’ for everyone, as perhaps luckily we are all ‘in it’ together.  

© Pistis                                                                                                                    

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

---

[i] https://metro.co.uk/2022/05/11/euromillions-someones-come-forward-to-claim-184000000-jackpot-16625761/

[ii] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016x86

[iii] https://kidadl.com/quotes/top-luck-quotes-to-bring-some-magic-into-your-life And finding this interesting website has seemed a little bit ‘chancy’: ‘The Kidadl Solution

Kidadl was founded as the digital home of family edutainment, helping parents educate and entertain their kids with trusted, personalized, curated content designed for families the world over.’

[iv] Interestingly Steven Bradbury went on to save four very lucky young people from drowning in a dramatic rescue in wild surf https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10587673/Australias-Olympic-hero-Steven-Bradbury-saved-four-lives-Sunshine-Coast.html Right place, right time; again!

[v] https://www.bing.com/search?q=aphorism&form=ANNTH1&refig=22563768b8234cfb9c16489a6bdebab0

[vi] See The Munro Review: TheMunroReviewofChildProtection-Part one.pdf (ioe.ac.uk)

[vii] https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hope-against-hope

Pistis reclaims goodwill and messages of peace (weekending April 30th 2022)

 

‽istis reclaims goodwill and messages of peace (weekending April 30th 2022)

This week ends on a day that has been designated ‘International Jazz Day’ by UNESCO (1): ‘to focus global attention on the role that jazz has played in breaking down race and gender barriers around the world, promoting co-operation mutual understanding and communication - and peace and freedom.’ (2).

‽istis begins to ponder jazz and recalls earlier thoughts on ‘extemporising’ back in August 2020 when we were trying to find our way through the score-destroying uncertainty of a response to a potential existential threatening pandemic (3).

But then, on reading that the initiative leading to ‘International Jazz Day’ came from ‘American Jazz pianist, composer and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Intercultural Dialogues’, ‽istis riffed away to consider the people who are, or have been ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ - who are they? What is their role? Has  anyone evaluated their impact? Has the stock of ‘goodwill’ across the world increased and how, on earth, could we ever tell?

Considering these questions took ‽istis down what might be considered a ‘rabbit hole’ (4) leading to a maze of tunnels and corridors opened up by the internet and the mysterious algorithmic magic of search engines. A complex network is found - the structure of the United Nations (5): 

‽ six main organs (6)

‽ four pillars (7)

‽ fifteen ‘specialised organisations’ including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (8)

‽ a number of a number of UN offices, programmes and funds — such as the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) — working to improve the economic and social condition of people around the world. (9)

And, ‽istis discovers that there are both ‘Goodwill Ambassadors’ and ‘Messengers of Peace’ (10): ‘distinguished individuals, carefully selected from the fields of art, literature, science, entertainment, sports or other fields of public life, who have agreed to help focus worldwide attention on the work of the United Nations. Backed by the highest honour bestowed by the Secretary-General on a global citizen, these prominent personalities volunteer their time, talent and passion to raise awareness of United Nations efforts to improve the lives of billions of people everywhere.’ (11)

Links and files available from the webpage https://ask.un.org/faq/14597 lead to a list, a gallery and further individual pages for the 13 current ‘Messengers of Peace’. Another link takes this rabbit-hole explorer to the initialised world of: UNESCO, UNEP, UNDP, UNAIDS FAO, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, WHO, World Food Programme (WFP, surely?), UN WOMEN, UNODC, IFAD & UNCDF…  all of which seem to have Goodwill Ambassadors, Advocates or Special Ambassadors.

Wondering about evaluation and impact matters, ‽istis follows (from https://ask.un.org/faq/14597) another link and finds a report from 2006: ‘Goodwill Ambassadors in the United Nations System’ by Papa Louis Fall and Guangting Tang (Joint Inspection Unit, Geneva) (12) - an  evaluation  of  the  Goodwill  Ambassadors programmes in the United Nations system from March to May 2006. Several recommendations are made including this: ‘Executive heads should:  (a) Develop systems to track and report regularly on the impact of the activities of the Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace;  (b) Conduct periodic evaluations of the programmes to improve their efficiency.

So, tunnelling on, ‽istis types in ‘UN Evaluation of the impact of Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace’ to a popular search engine. An article emerges by Mark Wheeler emerges in the journal ‘Celebrity Studies’ (2011) (13) and, with it, ‘a mixed picture’ - but an acknowledgement that ‘the UN experience demonstrates that celebrities have promoted new or alternative discourses, and by occupying a public space have affected credible diplomatic interventions across the international community.’

Finally, ‽istis comes up for air, pops out of the rabbit hole and looks again at the world around...

And ‽istis is left wondering what messages of goodwill and peace are being proclaimed this week and today by the 153 Goodwill Ambassadors (14) and 13 Messengers of Peace (15)?, how and to whom?, whether we are listening? and if it will make a difference‽

© Pistis                                                                                                                    

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

1. UNESCO: United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization
2. https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/jazz-day
3. https://pistisrec.blogspot.com/2020/08/pistis-reclaims-extemporising.html when ‽istis hoped that ‘the required extemporisation is indeed based and built on sound and shared principles, experience and expertise; presented by people in harmony, united and sharing an understanding of ‘what works’; acknowledging, referencing, citing, adopting and adapting the best of past and contemporary exponents and of acclaimed and proven forebears and peers…’ Hmm, that went well?
4. After Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)?
5. https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/mun-guide-general-assembly
6. Economic and Social Council; General Assembly; International Court of Justice; Secretariat; Security Council; Trusteeship Council
7. Peace and Security; Human Rights; The Rule of Law; Development. ‘These four pillars are all interconnected. You can’t fully achieve one without achieving all of them.’ Hmm, that’s going well?  https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/4-pillars-united-nations
8. & 9) https://www.un.org/en/model-united-nations/un-family-organizations

 

10. and 11.  https://ask.un.org/faq/14597 : ‘The United Nations Secretary-General appoints Messengers of Peace. Goodwill Ambassadors, on the other hand, are designated by the heads of United Nations Funds, Programmes and specialized Agencies, e.g., UNICEF, the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNHCR. Goodwill Ambassadors are subsequently endorsed by the Secretary-General. In 2010, in response to a General Assembly request to mark the International Year of Biodiversity, for the first time the Secretary-General appointed a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.

 

12. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/593164?ln=en  the objective of the evaluation was to ‘Assess the level of financial and human resources needed to meet established objectives effectively and to achieve a return on investment.  Identify  best  practices  and  performance  indicators  for  the  use  and  administration  of  Goodwill Ambassador programmes. Recommend  where  necessary  general  guidelines  for  improvement,  rationalization  and harmonization of current practices within the system.’

Eleven recommendations are noted including: Recommendation 8 Executive heads should:  (a) Develop systems to track and report regularly on the impact of the activities of the Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace;  (b) Conduct periodic evaluations of the programmes to improve their efficiency.

 

13. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232831254_Celebrity_diplomacy_United_Nations'_Goodwill_Ambassadors_and_Messengers_of_Peace and concludes: ‘a mixed picture has emerged… Undoubtedly, Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace have lent weight to the public campaigns waged by the UN in a commercially driven global news media. They have provided a definable focus for public engagement and have utilised their star power to affect pressure upon diplomats, international policy-makers and national leaders but, …there are dangers in over-simplifying complex forms of international diplomacy and utilising emotional responses. However, the UN experience demonstrates that celebrities have promoted new or alternative discourses, and by occupying a public space have affected credible diplomatic interventions across the international community.’

14.  UNESCO (55), UNEP (9), UNDP (10), UNAIDS (8), UNFPA (6), FAO (3), UNHCR (6), UNICEF (30), World Food Programme (4), WHO (9), UN WOMEN (5), UNODC (5), IFAD (2), UNCDF (1).

15. HRH Princess Haya , Daniel Barenboim , Paulo Coelho, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Edward Norton, Charlize Theron, Stevie Wonder, Malala Yousafzai.

Pistis begins to ponder learning and school subjects (weekending April 23rd 2022)

 

‽istis just begins to ponder learning and school subjects (weekending April 23rd 2022)

Earlier this month a British newspaper headline read: ‘Schools being ‘silenced’ by new political impartiality guidance from Government, teachers say’ (1) following, it seems, the publication in February of the Department for Education’s guidance: ‘Political Impartiality in Schools’ (2) and the foreword by Nadhim Zahawi MP Secretary of State for Education, includes:

‘Importantly, I hope this guidance helps all parties to understand how schools should go about meeting their legal duties, allowing issues to be resolved through constructive dialogue and agreement…

…nothing in this guidance limits schools’ freedom to teach about sensitive, challenging, and controversial political issues…

Schools should also continue to reinforce important shared principles that underpin our society, whether that be upholding democratic rights or more generally promoting respect and tolerance.’

And this week, a new GCSE subject is proposed: ‘Natural History’ (3) part of the Department for Education’s  Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy - which prompted ‽istis to reflect on other subjects that might be introduced, or given a makeover - here’s a cautious first sketch of a first draft only as mind-map images beginning to form: of a coherent and connected curriculum from foundational core themes, topics and subjects branching outward to specialisms through life-long education, learning and training opportunities and related organisational arrangements (to be continued).

So, in no particular order or hierarchy and as a starter for ten only and with general apologies:

‽ Learning and thinking: critical thinking and analysis: from constructs to deconstruction; from making and presenting a case to dialogue and debate; from heuristics and rhetoric; using assistive technology; sources and resources; ‘facts’ and ‘truth/s’ - knowns, unknowns and unknown unknowns!

‽ Applied Social Sciences: psychology (understanding what may lie within us/what makes us tick?), social psychology (understanding what may lie between us/?), sociology (understanding what may lie outside of us and may influence us?) - and related topics: emotional intelligence and relationships: personal, family, communities, social organisation; human and other rights, duties, powers, responsibilities and the law; diversity matters; inclusion and exclusion; civics and society: institutions, power, politics, economics, systems, organisations; peace and reconciliation; building consensus, creating the future, etc.

‽ Health and well-being… understanding mental health, physical health - recreation and sport; emotional well-being of self and others; healthy people and places

‽ Language, languages (with specific options), communication and the media

‽ Histories: many and varied perspectives on the past - dominant and otherwise, records and sources, archives and collections, narratives and stories

‽ Geography and the natural, altered and 'made' world: people, places, landscapes and environments - past, present and future

‽ Belief and faiths in theory and practice: sacred and secular, religious and humanistic

‽ Everyday mathematics and then options: on to ‘pure’ mathematics, etc.

‽ Recycle and repair, DIY and maintenance, electrics, plumbing and building etc.

‽ Everyday science and then options - on to specifics: physics; chemistry; biology; engineering; natural history and sustainability

‽ The arts and cultures: understanding, appreciating and creating - on to specific areas: literature - poetry and lyrics; plays and prose; visual arts; sound and music-making; music production; architecture and the built environment, etc.

And, as ever, you might care to have a go at sketching out your vision or adapting this very first draft - with so much more work to be done, not least to address, ‽istis is sure, the many omissions and biases (conscious or unconscious!)…

Perhaps, possibly, maybe let us at least consider that it could be important to find fresh ways to kindle the flames (4) of learning and achievement for us all; to re-think learning and curricula, assessment and qualifications and their delivery and organisation - including the role and nature of playgroups, nurseries, home-learning, schools, universities, work-based learning and opportunities for life-long learning; to consider what are the outcomes that we wish for - and to imagine how different the world could be‽

Afterwords:

a) In a spirit of dialectics and Hegelian ‘absoluter gegenstoss’ (5), if you wish to call someone ‘woke’ then perhaps you are somehow acknowledging that there may be others who essentially ‘asleep’ or ‘unconscious’ - possibly even to their biases, howsoever and wheresoever these may have been taught or learned: at home, in a community, in school or perhaps, possibly, maybe within a dominating and even inherently ‘othering’ hegemony‽

b) Further to the issuing of the DfE Guidance and in the spirit of the foreword by Secretary of State for Education, ‽istis looks forward to renewed outbreaks of: ‘issues… resolved through constructive dialogue and agreement’; reinforcing ‘important shared principles’; ‘upholding democratic rights’ and ‘more generally promoting respect and tolerance’ - on the playing fields of Eton (6), the playing fields left across other schools (7), in the Department for Education and in Parliament.

© Pistis                                                                                                                    

NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme and past blog

entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’: @Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...  

 

1. https://inews.co.uk/news/education/school-classrooms-silenced-political-impartiality-guidance-government-teachers-british-empire-1568560
2. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/political-impartiality-in-schools/political-impartiality-in-schools
3. References include: http://www.curlewmedia.com/gcse-natural-history, the website of Mary Colwell (producer and writer specialising in nature’) who proposed such a topic several years’ ago. See also: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/61141330 & https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/apr/17/new-natural-history-gcse-to-focus-on-protecting-the-planet & https://teach.ocr.org.uk/naturalhistory
4. Which may or may not have been proposed by William Butler Yeats: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/28/mind-fire/
5. References include:   https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2015/03/worst-all-worlds-late-capitalist-materialism-and-unending-cycles-slavoj-i-ek which includes:  “the radical coincidence of opposites in which the action appears as its own counteraction…’ & ‘…an action becomes the result (rather than the cause) of its counteraction. To take the best-known example in Hegel, the master discovers that the slave is not his other but the condition of his status as master – that he is the master only by virtue of his dependence on (or enslavement to) the slave.’
6. References include: https://oupacademic.tumblr.com/post/57740288322/misquotation-the-battle-of-waterloo-was-won-on#:~:text=Misquotation%3A%20%E2%80%9CThe%20battle%20of%20Waterloo,wars%20have%20been%20lost%20there.
7.  Is this accurate‽ :‘The Conservative government between 1979 and 1997 sold off around 10,000 playing fields. The Labour government between 1997 and 2010 sold off 226 fields.’ https://www.itv.com/news/update/2012-08-17/how-previous-governments-compare-on-selling-off-playing-fields/ & ‘236 playing field sales have been signed off under the Conservatives since 2010.’ https://schoolsweek.co.uk/school-playing-field-sales-hit-3-year-high-as-johnson-pledges-50m-football-pitch-investment/