I know, I know. It makes me feel all squirmy and awkward to talk about it too. But sometimes you just have to get over that. This is important. It’s really important.
Tag Archives: campaigning
Hertfordshire Schools Petition
When we left Edinburgh, one of the reasons we chose to move to Harpenden rather than into London itself is that the schools in this area have a brilliant reputation. But it wasn’t until we arrived – and I joined a local parents email list – that I realised there are also some serious problems with the education system here. There is a massive under-supply of school places in the town, and for the past three years there have been large numbers of children who have not been allocated a place at any of their chosen schools.
It has taken me a while to get my head around this – in Scotland you either go to your nearest school or you go to private school and the application process is much simpler. But after a few months reading emails on the local list, chatting to other parents at nursery drop-off and seeing the stress that families go through as they wait to find out if their children have a place in Harpenden at all, I am starting to understand the situation.
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Syria: A Day of Protest
No matter how long you have been a writer for, how skilled you are with words, or how passionate you are about a subject; there are times when you just cannot find the right way to adequately express how you feel. There are times when the world is so dark that you feel your own small actions cannot possibly help create even the smallest spark of light.
I have been completely numbed this week by what I’ve read about the situation in Syria. I was shocked, in particular, by the Times article on Wednesday that set out in truly horrifying detail what took place in Houla. 49 children were killed – not in some accidental explosion, but deliberately, violently, one by one.
Thank you.
Sometimes it’s really nice just to say a very genuine thank you.
Not ‘thank you, and now could you please vote for me again‘.
Not ‘thank you for reading and now could you sign this petition.‘
Just thank you.
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One Week to Break the Chains of Hunger
It is hard to believe that it is seven years since the G8 took place in Gleneagles. I was living in Edinburgh and I still remember what an incredible buzz there was around the event that year. Say what you like about the success or otherwise of the Make Poverty History campaign and all that has followed – but being in Edinburgh for the MPH march on that incredibly sunny day in 2005, it really felt like we were part of a moment. I was stewarding the march for the first part of the day, so arrived at the Meadows very early in the morning for a briefing, not knowing if the attendance was going to be 1000 people or 10,000. I remember standing there as crowds started to gather… and they grew, and grew, and grew. In the end a quarter of a million people descended on the city to make their ‘white band’ around Edinburgh Castle. It felt good to be one of them.
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Dorkymum | Stories from Tasmania 