Chris Roynon and Rev Sian Yates fail to respond to Hunger Striker after 23 days on raw-juice in Mousehole School capitalist take-over stand-off, summer 2016 - latest.
The 'forced-academisation programme'
that's being rolled out across the world always reminds me of a land-rush, a
nineteenth-century colonial phenomenon in which colonists would race into a
'new' territory, eager to carve out the best bits of turf for themselves
(having stolen it from the original owners, of course). The stakes were
high, competition was fierce and this frequently led to behaviour that was less
than scrupulously honest, to say the least.
When the educational gold-rush rolled
into our little town I tried to fight it, as I thought it was a cynical plan to
run schools as businesses and pit them against each other in a sort of
pseudo-Darwinian competition for resources that should be readily available to
all schools.
Mousehole School is well thought-of in
the area, like all schools and there seemed no reason why it should be forced to
be something that people did not want it to be. Sadly, my attempts to set
up a genuine dialogue with those involved, for example head teacher Chris
Roynon, or the secretary of the school, Nigel Carter-King, or even the vicar of
Penzance, the Reverend Sian Yates, who sits on the board of directors of Penlee
'Academy' 'Trust', the 'chain' that 'oversees' 'academies' in the West Penwith
area of Cornwall, met with a brick wall. With a series of refusals,
delays, evasions and further delays the 'public consultation period' was
frittered away fruitlessly. The whole sorry tale appears in previous
blogposts and issues of The Limpet. These people were determined not to
engage with me in conversation. The vicar just totally failed to respond
to letters and emails - no response whatsoever.
Finally, with time running out fast I
decided to do just that and went on one - a fast that is. After a final
appeal was spurned, I declared a state of hunger-strike until dialogue was
commenced. I lived on raw plant juice for three weeks and two days.
At the beginning of this little adventure I had naively assumed that my
tactic would bring some kind of result fairly rapidly. How wrong I was.
I'd kind of given up on getting any response from Nigel, even though he
is a governor, and an employee of the school, who has been aware of the
'academy' agenda for years. I suppose I thought Chris would eventually
hold out some sort of token gesture, or that Sian, as a woman of 'God' would
perhaps respond out of some kind of Christian attitude, or some such thing.
After 23 days on the juice-fast there was no response whatsoever from any
of them (apart from the aforementioned bicycle adventure/free speech clash with
Chris!) It was obvious that these folks were not going to respond at all,
and having felt that they'd had their pound of flesh, I decided that that
banana lying in the fruit-bowl looked pretty good... followed by various
other foodstuffs that also took on a curious aura of attraction.
I felt that I'd done what I could and
that they couldn't have beat me in a fair fight, but this is about money, so
expecting fair treatment is again the mark of naivety.
So the land-rush rolls into town and
another bastion of culture becomes commodified and 'procured' by the capitalist
victors. But hey, look on the bright side - Burger King will be
sponsoring the new ping-pong rackets...
Spread the joyous word - with these flyers for The Limpet...
Day Fifteen, Mousehole School Hunger Strike and I just had a curious, rustic adventure, but I'll tell you about that in a minute.
When I got into writing The Limpet and started campaigning on various issues, I started to realize more and more how people in official positions attempt to conjure up an air of authority about them, as if their's is the only way things can be done, and to suggest otherwise is tantamount to insanity. However, if you are a citizen who wishes to raise a grievance with a public official, you must treat them as any other person and not defer to their own view of their status. Thus we should feel free to strongly criticize the police when they commit wrong-doing, yet still it's the same police we must turn to when we need their help. The same goes in all areas of public life.
It's one thing dealing with officials remotely, by letter and message, when they are physically distant and you do not meet them. When trying to get answers from officials closer to home however, the same approach of equanimity must be used. I'm sure that to some extent people feel reluctant to criticize officials with whom they have regular contact, such as our children's teachers, for example. Personally, I'd rather not have to be doing it either, but feel that basic honesty demands it.
Well, my last blog post took us up to 22nd July, the last day of term for Mousehole School, in Cornwall. The phone call I made, asking for a meeting, was ignored and the school 'broke-up', perhaps more literally this time than ever before. Several days later came the final mocking gesture from Chris, a letter, written in response to the email I'd sent on 21st July (see last blog). In this letter, Chris keeps repeating that he once offered me a meeting, ignoring the actual, recorded history of what happened and all the offers of meetings I made that he rejected. He repeats his preposterous claim that he wanted to talk to me all along and invites me to drop round to the office and arrange a meeting! (A slight problem there is the fact that the school is closed until September, by which time the capitalist take-over will be a done deal. So, if that isn't, as we say in Britain, taking the piss, I really don't know what is....
Well, as I said, today is day 15 of my hunger-Strike and I thought I'd get some exercise and publicize my STRIKE at the same time by doing a little rustic postering. There's nothing like getting out on a bike and exploring the back-lanes of Cornwall, a beautiful and invigorating experience and if you use it to achieve a political aim at the same time, well, so much the better! The birds were sweetly singing in the trees as I trundled forth about my little mission, always aware that I am lucky to enjoy Free Speech and a Free Press, not like many of my friends overseas. I was up near the House on the Moor, and I'd just finished putting up my copy of The Limpet No.161, advertising the Strike. As I cycled out of the hamlet I heard a sound that reminded me of an angry farmer. It was a sort of rustic, bellowing roar and as it receded into the Cornish breeze, I thought I heard the roared words "they come down just as easily as they go up!" or something similar. It was hard to tell as the wind was blowing the roar away and it was already somewhat distant and remote. I vaguely took it to be an enraged farmer, if anything.
A few minutes later I was sharing my joyful freedom with the world by glueing another copy of The Limpet to a stout, granitic gatepost when I heard the subtle crunch of a bicycle drawing up near me. I was genuinely surprised to see my child's head-teacher (CEO) mounted on a Chairman Mao bicycle, dressed in sporty garb and silently filming me. I guess he was collecting evidence for the FBI or MI5. What happened next was, as we say in Cornwall, gorwir, or surreal. Sadly, what happened underlines the fact that off-the-record dialogue has no value, as a verbal exchange ensued... Basically, I turned round and there he was filming me.... I said "Chris! I've been wanting to talk to you..." and he responded rather robitically that he had offered me a meeting! It was not a happy meeting. Chris made it clear that his mission was to tear down The Limpet - obviously he wishes to suppress dissent and that is not too democratic, is it? I pointed out the absurdity of the situation to him - I've never known anyone act like that before, except one cop when I was putting up a poster in Penzance calling them fascists after they murdered Ian Tomlinson. Anyway, I had to physically stand in front of my poster to stop my child's enraged head-teacher from destroying my beautiful artwork...! What a crazy world it is these days.... I pointed out to Chris that we could be having a productive meeting at that very moment - but he said that he was 'on holiday'. This is what officials do - they hide behind officialdom. Strangely, I'd imagined he'd spend his holiday on a sunny beach far away somewhere, rather than chasing me across the Shyre, frantically ripping down my samizdat posters and roaring like a crazy old farmer - hey ho, life's full of surprises! When I asked him why he was afraid to meet me in public debate with a camera running, he could not formulate an answer at all, but just smirked silently. When I pointed out the absurdity of the situation we were now in, and how this had resulted from his evasiveness and avoidance of me, he curiously tried to correct my speech and say the situation you are in. To me, this demonstrated a sort of disconectedness whereby he refused to acknowledge that he was even part of an interaction with me. It's almost as if some people only recognize 'official' dialogue, that they themselves have initiated and can control - anything else is irrelevant because it is spontaneous and free. I've come across this attitude so many times before but it seemed so inappropriate then, as I stood in front of a field-gate, physically protecting my self-expression from the predations of my child's teacher! At no point did he mention the Hunger Strike or ask after my well-being. After a while, Chris got bored of ignoring my questions and appeals for sincere dialogue and silently rode away, just as silently as he'd manifested in the first place. I called after him that he worked for us and that we pay his wages. He had no answer to this, but simply rode away without a roar or a murmur.
Email to Rev Sian Yates, Vicar of Penzance, 29:7:2016;
Dear Sian,
I've heard a rumor that you're position
is that you're not 'officially' allowed to talk to me on the above. Could you
not have told me this by responding to my initial approaches, long before the
Hunger Strike started? Rather than using intermediaries, I'd take it as an act
of Christian love and virtue if you would acknowledge my communications and
start responding to me. Chris is clinging to his 'official'
position of being 'on holiday' - although he seems to find time to chase me
down the street and film me.
The reason I started this strike is
because the people who wish to capitalize education are refusing to talk to me,
a parent. As part of PAT, you're right at the centre of this drama and
can approach me in any capacity you wish, official or real. When public
bodies seek to monetize education, whilst stifling debate on the topic, that's
what's known as 'class-war'.
Bon appetite!
Jeremy
--------------------------
Overseas:
To The President of Indonesia:
Mercy For The Prisoners:
Dear President,
I write to ask you to please intervene
and protect the life of the prisoners who have just had a stay of execution
from firing squad. Since their crimes were drug-offences, the death
penalty is not the answer. I suggest that your nation would gain a great
deal of very real respect in the international community if these and all future
executions were stopped.
I implore you to remember the value of
a human life, how this is a spiritual thing that no man has the right to take
away. Please show mercy, and show the world that Indonesia is great
enough to show mercy and start rehabilitating, rather than executing
criminals.
Yours sincerely,
Jeremy Schanche, Great Britain,
29.7.2016 ----------------- Well, take it easy, but take it.... as some folks used to say once... :-)
I'm Jeremy Schanche, British artist and activist. This blog features my paper, The Limpet. Here I write about human rights, the environment and politics. Please see my articles about Harold Hempstead and Florida Department of Corrections, with more at Harold Hempstead Caged Crusader Wordpress.com.
I have another blog that's completely different - it's where you'll find The Caterpillar, a journal of collage, poetry and surrealism that is remixed as The Caterpillar Dub - the world's first Dub newspaper. Both of these can be found at:
http://yecaterpillar.blogspot.com.
In October 2024 I published my first paperback book of fiction - The Horned Whale or An Morvil Kornek by Jeremy Schanche - available at various bookshops and at Amazon.
ISBN: 9780993490903.
175,710 words.
£15.
Contains the mystery novel - The Kramvil, plus two novellas, poetry and glossaries.
https://www.youtube.com/user/floydyopz
