A spasmodic and unofficial blog about the former pupils and staff of CHRIST'S HOSPITAL
Thursday 24 March 2011
"The Justin Bieber of the New Left"
IN this long and sympathetic New Statesmanpiece on the student protest movement, Ben Beach (LaA, GrE 01-08) appears again and again:
Ben Beach is the Justin Bieber of the new left: a baby-faced riot messiah from Bethnal Green in east London with a tendency to hog the megaphone at demonstrations. He was trained in street activism by the Socialist Workers' Party, making him one of a minority of student protesters with a background in far-left politics… "We're using an economic model that's based on debt - and that's why every decade we have a recession, each one worse than the last, and why every time the poor are hit hardest. The root of this crisis was the free market, and the only solution we've been given by any political party is more of a free market. Parliament is not addressing what caused the problems, and so society needs to."
A seven-minute TV interview with Ben, back in December:
was appointed to the staff of Christ's Hospital in 1552, in the important post of Coal Keeper. Four and a half centuries later, he continues to dole out grimy black lumps of this and that from time to time…
It scares me that we seem to be putting a lot more focus into league tables and results; that's not what this school's about. It's about giving people a chance and they do come right in the end. CH does create rogues, but loveable ones.
By all means email me, but please don't be offended if there's no direct reply.
Similarly, please forgive any failure to respond to comments.
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MANIFESTO
The main aim of this blog is to draw attention to a wide range of Old Blues and other CH people whose activities feature on the web. It seldom digests and summarises - it merely links to the raw material with an explanatory word or two in the hope that others will run with the ball. Every CH-related website, magazine and organisation is invited to plunder it ruthlessly.
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