Strawberry Hill dilly dilly......

I have been following the unfolding events at Strawberry Hill (St Mary's) from afar.

When I was a ten year old, Strawberry Hill was the venue for all Middlesex schools to have their annual sports day and I well remember coming second or third on a regular basis.

Now this "University" (aherm) is the centre of a row over changes to its programme management and, as a result, a senior member of staff being escorted from the premises by security guards.

Oho! sez I, I've been there (well, not Strawberry Hill exactly) but I have experienced 'Eduspeak' and 'programme change' and, from where I sit, things are not looking good for for SH.

Bishop Moth needs to check for holes in the fabric of this insitution; it's never good news, to merge different programme areas, especially when they are poles apart.

It is like saying: "From now on Civil Engineering and Philosophy will come together under one roof"
Yeah? I don't think so.

And when the heavyweights of the institution start pulling out, that is the last point where the situation might be retrievable (with rather a lot of back pedalling) - when you are in a hole, know when to stop digging as Denis Healey famously once said.

So, here, from happier times, is a verse on Strawberry Hill - I hope the Board of Governors reflect on the words.

 

Some talk of Gunnersbury,

For Sion some declare;

And some say, with Chiswick House

No villa can compare;

But, all the beaux of Middlesex

Who know the country well,

Say that Strawberry Hill,

Strawberry, doth bear away the bell.

 

 

Though Surrey boasts its Oatlands,

And Claremont kept so grim,

And though they talk of Southcote's

'Tis but a dainty whim;

For ask the gallant Bristow

Who does in taste excel

If Strawberry Hill, if Strawberry,

Don't bear away the bell.

 

Horace Walpole