(1) Solicitors, (2) the police and (3) the teaching of history
Solicitors
In the finance section of a recent weekend edition of a “quality” newspaper there was a reference to “solicitors, lawyers and accountants”. This was not the first time I have seen this error. There are two principal branches of the legal profession in the UK: solicitors and barristers. Both are lawyers. The journalist should either have referred to “lawyers and accountants” or to “solicitors, barristers and accountants”. Her implication, hopefully inadvertent, was that solicitors are not qualified lawyers. I wonder if she would object to a distinction being drawn between “writers and journalists”?
Police
I was walking along our road the other day when a police car drove past me going in the opposite direction. As he approached, the driver gave me a cheery wave. I found this surprising gesture rather uplifting and it occurs to me that a friendly approach from the police could do wonders for their public image. Having said that, although it seems to me that they often have a bad press, I personally have always found them helpful and courteous. This was even the case when, many years ago, I was giving a witness statement and used the term “I was proceeding along…”. The officer taking the statement suggested that I should use different wording. I suspect he thought I was taking the piss. I wasn’t. It was simply that, having been indoctrinated by Dixon of Dock Green, I thought that was the correct term to use. Honest, guv.
Teaching of History
I have read criticism of the teaching of history in schools in that there is too much emphasis on the twentieth century. At least, I think I have but research on the Internet has failed to reveal my source! Anyway, whatever it was that I read has given me food for thought. My recollection of my own rather distant school days is that we suffered a surfeit of the Plantagenets and Tudors and the only time we touched on the twentieth century was when studying the events leading up to the First World War. My daughter, who is in her early thirties, has a similar recollection of her time at school. We both wish we had had the opportunity to cover more recent history as that would have had greater relevance to the world in which we now live.
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