OK, that may not vie with the headline: 'Freddie Starr ate my hamster' but it at least may have its origins in the truth.
You see, on holiday in Oz at present I am reading the great Victoria Gillick's book, 'A Mother's Tale' and, on page 92 she mentions that she attended a Dominican Convent School in Middlesex.
As far as I am aware, there was only one Dominican Convent School in Middlesex in the 1950s and that was St James's, Burnt Oak, my alma mater. I was there about the same time as VG but, no surprise that our paths never crossed as boys and girls were strictly segregated.
And, if you know not the name, Victoria Gillick, haste ye to Google and you will find that, as a young mother, she fought the battle against under age contraception advice from such knowledgeable folk as school nurses and GPs and, in fact, anyone other than the parents of the said child.
Fred the school caretaker had more authority than a twelve year old girls's mother both then and today.
She went to the High Courts and lost. How could she ever win? But she fought and that it what is important in my book.
I was working in leafy Cheltenham at the time and remember seeing yellow and black posters proclaiming 'Kill Victoria Gillick' - that immediately had me on side, a Catholic woman taking on the establishment? Brilliant!
I immediately donated the princely sum of five pounds to her fighting fund, peanuts today but the price of a night out for two then.
The poster was, of course, the work of the socialists; a degenerate bunch if ever there was one.
We could do with a Victoria Gillick today, a laywoman who is not afraid to speak out and to go the mile with the cretins who are in authority over us. Offhand, I cannot think of a male or female of her calibre today.
If you want to gain a flavour of the immense battle that she entered on our behalf, read her book: 'A Mother's Tale'. Or, just Google the name.
You see, on holiday in Oz at present I am reading the great Victoria Gillick's book, 'A Mother's Tale' and, on page 92 she mentions that she attended a Dominican Convent School in Middlesex.
As far as I am aware, there was only one Dominican Convent School in Middlesex in the 1950s and that was St James's, Burnt Oak, my alma mater. I was there about the same time as VG but, no surprise that our paths never crossed as boys and girls were strictly segregated.
And, if you know not the name, Victoria Gillick, haste ye to Google and you will find that, as a young mother, she fought the battle against under age contraception advice from such knowledgeable folk as school nurses and GPs and, in fact, anyone other than the parents of the said child.
Fred the school caretaker had more authority than a twelve year old girls's mother both then and today.
She went to the High Courts and lost. How could she ever win? But she fought and that it what is important in my book.
I was working in leafy Cheltenham at the time and remember seeing yellow and black posters proclaiming 'Kill Victoria Gillick' - that immediately had me on side, a Catholic woman taking on the establishment? Brilliant!
I immediately donated the princely sum of five pounds to her fighting fund, peanuts today but the price of a night out for two then.
The poster was, of course, the work of the socialists; a degenerate bunch if ever there was one.
We could do with a Victoria Gillick today, a laywoman who is not afraid to speak out and to go the mile with the cretins who are in authority over us. Offhand, I cannot think of a male or female of her calibre today.
If you want to gain a flavour of the immense battle that she entered on our behalf, read her book: 'A Mother's Tale'. Or, just Google the name.
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