Patch Of Puddles
  • Archives
  • About Us
  • Neonatal Loss
  • Health & Issues
    • Birth Stories
      • Birth Story – Frances
      • Birth Story – Maddy
      • Birth Story – Amelie
      • Birth Story – Josie
      • Birth Story – Freddie
    • Cleft Lip and Palate
    • Caesarean & Vbac
    • PASS will Pass
  • Home Ed
    • Making Paper Boats
    • Home Ed Resources
    • A Typical HE Day
    • Jump Page
    • Ed Report 2003
    • Ed Report 2004
    • Ed Report 2005
    • Ed Report 2010
  • Puddles
    • Poetry Collection
    • Books
    • Camping List
    • Favourite Adult Fiction Authors
    • Gardening Pages
    • Poetry Collection
  • Contact
    • Places PoP is Listed
    • Disclosure & Privacy
    • Social Media Channels
    • Work with Me
You are here: Home / Home Education / HE Politics / Bittersweet revenge.

Bittersweet revenge.

May 8, 2015 by

I’m not normally a particularly vengeful human, though I admit there have been a couple of times recently when karma has bitten a bottom very sweetly. I admit that when Ed Balls lost his seat in the election this morning, I cheered. And then promptly burst into tears.

It was a miserable night for many of us, let’s be honest. And the shock of what had happened out of the blue took its toll. But in everything I anticipated it never really occurred to me Balls would lose his seat. And when he did it was the only bright spark in a long night of misery. I’m far from a political animal and I voted Green this time out of pure, disenfranchised frustration but I feel pretty sorry for both Clegg and Milliband and uncomfortably awkward about how the seats in general worked out. Our system is very broken and inertia and Britishness has stopped us fixing it when we had the chance.

But Balls, now with Balls it is personal.

Badman, Balls and Brown,
One short, one fat, one frowns,
They want to change the rules of home ed,
It really makes us growl.

So my children sung as they watched us and other home educators distracted from them for perhaps 2 years while we tried to defend ourselves from police being able to turn up at any time and interview our children without our accompaniment or having to have CRBs to be with them from 9-3pm. My children knew the depths of our concerns and I was terrified as were many home educators. Labour’s invasive determination to – along with the vile NSPCC – show us up as child abusers, knew no depths too deep. We couldn’t defend ourselves against “nothing to fear, nothing to hide”.

In the end – though I confess 3 weeks after Freddie’s death I was thinking of little more articulately than “GET BALLS AND BROWN OUT” I voted blue to be shot of them. The politics of home ed category will tell you more about it, though this article is probably the best of them.

It’s because of Balls that I didn’t dare get counseling for my home educated children in case it flagged them as in need. It is because of him that my desperate bereaved self went into meltdown when the (standard) letter arrived from CDOP (Child Death Overview Panel) to say we would be investigated to see if our child’s death raised at risk concerns for our other children. It is because of him I capitulated into sending them to school. And it is because of him that even though ideologically I am a Labour supporter, I had no one to vote for today, because I vowed not to vote Labour again until he was gone. He and Brown caused me to lose faith in politicians and be cynical about all government and I will never forgive them for it.

canstockphoto11816136I’m gutted about today’s election result. There is more to me than cheering because one man lost his job and I’m not happy to see the Tories back in power. I want people to have a better deal than they are getting recently. Personally I’d have been okay with Labour in power tempered by Liberals too, though I understand that is not popular, given what has just happened to them. I’m not keen on carnage, not election day, not in the poorest and most struggling strata of society.

But I admit it, I cheered. Because Mr Balls, it is not okay to try to find evidence to prove that people are bad to their children just because you and your flunkies want an easy boxed ticked. It is not okay to persecute people. It is not okay to make it sound as if everyone is guilty until proven innocent just because they choose to dedicate their life to being with their children. That isn’t a bad thing you know, just because you don’t do it. Trust me, schools are not doing a better job, nor do they stop all children from being abused. And it is NOT okay for government to peer ever closer into citizens lives and try to sandpaper them all into identikit models, complete with a chip that reports back on them.

It occurs to me that if the figure bandied about back then is correct and there are 80,000 home educated children in the UK, that’s a lot of parents. And while I know it isn’t true of all home educators, many many many of us vowed not to vote Labour again until Balls and Brown were gone. By the time you count in the now adult children, 1 or 2 parents per family and maybe even some supportive aunts and grandparents, that’s a lot of votes.

Maybe, Mr Balls, they’d have won you the election. Just a thought.

Filed Under: HE Politics, Uncategorized Tagged With: Ed Balls, Ed balls losing his seat., Home Education, politics of home ed

Comments

  1. Evelyn says

    May 8, 2015 at 8:17 pm

    Well said. I hope this election triggers a change in the leftwing parties and that new leadership and hopefully some new faces will move things in a better direction.

    The thought of the next 5 years though fills me with horror

    • merry says

      May 9, 2015 at 1:56 pm

      I can’t argue with any of that.

      • Evelyn says

        May 9, 2015 at 2:32 pm

        Fingers crossed I guess :-S

  2. Caroline says

    May 9, 2015 at 8:41 am

    My children and I threw our fists in the air and celebrated when the Balls result rolled in – and when the final results were I too 😉

    • merry says

      May 9, 2015 at 1:57 pm

      Well, perhaps we can agree to differ on the second part 😉

  3. Tim says

    May 9, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    I am curious. When you say that “ideologically I am a Labour supporter” what precisely do you mean? Does Labour still even have an ideology?

    • merry says

      May 9, 2015 at 3:36 pm

      Um, when I do any of those ‘who should I vote for’ surveys I come out mostly red. Will that do?

      • Tim says

        May 9, 2015 at 6:04 pm

        No, absolutely not. Ideology is a systematic scheme of ideas, beliefs.

        Policies are things that you intend to do (presumably to implement your ideology) but they will change to suit circumstances.

        The stuff in the surveys is just things they are saying to get people to vote for them. The Conservatives say things they think will appeal to Sun readers, Labour say things they think will appeal to Mirror readers.

        It doesn’t mean they believe in any of it.

  4. Tim says

    May 9, 2015 at 3:35 pm

    Unless you are talking about Old Labour? Clause 4 and all that?

  5. Lynn Blair says

    May 9, 2015 at 5:26 pm

    I voted SNP because I’m completely disillusioned with Westminster and want Scotland to leave the UK. But I did so with part of my heart not in it. The SNP want to bring in Named Person legislation next year, meaning that each child in Scotland will have a state appointed guardian. You can guess where this is going as well as I can. I’m voting for them on one hand because they offer the fastest route out of the UK, but I’m actively fighting them with the other because of this legislation. so many Scottish parents aren’t even aware of what is being planned yet.

    I’ve had a few conversations in recent weeks where people have felt conflicted about their vote: they want to vote but disagree on some level with every party. Maybe this is just what happens as you get older and have a longer memory.

    Thanks for this post.

Categories

Archives 2003-2015

Recent Posts

  • After The End.
  • The End.
  • “The last thing I want to do is document it all.”
  • Big Changes.
  • A Toy or Two to Tempt me to Blog.

About Baby Freddie

  • Baby Freddie
  • Update on Freddie
  • Stop all the Clocks
  • Alongside and Beyond
  • Freddie's April.
  • 23 April 2010
  • A Life More Ordinary
  • Freddie's Day
  • Balancing it up.
  • Other Stuff

Recent Posts

  • The End.
  • “The last thing I want to do is document it all.”
  • Big Changes.
  • A Toy or Two to Tempt me to Blog.
  • 11 days. 
  • Not 6. 
  • Buying for Dad: Perfect presents for all ages
  • Memories of Paris from my teens – and my teen.
  • A mother’s day.
  • Easy Tips & Tricks To Introduce Your Children To Gardening

Daffodil Boy

#DaffodilBoy

MerrilyMe on Pinterest

ShareNiger

Cybher 2013

Copyright © 2025 · Metro Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT