Southwark primary school is a loose metaphor for England

Alan Bennett once described Albion House, the shabby public school in his first play Forty Years On, as "a loose metaphor for England".

So it is hard not to think the same about Albion Primary School in Southwark.

As James Barber explains:

Southwark Council is twisting the arms of Albion Primary School to sell a significant part of its site. With that money the school will be rebuilt. The rebuild will I’m sure be lovely. But the principle is alarming.

He asks which state school will be the next for this treatment.

I was going to end with a passage from Forty Years On about the state of England. But as ever I find it impossible to resist Bennett's skit on Lawrence of Arabia:

But can one ever forget him, those china blue eyes, that boyish, almost girlish figure and that silly, silly giggle. The boys at school had called him Tee Hee Lawrence.

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