Last night I listened to...

.. the penultimate episode of Michael Morpurgo's Invention of Childhood. It was the one I really wanted to listen to, and I fell asleep halfway through! I was especially interested in last night's because it covered the period of time when compulsory schooling and the NHS came into being and I wanted to hear how he rationalised it. So I'll be listening again sometime soon when I'm more awake.

When I did wake up The World Tonight was halfway through this debate: Is there too much prying into our private lives or is surveillance the right price to pay for public safety? Which sounded really interesting, but I fell asleep again after 10 minutes! So I might listen again to that too if I get chance today.

Next I will definitely be listening to the Clement Atlee papers, to which I can't find a link right now. But again, it covers the political discussions that were taking place after the WWII, regarding the setting up of the NHS, the Welfare State and the 1944 Education Act. I was interested to find out yesterday (Michael Morpurgo I think) that there was a major Education Act immediately after every major war of the 20th Century. I'm also still reading The Underground History of American Education which is just getting interesting about that very issue.

Hmmmmm.