english blog

Picture from: http://www.freedomarchives.org/audio_samples/Nelson_Mandela.html With the sad, but sadly inevitable, death yesterday of one of the greatest political figures of the last hundred years it might be a good time to look at how language shapes different representations and how those representations change over time. For many, Nelson Mandela was always a hero: a man fighting injustice and racial intolerance in a country that had institutionalised racial separatism like no other. Given the almost-universal praise and warmth for Mandela upon his death, you might have thought that this was what people felt at the time, but it wasn't always like this. While the Special AKA recorded the magnificent single Free Nelson Mandela , making the point that Mandela was not just a figurehead but  - as they put it "only one man in a large army" -  young Conservative Party activists designed tasteless Hang Nelson Mandela t-shirts and posters - an early form of trolling, no doubt ...

There's never been a better time to be doing your ENGA2 Investigating Representations, I reckon. We've had some huge stories about not just individuals and events but institutions and issues too, even social groups . Here's a quick list of suggestions for possible topics and a link or two to get you started. INDIVIDUALS Russell Brand calling for global revolution Is he a trivial twit? Capitalism is ace, says a capitalist. Nafeez Ahmed takes a more positive view on Brand ISSUES Racism in football rearing its ugly head again Kick It Out SOCIAL GROUPS The Gypsy (Roma) people getting it in the neck again and having their blonde-haired babies taken away from them. Here's a brief history of the Roma Muslims: a BBC Newsbeat survey showed polarised attitudes to Muslims. INSTITUTIONS The Police and how Plebgate has seen confidence in them fall to a new low . How can we trust the police? If the police can stitch up a Government minister, what can they do to the rest of us? MILEY...

In a week or so, we'll be looking at the representation of young people as a social group for our ENGA2 AS English Language lessons, so it's kind of nice of David Cameron to give us some extra ammunition for our classes, even if in the process he's basically sticking two fingers up to every under-25 in the country! Here's Ally Fogg of The Guardian on Cameron's announcement yesterday: It would be wrong to think of David Cameron's proposals to take key benefits away from the under-25s as a new initiative. They form merely the latest chapter in a chilling horror story that began shortly after the coalition took the reins, with the tripling of university tuition fees, the abolition of educational maintenance allowance and the future jobs fund , and was still under way this summer when the chancellor's spending review slashed another £260m from the further education budget. It would be also be a mistake to describe this as a "war on the young" ...