The Colleges of Life

What colleges have you attended?

As if,as if I would.

Like any other writer,my life experiences are my building block to who I am.

Details like where I was born and brought up,where and how I was educated, and why I feel the need to publish my thoughts on a Public Platform such as this.

Writers can not help themselves ,they sweat facts about themselves onto the paper, internet,or whatever media they are using.

I thought about inventing a fantasy Potteresque college of the weird and wonderful,of Hermoines and Hagreds,of wild parties and derring doos of Masters and Students alike. It would have been fun.

Instead I’ve opted to write about protecting information.

Recently,our Right Honourable Prime Minister Rishi Sunak invited me to “like” his Facebook page.That he personally wanted to know what I thought.

I admit,I was flattered ,and then I looked at his tag name and photograph.It said; “this account had been set up by Conservative Party HQ.” I realised I was just a piece of data that they wanted in their database. Modern-day Politicians have learned how to use this information now.I smiled, ignored it, and moved on quickly.

The request from Rishi was made as they wanted access to my details, and with these details to influence me.I suppose I should be grateful to Facebook that they made them state the real origin of the request and enabled me decline and not join my mate Rishi’s account.

My suspicions were also raised by the soon to be ex CEO of a famous UK retailer having a clandestine coffee shop meeting with the used to be Honourable (maybe still is)Nick Clegg who is I think a VP at Facebook now,but indeed is famous in the UK for introducing student loans and fees for Colleges in the UK.In other words Privatising Tertiary Education.

This meeting will all be about acquiring information, as the CEO will be looking for a new job in the New Year. Will she join Facebook?Will we ever know?

Ah , I digress what colleges have I attended, none that you have heard of but nevertheless have taught me things of value.

I am a magpie.I gather shiny details. I listen and learn a lot from people of all backgrounds, and I realise that listening to everyone’s story is valuable. Yes, I gather information,but for good reasons.Would I use it maliciously?I hope not. Would I trust others not to use my information maliciously? No, of course not.

So thank you for reading, and thank you, The College of Life.