LM1 Boyd
Handout 3b
Text Analysis 1: Analyze the following text from as many different perspectives as you feel important:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Bullied teacher wins £230,000 damages Rebecca Smithers, education correspondent
The Guardian, Saturday 5 October 2002 01.37 BST
A bullied teacher has been awarded a £230,000 payout for personal injury and loss of earnings after being forced out
of his job by his head.
A judge ruled that the sacking from Coedffranc junior school in Skewen, South Wales, was unlawful, and had already
awarded Alan Powis, 53, £80,000 in interim payments pending a full settlement scheduled for yesterday.
But Mr Powis was given the payment in an out-of-court settlement on Thursday to end a lengthy legal battle.
He lost his job after the head, Sheena Ball, questioned his ability and accused him of incompetence. When he won
support of parents, Ms Ball claimed he was undermining her authority and he was sacked for gross misconduct. Mr
Powis, a father of two, suffered a nervous breakdown but found work as a £2.50-an-hour security guard and a doorto-door salesman to make ends meet.
Judge Gary Hickinbottom, sitting at Swansea's civil courts of justice, said that the sacking in 1997 was unlawful and
that it was Ms Ball's conduct that was to blame. The settlement against Neath and Port Talbot county borough council's
education authority was settled by its insurers.
Yesterday Mr Powis said he was pleased with the ruling. "I'm not the least bit interested in having a flash new car.
What I did want when I began this claim was the return of my good name, the return of my dignity, and the return of
my peace of mind. I'm starting to get that now.
Text Analysis 2: Analyze this editorial from as many perspectives as you can.
The Guardian view on America’s choice: Don’t vote for Trump. Elect Clinton | Editorial
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
It is make your mind up time for America. A hopeful, incrementally better, boats-against-the-current United States; or
a US flirting with a dystopia from the pen of a Stephen King or Cormac McCarthy? A serious but flawed Democratic
candidate; or a Republican whose election would be the sum of all fears? That’s the choice, the only choice, on offer.
If we had a vote, we would use it to elect Hillary Clinton as president on Tuesday. She has a thoughtful and ambitious
policy agenda for America’s inequalities and injustices. She has an internationalist outlook. She has responded to
concerns about her cautious centrism by committing to more radical plans. She is eminently prepared and qualified
for the job. She is a fitting successor to Barack Obama. And it is high time there was a woman president.
To these can now be added the fact that, as of Sunday, she is no longer under investigation. The announcement, just
over a week before polling, that a new batch of emails was being investigated was, at best, an extraordinary
misjudgment by the FBI director James Comey. It triggered nine days that needlessly shook US politics, narrowed the
polls and may have shaped the election. Now the bureau has said Mrs Clinton will face no further investigation or
charges over her use of a private email server. Mrs Clinton bears a share of responsibility for bringing this storm on
herself. But the essential fact is that she is in the clear.
The thing that stares Americans in the face on a close-fought election day, however, is that the only alternative to Mrs
Clinton is Donald Trump. It needs to be said again, at this fateful moment, that Mr Trump is not a fit and proper person
for the presidency. He is an irascible egomaniac. He is uninterested in the world. He has fought a campaign of abuse
and nastiness, riddled with racism and misogyny. He offers slogans, not a programme. He propagates lies, ignorance
and prejudice. He brings no sensibility to the contest except boundless self-admiration. He panders to everything that
is worst in human nature and spurns all that is best.
Mrs Clinton is far from perfect. But Mr Trump plumbs the depths of imperfection in ways that have no precedent in
frontline modern American politics. All countries from time to time produce leaders who are ignorant or vain or who
lack intellectual judgment or personal grace. But Mr Trump is the first candidate to get so close to power who has no
experience of the practicalities of politics and government, and who does not seem to care about them either. If he is
elected president it will send the worst possible message to America about itself, and an even worse one to the rest
of the world.
There are three particular ways in which electing Mr Trump is a step that should be spurned by any responsible
American voter. First, it would mean a rightwing president governing with a rightwing Congress. Mr Trump and the
Republican establishment have many differences, but they would find no difficulty cutting taxes for the richest or
sparking an aggressive trade war with former partners. They would ensure, as a priority, that the conservative majority
is restored on the supreme court. Progress on civil rights and equality would be thrown into reverse. Abortion rights
would be under threat.
Second, Mr Trump’s election would be, and would be seen as, a victory for white America over African, Hispanic,
Asian and other American ethnic groups. In this campaign Mr Trump has campaigned against migrants, insulted
Muslims, stereotyped black people and disrespected Mr Obama at every turn. He has been backed by every white
racist in the land. Race remains America’s deep foundation sin, and Mr Trump will deepen it.
Finally, electing Mr Trump will make the world an even less safe place. It will threaten US commitment to international
institutions, including the UN, and support for international norms. It will contribute to instability and set back efforts to
solve environmental problems. It will encourage autocratic leaders in places like Russia, China, Turkey, North Korea
and elsewhere. It makes the nurturing of the planet more difficult and the future of the human race more uncertain.
For all these reasons, Americans should summon a special level of seriousness and display a profound responsibility
when they go to the polls. Anything other than a vote for Mrs Clinton is a vote for conservatism off the leash, a
deepened racial divide and a more dangerous planet. The time for messing is over. America deserves much better
than Mr Trump. So does the world. Mrs Clinton is much better. So elect her.