15.1.1976 - Lazy day

Spent a lazy sort of day today – discussing rather than writing things. My idea of a tolerable school is one in which at least the sixth form is immune from petty and niggling little disciplines. We are not allowed to make use of the booths because one has been defaced. Probably not by one of our lot anyway, but “Freedom Thompson” vice-teacher has, while apologising and sympathising with us on one of his faces, put them all out of bounds.
“Smiling, damned villain!” A couple of years ago, he was an idiosyncratic mature man, who we all affectionately termed “bit of a loony” or just “Bellows”. The latter word now conjures up a totally different image. He stands for the rotten face of petty bureaucracy, hypocrisy being his most remarkable feature. The new regime is just as petty and niggling as (Headteacher) Coomber’s “ancien regime”, but Thompson still tries (pathetically) to maintain the image of Uncle Joe, friend of the people (or pupil in this case). Students of the school, unite! Throw off the chains of bureaucracy!