Bexhill Club of Past Rotarians

Who could fail to be moved by the crux of the story?

"Pa said 'Mother! Yon Lion's 'et Albert.' And Mother said 'Ee I am vexed.'"

President Albert was complete with Flat Cap, Stick With A Horse's Head Handle, red rose and a Scouse's best "weskit."

Making a slick succession of hat changes, he played every speaking role and there was not a dry eye in the place.

The meal of Kewins Blackman's Earrings, Mousetrap, Flies Cemetery, etc (don't ask) was preceded by Frank Strickland with a Lancashire Pie Poem and the introduction to the Ode To The Potato Pie after Rabbie Burns fashion.

"There's nowt to beat the good old Prater Pie."

Entertainment at St Martha's Hall continued with the Sussex Clog Dancers accompanied by drums and the small Northumbrian Pipes - softer on the ear than the Scottish variety.

The evening was concluded by the lively singing duo Gin And Tonic with some reet good Lancashire songs made famous by George Formby, Gracie Fields and others. The speaker at this month's club meeting was a former infant school teacher and deputy head, Mrs Michele Wynne-Jones, with the subject of Porridge And Mail Bags.

This was an intriguing and often disturbing description of her experiences working in Lewes Prison, teaching some of the prisoners to read.

It is a world quite beyond the experience of, and in fact almost unimaginable to, most of us.

About 70 per cent of the men have a reading age of nine or under.

In the course of her talk we began to understand why so much of our society nowadays is broken.

She explained why so many young men find their way to prison - some of them at Lewes had been four year-old boys at her school: many boys of that age are not ready to learn in the normal class teaching and syllabus. some have a need for special one-to-one teaching, but are nowadays left to fail in the normal class - their lot is to know that they are failures and never told "good boy."

The needs of mentally ill youngsters with Asberger's Syndrome and similar are not addressed by today's educational set-up and many of these inadequate young men find their way to Lewes and other prisons.

Young boys in care homes are not allowed to be hugged.

This applies also to fostered children - these natural children can be loved in the natural way, but not those fostered.

This was a highly informative and challenging talk and a privilege to hear.