“Now children,” said the headteacher, “There are one-hundred and twenty-eight children in this school and recently a lot of you have been complaining about being in class and saying that you want spend all your time playing in the playground. So I have decided that we will take a vote on the matter, what some people like to call a “referendum”.
“You will all vote for staying in the classroom in lesson time or going out to the playground and having “fun”! If more than half of you vote to go out to the playground then you must all go and will not be allowed back into the school building.”
The vote was duly taken and twenty-eight of the one-hundred and twenty-eight did not vote, for whatever reason. Of the remaining one-hundred children fifty-two voted to play outside and forty-eight voted to remain in classroom for lessons and to increase their knowledge. This result meant that the whole school had to decamp to the playground, with no means of getting back into the school building. In fact the decision was taken by fifty-two of the one-hundred and twenty-eight pupils in the school.
So the children all went outside to play. Before long some needed to use the toilet but as these were located inside the school they were not available!
Then it started to rain and where were their coats? In the cloakrooms! Once again inside the building, as were the canteen where they could not access their lunch and they had forgotten to take their packed lunches outside with them!
Never mind! Help is at hand! Outside the school gates is a mobile toilet, parked there by some enterprising individual, probably foreign! The charges for use of this facility will doubtless increase over a short time when the proprietor realises what a good thing he is on to.
Parked just behind him is a mobile shop whose proprietor is happy to sell snacks and drinks, at his prices, through the railings to the children who are having such “fun”!
“A raincoat? I don’t have one with me but I can get an ample supply from the pound shop down the road. Of course, there will be a mark-up on the price so make sure you bring plenty of money tomorrow.”
Don’t think, however, that the children have no-one to negotiate with the outside world and to look after their interests. Several members of staff have volunteered their services at a vastly increased salary, commensurate with this new position of authority. There was the under-groundsman, the caretaker and a former teacher who retired twenty-five years ago. Children, you have nothing to worry about!