Get the best experience in our app
Enjoy offline reading, category favourites, and instant updates - right from your pocket.

Thus the cleaner;Diary

8th May 1998, 1:00am

Share

Thus the cleaner;Diary

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/thus-cleanerdiary
First, there was Margaret Thatcher’s hairdresser. Now, we have Michael Barber’s dry cleaner. The standards supremo likes to refer to his Islington dry cleaner as an example of “the learning society” and last week treated members of the Local Government Association to his favourite joke: “Your dry cleaner will ask you whether you have heard of the Czech novelist Ivan Klima and you, taken aback, will say you haven’t.”

But the erudite stain remover has yet more to offer, as the LGA discovered. “The real problem,” he told Professor Barber, “is that no one in England has ever understood Nietzsche.”

Apart from Professor Barber who, inspired by the philosopher, or his dry cleaner, has famously declared that God is dead.

Want to keep reading for free?

Register with Tes and you can read five free articles every month, plus you'll have access to our range of award-winning newsletters.

Register with Tes and you can read five free articles every month, plus you'll have access to our range of award-winning newsletters.

Keep reading for just £4.90 per month

/per month for 12 months

You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £4.90 per month for three months and get:

  • Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
  • Exclusive subscriber-only stories
  • Award-winning email newsletters

You've reached your limit of free articles this month. Subscribe for £4.90 per month for three months and get:

  • Unlimited access to all Tes magazine content
  • Exclusive subscriber-only stories
  • Award-winning email newsletters
Recent
Most read
Most shared