Made in Kingston. That’s the tag line that Ratty likes to apply to the “Wall of Fame”, though famous is not the word you’d associate with most of the incumbents there. Apart from a couple of sporting alumni, the word that will come to mind most readily for this unremarkable collection of individuals is Who? But one face on the wall is making a bid for familiarity, one Ruby McGregor-Smith, boss of Mitie, the “outsourcing” outfit whose dodgy management of Harmondsworth immigration removal centre has been ingloriously exposed on Channel 4 News over the last few days.
Many of us will not be too surprised at the mess Mad McGregor-Smith’s made of Harmondsworth given her track record of mistreatment of staff. Like all iffy companies, it simply pretends the opposite — this from their website: “It’s no secret that Mitie is a people business.” Just insert “screwing” before people and that will be about right.
Kingston is being urged to remove Rude Ruby from the Wall. Hardly a good advert for the University, a neoliberal who rakes in the money in return for mistreatment of others. On the other hand, given the actions of Ratty, he may think she deserves pride of place. But the view of normal people, who believe a sense of decency and justice should be prerequisites for a place on the Wall, is that she should be taken down forthwith. Should Kingston introduce a Wall of Infamy, perhaps the Mitie Mistress could go there.
I have been of the opinion that most of the people on the ‘Wall of Fame’ are not graduates of Kingston University, but of Kingston Polytechnic, which I hold to be a completely different, and significantly more illustrious, institution coincidentally occupying many of the same buildings.