The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3245 by Angharad Copyright© 2020 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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The badger diggers we'd seen were prosecuted but only got a few months imprisonment between them. It seems wildlife still has little value to the legal system, sometimes I think education is equally rated.

You might recall I was having a little local difficulty with a certain Vice Chancellor who thought he could ride roughshod over everyone else by using illegal and antisocial means. He tried to suspend the university constitution for goodness sake, so somebody had to stop him. You can guess to whom that little job fell.

I'd called an extraordinary meeting of the university council for the next Monday, supported by nine other members. My reason, the VC was acting unconstitutionally by not adhering to the constitution as he had by-passed the council to try and get his way. I'd arranged for my barrister, Jason White QC to attend and had sent him full copies of the constitution, the university charter and code of practice as submitted to the charity commission. My argument was that the VC was in breach of all these codes, which meant we were operating outside the charter which would make any degrees or other qualifications we offered, null and void - which would be pretty devastating for any university, sort of nullifying their primary purpose.

So the stakes were high as far as I was concerned and could effectively destroy our institution and create havoc and distress to the twenty five thousand odd students we had, who are depending upon us to educate them and recognise that education with various qualifications, such as bachelor's, master's or doctoral degrees. It could also be argued, the rest of our remit was to achieve a place of educational excellence by research and development, which is part of my job and which I take seriously. Something that won't be mentioned, is good value for money to the students who indebt themselves for large amounts of money over their academic careers and which I feel we should try to respect - sadly not everyone agrees with me.

I accept we have to remain solvent in a financial sense but all these things have to be balanced and not at the disadvantage of any one of them. It's not easy in today's financial climate of austerity but if universities can't think of solutions, who can? Governments certainly can't as has been shown in much of the world, especially when we have autocrats running many of them, who have their own agendas which are rarely to the benefit of their countrymen. Hopefully history will show them up for the monsters they really are without a major war being necessary to unseat them.

The Monday morning arrived and I dressed up for the occasion wearing a red suit styled by one of the Beatles' kids. I wore it to show that I was up for a fight. Tom arrived in his best suit and although he was an observer, he was there to support me and the university against the damage we felt La Fass the VC was intent on creating. Jason arrived early with two assistants, so goodness knows that that was going to cost. They all looked immaculate in their expensive suits. What I hadn't appreciated was one of his 'team' was actually a lawyer from the Charity Commission.

La Fass turned up with his legal counsel, a thirty something woman who was heavily made up and wearing a suit I thought was possibly by Armani. She was to open the batting for the enemy but before any of that could happen we had to agree and elect a chair for the proceedings. That took an hour as they had to be impartial. Eventually, a retired judge was rustled up and he agreed to do the honours.

It was cut and thrust stuff of a legal type which is not my forte and although it was exciting, I wished I'd had a crossword to do as much of it was so involved, I lost the thread at times as the minutiae of legal arguments and definitions were argued in fine detail.

The meeting lasted until six which was unheard of. The judge asked everyone of the council to speak, and to my relief everyone agreed with rejecting the Vice Chancellor's high-handedness, as did the lawyer from the Charity Commission who agreed we could have lost our charter if La Fass had succeeded in his revolutionary plot - yes revolutions can be right as well as left wing. The university council voted to suspend the Vice Chancellor, which all the legal beagles, including the judge, agreed. Talk about biter bit. He stormed out of the room and growled threats at us, me in particular, giving me a scowl that would kill ordinary mortals.

The meeting broke up with most people happy at the outcome, I was especially so that one of my ideas, the suspension of Professors Adams and Maude, who'd supported the rapacious La Fass. It was a bit of pettiness for my part, but as Adams had attempted to stop me attending the meeting by suggesting he was my boss, I wanted to make sure he knew not to mess with me again. The next day he and Maude resigned, though it would normally require three months or more notice, I accepted his letter with immediate effect.

The bank paid for our legal expenses and Jason, was I am told, less expensive than usual because he felt the principle he was defending was important in British law. To confirm the supremacy of the university council as the governing body of the university, we went for a judicial review and got it two weeks later. La Fass resigned, claiming constructive dismissal and seeking extensive damages. He went to a tribunal and Jason faced him again and destroyed him and his arguments - he does enjoy his work.

Tom was asked to act up in the post of Vice Chancellor again and he reluctantly agreed but he insisted on having two assistants to deal with the work plus his secretary. The council agreed.

So what of the family? Well it was much of the usual stuff, petty squabbles between the girls, that is, Trish, Livvie and Hannah, who being of a similar age tended to want the same thing at the same time ranging from music discs to clothing and makeup.

Danielle continued playing soccer for Portsmouth ladies until the end of the season and announced her retirement. I wrote a snotty letter to the head of the ladies' sports at the FA accusing them of prejudice and bigotry and received no reply. Amazingly, the Daily Mail, yeah I know, asked what happened to Miss Cameron, the England scoring machine and got a reply from the FA saying she didn't fit the current scheme of play, to which their chief soccer correspondent responded, 'What, a losing one'.

I felt they had betrayed her and their apparent commitment to genuine diversity but no one listens to me, and the only good thing to arise from it all was the dignity, shown by Danni in getting on with her life and giving her schoolwork a renewed effort. I so wanted her to make something of her life because she deserved it. She gave a hundred per cent to anything she did and I felt she'd make her mark whatever she did.

Sammi, our other high achiever, has been allowed by the bank to assist GCHQ at Cheltenham one day per week equivalent. To do so she leads a hand-picked security team at the bank, rated as one of the best in Europe. She actually went to the area and had a look round and has expressed an interest in buying somewhere there, in one of the villages about ten miles away from Cheltenham. She and Simon bought a bigger flat in London selling off his old studio one, so she could become a woman of property - she earns quite a lot so it's a good way of investing it. Henry agrees if she'll let him borrow it when the Gold Cup is being run. Horse racing - yuck, so boring, I'd rather look at woodlice in the stable block.

Julie and Phoebe successfully sued the company who installed their tanning bed which caused the fire. They renovated the building and sold it, preferring the new premises I helped them find after the fire. Their business goes from strength to strength and I'm encouraging Phoebe to think about doing some online learning such as they offer from the Open University. She's still thinking about it.

Mima continues to lisp her way through life but doesn't seem to worry unless she's picked on and seeing as she belted the last girl who insulted her, any who fancy trying it on seem to be a very small number. Sister Marie keeps an eye on them all and apart from the things we do for the school as a family, she sees us as a major investment especially as Cate is now attending their nursery, so that makes five sets of school fees she gets from us - I knew I should have taken shares in the place.

Simon continues support me, most of the time, we do have disagreements, occasionally about the future of the girls, he was irritated that I didn't agree to go to Cambridge as Henry was prepared to sponsor a chair in mammalian ecology, but I still consider Trish to be too young to cope with university. He huffed and puffed saying in his experience it wasn't that bad. I told him that I'd been at university for twelve or more years, so my experience was greater. He went rather red in the face but knew when he was beaten.

Now, my next chore, finding yet another housekeeper and babysitter to watch Lizzie until she goes to nursery. I switched on my computer and started to compile an advert...