This post to the original blog uses Matthew France’s email address- matnificent@gmail.com. He clearly didn’t know we could read his identity. This Mattnificient ESL teacher, who has spent a lot of time attacking our grammar, is not the most eloquent of writers, but there is a point in there somewhere. He is writing about Matt while pretending to be someone called Mr. Incognito (the TBI Mafia attack dogs always love silly aliases).

Matthew, pretending not to be Matthew, is saying that if Matthew really was crazy and unbalanced (as Luke had told TBI Human Resources) wouldn’t Luke be wise to just treat Matt the Gila Monster carefully and just sort of walk slowly him off the TBI premises and say, “Bye now, mate, loved workin’ with ya”, and then shut the door behind him.

Or if we just cast off the pretense that Mr. Incognito isn’t Matthew France, things get simpler.

Matthew France writes, “If I really am bat-shit crazy, like Luke Preece says, didn’t Luke do the right thing by getting rid of me and rubbishing me behind my back?”

I suppose so Matt. But that is a very dangerous line of argument for you to be using surely. If Matt really was crazy, maybe nobody should listen to a thing he says on any topic, no?

But I suggest that what we have here, really, is Matthew France like a deer caught in the headlights. This well-known miser thought he could get a few extra thousand dollars a year in special projects from Luke and all he had to do was make a complaint a month against Cam, who Luke wanted to get rid of. Luke could then use this as ‘proof’ Cam was too unpopular with expat teachers and he should be removed, leaving a space open for a Luke yes-man (or woman). Knowing how difficult Matthew was, Cam treated him with ever greater indulgence and scrupulous politeness, but there was just no stopping the Matthew France complaint machine.

I don’t wanna teach Business English. (Ok, then. I’ll do my best)

I don’t wanna ride in a taxi without being paid overtime. (OK, then. I’ll try)

I wanna do the Military project. (OK, then)

I wanna sleep on the base. (OK, then)

I wanna move off the base. (OK, then)

I wanna move out of this hotel. (OK, then. May I ask why, Matt?)

I wanna hotel with hotter water. (OK, then. Anything else?)

I AM FUCKING LIVID. TBI won’t pay me laundry costs!

If you ask me, Cam showed great restraint putting up with Matthew’s endless pettiness, whinging and numerous demands for special treatment. And Matthew, whose laundry claims he has admitted were co-written with Luke Preece, then found out that Cam and I have started a blog about the insanity that is The British Institute and he gets nervous as his name is mentioned. And he posts to our blog, as Mr. Incognito, writing some errant nonsense about, “What if Luke Preece was right than I am crazy?”, desperately looking for an escape route, as his own past comes catching up with him. But the real answer is clear: Matthew France isn’t crazy. He can just be cheaply bought off. And he thought he had got away with it.