Yesterday, the latest development – or should I say hitch – on the rocky road to the Lisbon Treaty’s ratification occurred in Germany, one of four EU member states that have yet to ratify the treaty, writes Ariane Poulain. The Treaty aims to ‘streamline’ the EU by changing its decision-making processes, eradicating EU symbolisms, and… [Read More]
Peter Hyman was a political strategist to Tony Blair between 1994 and 2003. He is now the deputy head of a London comprehensive. In last Sunday’s Observer, he correctly identifies what’s fundamentally wrong with state schooling, but then proposes a remedy that will only make matters worse. What is that prevents Labour Party supporters like… [Read More]
Laura’s blog lays bare the issues, so let’s try to encourage a bit of reasonable, rationale and sensible discussion on the whole USA vs. NHS question. Is it, in fact, the case that many insurance-based health systems in Europe, equally committed to universal coverage as the NHS, do better than both? Are there lessons all… [Read More]
Claims by both sides of the fiery debate on US health system reform are clouded in ideology and misrepresentation. Democrats are demanding free health care for all as quickly as possible, providing only vague solutions for addressing the inevitably enormous costs of such a system change, while republicans are crying that reform will spark transformation… [Read More]
This week the Times Educational Supplement has produced a baffling report on the nascent changes to emotional skills programmes at primary level. Modelled on ‘the straight-talking business world’ this incentive is dubbed SUMO – ‘Shut Up and Move On’ – and is fast becoming a permutation of the government’s ‘Personal, Social and Emotional Education’ directive.… [Read More]
Last week, when discussing the quality of care provided by ISTCs in relation to a briefing issued by the BMA, a run-through of value for money was promised. So here goes.
Four years ago David Cameron announced his intention to leave the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) – the largest group in the European Parliament – and form a new centre-right group in 2009, writes Ariane Poulain, which would specifically oppose the EPP’s pro-European stance. Bucking the EU trend of rhetorical talk and no action, the… [Read More]
Twelve years of incessant meddling by the Government with education has failed to improve the chances of pupils at ‘bog-standard’ comprehensives gaining sufficiently good A level grades to satisfy the entry requirements of the country’s better universities. So, now Lord Mandelson has seemingly set his sights on these universities agreeing to lower their entry requirements… [Read More]
England’s 115 foundation trust hospitals have been told by Monitor, the organisation responsible for their regulation, that the three-year budget forecasts they submitted are overly optimistic, considering the NHS’s tightened funding in the coming years. They have now been given until the end of September to re-submit their financial plans.
This week Key Stage 2 (KS2) Sats have, once again, been under close scrutiny. The Times Educational Supplement (TES) today reported that ‘National test results for 11 year-olds have remained largely static’ though the Guardian has gone for a more hard-line ‘record drop in English results – a quarter leave primary school unable to read and write properly’.