Two facts about schools have recently been reported in the press. The first is the disturbingly high rate of violent altercations that go on in them. The second is how much better faith schools generally do in examinations than their non-denominational counterparts.
Last week’s EU Summit (10-11th Dec 2008) was hailed a victory by those lobbying the EU to stick by its Green credentials. In the run up to the summit, there were tell-tale reports of squabbling between Member States about the EU’s 20-20-20 targets on energy use, which were agreed in March 2007. For example, it… [Read More]
In his regular column on education in last week’s Sunday Times, Chris Woodhead laid into the recently published Rose report on primary schooling in whose defence I posted a blog last week. If I return to its defence against Woodhead’s attack on it in this week’s posting, it is less in angry defiance of the… [Read More]
This Wednesday (17th December), MEPs will vote on a proposal to end the UK’s opt-out from the EU’s Working Time Directive. If passed, the changes will make it illegal for workers to choose to work more than 48-hours in a week from 2011.
As previous experience could have predicted, the Crown Prosecution Service has dropped its 11-month investigation into donations to Peter Hain’s deputy leadership campaign. Thus Hain joins a growing list of politicians who acknowledge having failed to follow ‘the rules’ (or what ordinary folk call ‘the law’) but have yet to see the inside of a… [Read More]
It’s not often that you read a document produced by a regulator that actually has genuine feel behind it, but The State of Healthcare published by the Healthcare Commission today does. The dynamic of the text is a lesson, almost, in making a subtle political point. The tone is reflective and conciliatory (though, inevitably it’s… [Read More]
It is not often, in fact I cannot think of any previous occasion, when I have found myself agreeing more with the opinions of David Aaronovitch than those of Michael Gove and Melanie Phillips. However, in relation to the merits of the Rose report on primary schooling, published yesterday, I find much to my surprise… [Read More]
The Czech Republic will assume the rotating EU Presidency from France on 1st January 2009. President Klaus, a pronounced EU-sceptic, will be at the member states’ helm as the EU continues to negotiate on the Lisbon Treaty and the climate change package, and significantly also for the EP elections in June 2009. It is certainly… [Read More]
Not many people were aware of the offence “misconduct in public office” and fewer still were aware that the maximum penalty is life imprisonment. But the details are readily available on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) website and were updated only in November last year. Although the maximum penalty is life imprisonment, the CPS makes… [Read More]
‘Quality’, wrote Lord Darzi in his recent Next Stage Review of the NHS, ‘is improved by empowered patients and empowered professionals. There must be a stronger role for clinical leadership and management throughout the NHS’. A raft of measures to encourage its development has been proposed, but will they be effective? Is this a new… [Read More]