When Slovenia shuffles off the podium of the EU Presidency tomorrow, France will assume the European Union’s top post for the second half of 2008. Among its priorities, the French leadership has asserted its ambition to formalise a common European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). However, France must prove that the EU needs a common… [Read More]
This week Gordon Brown gave us his assessment of the factors thwarting social mobility in Britain today. Where he was right, was to point to the impact which unemployment had on social mobility under Thatcher. Where he was wrong, was to ignore the role which his very own government is playing in thwarting social mobility… [Read More]
The dramatic escalation of child protection measures has succeeded in poisoning the relationship between the generations and creating an atmosphere of suspicion that actually increases the risks to children, according to a new study released today by Civitas. In Licensed to Hug Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent, argues that children… [Read More]
The Conservatives made a first small step in the right direction on NHS policy yesterday, reaffirming their pledge to scrap the endless targets that have – to not put too fine a point on it – bludgeoned the life out of the health service over the past decade or so; and instead focus on outcomes.… [Read More]
Much of the western world, including Britain, currently seems in process of economic melt-down. To take our minds off all the depressing economic news, and hence off how lamentably the present Government has prepared this last decade for the years of national belt-tightening that now lie ahead, we need reminding that, as well as love,… [Read More]
Shortly before last week’s unexpected referendum decision in Ireland, a journalist in the Scotsman explained why the Irish had chosen to reject the Lisbon Treaty despite the benefits the EU have showered on their country in recent years. He wrote: ‘The anti-EU lobby … have plastered Ireland with posters warning that the treaty will force… [Read More]
Schools in the state sector in Sweden can offer the acclaimed International GCSE (IGCSE) science qualifications that have been denied to British state school pupils by the government, according to Swedish Lessons, a report published today by independent think-tank Civitas.
Education secretary Ed Balls announced this week that the lowest performing secondary schools, as judged by the number of A*-Cs at GCSE, will be closed or replaced if they do not demonstrate an imminent ‘turnaround’. The National Challenge, as the proposed strategy for aiding these turnarounds has been termed, is modelled on the London Challenge… [Read More]
The press is littered today with references to a new report on system reform in the NHS produced jointly by the Audit Commission and the Healthcare Commission – two well respected watchdogs. It concludes ‘the [competitive] reforms [in the NHS] have not yet delivered the desired change’, adding that ‘there is no evidence from our… [Read More]
Lord Darzi’s Healthcare for London report, published last July, outlined ambitious proposals to introduce a series of polyclinics in the capital. While the national Next Stage Review currently being conducted may not take the London report as a template, it is likely that polyclinics are to form a part of Lord Darzi’s conclusions once again.… [Read More]