Celebrate, for a new national agency has been born! “Ofqual will act as the independent guardian of standards across the qualifications, tests and exam system in England.” The mother is the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which henceforth will be known as the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA). The raft of independent and international evidence… [Read More]
Sir Andrew Green of Migrationwatch has been arguing the point for ages. But it took a cross-party House of Lords Committee to join the chorus before what he has been banging on about all this time finally to make it to the front pages of the national press. What the Lords Committee has joined Sir… [Read More]
The EU’s leg of the Olympic relay race has begun and a couple of mistimed exchanges when passing the baton (buck) of foreign policy has already left it without a hope of winning gold, writes Claire Daley. As the Olympic torch shuffles its way across the continents, a parallel relay race is taking place within… [Read More]
The Guardian features two blogs on health inequalities that are, to be frank, almost completely non-descript. They do a good job at listing the damning evidence – that life expectancy for those in poverty has been falling further behind the national average over the past decade, that infant mortality 19 per cent higher for “routine… [Read More]
The EU: is there anything it cannot regulate? As Cato alerts us, apparently not. This week a wine business faces costs of £30,000 to comply with one of latest petty regulations while a bus route has to be artificially cut in three in order to comply with another, pointlessly wasting passenger time.
At present, approximately a third of all schools in England and Wales are denominational, a status that permits them, when oversubscribed, to select pupils whose parents avow the same faith as these schools. continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.
With due credit to ‘Mr Eugenides’ whose frequent use of colourful metaphors renders him unsuitable to be linked to here, we can see the level of conviction with which the government is leading on criminal justice. May 2000 – Straw plans `short, sharp jail shock’ for young March 2008 – Too many short sentences –… [Read More]
Disagreement is still evident over the exact role of competition in healthcare, but a consensus is emerging that the ‘type’ of competition being pursued in the NHS is too narrowly focused and must facilitate greater service integration and clinical leadership. That was the finding of a high-profile seminar organised by Civitas last month, which debated… [Read More]
2008 is European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. I bet you didn’t know that. According to its own dedicated website, the purpose of the year is ‘to encourage all those living in Europe to explore the benefits of our rich cultural heritage and to learn from different cultural traditions’. A flavour of the sort of thing… [Read More]
A new report, published in the latest edition of the Civitas Review, argues NHS performance on efficiency, quality and – most damagingly so far as its ideals are concerned – equity, has flailed badly over the past ten years despite record increases in funding. The problems are systemic. The undeniable talents of doctors, nurses and… [Read More]