More powers, new targets, less tolerance for failure, a boost to several central government run schemes (Teach First and Teach Next), are the only discernible content of Brown’s latest speech on education. The tone of the speech makes it sound as if the government, having annexed and occupied the education system decades ago, still finds… [Read More]
Should Saudi Royals be treated as moral outcasts? Definitely not argues Amir Taheri in an op-ed in today’s Times. Entitled ‘They’re like camels – uncongenial, but trustworthy’, his piece bears the subtitle: ‘It’s absurd to treat the Saudi royals as moral outcasts’. continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.
I had my own Dads’ Army experience this weekend – strangely not when accompanying a Veterans’ Association on its battlefield tour of France, but outside the Palace of Westminster…
This Monday, Robert Naylor, Chief Executive of UCLH NHS Foundation Trust, gave a seminar at Civitas, in which he put a powerful case for the continuation and deepening of the Foundation Trust ‘experiment’. He argued persuasively that not only has Foundation Trust status – with its associated financial and structural freedoms – provided for both… [Read More]
Professor Julian Le Grand has a radical strategy for tackling the supposed problems of ill health in the UK: smoking permits (which might require a doctor’s note), an ‘exercise hour’ for company employees, a ban on additional salt in foods, more free fruit in general and more stern notes sent to the homes of children… [Read More]
In quest of Muslim votes, David Cameron has turned for policy advice to a group of Muslim party members known as the Conservative Muslim Forum (CMF). Last week, that group gave David Cameron the benefit of its collective wisdom on what policies his party should adopt to make itself of greater appeal to Muslim voters.… [Read More]
Now that the EU Reform Treaty has been agreed by the member states, speculation has turned to who will be appointed the first permanent “President of Europe”, writes Cem Suleyman. The Reform Treaty proposes that the President of the European Council replaces the existing six month rotating presidency. The President of the European Council will… [Read More]
The frustrations of being a teacher in the state sector are neatly encapsulated in the pages of today’s Times Education Supplement (TES). There is the usual medley of difficulties faced daily in schools: the weekly discussion about issues with testing and exam arrangements, the independence of schools jeopardised by central control and of course the… [Read More]
One of Lord Darzi’s key recommendations in his interim report released today is the creation of a Health Innovation Unit – with a budget of £100m ‘to help the NHS develop and deploy hi-tech health care such as medical devices and diagnostics’. But it is wholly unclear that a new central body is what is… [Read More]
Civitas has marked the start of Children’s Book Week (www.booktrusted.co.uk/cbw/) by making available for the first time in a commercial edition a phonics-based reading course that has achieved sensational results with children from all backgrounds, including the most deprived. Irina Tyk wrote The Butterfly Book in 1993 to make available to other teachers and parents… [Read More]