Civitas Blog

Chris Heaton-Harris, Conservative MEP and member of the Audit Committee of the European Parliament, has published a ‘rough guide to the EU budget’. The brief guide tries to make sense of the draft budgets for both the European Commission and European Parliament in 2009 and queries how MEPs can be expected to ‘tame the beast’, writes Laura Kelleher.

Yesterday was the first day of the month in which children return to school after the summer holidays. (Cue for cheers or boos depending on age.)

Along with the start of the new school year, yesterday also saw the launch of a new anti-faith school initiative.

Named the Accord Coalition, what distinguishes this new organisation from all other lobby groups campaigning for the same end is that its membership includes several prominent religious figures and groups. It is not just the usual group of virulently anti-religious suspects such as Polly Toynbee, Phillip Pullman and A.C.Grayling, although all of these belong to it.

In an article for The Fraser Institute, we argue the lessons for Canada from the NHS reform programme are less that competition in health care has failed, but rather that market-based health care reforms in the UK have been crippled by the government’s unwillingness to stop directing the service from the centre. The reform programme as a whole has been 'a botched job driven by political imperative, constant reconfiguration, and central diktat'.

During the last ten years, the Westminster Government has permitted and then forbidden schoolchildren to use calculators in examinations no fewer than seven times.

If one single statistic could be said to reveal just how ill-equipped government is to make detailed decisions about such educational matters, this statistic surely is it.

It was cited by the chief executive of Europe’s largest assessment agency, Cambridge Assessment, to illustrate government’s incompetence in its domain.

He is also reported to have said that growing political interference in the assessment process has so served to discredit the GCSE qualification in the eyes of the public that they are increasingly turning to new, more reliable modes of assessment, such as the International Baccalaureate, that have escaped governmental interference … so far.

Infant classes of 20 or under needed to close the achievement gap

OECD figures out today show how poorly the UK continues to compare internationally on class size. Primary class sizes rank 4th largest at 25.8 (compared to the OECD average of 21.5). Additional government figures reveal that in England's primary schools in 2007/08 the average class size was even higher, at 26.2 pupils per class. According to the evidence, this matters most in infant classes (for 4-7 year-olds, Reception to Year 2), which rose from 25.6 in 2006/07 to an average of 25.7 pupils per class.

Via Freeborn John, here is a haunting article by an anonymous police detective describing one violent death and our criminal justice system's terrifyingly inadequate response.

Valery Giscard d’Estaing explored the idea that Britain should be offered a ‘special status’ within the EU at a conference held in Westminster on Monday, writes Laura Kelleher. The former French President and author of the EU constitution reaffirmed his commitment to European integration, but suggested that British opt-out clauses should take the form of a ‘special status’ in future.

The EU is eager to prove itself as a geo-political force, most recently by leading negotiations to appease the troubles between Russia and Georgia. (That is if you discount the genius of the original peace deal constructed to enable Russia to legally continue its military force...)

But there is certainly a new, closer-to-home, battle which the EU still has to negotiate its way out of – it’s the economy stupid!

According to a recent OECD report, Britain has slipped down the international league table showing the graduation rates of different industrialised countries: that is, the proportion of their 25-34 year olds with degrees. Whereas eight years ago, Britain lay in fourth place, now it lies in 12th place.

How much should we care?

For broadcaster and self-styled ‘education-expert’ Mike Baker, Britain’s fall in the international rankings comes close to a national catastrophe, akin to Britain not winning any gold medals at the Olympics. On the BBC News website, he responds to the slippage by lamenting: ‘If the present [trend] … continues, countries such as the Czech and Slovak republics and Hungary will soon overtake UK graduation rates.’

Whilst the Liberal Democrats are having to work hard for coverage of their policy proposals this week, amidst a storm of financial and political crises, their education policies do appear to have caught the attention of teachers, according to a Times Education Supplement (TES) poll published today, writes Anastasia de Waal.

Czech president Václav Klaus has said he will support Declan Ganley if he launches Libertas (the organisation which led the campaign for Ireland to vote 'No' to the Lisbon Treaty) as a pan-EU political party at the next European Parliament elections in 2009.

Ganley has said that he intends to transform the 2009 EP election into an ‘EU-wide referendum on the Lisbon Treaty’, therefore Klaus’ pronouncement of support could be a serious worry for Lisbon Treaty supporters because when the EP election is held in early June 2009 the Czech Republic will hold the rotating EU Presidency.

Yesterday’s Times reported that a ‘top-ranking state school has slashed the amount of homework set, saying that too much of it can be “depressing” and put children off learning.’ The head of the school that had taken this action was quoted as saying: ‘We felt that homework was taking over.... Ultimately, I don’t think we should set homework at all.’

Without trace of irony, the journalist reporting the item whom the newspaper describes as its Education Editor, stated the change was ‘part of a wider trend in secondary schools to cut back on traditional teaching and learning.’ I’ll say it is!

Ealing PCT’s new campaign to ‘help’ smokers quit goes to the heart of a debate too-often ignored: the proper limits of state intervention in the name of public health.

While New Labour’s aim in education has been to generate greater equality, a damning report from the OECD written up in this week’s Times Education Supplement, states that the UK education system ‘still seems to perpetuate rather than break the cycle of inequality’.

In an interview held with the The Sunday Times yesterday, former Tory leader William Hague emphasized that, should the Tories win power in 2009 or 2010, a ‘Conservative government could still hold a referendum on Europe, even if the Lisbon Treaty had already been ratified.’ Considering a national ballot on Britain’s EU membership may seem a rather bold and possibly even clever move (if as stated in the article’s comment section the Tories are to ‘make Britain Great again’) - if only there was nothing else on that agenda, writes Judith Gollata.

One minute America’s seemingly riding the crest of an economic boom we are told will never end. The next moment it’s 1929 all over again.

What’s going on and who has brought us to this current sticky pass? Those in search of an explanation of the economic turmoil will find little help from Britain's mainstream media.

The American blogosphere has some helpful pieces on the issue which I should like to draw to the attention of readers of the Civitas blog. One is a recent posting on the Mises Institute website. It is worth checking out, especially if recent events have begun to dent your confidence in the ability of markets to manage the economy better than government.