Civitas Blog

Last week, I wrote about the seemingly perverse decision by an appeal court not to cancel the two million pounds debts a compulsive gambler had run up with his bookmakers over a six month period after it failed to keep its agreement with him not to accept bets from him placed over the telephone.

Hot on the heels of that decision, as well those of Morris dancers and the incandescent light-bulb, it seems this week that it is the turn of common sense to become the latest victim of this country’s unstoppable slide into becoming just another impoverished and deracinated outlying region of the EU.

2008 went out with a proverbial bang as the Russo-Ukrainian dispute threatened to, and eventually did, plunge Europe into an energy crisis, writes Lara Natale. As the bells chimed midnight ringing in the New Year, the price Kiev should pay for gas in 2009 still hadn’t been agreed, thus gas supplies have been disrupted. An inauspicious start to the New Year and the Czech EU Presidency…

These days, it seems, you can’t open a newspaper without reading about social mobility and what the Government is doing to increase it. Yesterday, we read of Alan Milburn’s appointment to lead an enquiry into how more children from poor backgrounds might be got into the professions. Reports of his appointment precede publication today of a White Paper on social mobility that will doubtless occupy endless column inches in tomorrow’s papers.

Today, we read teachers who join and remain for three years at the country’s most disadvantaged secondary schools will be given bonuses of £10,000. Why? Because good teaching is thought key to pupil success, and that the key to social mobility.

Trawling over the health press I’d missed in a week’s holiday yesterday, this headline has got to be the winner: ‘Deaths from hospital blunders soar 60% in two years as NHS staff 'abandon quality of care to chase targets' says the Daily Mail. Really?

This week social mobility has been high on the government’s agenda – and something of a low, in terms of reception. First there was Alan Milburn’s new position as ‘remover of barriers’ for the disadvantaged, then there was Harriet Harman’s bid to foster equality through legislation. On the latter, in particular, the response has been less than favourable.

From the Czech presidency’s ominous start with the gas crisis in the previous Europe blog, they faced a diplomatic predicament of an altogether more jocular sort last week as the 'Entropa: Borders without Barriers' was unveiled in front of the European Council building in Brussels on the 12th January...writes Lara Natale

‘Making sure children are safe, well and receive a good education is our most serious responsibility… However, there are concerns that some children are not receiving the education they need. And in some extreme cases, home education could be used as a cover for abuse. We cannot allow this to happen and are committed to doing all we can to ensure children are safe, wherever they are educated.’ So said Children’s Minister Dame Morgan of Drefelin.

So, the NHS Constitution has been released after almost a year of negotiations, at a reported cost of around £1 million of taxpayers’ money. Was it worth it? Will it really make a difference to patient care?

Last week education secretary Ed Balls called on schools to take more responsibility for low achievement amongst pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Part of the reason for a relationship between low performance and socio-economic disadvantage, he argued, is low expectations on the part of teachers.

Although this approach garnered media interest as a new strategy for severing the link between background and performance, ‘poverty is no excuse for underachievement’ has been a long-time mantra of both this government and the previous one.

More foreboding. The run-up to the summer European Parliamentary elections has officially started. Some disquieting new findings were released last week (courtesy of YouGov): writes Lara Natale ...

I read the news today, oh boy/About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad/ Well, I just had to laugh, I read the paragraph.
He blew his street-cred as a peer/ By being willing to make laws for cash.
And though the bribe was rather small/ He didn’t notice it was just a trawl
By 'papermen on look out for those to appall/ Their readers with from the House of Lords.

On the basis of a report by the CMO, Sir Liam Donaldson, the government has recommended that no child should drink before the age of 15; and that children between the 15-17 years should only drink under the supervision of adults.

As education secretary Ed Balls announces the further rolling-out of the government’s flagship academies, resisting ‘calls for a slow-down’, a significant hidden cost of the programme has been revealed.