Archive for February, 2007
Who do you think you are kidding Mr Solana?
Posted by Nick Cowen in European Union on 14/02/2007
by Pete Quentin
There has recently been a lot of (increasingly) confident talk amongst those who propose further integration of European defence. Javier Solana has been boasting of the EU’s military “successes” in Congo and Lebanon last year and talking up the “full operational capacity” of its new battle groups. Meanwhile the German presidency is expected to see further EU-led management of the international deployment in Lebanon and proposals for policing support of NATO in Afghanistan.
In fact the French General who commanded those troops in Congo is so pleased with the progress he has declared that “we finally have the beginnings of a European army”. Or do we?
Genuine school choice seems so far away
Posted by Nick Cowen in America, Education on 13/02/2007
With half of the Europe project team conducting research on the continent, this week’s Tuesday blog entry will look sadly neglected. In the meantime, we can take a quick look to the US where a school choice revolution might be finally beginning in earnest after a few faltering starts. The sign of any real choices in education for parents seems as far off as ever in the UK. A recent report that I have compiled of the overseas evidence in support of parents having a free choice of schools to send their children and the British government’s inability to include this in their reforms has been uploaded here.
Marriage – it’s not for everyone
Posted by David Conway in Family, Marriage and the Culture on 09/02/2007
This week marks ten years of National Marriage Week. And ten years of marriage-less Government policy.
Marriage has been kept off the Left’s agenda in order to give people greater choice. Yet for all its democratic ambitions, the Left’s stance on marriage is jeopardising its very own principles.
Reid All About It!
Posted by David Conway in Civil Liberty, Crime on 07/02/2007
John Reid, in honour of little known and even lesser practiced ‘Safer Internet Day’, has launched another barrage of verbal torpedoes over the issue of sex offenders using the Internet. The plan is to force released sex offenders to register their online identities (email addresses and usernames) with the government so that their communications with others including children can be tracked and dangerous behaviour ‘flagged’ before anything in the real world takes place. Unfortunately, both the strategy and implementation of this place seems to be based on little more than one or two ‘Paedofinder General’ sketches from the television series Monkey Dust.