Archive for June, 2007
Blair’s legacy, Brown’s economy?
Posted by Nick Cowen in Tax and Spend on 06/06/2007
Via Daniel J. Mitchell at Cato, we learn that the last seven years has seen a climb in total taxation the equivalent of ten pence in every pound:
‘What developed nation has taken the biggest steps in the wrong direction since the turn of the century? The answer is not France, Germany, or Sweden. The United Kingdom has that dubious honor. Government spending has jumped from less than 38 percent of GDP in 2000 to more than 45 percent of economic output today. That is the largest increase among OECD nations, and the United Kingdom now has a bigger burden of government than Germany.’
If, as Reported, HMG Is Trying to Engage With Moderate Muslims Only, It Needs to Try A Damned Sight Harder
Posted by Nick Cowen in Social Cohesion on 04/06/2007
Towards the end of last year, following separate exposes by John Ware and Martin Bright as to
just how immoderate in view and policy are the leaders of the Muslim Council of Britain, until then the government’s preferred interlocutor when dealing with the country’s two million Muslims, it looked as though the government was finally about to get serious in henceforth only dealing with and supporting genuinely moderate Muslim organisations and their leadership.
continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog
David Cameron and power to the people?
Posted by Pete Quentin in Education on 03/06/2007
In the Sunday Times today David Cameron responds to critics of his grammar schools’ policy by presenting everyone who disagrees with him as a backwoodsman entertaining policy delusions. But the strongest critics of Mr Cameron’s education policy are not diehard defenders of grammar schools. They fully accept the need for policies to be modernised and presented in the most persuasive language, but argue that Mr Cameron is not going about modernisation in the most effective way.
Hands up if you’ve got a better answer
Posted by David Conway in Education on 01/06/2007
It’s been a week of tussles for education. As the grammar school row within the Conservative Party rumbles on – Graham Brady quits but then the Tories appear to ‘climb-down’, as education secretary Alan Johnson put it – the only thing about Tory policy which is clear is that the party is in disarray. Alan Johnson’s contribution to this week’s education debates has however not been limited to commentary. The education secretary’s attentions have been on the other set of schools some regard as ‘elitist’ – private ones. Johnson wants independent schools to do more to justify their charitable status. In what comes across as a bit of an own-goal in light of New Labour’s tireless emphasis on education, Johnson has proposed that one way to do so would be for private schools to ‘lend’ their teachers to the state sector. The implication is that private school teachers are better. This is something which would doubtless be hotly contested by the many who argue that it’s the conditions in private schools which are better, rather than the staff. Talk of private vs. state sector conditions brings us on to today’s education controversy: the Department for Education and Skills’ warnings over the dangers of getting children to put up their hands in class.