Archive for August, 2007
The Potential for On-Campus Extremism Extends Beyond Universities
Posted by Nick Cowen in Security on 28/08/2007
While Britain’s university lecturers and Vice Chancellors obdurately continue to refuse to offer any form of assistance in the fight against on-campus violent extremism, a trial currently underway in a Glasgow courtroom suggests that the problem towards which Britain’s academics seem willing to turn a complacent blind eye could well extend much further than the University sector.
continued on the Centre for Social cohesion blog.
The right order for schools
Posted by David Conway in Education on 24/08/2007
As of September, schools will have the power to apply for parenting orders. This means that head teachers will be able to ask the courts to impose a requirement on parents to attend guidance sessions where they receive help and support in dealing with their children.
Combien d’étudiants qui ont appris le français jusqu’à GCSE savent écrire cette phrase?
Posted by Nick Cowen in Education on 23/08/2007
In the wake of the annual controversy sparked by inflated A-level results, real evidence has emerged that GCSEs are similarly suffering a crisis of quality – writes Thomas Woods. Writing in today’s Telegraph newspaper, a languages examiner has revealed the existence of a co-ordinated system of ‘teaching to the test’. In the French Oral section pupils are at liberty to memorise a string of answers which they are assured will be required in the exam. The writing section (which is now 100 per cent coursework) involves students reeling off identical essays using ‘writing frames’ already set out for them by the teachers. Token attempts at variation are provided with the individuals’ choice of holiday and weekend activity.
The plight of the English patient
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 22/08/2007
The EUROCARE-4 study of cancer survival rates released yesterday by the Lancet Oncology journal does not make for comfortable reading for anyone in the UK, least of all the government. In a league of 22 European countries between 2000-02, England comes out 7th bottom, Northern Ireland 5th bottom and Scotland 3rd bottom in terms of the number of patients alive 5 years after diagnosis – much closer to the slightly inferior performance of countries such as Poland and the Czech Republic than the best performing countries such as Sweden, Finland and Switzerland. Cancer survival rates in these countries are some 10 to 15 percentage points better than the countries that make up the UK. The same trend is observed for individual conditions – survival rates from stomach cancer, for example, are as much as 86% higher in Germany than in England.
More worryingly still, is the picture painted over time. A second article, also released in the Lancet Oncology, performs a similar study for the years 1995-99. Comparing the two shows that while cancer survival rates have improved across the board, and the gap between those with the best and worst survival rates is narrowing, those in the UK remain ‘stubbornly low’. Tellingly, this study also found that the UK (along with Denmark) seems to be the exception to the broad trend that those countries that spent the most on health care generally get the better survival rates. So what’s gone wrong?
In Defence of a TV Documentary Explaining the Muslim View of Jesus
Posted by Nick Cowen in Social Cohesion on 21/08/2007
‘How would the Muslim community respond if ITV made a programme challenging Muhammad as the last prophet?’
So, according to a report in Saturday’s Guardian, does Anglican canon Dr Patrick Sookhdeo protest against the decision by ITV to broadcast, on some as yet unnamed future Sunday, a one-hour documentary setting out the Muslim view of Jesus.
continued on the Centre for Social Cohesion blog.
The illusion of choice
Posted by James Gubb in Health on 17/08/2007
The DH sent out a press release today entitled ‘Statistical press notice: Patient choice survey and A&E statistics’. The content’s as bland as the headline; the section on the patient choice survey merely reads: ‘Report on the National Patient Choice Survey, March 2007 England and provisional headline results of the May 2007 Survey’. Yet these are often the ones that are the most interesting; the ones that aren’t spun. You’d better your bottom dollar that if the results had been worth shouting about, the release would’ve been much juicier and, at the very least, actually contained some of the statistics. The fact of the matter is that those on patient choice are a cause for concern.