Archive for October, 2009
Test – just don’t cram
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 16/10/2009
The latest findings from the Cambridge Primary Review, published today, raise many interesting and important issues. Whilst the main media focus has been the proposition that the school starting age should be raised to 6, the Review’s line on testing is also significant.
Is the DH giving up on practice-based commissioning?
Posted by Laura Brereton in Health on 15/10/2009
While the Conservatives are announcing plans to restructure PbC, the current government seems to be rethinking the future of the process as well. Read the rest of this entry »
Václav vs. Václav
Posted by Pete Quentin in European Union on 14/10/2009
A brief comparison of the political styles of two politicians – Vaclav Klaus and Vaclav Havel reveals the ‘era of disgust’ that has plagued Czech politics in the last twenty years. Vaclav Klaus’ obstructionism in the last few days is somewhat difficult to explain. It is not necessarily pressure from Eurosceptics in the UK. His comments to British Eurosceptics not to wait for the Czechs are testament to that. Nor is it easy to explain his demand for an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the treaty, alleging that ethnic Germans expelled under the post-war Benes decrees could otherwise reclaim expropriated property. The main problem with the Klausian argument is this… Read the rest of this entry »
Silence is golden
Posted by David Conway in Health, Uncategorized on 13/10/2009
Although I’m pretty certain my children would want to contest the claim, the prize for being the world’s grumpiest old man must surely go to the nineteenth century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.
More than practically all else, what got up his nose was noise — especially that caused by traffic. Writing a century a half ago before the age of mechanised transport, he remarked:
NHS care not good enough for its own staff?
Posted by Laura Brereton in Health on 12/10/2009
Many large corporations in the United Kingdom offer private health ‘top-ups’ or insurance cover as a benefit to employees, and it turns out the NHS is one of them. Read the rest of this entry »
Work’s worth
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education on 09/10/2009
This week the importance of work for a prospective Conservative government was emphasised. In what were received as radical proposals, the Tories announced that they would, broadly ala Wisconsin welfare reforms, push people off benefits and into work – as well as push longer working years. That the former proposal in particular, off welfare and into work, is seen as radical is an indictment of where Labour has failed to pursue what would once have been seen as its rightful path.