Archive for February, 2010
A Greek Tragedy
Posted by Claire Daley in European Union, Uncategorized on 17/02/2010
Greece’s financial woes dominated last week’s EU Summit, writes Natalie Hamill. With government debt at 113% of GDP, and a public deficit of 12.7% (more than 4 times that allowed under the EU’s Stability and Growth Pact (SGP). Greece has been spending far beyond her means.
The Delights of Diversity: The Rhetoric and the Reality
Posted by David Conway in Social Cohesion on 16/02/2010
‘We believe that diversity is good for society—socially, culturally, economically.’
So runs the vision statement of the Institute of Community Cohesion, which last year received from the Department for Communities and Local Government almost a quarter of a million pounds ‘for a range a work aimed at helping local partners build more cohesive and integrated communities’.
One wishes in vain from this Quango for some account of exactly what the basis is of its guiding philosophy, when the truth so manifestly belies the exact opposite.
Mum’s the word
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education, Family, Marriage and the Culture on 14/02/2010
It’s Sunday night, the kids are finally in bed and you’re curled up on the sofa—glass of chilled Chablis in one hand and a couple of fair-trade chocolate cookies in the other (you ate the rest whilst putting the finishing touches to Harry and Polly’s wheat-free packed lunches).
Prison versus technology
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Crime on 13/02/2010
As the well-documented phenomenon of cyber-bullying gathers pace in society at large, even the concrete walls of prison are apparently not providing barriers to its advancement.
BMA campaign to shut out independent sector from NHS is misguided and foolhardy
Posted by James Gubb in Economics, Health on 12/02/2010
The BMA today extend their ‘Look After Our NHS’ campaign, to stop commercially run firms providing NHS care and end the market in the NHS, to patients.
Leaflets will be distributed containing stories such as a 70-year-old lady who is forced to go to a treatment centre run by a private provider and suffers ‘complications’.
The BMA are shamelessly politicising health care on cherry-picked evidence.
Lowest ever marriage rates – but over 60% of unmarried parents surveyed would like to marry
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Family, Marriage and the Culture on 11/02/2010
Lowest marriage rates on record published today, connect strongly to an increase in parenting outside marriage. Yet, over 60% of young unmarried parents would like to marry
Today’s marriage figures follow shortly after findings from the British Social Attitudes Survey showing that unmarried parenting has become more socially acceptable than ever. Whilst this may appear to be the death knell of marriage in the UK, attitudes on personal aspirations tell a different story.