IPPR’s latest report, ‘Those Who Can’, accurately highlights many of the new pressures that are now impacting on teachers, including a greater demand for skilled school leavers in the economy, changes in family structure and even artificial pressures generated by political agendas. The funny thing is their solution for dealing with these pressures is not… [Read More]
Launching the buck on biofuel targets across the Atlantic, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson’s article in the Guardian last week stated “European biofuel production is having only a minimal effect on global prices”. (Roughly translated as: “It wasn’t me sir!”) But he warned “large-scale biofuel production, especially in the US, may be one of the… [Read More]
Another May, another Mayor mercifully less prone than some to praising preachers of hate, and now, to add further icing to the cake of all who long for this country to return to the days when it was a tolerant, peaceful and civilised place in which to live, another moderate Muslim organisation to join the… [Read More]
As Silvio Berlusconi prepares for strike three as Italy’s Prime Minister, the country’s recently defeated centre-left government has published details of all Italians’ taxable income on the internet, writes Claire Daley. People visiting the Italian tax authority website could snoop through their neighbours’ financial affairs for up-to 24-hours until a formal complaint was lodged.
Yesterday evening, I attended the Fabian Society’s debate ‘How can we defend the inheritance tax?’ although it might have been more aptly labelled a strategy meeting on how to set-up a pro-tax alternative to the Taxpayers Alliance. For when I had a chance to speak, the only one present to deny the explicit premise that… [Read More]
As a date for the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty looms ever closer (and at times then drifts further away, depending on the political climate and EU’s chances of securing a ‘Yes’ vote) it seems the tussle for votes has become smothered in political confusion, writes Claire Daley.
Patriotic history harmful to pupils; St George’s Day celebrations cancelled over spurious health and safety concerns; postal voting fraud on epidemic scale; Britain being carved up by Brussels into a set of regions of which the parts of some lie across the Channel.… With each day comes news of some fresh assault on the body-politic… [Read More]
It is of no great surprise to read in the Times Education Supplement (TES) today that a majority of parents were not sympathetic to the National Union of Teacher’s strike yesterday. Aside from the obvious reason – having to make childcare arrangements for the day – a large number of parents felt that teachers should… [Read More]
Writing in the British Medical Journal in February 2008, Allyson Pollock and Sylvia Godden lambasted the quality of care provided in independent sector treatment centres (ISTCs). They are right to raise concerns over data quality and collection, but a report released this week by the LSHTM and the Royal College of Surgeons allay many of… [Read More]
Crime in Middlesbrough is nearly twice the national average so it is surprising to see the police there have the time to detain members of the public for crimes that do not exist. Perhaps they need reminding that crimes (in a free country, at least), with few exceptions, involve theft or damage of property or… [Read More]