Category Archives: Coalition Government

Here We Go Again! The O level myth.

Yet again we have to listen to politicians wittering on about how great O levels were and how bad GCSEs are.

Well I took O levels in 1960. Not the O levels I wanted to take but the ones that there was space in the timetable to teach. I don’t blame the school. Indeed they went to great lengths to do the best they could for me. All of this happened because of the depth and narrow scope of O levels of which I took seven. Now students in many if not most state comprehensives take 10 GCSEs and benefit from the chance to study a wide range of topics.

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Why The People of England Will Decide The Outcome For Scottish Independence!

The people of Scotland have elected a government that, as part of its election manifesto, said that it would hold a referendum on Scotland leaving the UK. They should be allowed to do so unhindered by a panicking Westminster establishment.

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Saving The Euro

What I have found most amazing about the comments on Cameron’s veto is that very few of those participating, from BBC reporters, presenters and interviewers to the vast herds of unwashed politicians and their advisors,  is a complete lack of understanding of the part that financial markets will take in determining the future of the euro and as a result what needs to be done.

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Saving The Euro

What I have found most amazing about the comments on Cameron’s veto is that very few of those participating, from BBC reporters, presenters and interviewers to the vast herds of unwashed politicians and their advisors,  is a complete lack of understanding of the part that financial markets will take in determining the future of the euro and as a result what needs to be done.

Read more on Saving The Euro…

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Saving The Euro

What I have found most amazing about the comments on Cameron’s veto is that very few of those participating, from BBC reporters, presenters and interviewers to the vast herds of unwashed politicians and their advisors,  is a complete lack of understanding of the part that financial markets will take in determining the future of the euro and as a result what needs to be done.

Read more on Saving The Euro…

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Saving The Euro

What I have found most amazing about the comments on Cameron’s veto is that very few of those participating, from BBC reporters, presenters and interviewers to the vast herds of unwashed politicians and their advisors,  is a complete lack of understanding of the part that financial markets will take in determining the future of the euro and as a result what needs to be done.

Read more on Saving The Euro…

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Saving The Euro

What I have found most amazing about the comments on Cameron’s veto is that very few of those participating, from BBC reporters, presenters and interviewers to the vast herds of unwashed politicians and their advisors,  is a complete lack of understanding of the part that financial markets will take in determining the future of the euro and as a result what needs to be done.

Read more on Saving The Euro…

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The Price Of Freedom

Seven score and eight years ago a man spoke to dedicate the cemetery on a battlefield which had seen over 46,000 casualties including nearly 8,000 killed.

He pointed out that the living could not dedicate that place since the dead had already consecrated the ground with their blood. The living, rather, had to dedicate themselves to the unfinished work for which the dead had died.

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It Will End In Tears, But For Whom?

Gove’s White Paper “The Importance of Teaching” is based on England’s falling position in the PISA league tables. Note that the problem is not falling performance, that has remained basically the same, but other countries have improved.  PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) is an OECD programme to measure performance of 15 year old’s. PISA is not a value-free test of knowledge in the English sense. It  is designed to support and embed the OECD culture and values. (The hidden curriculum of PISA – the promotion of neo-liberal policy by educational assessment by Michael Uljens 12.7 2007). So the English performance may just be bloody-mindedness! Certainly in tests like TIMMS, which take as a starting point the national curricula of countries, and which do use value-free tests, England has been performing well.

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Can the English NHS Survive the Coalition?

As the months go by the chances of the people of England retaining a National Health Service get lower and lower.

The latest shock is the news that, compounded over five years, the efficiency target for hospitals is 37%!. John Appleby, chief economist at the King’s Fund was quoted in the Financial Times (29th April) “Its like the unit cost of a hip operation has got to decrease by 37%. How?”

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