Bromley Conservatives have never been scared of ploughing their own furrow. It was they who scuppered Ken Livingstone's 'Fares Fair' scheme, for example. And when I was an opposition councillor in the borough in the late 1980s, some of the ruling party out-Thatchered Mrs Thatcher. Now they have put the cat among the pigeons once [...]
Yesterday, Health Secretary Andy Burnham wrote an article for the Guardian aiming to set out the clear blue water between Labour and the Conservatives on the National Health Service. In doing so, he inadvertantly demonstrated quite how vapid Labour's vision for the NHS really is. It was summed up in one sentence: For Labour, it all comes down to defending the N in NHS. You read that right. Given the choice between "national", "health" and "service" the word that Burnham considers most key to the Labour approach is the former. Ignore "health", never mind "service" - who needs a bandage ...
Estate walkabout is always a good way of getting problems sorted. Tristar Homes, Care for Your Area, Police and us Councillors have a joint look at numerous issues. Nobody can say "not me it is them!". Most issues need more than one of us to have input, and working together we can come up with at least some solutions. So we listened (very hard!) to an upset man about delays in a repair and...
And so we're on to the last chunk of my guide to my blogroll. Remember, as always, just because I leave something out doesn't mean I'm not reading it or it's not good – there are at least 50 other blogs I read regularly that deserve to be there, and the choice of the ones [...]
Don't Cry Out Loud
I attended the committee meeting of BARA (Blackness Area Residents' Association) tonight. The Association, already a recognised tenants' association with Dundee City Council, has now received similar recognition from Home Scotland. Given the number of Home Scotland tenancies in BARA's area - particularly in Peddie Street - this is good news. At tonight's meeting, the group discussed an action plan for the next few months, including newsletters to residents and a general meeting in the autumn.
Most grateful to my LibDem colleague Andrew Reeves, who is the Scottish LibDem Director of Campaigns, for his kind words about www.dundeewestend.com following the recent "Total Politics" best councillor awards. See http://tinyurl.com/andrewreeves.
By Richard S. Grayson {reinventingthestatecover100} This article was originally published in Reinventing the State: Social Liberalism for the 21st Century. We are grateful to Richard for allowing us to reproduce this article. The democratic deficit in the NHS Of all issues in public policy, health care is the one in which the public is consistently most committed to a major role for the state. The basic principle of the National Health Service - a tax-funded state-run system free to all citizens at the point of use - is a hugely popular one. Even the most pro-market politicians are reluctant to ...
Or so Andrew Pierce claims on the Telegraph website: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, who is defending a 7,000 majority in Edinburgh, and Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, who is fighting a new seat with a notional majority of 8,500, are high on the hit list.The Conservatives, who have a commanding 12-point lead in the opinion polls which is enough to propel them into Downing Street, are determined to take out some of Labour's biggest beasts.
Two weeks ago Disgruntled Radical complained about the anachronisms in Desperate Romantics. I almost rushed to the defence of the series - I had already praised it because it presents such a refreshingly different view of the Victorians. Anyway, I am sure that Shakespeare's plays are full of anachronisms and no one thinks any the worse of them for that. In the right hands anachronism is almost an art form. In The Sword in the Stone, T. H. White's long, itemised description of Merlyn's cottage ends with "a complete set of cigarette cards depicting wild fowl by Peter Scott". But ...
The Cleveland Pools Alliance was formed last year after several meetings between Prince's Regeneration Trust, Trevor Osborne Property Group and the Trustees of the Cleveland Pools Trust.Everyone played their part in working on a new bid to the council but The Princes Trust's 'writing' of the final bid was instrumental in the CPT becoming the preferred bidder.Heads of Terms have been signed and the lawyers are debating the final details of the 150 year lease. So major progress since the members who now make up the Cleveland Pools Trust started the campaign over five years ago and we have to ...
Labour ministers who have been fired or left their jobs have enjoyed £1.4m in severance pay, figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats have revealed. When MPs are appointed as ministers they get an extra salary and pension in addition to that earned as an MP. When they are fired in reshuffle, forced to leave under a cloud or resign, ministers get a severance payment equivalent to one quarter of their final salary, provided they do not take another ministerial appointment within three months. Nearly 100 ex-ministers have benefited from the handouts. High profile beneficiaries include Peter Mandelson (twice), Charles Clarke, ...
The Financial Times takes a pot at political blogging today (hat tip Tim Montgomerie). This is one of their introductory sentences: "Readers can, if they so wish, live within a bubble where they are presented only with streams of evidence that support their prejudices. This is a particular problem in political blogging, where the effects of this tendency are intensified by writers' habit of linking mainly to like-minded..." I believe that I can improve the accuracy of this sentence with one change: "Readers can, if they so wish, live within a bubble where they are presented only with streams of ...
Well - I see that the Total Politics top MP blogs are with us again - thanks to Iain Dale's devotion to measuring everyone and everything in blogworld! Anyway - this year I come in at number 8 - which is still in the top 10 - albeit a descent from the giddy heights of number 5 last year. Apparently this is voted on by 1,500 people or so - so that's pretty good going. Thank you!
Last night I settled down to watch Panorama, knowing that I'd find it absolutely horrendous to see its depiction of the terrible repression in Afghanistan. Reporter Jane Corbin had been to Afghanistan and had interviewed women who had suffered terrible brutality, who showed incredible bravery in speaking out about their ordeals. My 10 year old daughter came in to the room just as 17 year old Saida was explaining how she'd been married off at the age of 9, sold by her brothers to a 60 year old man who beat her and forced her into prostitution. It took her ...
So, another day, another list from Total Politics, in association with Iain Dale. Although I am hooked, and ready to order my copy of the Total Politics Guide to Political Blogging. So, here is the list of the top 30 MPs blogs as voted for by more than 1,500 people who took part and voted in the Total Politics Annual blog poll. Well done to Lynne Featherstone MP (8), Willie Rennie MP (11), John Hemming MP (15), Steve Webb MP (17), Nick Clegg MP (18), John Barrett MP (22) and Adrian Sanders MP (25) for all getting onto the list ...
In a previous post, I listed the following points for consideration: Buses, Taxis and Private Hire vehicles MUST meet the highest standards in regards emissions (ENVIRO IV is the standard that all new buses have to reach, so the same for all others would only be fare) This is not rocket science, but it seems to be [...]
A few months ago there was panic as dire predictions of the CPI falling into negative territory abounded and the spectre of a potential deflationary spiral stalked the land. I was a bit sceptical of this given the fact that the Bank of England was effectively printing money through their Quantitative Easing programme (OK, they don't actually print money, they just move a few bits around inside a computer but it amounts to the same thing). QE is naturally inflationary so any deflationary pressure which was bound to kick in during a recession was always going to be mitigated to ...
It probably surprised Nick Clegg more than me, but in "Total politics" Top 30 of MP Blogs. I have been pleasantly surprised to find myself at No 15.Nick Clegg is at no 18. I thank those people who voted for my blog.Willie Rennie (11) and Lynne Featherstone (8), however managed a higher position.Congratulations to Willie and Lynne.
Back in early April of this year, when the Downing Street bunker realised there was little room for further fiscal stimulus packages due to the state of Government finances, it was spun as an opportunity to make the 2009 budget "a job creator, a quality of life improver, and an environment enhancing measure". hmm.. Today we have seen reports that the wind-turbine firm, Vestas, is expecting a massive drop in profit levels compared to this time last year, due to the company shipping 12% less turbines than in 2008. This news coming after the well-covered protests following the announcement that ...
It is becoming patently obvious, based on the meagre or total lack of an offer to Londons' Bus Drivers that they are on a race to the bottom of the pay tables and when this is taken into account with the very competitive route tendering process which is taking place between TfL and the Bus [...]
I'm puzzled as to the ASDA definition of 24 hour opening. One of the highlights of our successful Stockton on Tees holiday was the ASDA which was a stone's throw away from our camp site (the one with the top notch showers). It proclaimed 24 hour opening but as we battled our way with the kids through the bucketing rain we couldn't work out why the masses of Stockton we not taking advantage of this fantastic opportunity. The car park was empty - not a sole to be seen. The answer? 24 hours didn't really mean 24 but only 14 ...
Been away and not had time to update recently (and had a server problem too), but now back with my blog and here is a taste of things to come over the next few days: Football and homophobia Sustainable Transport in London - is the case for 'green buses' justified? Route 507 - has the conversion to long [...]
So, there we have it, true-blue Tory Bromley is going to subsidise private schools with council taxpayers' money. It is somewhat unfortunate that my London home falls (just) within the boundaries of Bromley and therefore I have to endure, when I am there (not so often these days) a Tory dominated council which now looks set to take from the majority to give to a fortunate minority. Bromley is
I'm still feeling rubbish but I was tickled by this article pointed out by Wendy. I have to say that I do have a huge amount of sympathy with Stefan Gatward, who has been adding in the missing apostrophes which have been omitted from his local street signs. If I was confronted with a sign that read St Johns Close, I'd have been tempted to do the same. I don't know quite what it is about an apostrophe in the wrong place that brings me out in hives to the extent that I even have to persecute my fellow bloggers, ...
I fear that my current preoccupation with Richard Jefferies and Swindon may continue for a while yet, particulary if a writing project I have in mind comes to fruition. But the following passage may explain why I find Jefferies so fascinating. It comes from the collection The Open Air, which was published in 1885, though the essay "Wild Flowers" in which it occurs may be a little older than that Jefferies writes:If you have been living in one house in the country for some time, and then go on a visit to another, though hardly half a mile distant, you ...
TotalPolitics (in association with Iain Dale) now have published their list of top MP blogs, as voted for by over 1500 readers. In the top 30 are Lynne Featherstone, Willie Rennie, John Hemming, Steve Webb, and John Barrett. Only one party leader features in the list, and that's Nick Clegg.
Two very big, but little-reported developments: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8203362.stm and
CCP Games, the Iceland-based company behind EVE Online and the forecast 'World of Darkness' MMORPGs has announced that EVE is moving planetside and has been under development by its Shanghai team for nearly three years. DUST 514 is a hybrid first person shooter (FPS) and real-time strategy (RTS) experience set within the (MMO) EVE universe. "The primary gameplay features brutal ground combat that takes place on the surface of the planets, delivering the visceral, adrenaline-fuelled experience of futuristic firefights. Developed for the current generation of consoles — initially available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 — DUST will be ...
Prepare yourselves for a shock...I'm quite a big fan of John Stuart Mill's work On Liberty. Seems to me that the Millster was right on the money when he wrote about society keeping its big nose out of people's private business. It's neither the business of the State nor of society (or any part of society) to tell consenting and competent adults what they can and can't do, as long as no-one else gets hurt (OK, I paraphrase. You undergraduates best avoid using this as a statement of Mill's principles, unless you've a desperate urge to fail). But I do ...
I watched one of the best Panorama's I've ever seen last night (doesn't Jeremy Vine have the easiest job in television - how much does he get paid for that topping and tailing?). And I'm not the only one thinking about Afghanistan today, as Iain Dale has noticed, Sunny Hundal has done a very interesting post on the subject on Pickled Politics. It was on the subject of Afghanistan and how despite 'so-called' democracy women are still treated abominably. In Herat on one day four women, in separate incidents, set themselves on fire to get away from their husbands. They ...
Not a week goes by without a dozen invites to various groups on Facebook. (Well, maybe the week my ISP turned my email off without warning...) Here's a selection that have crossed my path in recent days: We agree with Vince Cable and Compass. Lets have a high pay commission. Ever since the collapse of Northern Rock, Vince Cable has led the way in support of demanding an end to excessive pay and bonuses for greedy bankers who are more interested in short term profit than the long term interests of the economy. Recently the Left Leaning think tank Compass ...
After writing an 8 sided leaflet/newspaper for Afzal Anwar, I have had many compliments from people from across the political spectrum. People are finding the newspaper interesting to read, well designed and think its better then campaign literature by the Tories and Labour. I personally think it's not the best of my ability, but with the time at hand it was the best I could do. I have taken the criticism on board and we are on our way to get the second newspaper out as soon as possible. Like I have warned previously on this blog, watch out for ...
The list of top MP Blogs is out over at the Total Politics blog and if you want to view the list follow the link. The list has pushed Labour blogger, Tom Harris to the top replacing the Tory John Redwood and many will agree that is the right decision. I have also learnt something; Nick Clegg has a Wordpress.com blog that no one knows about. How is it that Nick has a blog that isn't even on LibDemBlogs? I recently have become impressed with the work of Nick Clegg's team in promoting him online, clearly they are doing their ...
Former industrial areas can be transformed into attractive tourist spots. Look at Glasgow's riverside and Leith. Liverpool is another that has transformed with restaurants, conference facilities and more.After a week camping in beautiful Northumberland I dragged my young family to Stockton on Tees to a camp site that received an enthusiastic review from Dom Jolly. For a couple of days we planned to use this site as a central location for day trips to North Yorks, Hartlepool Maritime Museum, the cinema and bowling. The Caravan Club camp site was pristine with first class showers. The cooling towers, sewage works, overhead ...
The latest Fortune 500 listings of the fastest growing, most profitable, biggest and so on American companies is out. What's striking is that whilst business books telling us all about how the future is in the online world, the online world gets only a brief look in in these lists. Take the 20 fastest growing firms for example: United Parcel Service Community Health Systems eBay Mosaic Peabody Energy Corning Merck United States Steel Bristol-Myers Squibb Murphy Oil EOG Resources NRG Energy Monsanto Crosstex Energy Interpublic Group Darden Restaurants McDonald's Jabil Circuit Aon Quest Diagnostics This is a list dominated by ...
Well, I've really enjoyed the debate over at LV about executive pay, featuring as it does such liberal luminaries as Tim Leunig, James Graham and Mark Littlewood. The last two are debating the extent to which supermarkets exercise real monopoly power; Mark's comparison with the workings of democracy is worth quoting, I think:As Tim points out, I can easily switch banks or grocery store. To some extent, it's a perfect, rolling, proportional representation referendum. If 32.4% choose HSBC, then 32.4% get HSBC. And that needn't affect the 27.8% who choose Barclays. The difference with the public sector is that it ...
'Comment Central' at The Times carries a mildly amusing silly season piece on Barack Obama meeting one of his former professors from Occidental College. The story goes that back in 1981, Obama was upset about receiving only a 'B' grade for a paper on European Politics, but had been unable to change the professor's mind. The [...]
Today's retail price index is 1.4% in negative figures. Under rail ticket regulation, prices increase by RPI plus 1%. That means prices will come down next year! Typical. Just when I quit London, fares to get there have come down. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
A Real Woman has been in touch to tell me about new Lib Dem policy proposals for Real Women. As readers of the Voice should know by now – Jo Swinson MP penned a piece on Perez and photoshopping last week – the Lib Dems have a policy paper on women's rights. The full paper is available at www.RealWomen.org.uk, and here's the summary from the front page: Women face pressure from all directions these days. Hit hard by the recession, trying to juggle family commitments with work and home life, it's easy to feel like you're running just to stand ...
Irfan Ahmed (who no longer deserves links for stupidity) is today asking 'Who Picked the Lib Dem Target Seats?'. Why? Because leading Tory blogger Iain Dale is questioning the decision. Now I don't have my scrawlings on me from 6-8 May 2005 from when I started to see which seats we were strong in after the last General Election. Nor have I been too up on the change to boundaries in England, with Scotland pretty settled for Westminster this time, I've been more concerned with council and now Scottish Parliamentary boundary changes. However, I'm sure I'm not the only Lib ...
Commenting on Home Office figures showing a big increase in the use of Tasers by police officers, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson, Tom Brake said: "Tasers should be for a few specially trained officers, not standard issue." "The Government has put large numbers of Tasers in the hands of police officers without any debate. "Given the increase in Taser use and...
People from ethnic minority communities are more likely to be exposed to life-threatening emissions, research highlighted by the Liberal Democrats has shown. Ethnic minorities who live in urban areas are 17% more likely to be exposed to Particulate Matter (PM10s), which causes serious health risks, than their white-British neighbours. Despite this, the Government has...
Whilst I was writing that last post I had an e-mail inviting me to an International Conference in Washington DC on Swine flu. If only... The e-mail was headed: "International Swine Flu Conference adds more breakout sessions"! Not the best choice of phraseology.
The Afghan elections are taking place later this week, and one assumes the NATO troops are there to try and help usher in a new democratic society and help protect it in its development. I was never in favour of the invasion and struggle to see why we still have troops there - especially as the death toll is now over 200. Over the weekend I read the President Hamid Karzai has supported a law that allows men to starve their wives if they refuse sex - really why are we supporting this madness?
The first weekend of the new Football League season saw Bob Russellcome out top of the battle of the East of England's LibDem MPs, after Colchester United walloped newly relegated Norwich City 7-1 at the Norfolk side's Carrow Road home. Bragging rights certainly to Bob on that one. Today Norman Lamb can feel a little [...]
This article in this morning's Western Mail shows that even local Councils are subject to the laws of supply and demand when it comes to recruiting their staff. It is not a new problem of course. All Social Service departments are struggling to recruit social workers, especially in the field of children's services and as a result many are having to rely on agency staff. In some cases this has had an impact on the performance of the department itself due to a lack of consistency of service and organisation. Social Workers of course are on national pay and conditions ...
Redcar and Cleveland Council's highways partner Carillion begins work on a £50,000 road improvement programme on the Coatham Road roundabout, Redcar on Tuesday 25th August. The carriageway resurfacing works are expected to last four days, and have been timed for the school holidays and between 9am-4pm to minimise disruption. Temporary traffic lights will be in operation and, a partial road closure with signed diversion. Access to Warrenby will be maintained at all times.
Only a couple of weeks in, and we might have the oddest managerial appointment of the football season already. Just 10 days ago, Colchester went to Norwich and won 7-1, which cost Bryan Gunn his job - and today we find out that Paul Lambert has quit Colchester to take on the job. Unsurprisingly, Colchester fans are angry. Of course, there's a sense of deja vu about this for Colchester fans, as it's now fifteen years since George Burley left the Us to head up the A12 to take on Ipswich. I expect the 'Cheer Up George Burley' song (to ...
Conall Boyle, a member in Margam, writes: Can I draw your attention to an excellent article in an obscure place? "The scandal of taxation without representation George Gabriel, 12 - 08 - 2009 In a modern financial economy where private profit is founded upon and embedded in the social unit, the public must decide what value we will see it create." The full article can be found at At last! An excellent article, the first article I've seen which gets to the nub of the matter -- that we need to 'begin to prize open a topic normally subject ...
Ah, the summer, that mystical time when politicians stop being lazy in their grand offices and spread their laziness across the land (or not, of course, though I suppose you can judge for yourself using the Western Mail's list...) The summer was never going to be politics-free, however, particularly in Wales where everyone has to factor in their annual visit to Senedd-on-Sea. CONSIDERABLY WELSHER THAN YOW Or to be more accurate, Senedd-by-the-Lakeside, as this year's National Eisteddfod was held in Bala. With Rhodri's 70th birthday (his promised retirement date) little more than a month away, it was time for Bridgend ...
Shadowing the Youth Offending Team I spent a fascinating morning in the Sutton Youth Court in Wallington observing the work of the Youth Offending Team. Three councillors & two special advisors to the Children & Young People's Scrutiny Committee had the opportunity to sit in on a number of cases of young people being tried or [...]
So it falls to me to speak up for the old booby. I have much sympathy for the view of Patrick Hannan, which I quoted the other day: He often seems very like the persona created by the great comedian Tony Hancock, someone whose abilities always left him short of his aspirations in, for instance, intellectual matters, and who subsided into a state of truculent pique at each failure.But the Guardian campaign against him and his influence over architecture seems to me to be based on a deceitful view. Reading the Guardian, you would think that the wider public is ...
The BBC has discovered something else for parents to feel guilty about. A poll conducted on behalf of the College of Optometrists has revealed that nearly a third of parents in Britain do not buy their children sunglasses. Dr Susan Blakeney, optometric adviser at the College, says she is "shocked to see that so many parents aren't ensuring that their child's eyes are protected in the sun". It is a wonder that earlier generations of children survived to adulthood at all. What with global warming and all those paedophiles about, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the best ...
Tuesday: Never mind that he BETRAYED his COUNTRY to the SOVIET UNION, it seem that masterspy Mr Guy Burgess may have FIDDLED on his expenses while working for the BBC. I know what you're thinking: how COULD the BBC have employed such a BLACKGUARD! Why, Mr Harold Nicholson and Ms Violet Bonham-Carter on the Board of Governors were even saying: "why don't you promote this brilliant man?" The The Today Programme demanded answers. HELLO! He. Was. A. SPY! It's not ALL chemin-de-fer with Le Chiffre and hijinks with Pussy Galore, you know. Sometimes you just HAVE to infiltrate the BBC. ...
After reading Iain Dale's blog post about how the Lib Dems have targeted the wrong seats leading to the next general election, I have some questions for the person, or people who picked the list and I shall outline the questions in this blog post. The Lib Dems have targeted more Tory seats then Labour ones, and I ask which brainiac came out with that idea. Everyone knows the Tories are going to have hype around them closer to the election time, so even people who have never voted might just vote Tory, so how do we hope to win ...
Blogging will be light for a few days while I concentrate on other commitments.
Do you remember a few months ago when the government were still trying to prevent the Gurkhas from being able to settle in the UK if they wished, you know before they totally caved in the face of opposition from outraged people everywhere led by Joanna Lumley and Nick Clegg? The main justification they used at the time was that it would cost £1.4 billion to allow them to settle. I always thought this sounded dodgy and very much on the high side. So did fellow blogger Matt Raven, so much so that he submitted a Freedom of Information request ...
The sequel to Dave Carroll's song about how United Airlines broke his guitar is now out. It's great fun again, though this time more slowly paced. Men with moustaches feature again: (Also available on the YouTube website here.) Related posts:United Airlines update: airline responds, Dave Carroll replies Whilst the number of views for Dave Carroll's protest song...Dave Carroll's broken guitar: lessons for customer service in a social media world Cross-posted from the Mandate blog: The story of Dave Carroll...It still takes 17 days for news to cross the Atlantic On July 6, disgruntled United Airlines customer Dave Carroll posted...
The government has plans for a Digital Economy Bill, which, if you took it at face value, sounds like exactly the kind of thing the government should be focusing on to help keep Britain at the cutting edge of the 'new economy'. As usual, however, the details tend to be slightly more complicated. The legislation will, instead, be used to introduce a new system for targeting pretty much everyone who shares files on the internet. The government wants Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to monitor your broadband connection and send you 'warning letters' if you are sharing files improperly. Details of ...
There was a headline on the Press Association yesterday: Lib Dems rap gun crime jail threatClearly, the influence of Tinchy Stryder on the party continues to spread.
Can't remember if I've ever suggested this before back in the mists of blogtime, but I was playing poker online last night and wondering how many other of my readers and fellow bloggers play, and whether there'd be interest in setting up some sort of game or tournament for British political bloggers/Lib Dem bloggers or any other grouping that migth create enough interest? Or if there's such a game already happening, how do I get invited to it? Which reminds me of a post I ought to write sometime, currently in my head under the working title 'If it's so ...
That was the title of my chapter in "Reinventing the State". The first edition has sold out, so it's just been republished, with a new foreword. Amongst more famous contributors are both Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, talking about tackling terrorism and devolving power respectively. My own piece starts: I have a secret to admit. I quite like big organisations. Of course - as you would expect of a liberal - I think power should be kept at as local a level as possible, that organisations should be responsive to individuals, and so that smaller is frequently better - and ...
Just when you thought that we were deep enough into the silly season to avoid politics, the Western Mail tries to kick-start the Wales Labour leadership contest again. This time they have featured an in-depth interview with Education Minister, Jane Hutt who must surely have blotted her copybook with the fiascos she has presided over regarding the underfunding of the Foundation Phase and Further Education. Surely, nobody has overlooked the fact that it is her reorganisation of the health service that is currently being dismantled by one of her leadership rivals, Health Minister, Edwina Hart. Jane seems to be setting ...
In the Scottish edition of today's Times there is a look at Professor Tom Gallagher's new book The Illusion of Freedom: Scotland Under Nationalism. In it he compares Salmond's leadership to that of Tony Blair, surrounded by a band of loyal advisers more closely than the party machine. He writes: "Salmond rules through a small group of loyalists, some of whom have been by his side for a long time while others, still in their twenties, have only recently hitched themselves to his star." Also the book looks at just who hope Scotland would have should he ever achieve the ...
Former Heritage Minister, Rhodri Glyn Thomas was in yesterday's Western Mail protesting at the decision taken by the Assembly Commission to stop translating politicians' speeches in Plenary from English into Welsh. His view is that the decision undermines the position of National Assembly as a bilingual institution. Putting aside Rhodri Glyn Thomas' own record on the Welsh language and his failure whilst a Minister to even get a Welsh Language Legislative Competence Order published, his protest goes to the heart of the debate about what bilingualism means and how it should be implemented. Are we in the business of reproducing ...
It is only at times like this, early in the morning when it's a bit too sticky to sleep, when ideas pop up like mushrooms. So, is it me, or are Darrell Goodliffe and Jane Watkinson the same person? And why do they publish the same postings at slight intervals? Don't get me wrong, it isn't a criticism, it just confuses me when I read Lib Dem Blogs using my BlackBerry and the same title appears twice...
Following on from yesterday's blog, I want to look a little closer at the Conservative proposals for education. I looked at how the Conservative want to improve the league tables and wrote that the system was flawed. We don't need league tables. There is another reason why we don't need league tables. Most of the criteria that are used for the tables are simply a reflection of the socio-economic climate of the school's catchment area. The only useful method of calculating the value of a school is by knowing how good the pupils are when they start at the school ...
