Education in 2050: Preparing Today for Tomorrow's SchoolsImagine a classroom where every student is learning something different, guided by technology that adapts instantly to their needs. Some collaborate with peers across the world, while others receive tailored support from artificial intelligence tutors. The teacher is no longer delivering a single lesson to the whole class, but acting as a mentor, supporting creativity, discussion, and critical thinking. This is not a distant fantasy, but a realistic picture of education in 2050. The schools of the future will look very different from those many of us remember. Traditional models: rows of desks, fixed timetables, and a heavy reliance on ... (more) |
Welcome to my day: 23 March 2026 - a gentle tip of a toe into the icy water?It's been a long time since I last wrote one of these. In truth, I've not been entirely in the right frame of mind to do so, not quite as engaged as I might be. But there's a lot happening in the world, and Liberal Democrat Voice is the place for Liberal Democrats and others of similar mind to discuss them, so here I am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on a springtime Monday morning. I guess that the most pressing order of business is whether or not the United Kingdom is being drawn irrevocably into a war not of our making. ... (more) |
Reform's in-house cheerleaderAlan Rusbridger in the New World magazine writes that GB News has essentially become Reform TV with the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, more or less giving up the ghost and Nigel Farage laughing all the way to the bank. He says these are the only conclusions one can reasonably draw from the first-ever exercise in commissioning experienced professional journalists to watch multiple hours of output from GB News: Most of our 20 reviewers had never watched GB News before. Most of them came away appalled - not by the political views that dominate the station's output, but by the way the ... (more) |
In our Time on the philosophy of Karl PopperLong ago, I wrote the entry on Karl Popper for Duncan Brack and Malcolm Baines's Dictionary of Liberal Biography. The BBC Radio 4 In Our Time programme on Karl Popper from 2007 makes a good introduction to his thought, both in the philosophy of science and in politics. In the former he challenged the idea that science involved the accumulation of observations: rather, it involves making bold conjectures and then devising experiments that test their validity. If I were studying philosophy today I would be interested in the implications of Popper's ideas for our everyday reasoning, rather than for hard ... (more) |
Who do we blame for bad behaviour? Teens or their parents?Over the past four days I have been out and about along Allerton Road where there have been some appalling scenes from gangs of teenagers since KFC opened earlier this year. Let me put the numbers into context. There seem to be about 50-60 kids causing the problem. Fortunately, the maximum that have been spotted there is about 35 at any one time. Within easy walking or cycling of Allerton Road there are about 25,000 young teenagers. So, the number of kids causing problems is tiny compared to the total relevant population. I know that a few of those nuisance ... (more) |
Evgeny Lebedev and Ian Botham have lowest Lords attendance, records showEmbed from Getty ImagesAfter making our Headline of the Day Award to the Guardian, the judges added a rider saying the obvious thing to do is to hand Botham's peerage to Mike Brearley. (more) |
Le Tigre: DeceptaconWho are Le Tigre? Le Tigre (Kathleen Hanna, JD Samson, and Johanna Fateman) formed as an obstinately hopeful, even joyous, post-riot grrrl project in New York City in 1999 - when Rudy Giuliani was mayor and regressive hipster irony (à la VICE Magazine) ruled. Abandoning traditional punk instrumentation, the band paired drum-machine beats and looped 8-bit samples with the simplest, serrated guitar riffs and call-and-response vocals to write the songs on their first, self-titled album. Released late that year, they conceived of it as music "for the party after the protest." Deceptacon was the first track on that album. What's ... (more) |
Crypto billionaire's political base hosting 'anti-woke' and rightwing activists in WestminsterThe Guardian reports that a British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate money-laundering controls on his cryptocurrency business is funding a political base in the heart of Westminster used by "anti-woke" and rightwing activists. The paper says that Ben Delo, 42, who was pardoned by Donald Trump last year, has given support in kind to Rupert Lowe, the anti-migration MP challenging Nigel Farage from the right - while also connecting with mainstream figures including the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and former cabinet minister Michael Gove: Delo, an Oxford graduate who moved to Hong Kong in 2012 ... (more) |