The government’s consultation on its proposals for a EBac, the English baccalaureate, close today, but one theme is sure to be prominent: howls of outrage at the way Michael Gove is trying to downgrade the place in our schools of the arts in general and of music in particular. History, geography, languages, English, maths: no…
I’m getting increasingly fed up with the way in which the debate about social security cuts is being framed by those two stereotyped figures: ‘the striver’ and ‘the skiver’ (substitute ‘shirker’ or ‘scrounger’ according to taste). Strivers stand for people who do paid work; skivers people of working age who don’t. The main line of…
Last Friday I introduced a Private Member’s Bill which includes clauses to clarify local authority powers over the Disabled Parking Badge scheme and extends it to people working on UK military bases abroad. The Bill has already been through the Commons unamended and unimpeded because it has cross-party support. In the Lords, as is customary,…
The House of Lords last week completed its consideration of the Justice and Security Bill. This introduced for the first time closed court hearings in UK civil jurisdiction. The first duty of any Government is to keep citizens safe. But the idea of closed courts where one side cannot hear and test the evidence against…
On the day that the Chancellor performs his celebrated Scrooge act, with a very wintery “Autumn Statement”, I noticed that the cost of the House of Lords has risen by a record 38% to £109 million (up from £78m last year), for the most recent 12 month period. Allowances to members have risen by over…
Compassion…today’s headlines trumpet a ‘new 3 year strategy’ led by the NHS Chief Nurse Jane Cummings to improve standards of care. Laudable, necessary, but doomed to failure. We know a huge amount about what constitutes good care and the reasons it goes wrong; rarely is it due to the quality of staff recruited or how…
Homeless, Unemployed, Addicted, Lonely & Hungry In Bath (and no doubt elsewhere) people gather every evening beside a bleak car-park. They receive hot soup and coffee, sandwiches, cakes and fruit from the hands of willing volunteers. The churches of the city and district give this free service to their neighbours on a rota. Elsewhere, Julian…
On Friday afternoon 7th December there is going to be a debate in the House of Lords about who should be responsible for providing support for the vulnerable in our society. In one way or another, all of us are affected. How care is funded, its quality, the ability to deliver it and its continuity. …
For the first time in the history of the blog, I have managed to devise a quiz that has stumped the readers. Dave H got the answer to one of the questions, and he and Rich came close to getting the answer to a second. However, no one was able to come up with the…
