Stories, schools and statues – the Tory view of history

January 29, 2013 by 1 Comment

Robin Richardson

copyright Simon Harriyott`s photostream

First, tweeted Michael Rosen recently, they came for Mary Seacole. He was echoing a famous poem about resistance to totalitarian rule. And, he continued, because I’m not a woman and I’m not black, I didn’t speak out.

Well actually, Rosen himself has spoken out with characteristic eloquence about Mary Seacole and her place in the national curriculum in England. And well over thirty thousand people, so far, have signed a petition urging that she should continue to feature explicitly in the teaching of history in schools. There was recently a letter from Jesse Jackson and 50 others about this in The Times, the Archbishop of York has weighed in with an article in the Sun, an early day motion is currently open for signature in parliament, and the issue appears to have split the coalition government wide open, with Nick Clegg pledging he will oppose the new plans for the history curriculum which, according to leaks, Michael Gove is shortly going to announce.

Adding to a widespread sense of outrage, there are rumours that Gove’s private office has blocked access by civil servants at the Department for Education to the website of a distinguished professor of education who has dared to criticise the plans. Next, Rosen’s pastiche might continue, they came for the academics. Read more of this post

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Would you trust Michael Gove with your child?

April 5, 2012 by 1 Comment

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Image © Regional Cabinet

Mathew Hulbert

Other than national security and health, there is nothing more important than the education of our people.

It is the area of policy with which I care most about.

Why?

Because, at its best, a good education can open up a whole world of opportunities.

It can be the great leveller.

It can enable young people who, in terms of their background, have not had many chances or opportunities to shine and show that they are just as capable of great achievements as those born with rather more privilege, sometimes even more so.

That was the laudable aim of comprehensive education, when it was created under the excellent leadership of Shirley Williams (then Labour Secretary of State for Education, now, of course, a leading Liberal Democrat Peer).

So, why is this Government seemingly in favour of turning this all on its head?

Can that possibly be a good thing?

Is the future of our education system now only in the hands of the right-wing ideologue Michael Gove?

And where is the Lib Dem influence in it all?

Read more of this post

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Lib Dems – idealists or realists?

March 25, 2012 by 1 Comment

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Image © Liberal Democrats

Laurel

Like many people I am not a member of a political party but did vote for the Lib Dems on the grounds of their opposition to the Iraq war and their promise to abolish tuition fees.

In an article (Times 14th) Daniel Finkelstein took time out to refer to the historic march against the Iraq invasion and said ‘Almost ten years ago, idealists young and old congregated in capital cities all over the world to protest against the forthcoming invasion of Iraq’. Well, sorry Mr Finkelstein, but events have shown that we weren’t the idealists, we were the realists. The idealists who took us to war have created a situation where, following the chaos created in Iraq, Iran fills the vacuum and threatens to become the dominant, nuclear armed, state in the region.

Many of those who marched were from the middle classes and many duly voted for the Lib Dems because of that party’s opposition to the war and because of the party’s promises to eliminate tuition fees.

Yes, tuition fees again, but this time the issue is what it did to the party.  Mr Clegg took those (middle class) votes and used them to gain his party a position where they could hold the balance between the Tories and Labour. But when it came to the crunch he used those same votes to turn his back on promises he had made over tuition fees. From that moment on he lost the support of thousands if not millions of middle class voters.

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Fair pay for interns: MPs should set an example

January 17, 2012 by

John Lucas

Image © Liberal Democrats

Campaigners won a partial victory this week after 100 leading companies said they will pay wages or expenses to young people on internships.   It is hoped the agreement will hasten the demise of the practice whereby children of well-connected, affluent types labour for free in return for possible paid jobs in the future.  Critics have long argued that anyone doing more than light duties on work experience should be paid and that existing customs leave many capable but less prosperous candidates unable to gain vital experience.  Deputy PM Nick Clegg apparently agrees, and welcomed the new deal.   But the group of employers most conspicuous by their absence from the agreement were MPs who, along with think-tanks, are some of the worst offenders when it comes to soliciting free labour.

Doing unpaid work for an MP is the traditional route into the world of Westminster politics, and even when controversy over this issue began in 2009 most MPs continued to advertise for unpaid interns.   Pressure group Intern Aware has been writing to MPs to warn them that under the Minimum Wage Act (1998) all employers must pay workers at least the minimum wage, whether they call them ‘interns’ or not.  But the adverts continue.      Read more of this post

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