With 11.5 million documents to read through, we’ve not heard the last of the revelations from the Panama Papers. David Cameron is on the defensive, though Jeremy Corbyn’s attacks are blunted by the fact that his party was once led by one half of the Blair couple, now rumoured to be worth a cool £60ContinueContinue reading “Keeping It Under Your Hat”
Category Archives: Education
Devo Min
There are quite a few bright spots for Wessex folk to cheer about in today’s budget – and not just a freeze on cider duty – but look beyond the headlines. It’s good to see money for children’s A&E in Southampton, but isn’t the rest of the NHS on life support? A “more resilient trainContinueContinue reading “Devo Min”
The Progressive Patriot
Guest contribution by Nick Xylas, WR Council member The following is a review of The Progressive Patriot: A Search for Belonging, by Billy Bragg, published in 2006 by Bantam of London.This is really three books in one. The first is an autobiography of Billy Bragg, the singer and songwriter who took the blues and theContinueContinue reading “The Progressive Patriot”
Live and Let Live?
Welcome publicity was received this week from the National Secular Society, the result of a survey of the views of minor parties on secularism and religion. The NSS focused-in on our policy of phasing-out religious involvement in publicly-funded education. Ironic, given King Alfred’s victory for Christianity over paganism? Well, that was the accusation in oneContinueContinue reading “Live and Let Live?”
Write Lines
Although politicians from the London parties routinely associate the words ‘education’ and ‘choice’, the thing most striking about their policies is that they offer the electorate no choice at all. Would you guess, from following the roll-out of academies and free schools, the constant undermining of local democratic choice, which party was in power? TheContinueContinue reading “Write Lines”
Light Relief
Any fool can do irony. It takes an Eton education to do irony on the grand scale and get away with it. David Cameron’s regime announced with glee today that a multi-billion pound nuclear hazard, turning out radioactive waste that no-one knows how to manage sustainably, is to be built on the north coast ofContinueContinue reading “Light Relief”
Analysing ‘Dave’
The MP for Witney is a Tory Prime Minister for our times. Not too blatant a representative of the landowning and military class (though do scratch and sniff), nor the child of a grocer, but a public relations man. What you see is anything but what you get. Like Blair, Cameron is first and foremostContinueContinue reading “Analysing ‘Dave’”
Knowing Your Boundaries
“I pay respect to wisdom not to strength.”The quote is from C.S. Lewis in Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life; the words are those of Loki, the Norse trickster god. In this part-autobiography Lewis described his experiences at Wyvern College, a pseudonym for Malvern College, the boys’ public school in Mercia. SchoolContinueContinue reading “Knowing Your Boundaries”
Managing Complexity
Dig up ancient gold or silver in your garden and there’s a strong chance you’ll need to declare it as ‘treasure’. Which means, usually, that ownership gets claimed by the Crown, originally under the feudal doctrine that every man must have a lord and so abandoned property reverts to the paramount lord, the Queen herself.ContinueContinue reading “Managing Complexity”
Knowing Our Place
Alex Salmond, setting out the Scottish Government’s programme at Holyrood earlier this month, poured scorn on Tories who had described plans to promote ‘Scottish Studies’ as ‘indoctrination’. “I cannot imagine any other nation,” he said, “where teaching your own history, arts and literature in an impartial way would be dismissed in such a negative fashion.”TryContinueContinue reading “Knowing Our Place”
Wessex Regionalists 