Tag: political stuff
Transcript of interview with MP Robert Halfon, chair of education select committee on BBC radio 4 today show 16th November
Today program available for next couple of weeks here First part here Interviewer: All right then, Cllr Watts, thank you. Let’s talk to Robert Halfon MP, chair of the education select committee, morning to you. RH: Good morning, hello there. I: You’ve started an inquiry haven’t you, into home schooling, so I imagine you don’t…
Existing children and the third child tax credit cut off.
I keep reading articles about how tax credits won’t apply to third or subsequent children born after a particular date (April 2017). It follows this part of George Osborne’s emergency budget speech. Families who have a third or subsequent child after April 2017 will not receive additional Tax Credit or UC support for this child.…
Supporting the #LBBill
I’ve just sent the following letter to my MP. If you feel you can support the campaign, please consider doing similarly. The information you need is here and you can use the WriteToThem website. *** I don’t know whether you’ve ever heard of Connor Sparrowhawk, also known as Laughing Boy. He had autism and epilepsy,…
Welfare reform: the moral and practical case for basic income.
In the run up to this general election, there’s been a lot of time spent debating welfare, welfare reform, spending and so on. The received wisdom is that benefits need to be cut/ capped/ people must work, either for their benefits (workfare) or in paid apprenticeships. So we have sanctions, where if you don’t comply…
#TellNicky Children's education shouldn't be a battlefield
This weekend, Education secretary, Nicky Morgan announced a ‘war on illiteracy and innumeracy’ According to the BBC, this means that All children in England will be expected to know up to their 12 times table when they leave primary school, the government has announced. Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said pupils aged 11 should also know…
EUVAT and exhaustion
Since I got back from camp last week (this night a week ago I was detouring around Coventry I think) I’ve struggled to hit my writing balance. It’s no secret to regular readers that I find it difficult to keep true to the things I want to do, while also doing a bit of commercial…
Contemplating the future of home education, and a call for posts celebrating educational freedoms.
Generally speaking, I’d rather be blogging about hot chocolate, or bubble blowing picnics 😉 but this was brought to my attention recently. From here A representative from the DfE joined the committee to discuss elective home education (EHE). Although the department does not have any immediate plans to review this policy, a series of conversations…
News: Dept of Education official fails to understand concept of average
This isn’t really news, because it’s not new. It seems to be fairly endemic throughout all levels of government. For example, this wonderful exchange between the Chairman of the Select Committee and the then Education Secretary, Michael Gove. Q98 Chair: One is: if “good” requires pupil performance to exceed the national average, and if all…
Why Clacton gives me hope.
Yesterday there was a by election in Clacton, and UKIP won its first MP, Douglas Carswell who had previously held the seat for the Conservatives, and who triggered the by election by standing down when he defected to UKIP. No, it’s not the fact that UKIP has an MP that gives me hope. That makes…
Drip, drip, drip….
That’s the sound of your civil liberties eroding. Back in April the ECJ (european court of justice?) ruled that a part of our current legislation, the Data Retention Directive, was breaching human rights with regards to privacy. Our government’s response is to attempt to rush through emergency legislation this week. Yes, that’s what I said.…
