Review of the Papers, Wednesday 15 August

Government

• Private nurseries are being forced out of business due to an oversupply of places created by state-funded nurseries and day care centres, it was claimed yesterday. As more government-funded centres are provided, some areas have too many places while others have none, with parents struggling to pay private nursery fees. Nord Anglia, announced the sale of its 88 kindergartens for £31.2 million, having paid £73 million for them three years ago. The Government is opening hundreds of children's centres providing full day care. By 2010 there should be "one in every community". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/15/nursery115.xml
• Universities are having to offer classes in essay-writing because too many students arrive from their A levels unable to write properly. Despite expectations of a record crop of A-level results tomorrow, many universities believe that basic literacy and writing standards among undergraduates are falling. Some blame schools for drilling pupils so heavily in techniques for passing A Levels that they are unable to write anything that requires their critical input. Others point to the trend of widening access to university to students from "nontraditional backgrounds", which means that it is no longer just the very brightest students who get in. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life-and-style/education/article2260498.ece
• Jack McConnell is widely expected to announce today that he is to step down as leader of the Labour Party in Scotland after the party's defeat at the hands of the Scottish National Party at the Holyrood elections in May. The former First Minister, who has led Labour north of the Border for the past 5½ years, is expected to tell Shadow Cabinet colleagues of his decision this morning before making a formal announcement at a press conference later in the day. The timing of his departure - forecast exclusively in The Times seven days ago - could allow a new leader to be in place by late next month. Mr McConnell's successor is almost certain to be Wendy Alexander, currently the Shadow Finance Minister and the sister of Douglas Alexander, the International Development Minister and election supremo in Gordon Brown's Cabinet at Westminster. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2261525.ece