Policy Announcements, Monday 12 March
Government Learning a foreign language will become a compulsory part of the curriculum for 7-14 year olds, Education Secretary Alan Johnson announced. Lord Dearing and DfES National Director for Languages Dr Lid King were asked to carry…
Review of the Papers, Monday 12 March
Government Gordon Brown will slap down David Cameron's plan to impose strict personal allowances on tax-free air travel as little better than feel-good politics which do not address global warming at the vital level of coordinated…
£10billion of public money to give everyone a pay cut.
One of the most ill conceived and un-needed policies from the current government is coming back to haunt all of us. The revised 1970 equal pay legislation is just beginning to show its impact - and guess what, women aren't getting pay rises…
Ford's idea of green
Good news from the Energy Saving Trust's website: "A new carbon reduction method for diesel vehicles is set to be demonstrated on Ford's fleet of vehicles in the near future....To be trialed on Ford's Power Stroke diesel vehicles, the…
Know how he feels
I've added a link to the Not Proud of Britain (But Would Like To Be) blog, simply for this comment on the Bloggers4Labour blog. It is one of the most intelligent observations that I have seen on the false economics of the Government's road…
Global warming balance
Last night's Dispatches report on the Great Global Warming Swindle brought some welcome balance to the climate-change debate. Not because the programme itself was balanced - it was completely one-sided in favour of the sceptics - but…
The sensible way forward is to sort out the real problems first
It's as if there are no problems left in this country and our MPs can now start to squabble over the petty and inconsequential. Watch out, the PC brigade are taking over and their leader is Jack Straw. The man being touted as our next…
The cost of the EU tendering process
It comes as little surprise that the public sector tendering process is not only costing the tax payer money but putting off contractors even applying for contracts in the first place making the process less competitive and poor value for…
Policy Announcements, Thursday 08 March
Government The government is preparing to publish "a clear programme for further reforms" of public services. At Thursday's cabinet meeting the prime minister introduced the work of one of six policy reviews set up last October. The reviews…
Post-rational
Charles N. Steele wrote a funny little comment on Hot Coffee Girl's blog a while back, about not defining oneself as a "non-smoker". Recent encounters with various pseudo-intellectual movements defining themselves as post-this or post-that…
Fat Cats emigrate from the city to 9-5 administrator role
The Tax Payers' Alliance has exposed one of the reasons why our council taxes are rising well above inflation every year - to pay big bosses. The number of local authority staff earning more than £100,000 jumped from 429 in 2005 to 578 last…
Review of the Papers, Wednesday 07 March
Government The Government was forced to climb down and announce an immediate review of the new system for selecting junior doctors for training. The Medical Training Application Service has united doctors young and old into a revolt so…