Comments on: More change, more cost, less gain

By: How to Get Six Pack Fast

How to Get Six Pack Fast — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 14:51:55 +0000

This topic is quite hot in the net right now. What do you pay attention to while choosing what to write about?

Reply: My own judgement based on what the government is doing and saying, what is going on in Parliament, what I observe when out and about, what people writing to the site are interested in and what I hear on the radio.

By: number 6

number 6 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:39:16 +0000

As the organic five a day fruit and vegetable intake coordinator for the East Sussex establishments of child centered learning (previously known as schools) I resent the implication that my work and indeed that of my colleauges in the street grafitti art self esteem enhancement group are in any way a waste of tax payers money.

By: Yarnesfromhorsham

Yarnesfromhorsham — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:03:49 +0000

John – this is on the Ball – but I just dont get the feel that the Tory party – well Tory MPs- have the guts to take on the job of slimming Government. Perhaps there should be a slimming wish list that highlights what the Tories would do when in power – whatever happened to that David James report – now there is a man that can cut costs.

By: brian kelly

brian kelly — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 09:48:10 +0000

I agree with these comments. I grew up, as an engineer, when apprenticeships in engineering firms were the normality and very valuable they were. Their demise is complex but important factors are, of course, the very significant decline in British engineering capacity: another significant factor was the declining profitably of engineering companies starting in the 60′s and 70′s and the takeover of a predominant ‘accounting mentality’ at the top of the firms ['profits this year mentality']. I well remember an engineering colleague during the 90′s recession – a man who graduated from being a ‘one man band’ working in a farm hut to become the owner of a small engineering firm of about 50 or so employees [and whose firm suffered cruelly from the the treatment by his bank during that recession] – saying to me in terms ‘the problem is we [firms in general] are not owned and entirely run by us any more, we are owned by the banks.

By: JC

JC — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:29:09 +0000

John, I agree with this post entirely. There are far to many of these bodies taking and waisting huge chunks of the funding and delivering nothing worthwhile in return.

By: mike stallard

mike stallard — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:54:02 +0000

Under Mr Major, the QCA worked. It was full of people who knew what they were about. The A level worked too. GCSE was then a valid qualification. Admittedly, the Techs had been made into Universities, but they were still free to the students.
Compare that with the shambles today!
Michael Gove is a good, imaginative man, and a good journalist too. However, I do not hear his voice. Perhaps it is because I do not read the right newspapers. Can you have a word, please?
And it is so encouraging that our host can see what everyone else can see: the Emperor has no clothes.

By: Matthew Reynolds

Matthew Reynolds — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:36:00 +0000

A simple solution to record spending not reaching the classroom is to give all parents an education voucher. LEA’s can be cut down to size with the QUANGO & Whitehall related waste removed so that bright children from poor backgrounds can have the kind of education that only people such as wealthy Guardian readers & MP’s can afford. The state sector will only get better if it fears losing the money that it gets every year as of right. As Ed Balls attack on academies proves the more a school is run by LEA’s the worse it is – so the solution promoted both by David Davis in his 2005 leadership bid & now by the Lib Dem Schools Spokesman David Laws is right. A school voucher scheme that favors the least well off is a socially progressive way to raise school standards for the many & not the few as education is liberty. Those New Labor sound-bites marry together nicely with what school vouchers achieve in all the countries that have introduced them. So Cameron could be the heir to Blair and be more radical on schools than Margaret Thatcher while winning Lib Dem votes by sticking to the schools policy originally invented by Swedish Socialists. In government he must back Michael Gove 100% on education – if only to dismantle the loony left mess left by Labor. If we want higher social mobility then the welfare reforms devised by Chris Grayling and the Michael Gove inspired schools revolution are a great way to go !

By: THE ESSEX BOYS

THE ESSEX BOYS — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:04:14 +0000

We often wonder what happened to, and what was so wrong with the James Report of 2004/05?

It could well be that its time has come.

By: A. Sedgwick

A. Sedgwick — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:23:09 +0000

As I have previously written, the blindingly obvious is to free schools from local government, finance each school directly from the Treasury and let the teachers, governors and parents run them. This is how private education operates, it works and has parents/grandparents paupering themselves to pay the fees. The process may take five or more years and need lots of guidance with buddy private schools. The brain of a socialist does not work like this and although there seems to be a similar half baked Conservative policy, if the party means business this is the answer – empower the schools individually and those involved.

By: StevenL

StevenL — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 18:19:34 +0000

That’s scandalous, so not only are the government getting the younglings into an unassailable mountain of debt, they are syphoning off nearly half the dosh supposedly allocated to their education!