Tag Archives: michael gove

Opinion: Gove’s message – “vocational” = “worthless”

By Lucy Care | Published 7th February 2012 - 9:09 am

Secretary of State for Education, Conservative Michael Gove, has downgraded the value of nearly all 14-16 vocational qualifications at a stroke. I felt angry when I heard this. However, it did little to reduce my respect for Mr Gove; I had very little anyway after ‘free’ schools, and his arrogant disregard of the role of Local Authorities to support ‘failing’ schools.

But having thought about this a little more, I am left perplexed by Gove’s decision. The impact goes against so much I thought was accepted wisdom.

Industry has for many years had a

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged academies, vocational | 23 Comments

Telegraph apologises for false slurs on Huhne and offensive Cristina Odone article

By Stephen Tall | Published 21st January 2012 - 10:25 am

The Daily Telegraph has been forced into a humiliating climbdown after making what it now admits were false claims about Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne.

The paper had splashed on allegations that it was Huhne who had leaked the letter from Michael Gove suggesting taxpayers might make a gift of a new royal yacht to the Queen in order to embarrass the education secretary. It’s unclear what evidence the paper had, if any, because Huhne’s involvement was swiftly denied by the Guardian journalist responsible for exposing Mr Gove’s, erm, politically courageous proposal. Perhaps, perish the thought, they just …

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, cristina odone, daily telegraph, media | 6 Comments

LDVideo: Nick Clegg – Public won’t back Queen yacht idea

By Stephen Tall | Published 16th January 2012 - 8:32 pm

Conservative cabinet minister Michael Gove’s suggestion that a new royal yacht should be “a gift from the nation to her majesty” on the occasion of her diamond jubilee earned diplomatically short shrift from Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg today:

(Also available to view on the BBC website here.)

Posted in News, YouTube | Also tagged nick clegg, royal family | 8 Comments

LDV Caption Competition | Michael Gove “May the Lego be with you” Edition

By Stephen Tall | Published 14th January 2012 - 3:55 pm

There’s no prize at stake – just the opportunity to prove you’re wittier than any other LDV reader…

Here’s Tory secretary of state for education Michael Gove clutching a box of Star Wars lego. What do you think might be being said or thought by or about him?

And the winner of our last caption comp is…

Some fantastic entries for our most recent caption competition, LDV Caption Competition | Sir Bob Russell “snookered by Nick Clegg” Edition.

Posted in Caption Comp | 26 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats should welcome Michael Gove’s proposals for the ICT curriculum

By Charlotte Henry | Published 13th January 2012 - 11:15 am

Earlier this week, Michael Gove announced that the ICT curriculum in schools will undergo a revolution, with a new emphasis on programming. Some announcements from the Education Secretary have prompted anguished discussion within out party (what other kind do we have?!) but this is a move by him that we should welcome warmly.

For one of the most exciting, creative, and essential parts of our curriculum, the way we deal with IT in schools is outrageously tedious and uninspiring. Gove hit the nail on the head when he spoke of pupils “bored out of their minds being taught …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged computer science, curriculum, schools | 10 Comments

The weekend debate: Should the Government send a King James Bible to every school?

By Carl Quilliam | Published 3rd December 2011 - 9:54 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

Michael Gove is planning to send a King James Bible to every school in the UK to mark the 400th anniversary of its translation, with a short introduction written by himself.

The National Secular Society has criticised the decision and believe that there are already enough bibles in British schools.

So, is this a worthwhile celebration of an important part of British history or is it a waste of money that could …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, weekend debate | 42 Comments

Opinion: Saving School Transport

By Sarah Osborne & Antony Hook | Published 11th November 2011 - 8:55 am

County councils all over England are making deep cuts to school transport that Liberal Democrats are right to fight against. School transport cuts are bad for child safety, bad for working parents and bad for congestion on local roads.

The cuts, which mostly have come into effect this term or will over the next 12 months are, in most cases, to reduce school transport to the very least permitted by statute. That means it is being axed for everyone who is not on free school meals or who lives more than 3 miles (2 for primary children) from their nearest …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged annette brooke, norman baker, schools, tim loughton, transport | 4 Comments

LibLink: David Laws – Could do better: how to stop our schools failing

By Nick Thornsby | Published 21st October 2011 - 9:56 am

Earlier this week, Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil and former education spokesman, David Laws, had a piece in the London Evening Standard defending the government’s record on education policy to date, but also urging a more ambitious programme over the coming years.

Here’s what David has to say on what Michael Gove and his Lib Dem colleague Sarah Teather have done so far:

Our qualifications system was also undermined by Labour - which was determined to “prove” that standards were rising, even if this just meant making exams easier. Targets distorted teaching: too few pupils took key subjects.

Under

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged david laws, education, sarah teather | 10 Comments

Lynne Featherstone vs Steve Hilton on maternity pay

By Mark Pack | Published 17th October 2011 - 7:25 am

From yesterday’s Observer:

In a wide-ranging interview with the Observer, Featherstone said it was vital the coalition delivered on its family-friendly rhetoric … In a forthright attack on some of the advisers shaping government policy, she criticised the role of Adrian Beecroft, a venture capitalist tasked with reporting to the prime minister on how to cut regulation on business. Beecroft is understood to have recommended a U-turn on government policies on shared parental leave and flexible working.

The proposals, outlined in a white paper, would allow couples greater freedom to co-ordinate maternity and paternity leave. A separate proposal would make it

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Posted in News | Also tagged adrian beecroft, eric pickles, george osborne, lynne featherstone, maternity pay, nick clegg, olive letwin, paternity leave, rob blackie, steve hilton, theresa may | 1 Comment

Opinion: Gove’s history – Whiggish, patriotic and wrong, part 2

By George Morris | Published 7th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Britain’s history curriculum is about to return to the past. Michael Gove’s plan to change the way this important subject is taught in our schools “smells of Whiggery; of history as chauvinism”, according to Professor Tom Devine. In the second of a series of two articles (part one here), I look at the dangers of Gove’s desire to make history a patriotic subject.

History should be beyond ideology. History should be about the truth. It should be about looking at past societies, not judging them, and not attempting to own them. A patriotic view of history is equally as dangerous as …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, history, simon schama, tom devine | 11 Comments

Opinion: Gove’s history – Whiggish, patriotic and wrong, part 1

By George Morris | Published 6th October 2011 - 10:25 am

Britain’s history curriculum is about to return to the past. Michael Gove’s plan to change the way this important subject is taught in our schools “smells of Whiggery; of history as chauvinism”, according to Professor Tom Devine. In the first of a series of two articles, I will look at the Whiggish side to Gove’s vision of history.

The Liberal Democrats are the political grandchildren of the Whigs, but we don’t need to share their interpretation of history. At the heart of Whig history is a sort of teleological view of the past, imagining that the ‘story’ of Britain is about …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, history, tom devine | 12 Comments

The significant part of Tim Farron’s speech

By Mark Pack | Published 20th September 2011 - 12:55 pm

Tim Farron is probably the Parliamentary Party’s best funny speech maker (though I’d pay good money to see him head-to-head in a laugh off with Alistair Carmichael), so it’s not a surprise that Tim’s speech to Liberal Democrat conference caught the headlines mostly for his humour and his stress-testing of political marriage analogies to destruction.

Yet there was a significant section about how Liberal Democrat ministers act and his own role:

There are 18 Liberal Democrats who don’t have the luxuries that I do.

They can’t just sound off if they don’t like government policy or trot through the no lobby on

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Posted in Conference | Also tagged alistair carmichael, danny alexander, george osborne, sarah teather, tim farron, vince cable | 4 Comments

Opinion: Give Gove the shove

By Chris White | Published 6th September 2011 - 12:21 pm

I was asked yesterday what I thought would be the key issues for the Coalition over the next 12 months. Political predictions are always dangerous (what did you predict would be the main stories in August?) but I plunged in and said that education was emerging as a clear division between the Coalition partners.

There has been a great deal over the past few days over the creation of the first free schools. The BBC tells us hourly that they are free from local government control: quite where they (and some politicians in our own Party who should know better) get …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged free schools, nick clegg | 18 Comments

Opinion: Academies overspend revealed!

By Peter Downes | Published 22nd July 2011 - 3:51 pm

Figures in a Government consultation paper on the funding of academies have revealed that Michael Gove’s policy of getting schools to convert to academies is expected to cost nearly £600 million more than planned over the two year period 2011 – 2013.

This confirms what Lib Dem activists have been saying for some time i.e. that the programme for converting schools to academies is costly and unsustainable, as well as being divisive and unfair.

When a school decides to leave its Local Authority (LA) and become ‘independent’ (i.e. dependent on central government!), in addition to its standard funding it gets an …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged academies | 18 Comments

Teaching union spokesman attacks Gove’s “licence for paedophiles”

By Mark Pack | Published 29th June 2011 - 9:02 pm

It’s no surprise that Michael Gove’s call for parents to help out in strike-hit schools has caused a fair amount of controversy, but I didn’t expect a union spokesman to wheel out the old paedophile scare line:

[Gove] suggested parents enlist to help out stricken schools and give children something constructive to do, adding that it would save working parents a fortune. But union leaders in Dorset slammed the proposal, claiming it lacked common sense and would cause a “safeguarding nightmare”. Phil Jacques, Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) secretary for Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset, claimed implementing the plan would be

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Posted in News | Also tagged phil jacques | 25 Comments

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