Author Archives: Charley Hasted

Exams are getting easier?

By Charley Hasted | Thu 18th August 2022 - 4:20 pm

The end of August has rolled around and shortly, as every year since I can remember, the usual suspects will likely be complaining that exams have gotten easier because young people all over the country have done what they are supposed to do and passed them.

This is all part of the usual having a go at the ‘youth of today’ that these people always engage in. Whether it’s ‘nobody wants to work’ or ‘takeaway coffee is why you can’t afford a house’ or ‘exams are getting easier’. It’s all part of the same attitude that seeks to either blame young people for not being able to overcome systemic problems in society or trivialise and denigrate the things we succeed at. Everything bad is our fault, everything good was handed to us.

The hate and dismissal hurled at children and teenagers every year over exams results is particularly vile though. Simply because we sent these children to school at 4 or 5, spent years attempting to give them all the information and skills they needed to pass their exams. Then they are attacked for succeeding in the very thing we’ve spent years telling them is the whole point of why we sent them to school in the first place. To get qualifications so they can have the best chance of leading happy successful lives.

If 100% of our Olympians came back with gold medals, would we insist the Olympics had gotten easier?

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged education, exam results and featured | 55 Comments

Sarah Dyke Selected as Lib Dem Candidate for Somerset and Frome

By Charley Hasted | Sun 15th May 2022 - 6:00 pm

The Liberal Democrats have selected Cllr Sarah Dyke as their candidate for the Somerton and Frome constituency.

Sarah lives in the constituency and is from a Somerset farming family which can be traced back over 250 years to the local area. Sarah worked in the agricultural industry and is Portfolio Holder for the Environment on South Somerset District Council where she is spearheading rewilding programmes, investment in electric vehicle charging points and the council’s zero-carbon targets.

Last week Sarah was elected to Somerset County Council to represent Blackmoor Vale, beating the head of the Conservatives’ dedicated anti-Lib Dem unit.