Author Archives: Tom Simon

Opinion: Free schools good, free schools bad?

By Tom Simon | Thu 19th July 2012 - 10:23 am

Liberal Democrats don’t like free schools do they? After all they undermine local authorities and are bad for the democratic accountability of our state school system. They introduce demand as opposed to need for the creation of new schools. Certainly there is some truth in these objections, but the reality is not black and white.

In my ward in LB Camden the Labour administration has refused to take action to meet the shortage of primary school places. They have fudged the issue with figures that show that they are adhering to statutory requirements. I was elected in 2009 and every …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 13 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Chloe
    I remember the long journeys into Manchester with my Mum 50 years ago. Piccadilly gardens were lovely. Looking at them now , if that's anyone's idea of progress...
  • Jason Connor
    How about the coastal and other towns left behind due to labour inertia? It's all well and good transforming Greater Manchester if you can call it that, but I h...
  • Peter Davies
    Those words at the beginning of the declaration were pretty disingenuous. It was obvious even at the time that they were incompatible with the rest of the decla...
  • TimL
    Thanks Alex and Chloe. FWIW I don't think these are resignation honours - I think it is just timing coincidence. Whether Starmer comes back with more resignatio...
  • Simon McGrath
    Oh dear. The UK is actually doing quite well for AI firms and investment here - would the state taking over some of the shares make that more or less likely to...