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 …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 13 Comments
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    Such a newbie...
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    The easiest way to demonstrate stability around joining the EU would be to get through the ~ten/twenty year accession process without any UK government pulling ...
  • Nigel Ashton
    I first met Simon circa 1978 when we were both on the Home Counties Regional Executive, he as the ULS rep and me as his YL counterpart. We share many of the sam...
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    " A clever wheeze might also be for the EU to demand we store half our gold reserves in Brussels, to be repatriated in 20 years time provided the UK has not by ...
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