For Labour, long time backer J K Rowling (who surely could match the Ashcroft money and hardly notice it had gone, if the mood took her) is joined by David Tennant. He must be a worry for Labour – Tennant’s support may lose Gordon the Dalek vote his only-slighty-too-authoritarian government seem to have spent the last 13 years attracting.
The Conservatives meanwhile have Carol Vorderman, Kirstie Allsopp* and Trevor ‘bong’ MacDonald. Older readers will remember Carol …
The Conservatives think they can improve education in this country by making the teaching profession “brazenly elitist” but it looks like they haven’t done their homework. David Cameron’s latest wheeze would actually exclude Carol Vorderman, the Tories’ own Maths Taskforce chief.
David Cameron made a speech today at a south London school, outlining Conservative pledges:
The Tory leader said he wanted to make teaching the “noble profession” and would bar students with a poor degree from taking government cash to train for the classroom.
And in what was almost certainly a conscious echo of Labour rhetoric, Mr Cameron said: “Good education is the right of the many not the privileged few.”
Michael Gove, the Shadow Education Secretary, went further in confronting head on claims that the Conservatives’ policies favour the better off.
An incoming Conservative government would be guided by a “moral purpose” to make opportunity more equal, he said, adding that it was a ‘scandal’ only 79 boys in receipt of free school meals achieved three ‘A’s at A-level nationwide compared with 175 pupils from Eton alone.
“It’s a scar on our conscience and we are pledged to reverse it,” said Mr Gove.
However, “breaking open the supply of education” won’t be achieved by discouraging graduates with lower classes of degree.
Good morning, and thank you for trudging through the snow and ice to Daily View. It’s Christmas Eve, and the staff at LDV Towers are expecting a half-day holiday if they get through all their work.
Across Europe, it’s today (rather than tomorrow) that many continental children receive their visit from Santa. Is that enough date-related trivia? Hell no! Carol Vorderman, Caroline Aherne and Barry Chuckle were all Christmas babies and are celebrating birthdays today.
Literary giants Harold Pinter and William Makepeace Thackery both died on Christmas eve, albeit 145 years apart.
And in events on Christmas eve: in 1946, the French Fourth Republic was founded; and in 1968 the crew of Apollo 8 were the first humans to escape the Earth’s gravity, and the first to broadcast the bible from space.
An eventful day! But click on to find what’s happening today.
Mark Hofman Real energy security depends on electrification powered by homegrown renewables. Expensive oil and gas pushed inflation up to 3.5% in September and helped send ...
Jeff North Sea gas is sold at international prices…
Natural gas is mostly consumed in the country where it’s extracted. Around 20% is exported across b...
Mick Taylor Far too many people are being taken in by claims of high taxation.
When I started work in the late 60s the basic rate of income tax was 33% and the top rate (s...
Jana @Tim Roger’s
“ The gas will not stay in the ground because Norway will take their share and then ours”
Excellent point. I haven’t read that argument...
Jana “ First, we need to be clear about the difference between constitutional democracy – or liberal democracy – and popular democracy”
I don’t agree th...
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The Burnham government: the shine dims.
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Mark Hofman 
Jeff 
Mick Taylor 
Jana 