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 …
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.
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
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 …
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 …
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
By Chris White
| Tue 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 …
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 …
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:
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
As an education campaigner and someone who believes in the principles behind the NHS, I have been following the news about the changes we have managed to make to the health bill with interest, and, obviously, pleasure that we have made a difference.
But when are we going to get our collective heads out of the sand when it comes to the privatisation of state education, where “any willing provider” that we were all so horrified about when proposed in the health bill is already rampaging through the education sector?
It will not be long, believe me, where we are seen as …
It looks as if Warrington MP David Mowat could be the first Conservative MP so far to back the alternative vote in May’s referendum. The Liverpool Daily Post reports:
A Warrington MP is ready to defy David Cameron by voting to scrap the first-past-the- post voting system – potentially making him the only Conservative to do so.
David Mowat said he was considering backing a switch to the “alternative vote” (AV) for Westminster elections in the nationwide referendum to be staged on May 5.
The Warrington South MP described himself as an “agnostic” on the issue, but also stated his belief that
Yesterday Michael Gove, finally, announced the government’s proposals for replacing the Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA) scheme. As previously trailed, Liberal Democrat pressure has secured more than £100m extra for the plans.
The £180m being spent on the new scheme compares to the £560m cost of the EMA. At first glance, that is a large cut. But if you view the key objective for the funds to be helping more people to take part in post-16 education, then the picture looks very different. That’s because several different studies of EMA concludes that the vast majority of its funds went to people …
It’s been rather a self-inflicted wound by the Coalition Government to leave such a long gap between announcing that it would abolish the Education Maintenance Allowance and publishing details of what will be introduced in its stead. I’m happy to wait until we know what the replacement will be like before judging whether the EMA abolition is a good move or not, but it’s not exactly a surprise that many people have made up their minds knowing only part of the story given that huge gap.
That said, the substance of the issue is an important one and the noises coming …
Michael Gove: … In Liberal Democrat-controlled Hull, any student in receipt of education maintenance allowance also receives a travel grant to cope with the full cost—
Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab): They won’t now.
Michael Gove: I suspect they won’t if a Labour council takes power, but if people are wise enough to vote Liberal Democrat at the next local election in Hull——or for the Conservatives in any seat where we are well placed to defeat Labour, they will have a council that is fulfilling its statutory duty.
The Government should have stuck to its guns, and ended its relationship with Booktrust.
There was never any withdrawal of funding or cut as far as I can tell. The last government signed a time-limited deal with the charity to dish out books to children of various ages. That contract is due to come to an end next April, and the Coalition has always had every intention of honouring that contract.
From the media coverage and the reaction of some, you might imagine that instead of not renewing a contract, the Coalition had instead decided to indulge in human …
How does a poor school system become good or a good school system become excellent? Those are the questions asked in a recently published McKinsey review of twenty school systems around the world, including both developed and developing countries.
In school systems where there have been significant improvements in performance, McKinsey found that these were often achieved in six years or less from the start of the changes. In other words it is possible for a government to bring about improvements in time for the public to see the benefits before the next election. However, continuity amongst key educational officials (including politicians) is frequently beneficial, with improving systems usually having their educational leaders in place for long periods of time.
Many of those improvements were, according to the McKinsey analysis, brought about without significant changes in the structure of education systems or in the resources put in.
As some of us head for the beach at the end of a very long term, it might be a good idea to see whether there is any light in the current political gloom.
I can count no less than 6 ‘reasons to be cheerful’.
First of all, last week saw the initial meetings of the new Westminster policy teams, designed to facilitate dialogue and communication between the Liberal Democrats in government, especially ministers, and interested parliamentarians, councillor representatives and the Federal Policy Committee.
The ones I attended were workmanlike – and anyway are a great deal better than anything our Coalition …
The blunder in the education department which led to the publication of a list of axed school building schemes containing 25 errors continues to rumble on. Conservative education secretary Michael Gove has apologised and taken the rap for his officials’ mistakes.
The Lib Dems’ Michael Moore was sympathetic to Mr Gove’s plight on the BBC’s Question Time last night, commending the quick and full apology:
I think he did that with grace. I think he did it appropriately and he’s determined that that doesn’t happen again. Nobody would wish that had happened. It was a major mistake, it has been
There are many things, in policy terms, that rank and file members will be expected to swallow as a result of the Coalition. There are Lib Dem red lines drawn in the agreement. There are abstentions arranged for the Parliamentary Party on particular issues. The cuts are to come, and we have Danny as Chief Secretary, with the enormous responsibility of managing this process, and making sure that Lib Dem guns are stuck to.
It is a huge opportunity and an unenviable task. What is more, the rationale for the various cuts have to be clear, and the PR of it all has …
Michael Gove is a banana. I’m not being rude, he confessed as much this morning on Radio 4: “If that’s democracy then I am a banana”. This in reference to the potential for a Lib-Lab coalition brought about by our archaic first past the post system.
Well, he might not be a banana, but I should imagine that he would rather argue that he is, indeed, a particularly yellow type of fruit, than admit that our democracy is a sham, perpetuated only by a broken electoral system. For the Conservatives to admit that FPTP should be changed would be a disaster. …
Since Nick Clegg’s success in Thursday’s TV debate, there have been incredible comments made by high-profile Labour and Conservative politicians that have led to questions about how seriously the establishment takes the Liberal Democrats.
On Friday, Michael Gove called the Lib Dems “eccentric” and “outside the mainstream”, and Bob Ainsworth called their policy on Trident “silly”.
How can a political party with 20-30% of voters supporting them be eccentric and outside of the mainstream? Many Labour and Conservative policies could be seen as just that.
The suggestions of not replacing Trident, an amnesty for long-term illegal immigrants and cutting class sizes …
You’re in the news today saying that the “novelty” of Nick Clegg will wear off when his policies come under further scrutiny.
Guess you must have missed last night’s TV debate then, with the two occasions when David Cameron directly put Liberal Democrat policies under scrutiny and said they wouldn’t work.
Only thing is, on both occasions – how to fund taking millions out of income tax and how to have a regionally based immigration system – Nick Clegg straight away responded with a detailed answer covering all of Cameron’s points.
And in both cases that response silenced Cameron on the point …
Monday’s Today Programme on Radio 4 majored on local government.
It was the usual shambles. We were told that local authorities were expecting to make cuts in services – hardly news. One reporter told us that libraries were not used by many people – in fact had she spent ten minutes on research she would have discovered that libraries are visited by half the adult population each year. This makes libraries far more popular than any if not all of the sporting events on which the BBC lavishes time and our money each year.
By Stephen Tall
| Mon 15th February 2010 - 9:45 am
Happy Monday morning! And as it’s the fifth anniversary of YouTube, find out why Paddy chose to appear with a couple of puppets back in 1997. But first, the news and blogs.
2 Must-Read Blog Posts
What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here’s are two posts that have caught the eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:
These episodes demonstrate the character of the Conservative Party – people who make all sorts of promises in order to get what they want with the firm intention of weaselling out of them.
… don’t be surprised if the next Labour PM is someone that you won’t have heard of even several years from now.
Have you donated yet?
Lib Dem Voice is asking our readers to consider making a donation to help five candidates in the imminent general election. The first to be featured is Willie Rennie, victor in the 2006 Dunfermline by-election. Click here to read more. Click here to donate to Willie’s campaign.
2 Lib Dem Stories
David Laws on Tory ‘free school’ plans: “deeply flawed”
David Laws has criticised the Tories’ plans to set up Swedish-style ‘free schools’, saying:
The Tories’ schools plans are deeply flawed both in terms of money and on the curriculum. Michael Gove’s plan to cut the education budget means his ability to establish new schools will inevitably depend on raiding the budgets of existing schools.
“On the curriculum, Conservative plans are in even more of an incoherent muddle. Michael Gove plans to impose an absurdly detailed curriculum on most state-funded schools, while allowing free schools to adopt a pick-and-mix curriculum – even if this means dropping core subjects such as British history and modern languages.
“It is impossible to justify in any logical way a system which imposes such centralized uniformity on 23,500 schools while allowing a small minority to teach whatever they like at the taxpayers’ expense.”
Lib Dem voters more likely to have a sex toy
Well, according to a poll quoted in The Sun anyway:
Lib Dem voters are more likely to have a sex toy than Labour or Tory supporters, a poll reveals. Thirty per cent own one, compared to 24 per cent for Labour and 22 per cent of Tories.
The party that gives you good vibrations.Hmmm, I admit the slogan needs some work, but, hey, it might just work.
Celebrating 5 years of YouTube
Because 5 years ago, clips like the below were just forgotten bits of old news archive seen by no-one:
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.
By Philip Young
| Sat 26th December 2009 - 3:43 pm
Civil servants are as bad as bankers … The Telegraph trumpets Gladstone’s anniversary … Tories support Labour’s school Sats Tests … Another dodgy Tory donor exposed … Labour split on voting reform … Lords skim expenses cream … BBC to make film on Thorpe tragedy … what Chris Huhne thinks of Prince Charles … Unions sit on money for Labour … look at who says Hauge is Vauge …and the only thing the final polls of the year can agree upon is that Liberal Democrat support is holding up
Now Civil Servants join bankers in ludicrous bonuses – Daily Mail,, 24.12.09
By Stephen Tall
| Sat 21st November 2009 - 8:30 am
Welcome to the latest LDVideo instalment, featuring three of the most memorable video clips doing the rounds on the blogosphere.
First up is Ed Balls – the guy might have a debating style reminiscent of a school bully demanding tuck money, but here he completely out-smarts tongue-tied Tory education spokesman Michael Gove:
The second clip shows Rupert Murdoch furiously denying suggestions that he alleged President Obama made a racist remark, followed by Rupert Murdoch alleging that President Obama made a racist remark:
Today’s election broadcast from the Conservatives simply features David Cameron talking to camera about MPs and their expense claims. The message is meant to be about him facing up to the problems and talking frankly about them.
But listen to his language:
I want to start by saying sorry … sorry for the actions of some Conservative MPs…
principle of thrift should apply to Conservative MPs too. So from now on I want them to claim what is reasonable to do their job…
Members of my Shadow Cabinet, including Michael Gove, Oliver Letwin and Andrew Lansley, have agreed to pay back money…
David Raw Agree with Mick Taylor, but would also suggest Count Binface is no mug..... he's an Oxford graduate in classics and classical languages, literatures and linguis...
Mick Taylor Some posters on here are real killjoys. If Binface were to beat Farage it would end Farage's political career. And let's face it, Binface could hardly be a wors...
Jana A thought just occurred - maybe Farage was hoping to have no serious competition in this by-election as it always his party activists to canvass extensively whi...
David Raw When a person living within the historical territory of the Duchy of Cornwall dies without a valid will (i.e. intestate) and with no surviving relatives, their ...
Paul Walter I primarily wrote this piece as a travel blog.
But for clarity, while I admire the independence (current overall status) of the Isle of Man, I support a revi...
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Are Plaid Cymru serious about government?
Why stage plays need a character that screenplays don't
Random thoughts
A few thoughts on Ann Widdecombe
David Raw 
Mick Taylor 
Jana 
Paul Walter 