Tag Archives: white paper

Katharine Pindar

A challenge for Labour on the development of jobs and businesses in Britain

By Katharine Pindar | Mon 3rd September 2018 - 10:53 am

What can the Liberal Democrats offer Labour voters who don’t like the way their great party is heading under Jeremy Corbyn? What, particularly, has our party to offer the working people of this country who have seen their standard of living drop under the Government’s austerity programme and can’t expect better if Brexit happens?

As the party that supports neither unbridled capitalism nor full-blooded socialism, we allow markets to operate as freely as possible, but intervene to ensure they are well-regulated and competitive, and to offer individual citizens greater powers and rights. “We want to build a new economy that really …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged and | 37 Comments
Paul Walter

Is it the BBC’s fault that Bargain Hunt is so popular?

By Paul Walter | Mon 23rd May 2016 - 12:11 pm

I have a confession to make. I watch BBC’s antiques competition, Bargain Hunt, three times a week. Perversely, I watch it with the volume turned down, reading the sub-titles (I’m on the treadmill in the gym at the time).

It’s a strange programme, because, as my lifelong auctioneer father often says, in exasperation:

They’re going the wrong way!

What he means is, that prices are lower at auctions than flea markets/boot sales. So, if you buy some things at an auction, you can earn good money on them at a boot sale. But if you go the other way, you are often on a hiding to nothing.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 142 Comments
Alex Feakes

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 3)

By Alex Feakes | Fri 31st December 2010 - 12:09 pm

In the last part of my series of articles on The Importance of Teaching schools White Paper published by the government last month, I want to look at the proposals for changes to the measurement of schools’ performance. The first two pieces were on exclusion and the range of languages included in the proposed English Baccalaureate.

Contextual Value Added

The value added by schools is in many ways more important that the actual raw results achieved – is a school good because its students have got the results commensurate with their potential when they entered the school, or because …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 2 Comments
Alex Feakes

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 2)

By Alex Feakes | Thu 30th December 2010 - 12:05 pm

In my earlier article, I looked at the new proposals for dealing with school exclusions set out in The Importance of Teaching schools White Paper, published by the government last month. Two other areas of concern in Paper, which otherwise contains some good ideas, relates to the curriculum changes and the measurement of schools’ performance.

Curriculum – the broad academic core

The White Paper gives some welcome attention to the breadth of the curriculum students study. Although the freedoms proposed for schools elsewhere in the paper allow them to adopt their own route, it is proposed to encourage the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 3 Comments
Alex Feakes

Opinion: Answers on no more than 2 sides of A4 (part 1)

By Alex Feakes | Wed 29th December 2010 - 12:30 pm

In the first of a series of three, school governor Alex Feakes looks at elements of the recent education white paper.

The Importance of Teaching schools White Paper published by the government last month has lots going for it and has attracted the qualified support of many in the teaching profession. As a discussion paper, however, there are still quite a few wrinkles to be ironed out. Here’s one:

Exclusions

Like many secondary school governors who have been on disciplinary panels, I occasionally have had to confirm the headteacher’s decision to permanently exclude a student from the school. If the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 1 Comment
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