The FT reports that two-thirds of English state schools will have their day-to-day budgets cut in this parliament, in spite of government claims to have protected resources for education:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/37d13f48-e3a0-11df-b6a6-00144feabdc0.html Only a minority of schools will achieve a net increase in funding as a result of the much vaunted ‘pupil premium’ and further FT research confirms that the planned squeeze on funding will be made worse by a ‘forecast increase in the number of pupils and a 60 per cent reduction in capital spending on infrastructure’.
Saturday, 30 October 2010
A cautionary tale about private nursing agencies
Solomon Hughes, writing in yesterday’s Morning Star, highlights the corporate interests involved in the tragic case of housebound quadriplegic patient Jamie Merrett which received much publicity last week.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/96985
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/96985
Poem from a Bus Shelter by Clare Shaw
This is not a life, but if it was
I’d say I always lived here.
I’d say this street; this long grey face
of factories, flats; the boarded shops;
the tired, concrete houses, squats –
they saw my first bright day.
I’d say I always lived here.
I’d say this street; this long grey face
of factories, flats; the boarded shops;
the tired, concrete houses, squats –
they saw my first bright day.
Friday, 29 October 2010
Protest works says Independent pundit - Heard that one before?
Johan Hari writing in today’s Independent refers to the ‘ripple of rage’ spreading across Britain in response to austerity measures and says that protest works:
Gove's ex-adviser given £500,000 free schools grant
Michael Gove's education department failed to invite applications for a £500,000 grant to assist parents setting up free schools before awarding it to his former adviser's New Schools Network, reports the Guardian. The information came from an FoI request (the response to which was 70 days late) by the Other Taxpayers Alliance. "For an excellent alternative to the New Schools Network, check out the Local Schools Network, launched last month. What a strange political terrain we now inhabit: a state-funded network promoting independent schools, and an independent network promoting state schools."
Thursday, 28 October 2010
Gove Axes School Support Staff Negotiating Body
Con Dem education secretary Michael Gove today told the Commons in a written ministerial statement that he was abolishing the School Support Staff Negotiating Body because it "did not fit well with the government's priorities for greater deregulation". http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/oct/28/teaching-assistants-pay-body-scrapped
Oh Mr Miliband! Condemn the Fire-fighters at Your Peril
Yesterday’s Daily Mirror, in the print version at least, gave new Labour leader Ed Miliband’s views on the FBU dispute in London and surprise surprise, Miliband condemned the strike. A spokesman for Mr Miliband is quoted as saying that “it would leave Londoners in a dangerous situation”.
Pensioners fight austerity
Wednesday, 27 October 2010
Video of Belfast Rally
A new trade unionism in the making?
A talk by Hilary Wainwright to the recent Quality Public Services conference organised by the Conference of global unions can be read here: http://www.tni.org/paper/new-trade-unionism-making
For more on the Conference go to: http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2010/10/investing-in-quality-public-services.html
For more on the Conference go to: http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2010/10/investing-in-quality-public-services.html
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