| Should Heads Be Paid £200,000 | May 4, 2008, 1:00 am GMT |
The Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, is asking the teachers pay body to come up with a scheme where top head teachers could be paid up to £200,000 a year in return for taking on the management of one or more struggling local schools.
This story is just so wrong it is hard to know where to begin.
For starters, paying someone £200,000 does not get double the results as paying them £100,000. There are only so many hours in the day.
Second, adding to workload and stress of successful Head Teachers will only result in damaging the successes they have made, bring results down.
Third, what Head Teachers are crying out for is a less oppressive regulation system. Many are being pushed to the brink of collapse by having armies of "Advisors" sent in if they fail an inspection.
Even when things go well, there is a mass of regulation and never-ending paperwork. Many Heads of Department now have no ambition to be a Head Teacher because of this, resulting in a loss of good candidates.
A much better solution would be to use the money to pay for more Heads. Reduce the Fear Factor from Inspections and "Advisors". Instead of sending in up to 6 Advisors each month in flying visits, give Heads of struggling schools and extra pair of hands, full time.
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| Ken Livingstone's Relationships | April 7, 2008, 11:28 pm GMT |
The papers have been full of stories about Ken Livingstone, candidate for London Mayor. The truth is he has a string of failed relationships behind him.
From 1981 he was the dominant partner in a relationship with The Greater London Council, until it was dissolved in 1986, leaving just a few residual bodies.
He had been in a long-term relationship with the Labour Party, and after saying goodbye to the Greater London Council he was able to put his sadness to one side, move on and cement the relationship in Brent East. He was often seen in Labour's company, and some people thought of them as a perfect match.
In 2000 the Greater London Council, now slimmer and calling itself the Greater London Authority re-appeared on the scene. Ken fought off rival suitors and was re-united, but his relationship with the Labour Party broke down,and eventually he had to leave the House. Labour meanwhile settled down with Frank Dobson.
Things cooled down after a while, and Ken is now reconcilled with Labour too.
Throughout all this Ken has remained keen on newts. Here are just a few unrelated newts:
  
Taricha granulosa / Newt Livingstone from Cory in the House / Newt Gingrich (an American) ;)
http://www.runboard.com/bhomeland]Homeland Discussion Forum |
| Schools, Wine, Preachers, Romanies, Forced Marriage | April 2, 2008, 11:11 pm GMT |
Immans, rabbis, priests and preachers from other faiths could be invited into state schools to give "more religious instruction", under a policy that the National Union of Teachers policy.
Yet again the unworldly luvvies that teachers are get it wrong. Schools are for education. There simply isn't time for extra religious teaching. Bringing preachers into schools risks radicalising pupils (and teachers), as well as pressurising children to change religions. Schools should be safe and neutral places - this policy is downright wrong. Join the forum - have your say
About 100 English Romanies have bought up a plot of land next to the Cotswold country home of Tessa Jowell, Minister for the Olympics and London, and set up camp. They are going about making the site permanent. Real Gypsies deserve decent places to live, and enough of them, but this does not mean they should be able to ignore planning and conservation laws. More - Agree or disagree?
Jerry Schooler makes fruit wines and mead at the Lurgashall Winery, West Sussex. This includes silver birch wine, bramble liqueur and mead. Other flavours include redcurrent, walnut, ginger, and sloe wine. Under new Euro laws his bottle sizes are now illegal. Changing bottling machinery, labels, boxes and even corks will cost £30,000. This standardisation is pointless and achieves nothing. Rules should be there for a good reason, and in this case there isn't one. Add a comment
The director of UK Visas says that appeals to UK courts were often successful in cases related to forced marriage, overturning decisions made by immigration officers that would have protected men and women from being forced into marriage. 86 applications involved vulnerable adults, including people who were severely disabled. About 32% of appeals were successful. Victims of forced marriage may even have been put in position of having to support their spouses appeals. Overall 47,000 spouses entered the UK on settlement visas last year. It is an insult to human decency for people to be forced into marriage. If the couple have not even met then they are being treated like pieces of meat, commodities to be traded. End this travesty of Human Rights now - arranged marriages, where people have not met by chance, fallen in lurve, then had a long courtship, should be rejected and not result in right of entry to the UK. More |
| Politics, politics | March 31, 2008, 9:47 pm GMT |
Congratulations to Ivan Lewis, a junior Health Minister, who spoke out in the News of the World yesterday (30 March 2008) but seems to have escaped the usual sacking. So far. He said that voters grew angry "when they feel the Govenment is loosing touch with what fairness means to the majority who work hard, play by the rules and are feeling squeezed by rising bills and rising council tax."
He also called for minimum 10 year prison sentences for possession of a gun or a knife and immediate deportation of illegal immigrants. Have your say
Co-incidentally, new parking laws, including parking tickets issued by CCTV and sent by post came into effect today.
 
(Google says it's Clarkson. Who am I to argue. Autospies)
New laws coming into effect on 1st April 2008 mean that it will be easier to issue parking tickets, there will be new offences and most fines will be higher. The supposed purpose is to improve traffic flow. No doubt Jeremy Clarkson will be fuming. But motorists get more rights of appeal. Is it right that councils should be able to profit from law enforcement? 8 million tickets were issued last year, raising £1billion in revenue. There were just 70,000 appeals but over 60% were successful. New Parking Appeal Rules
Serial shoplifter Joanne Jones from Canterbury was given a 90 day suspended sentence for her 175th conviction. She stole underwear "worth" £117 from TKMaxx and £40-worth of makeup from ASDA. Without wishing to be cruel, it is hard to see what use she would put it to, and she seems rather heavily built for a herion addict.
She has averaged 12 court appearances since the age of 16 and has "never been jailed for more than 12 months". Her solicitor said she had made progress and could change, but it is difficult to tell from the rather brief newspaper accounts what this progress is, and how it differs from anything in the previous 16 years. There was talk about going on a "medium-level" drug rehabilitation programme. What do you think - click and have your say.
The Speaker of the House of Commons has gone to the High Court in a bid to keep details of MPs expenses secret. This will cost the taxpayer about £100,000. This is wrong, downright wrong, in almost every way. The only thing (in this legal action) that should remain secret is MPs addresses. Agree? Disagree?
 
It is only right and proper that there should be be a thorough investigation into the death of a member of the Royal Family, particularly one as controversial as Diana Princess of Wales. Frankly the inquest and inqury should have been held years ago. BUT the allegations have been investigated. The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, "told the jury that there was no evidence to support claims by Mohamed Al Fayed that the couple were killed in an Establishment plot." Mohamed Al Fayed's grief is understandable, and denial is a part of grief, but it is time to move on. |
| Ethnic Breakdown - Future Statistics | March 30, 2008, 1:49 am GMT |
There is a huge gap between Government figures for the ethnic population of London overall* and schools stats. (* based on Office of National Statistics official Government 2005 data).
Lambeth 2005 ONS stats: 66% White
Lambeth Schools: 35% White (53% black)
Tower Hamlets: ONS: 54% White
Tower Hamlets Schools: 27% White (52% Asian)
Ealing 2005 ONS: 59% White
Ealing Schools: 33% White (38% Asian, 18% Black)
This is a huge difference, 20 or 30%.
Why the huge difference?
Well, ONS stats are based on all ages, and most elderly are white. Immigration has been accelerating since the 1950, and the birth rate among 1st generation immigrants is up to double that of the native population, so figures increase from the first to 2nd generation.
The current school population is a better predictor of future population that an all-age average (eg ONS stats), and what these are saying is that in these 3 London Boroughs the native White British population will be a small minority in the future. Not just a small minority, but not even the largest ethnic group.
Lambeth will have a higher Black population that White, about 3 to 2.
Tower Hamlets will have more Asians than Whites, about 2 to 1.
Ealing will have a more complex pattern. It will have a slightly larger Asian population than White, followed by people from Black ethnic groups, about 2 to 2 to 1.
What do you think about this? Sign up and post - it's quick and easy - Click to discuss this point
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| London's Ethnic Breakdown | March 25, 2008, 12:14 am GMT |
The graph below shows % White - Non-White. Non-white of course includes Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and others, plus their descendants) and "Black" (African, Carribean, mixed-race, and their descendants). However it treats White British, Irish (Republic of Ireland), Polish, Romanians, other Europeans, White USA etc as all the same. Some people would argue that this is not the case - the Irish and Poles in particular.
For this reason, the graph below shows another way to measure the level immigration in London - it compares percent White-British to Not White-British. The overall picture is similar but more pronounced.
Note that the London Boroughs of Harrow, Ealing, Brent, Westminster, Harringey, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Newham all have below 50% White-UK, meaning that the indiginous population are a minority in that part of their ancestors country.
Inner London as a whole is in the 50-59% band, almost making the traditional population a minority in this large part of the Capital.
What do you think about this? Sign up and post - it's quick and easy. -> this Discussion Page
Discussion Board (top)
Based on official Government estimates (Office of National Statistics) for mid 2005. |
| Budget 2008 and Pensions | March 12, 2008, 3:25 am GMT |
What will this years Budget contain?
The 10% Income Tax band will be scrapped - hitting the low paid. Why?
The ordinary rate will drop from 22% to 20%, paid for in part by the low-paid. One side effect of this will be that tax relief on pensions contributions will decrease, effectively making pensions more expensive.
Thanks Darling.
The Higher Rate for National Insurance may rise from 1% to 2% or even 3%. While this sounds "fair" it is anything but. NI is an insurance scheme, not a tax. If a Government wants to redistribute wealth it should use the tax system, and be upfront about it. Don't do it, it won't raise much money but will cost.
Stamp duty on expensive houses may rise to 5% (over £750,000) and 6% (£1,000,000 and over). At least this is acknowledged as a tax, and is avoidable - just don't move.
Tax relief on pensions may be capped at £100,000, down from £225,000.
Of course, what the Chancellor should really do is to pull out all the stops to make Final Salary Pension Schemes more attractive. But it won't happen - it was his boss who destroyed them. Good old Socialist that he is.
Click for more |
| Dangerous ID Cards and DNA Database | March 7, 2008, 1:17 am GMT |
Fake IDs will become rife, just as fake passports are. Policing will assume that DNA and fingerprints are accurate.
This will create a group of "untouchables", people who can commit crime, leave fingerprints and DNA and get away with it.
Proposals for ID cards and DNA databaseal are dangerous.
Have your say |
| Foreign Prisoner Early Release | February 25, 2008, 11:15 pm GMT |
Foreign prisoners are to be freed 6 1/2 months early and deported in a measure to reduce prison over-crowding according The Ministry of "Justice".
Apparently this will be cost-effective as "taxpayers ... would no longer be paying to keep them in prison."
So Justice is all about money then? Why bother with prison at all.
What this means is that there is a 2 tier system, and foreigners are treated more leniently than UK citizens. If they commit the crime they should do the time. |
| New Citizenship Rules | February 25, 2008, 2:54 am GMT |
The Home Office has announced new citizenship rules.
1) A 3 stage route to citizenship
2) Probationary citizenship
3) Immigrants must contribute to the country or leave
4) Deny benefits to immigrants who aren't citizens
5) Prevent people convicted of serious crimes from becoming citizens
6) Require people convicted of minor crimes to spend longer as probationary citizens
7) Pay to ofset impact of immigration
8) Speed up the process for immigrants who do voluntary work
What does anyone else think about this? Click for the discussion forum
Point 4 Deny Benefits - get real, politicans will change their tune as soon as they see ahungry homeless baby, and reinstate social security benefits.
Point 6 Minor crimes = longer qualification period. So what is a minor crime? If is usually defined as one carrying a sentence of less than 5 years.
Most manslaughter cases carry short sentences. Also death by dangerous driving. And quite a few violent offences as well as low and medium scale drug-dealing.
How much longer to qualify for citizenship? Somehome I doubt that an 18 month sentence for GBH would extend the period by 18 months.
Point 7 - Pay to offset impact; Will the fee actully cover real costs? Are politicians really ready to charge immigrants thousands of pounds a year for education?
And what about health costs? If someone has grown up in a poor country they may well be less robust than the average UK citizen. Let alone if they have TB, sickle cell or some other chronic condition. Are Labour ministers seriously proposing billing weedly Bangladeshi kitchen workers thousands of pounds just for being weedy?
What does anyone else think about this?
Click for the discussion forum |