Gove will tear us apart...?

The Guardian have been publishing a series of articles on the impact of Gove ed. policy.
Here's one of the more useful ones by Mike Baker
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/17/local-education-authorities
and then one that sets out the broad lines of current Labour policy on Free Schools (they won't ban them, but won't promote them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/18/labours-teaching-mission

How have coalition policies impacted on the NHS?

Clearly the Lansley Bill is still before parliament, but the coalition is (if you believe the Guardian) already having a detrimental impact on patients. Cameron claimed he wanted to, "cut the deficit, not the NHS," while saying that it was possible to save £20bn in the NHS before 2015 without affecting 'frontline' services i.e. patients would not notice any difference. The Guardian says that NHS managers have sought to make savings that have negatively impacted on pain relief and neo-natal services amongst others. The left tend to argue that the Conservative Party are not a safe pair of hands for the NHS and that Cameron's pre-election promise was merely a fig-leaf for drastic cuts to patient services.  The government would argue that the actual savings made are up to PCTs and other NHS organisations and their managers. They would probably go on to say that managers can choose to make cuts in other areas if they want to.
Again the dilemma for Tories is how to push through reforms or in this case, massive savings, while sticking to their claim to be against top-down, 'New Labour'-style diktats, whilst also remaining electable!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/17/nhs-cuts-impact-on-patients-revealed

Top 25 movers and shakers on the right

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/8805799/The-Top-100-most-influential-people-on-the-Right-2011-25-1.html

Rawnsley on Fox resignation

"Cabinet resignations seem to matter a huge amount at the time. They scream from the front pages, they dominate the bulletins, they even generate some good jokes. My favourite about the Fox affair is that he actually wrote his resignation letter a week ago, but made the mistake of giving it to Oliver Letwin to hand to the prime minister. Dr Fox finally went on Friday only because it took that long for someone to fish his letter out of the park bin into which the ditzy Mr Letwin had discarded it."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/16/andrew-rawnsley-liam-fox-not-untypical

What do you mean you've never heard of the Beveridge report?

It's difficult to imagine what could create the post war consensus surrounding welfare these days.

Take a look at this clip from Marr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lurGssKn7PA

The Liberal, Beveridge, features from about 7 mins in, but Marr also looks at the public school boy and WWI veteran (Gallipoli) who attempted put Beveridge's report into action, Clement Atlee. According to Churchill he was a "modest man with much to be modest about," but it was his government's legacy that had one of the biggest single impacts of any government on British society, and the one that Thatcher deemed worthy of a challenge. In various opinion polls he shares the top spot of 'greatest ever PM' with Churchill, Thatcher etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Prime_Ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom

Discipline in schools

It may be 'current affairs lite', but the Tonight show on ITV have summed up the discipline in education debate quite well. Also includes a look at an academy success story Mossbourne Academy, often pointed out as proof positive that academies are the panacea for the educational and social ills of the nation. Few mention the Unity Academy in Middlesborough. Both of these are of the original New Labour 'City' academies - distinct from the New academies.
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=281017
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2011/03/what-makes-mossbourne-so-good.html

Yes Prime Minister on education

YouTube - State of Education - Yes, Prime Minister - BBC

Interesting that this highlights the concerns of many Conservative ministers of the 1970s and 80s about a left wing bias in education. It seems that every generation believes that education is not what it used to be.

May and the cat

It’s not nasty to fix our human rights problem - Telegraph
I include this as it's a good article for considering the underlying ideological assumptions of arguments, something Y13 candidates need to do for the so- called synoptic marks.

Critique of the concept of choice in the NHS

m.guardian.co.uk
A good summary of the arguments against. Remember all major political parties in favour of choice in the NHS now. Those against are as expected the unions (eg Unison) and Old Labour types.

Rationing in the NHS

The price of life
This is a link to a video about rationing in the NHS.