A Coalition with Two Wobbly Wings: Backbench Dissent in the House of Commons

http://www.politicalinsightmagazine.com/?p=907

Should we hold referendums more regularly?

Lord Winston gives his opinion HERE.

Concise VIDEOS on the Lansley NHS reforms

The bill became law in March 2012, but here are some very good videos looking at different areas of the controversey... 

http://www.parliament.uk/education/newsletter/central-lobby-current-newsletter/chris-skidmore-nhs-future/

http://www.parliament.uk/education/newsletter/central-lobby-current-newsletter/andy-burnham-nhs-future/

http://www.parliament.uk/education/newsletter/central-lobby-current-newsletter/chris-skidmore-public-interest/

http://www.parliament.uk/education/newsletter/central-lobby-current-newsletter/andy-burnham-health-policy/

It’s not heartless to replace welfare with work - Telegraph.

It’s not heartless to replace welfare with work - Telegraph:

"The fundamentals upon which today’s benefits system was built were straightforward enough. They represented a moral response to the privations and penury of the urban poor in the years after the industrial revolution. The aim was to help people to help themselves and to provide a safety net for those who couldn’t, or who found themselves in temporary difficulties either through illness or unemployment. An essential principle for Chadwick and Lloyd George – and for William Beveridge, too – was that benefits should not be set so high as to deter a low-paid worker from taking a job  [see Medicine Through Time GCSE History textbook! - RWG]. They all recognised the dangers of creating what we now call a dependency culture, whereby state payments are so generous that the rational choice for recipients is to live on them rather than take what might be an arduous and poorly rewarded job."

....and Tom Chapman was there to witness the speech!!!! Chappers perhaps you could comment below on the speech and the atmosphere in the crowd. Is there any 'Thick of It' style political gossip to tell?



Does this represent the end of Cameron's 'compassionate Conservatism' or is it a reassertion of it? Do these ideas fit in with the coalition's current 'universal credit' which will be slowly introduced over the next couple of years?


Predictably Toynbee (a leftist's leftist - and therefore a gift for synopticity marks in the exam) counters (full article) here...

Behind in the polls, David Cameron cleaves to his one truly popular policy:cutting welfare. Pollsters say people want it cut even more. His speech hits every button, stirring up those on quite low incomes against those on very low incomes, dividing and ruling, distracting from the lifestyle of the rulers. With the rottweiler tendency on his backbenches growing restless, he throws them the vulnerable to chew on – all those luxuriating in the "culture of entitlement" on £71 a week unemployment pay. Politically, it works well – for now.
A red mist of despair poured from children's and disability charities, stunned at yet another assault on those they try to defend. Already the £18bn benefit cut is "without historical or international precedent," according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Cameron's 17 "ideas" may not all see the light of day, but another £10bn will be cut: housing benefit and US-style benefit time limits yield the big money.

....and a full scale attack via Guardian editorial here (if it's in an editorial, then the paper really mean it!

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I like the effort that's gone into this if not the sentiment

Francis Gilbert vs. Toby Young

Interesting critique of proposal to return to O-Level/CSE split in Telegraph

Proposed return to O-Levels/CSEs/Gove/Selection Controversy Summer 2012

I've left the controversy to bubble along for a few days to give the best articles some time to emerge. Here are a few....

Useful links here:
Guardian

• Original story
• Have GCSEs got easier?
• Clegg said neither he nor PM consulted by Gove 
• No. 10 says that the PM was consulted by Gove, Clegg made to look silly
• Criticism of the proposal
• Underlying personal and political reasons for Gove's proposals
• Clegg says he'll block the plan
• Excellent set of differing opinions in public letters. Guardian yes, but not always predictable in terms of opinions voiced (after all, anyone can write in to a newspaper).
• This article here is one of the best as it links in the underlying debate about the last 50 years of education policy regarding the grammar system VS. comprehensive system split. The author argues that Tory hardliners would love a return to the grammar system but that parents would not have it as it might leave their children behind. Gove, the author argues, is tapping into the Tory nostalgia for grammar school education. Remember Kent is a bit of an anomaly in that most of the country's education authorities scrapped the grammar school system and 11+ in the 1970s. Interestingly someone on Andrew Marr show this morning argued that the Tories knew that the LDs would block the o-level plan. The plan is, she argued, to 'dangle' tasty full-blooded Tory policies in front of Tory voters as if to say, "Look what we can give you if you give us a majority at the next election....Look how the LDs are holding us back."   Usually it is the LDs who take this kind of line hinting at the idea that the LDs are limiting the damage of a Tory government. This may be an example of the PM asserting the Tory position in coalition.
• Criticism of GCSE is nothing new and goes back many years.

Now for the Telegraph:

• Good blog post here
• The building of new grammar schools have been banned since 1998 but one way the coalition has tried to get around the ban without having to attract too much criticism for it, is by what some critics call the 'back-door' route. The grammar, to be built in Sevenoaks, Kent, will form an 'annexe' (add-on) of two existing schools in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge. So it won't be a school in its own right but that won't bother parents who have been campaigning for a new grammar school in the town. Could more be on the way? See here.
• An interesting article defending Gove and his plans.
• Another here questioning the whether Gove can really succeed.
• Useful opinions here in the Telegraph letters
• Interesting Telegraph blog here from right-wing ex-Labour candidate,http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100166721/michael-gove-and-o-levels-if-hes-really-bringing-them-back-he-deserves-to-be-prime-minister/ Oxford Professor of History and Kentish-rake Tim Stanley, arguing that Gove should become prime-minister! I guess Tim no-longer harbours ambitions of being a Labour MP as he did back in 2005.

New Labour's "City Academies" - good example - the famous Mossbourne Academy, Hackey

The Headteacher in the video (Sir Michael Wishaw) is famously 'tough' and is now head of Ofsted. On becoming head of Ofsted he famously said, "If anyone says to you that 'staff morale is at an all-time low' you know you are doing something right."

Testing & League Tables in Schools

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11947183
www.politics.co.uk/reference/testing-in-schools

April 2012: Gove on new powers for teachers to improve discipline

http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/inthenews/a0076417/new-powers-for-teachers-to-improve-discipline-in-schools

Housing Benefit - which department handles it?

The Department of Work & Pensions:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/local-authority-staff/housing-benefit/

When will you qualify for a state pension?

http://pensions-service.direct.gov.uk/en/state-pension-age-calculator/home.asp

The new primary curriculum

The school curriculum: it's the non-core bits that stay with you for life http://gu.com/p/38b7g

What do critics of coalition cuts say the impact on vulnerable groups is?

Disabled and elderly see their day centres and key services disappear as budget cuts bite | Society | The Observer:
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Environment/Transport: Why was HS2 not in the recent Queen's speech? Is HS2 dead? 3rd Runway back?

Lots of Tory hand-ringing over the rights and wrongs of HS2.

Spectator article here. Another here. Podcast here.

 If HS2 is dead, is a third runway at Heathrow back in play? – Telegraph Blogs

Telegraph VS Guardian over IDS speech on Welfare

Good for undertanding two opposing interpretations of the same news story this (i.e. synopticity).

Telegraph VS Guardian

Critique of Coalition's attacks on 'troubled families'

These letter's are full of opinion from different angles so very useful. Click HERE

Critique of Coalition policies that allegedly vilify the vulnerable

A gift to students seeking synoptic points - Polly Toynbee, leftist critic of the Coalition's welfare policies. Click HERE.  For balance I've included a typical anti-welfare article from the Daily Mail here. The right often tend to claim that those on benefits get too much (see the Mail) while the left tend to argue that abuse of the system is the exception to the rule (see Toynbee).

Glossary/mini textbook on various Welfare issues

Thanks to Aisling for reminding me about this...
Introduction to Social Policy:

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Energy policy round up May-June 2012

More here on current state of play on the government's energy policy controversies. Crucial reading for the A2 Unit 3 Environment topic.

Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/04/renerwable-energy-boosts-farmer-profits
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/04/government-mixed-signals-carbon-emissions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2012/jun/04/wind-farm-power-opposition

Independent:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/michael-mccarthy-ghastly-lethal-to-birds--but-a-necessary-evil-7814797.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/build-more-turbines-poll-shows-public-wants-wind-farms-7814798.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/hockney-country-enraged-by-superturbines-plan-7814796.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/government-backtracks-on-fracking-7768853.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-no-easy-answers-to-green-energy-7768693.html

Full letter from MPs to David Cameron on wind power subsidies - Telegraph

Full letter from MPs to David Cameron on wind power subsidies - Telegraph: "As Members of Parliament from across the political spectrum, we have grown more and more concerned about the Government’s policy of support for on-shore wind energy production.
In these financially straightened times, we think it is unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production that typifies on-shore wind turbines."

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Video: How noisy is a wind farm? - Telegraph

Video: How noisy is a wind farm? - Telegraph:
Not particularly scientific this, but think the Telegraph appear to be saying that wind farms aren't really that noisy until you get up really close, and certainly no worse than living by a main road.
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George Osborne demands massive cuts to windfarm subsidies | Politics | The Observer

George Osborne demands massive cuts to windfarm subsidies | Politics | The Observer: "Plans for dramatic cuts in government subsidies for onshore windfarms are being drawn up by the Treasury in a move that seriously undermines David Cameron's claim to be running "the greenest government ever".

The Observer has learned that George Osborne is demanding cuts of 25% in subsidies, a reduction the industry says would "kill dead" the development of wind power sites. The Treasury's stance has put the chancellor at loggerheads with the Liberal Democrat energy secretary Ed Davey, whose party strongly supports more renewable energy."

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