In London, where I live, the fact that we have the best schools in the country is meaningless at a local level, where there’s a chronic shortage of non-denominational, non-selective, mixed-sex school places. Does it really matter if you don’t have those things, if you have ‘the best schools in the country’? Clearly, results speak for themselves! Don’t they? From the outset, our approach was pragmatic rather than ideological: to…
The University of Sussex has become embroiled in a debate over private donors after it created a new chair in “modern Israeli studies” . The position was established by Lord Weidenfeld, who admitted on a BBC radio show he put up the cash to fight the “anti-Semitism” he believes is on campus. Gosh! Why would he think that? It’s not like they have prominent Islamists on campus, is it? Oh.…
Thousands of ex-offenders are to be targeted in a national drive to add their profiles to the police DNA database in an attempt to solve hundreds of crimes. Yes, you read that right – ‘ex-offenders’. And how can they do this? Simples! Forces are using powers under the Crime and Security Act 2010, which became law last year. The aim is to gather DNA profiles from criminals who were convicted…
Toy shops are an intrinsic part of the magic of childhood. Who could argue with th… Oh: Hang on, I’ll put that more clearly: toy shops are where the magic of childhood goes to be smothered in a hairy fug of soft toys and stabbed with a million construction toy components. Toy shops are where you first experience the agonising paralysis of overwhelming consumer choice. They’re the place that teaches…
So says Ellie Mae O’Hagan, who according to her bio ‘currently works with Unite the Union on its community membership project, which aims to unionise the unemployed’. Oh and she’s also ‘an active member of UK Uncut’. I guess we can see why she has such a downer on the concept of paid employment? A few weeks ago, some friends and I were swapping tales about the worst jobs we’d…
Pupils from four Black Country schools have shown their crime-fighting credentials after becoming junior police community support officers. Ahhhh, look at the little future agents of the state! Don’t they look cute! Ten pupils, aged nine to 11, from each school have signed up to help police their schools and streets along with regular PCSOs from their local police stations. The children spend an hour each week with officers, going…
Twenty-three-year-old Dominique Pleasant is sitting nearby with her two daughters. They’re all drinking cans of cola. Like more than a quarter of people in the Bronx, Dominique qualifies for food stamps. “Food stamps is free money from the government to purchase food,” she explains. Thanks, Beeb! I couldn’t have illustrated it better myself! But what this is really about is a potential ban on the types of things you can…
…cabinet member for environment, councillor Nilgun Canver, says the fortnightly waste collection is encouraging more people in Haringey to recycle. She said: “Residents support our objectives to cut waste and increase recycling to protect the environment and the future of our young people.” Do they? Do they really? How the hell do you know? The Haringey Independent exposed today that the council failed to question people in the borough during…
A recent post of mine told the story of the late Gaston Defferre (1910-1986). Defferre was the PS mayor of Marseille from 1944-1945 and again from 1953 until his death in 1986. He was responsible for creating a party machine and turning a blind eye to political corruption and organised crime. I’d said then that if you could compare Marseille before Defferre and after, you’d be astonished and upset to…
The former mayor of Nantes, now Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault has named a provisional list of ministers. All are now required to run for office in June’s parliamentary elections. Should they lose, they will also lose their ministry appointments. That said, it seems as if the people on the list were chosen with care as likely winners. Ayrault has named 34 ministers in total, 17 men and 17 women. Jeannette…
It is possible that François Hollande’s first 36 hours in office will stay in the collective French memory bank for some time to come. First, not only was May 15, 2012 unseasonably cool, but it also rained all day in Paris, giving Hollande reason for a few changes of clothes between engagements. He was soaked by the time he reached the Arc de Triomphe that morning (photo). Before that, he…
The strategy of Olivier Ferrand and his Terra Nova think tank helped François Hollande to the French presidency. Ferrand says that the PS strategy was ‘in reaction’ to ‘Sarkozyisme‘. Of course, they had help from the left-wing press which had for many years — even before 2007 — criticised Nicolas Sarkozy non-stop. Everything about him was up for demonisation: his watches, his jogging, his links with Neuilly-sur-Seine, his choice of…
One child in three is living below the poverty line in parts of Kingston. As part of a new series of features David Lindsell spoke to parents about poverty and how the council intends to tackle it. Stand by for the sob stories: A father on his sick bed wept as he told me how his wife and two daughters had been helped by the Food Bank since he fell…
Richard Stallman on e-books and the restrictions they don’t share with traditional books: I love the novel The Jehovah Contract, and I’d like everyone else to love it, too. I have lent it out at least six times over the years. Printed books let us do that. I couldn’t do it with most commercial ebooks; it’s not allowed. And that’s not the only issue. Many other habits that readers are…
Longrider’s fine and wonderfully concise post on voter dissatisfaction, prompted by the publication of the Hansard Society’s Audit of Political Engagement 8: The 2011 Report, expressed the sentiments of OoL contributors and readers perfectly. However, I wonder — although we are mentioned in the report — if this document is addressed to us or about us. After skimming through it this afternoon, it seems that Hansard’s primary thrust is to…
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