The real reason why the Labour Party is doggedly sticking to putting VAT on private school fees might have more to do with geography and electoral calculations than high principles. To win the general election the Labour Party needs to win big in the North, and it would be helpful if the Liberal Democrats picked […]
You’re more likely to meet an undergraduate from Luxembourg than a care leaver at Oxford University. That’s a pretty poor record for a university that propels graduates into the higher echelons of business and society. Officially sourced figures show there are approximately five care leavers among the 15,000 undergraduates at the famous university (although the […]
Clare Page wasn’t interested in politics until her daughter’s school in south London started telling pupils to be ‘sex positive’ and suspicious of ‘heteronormativity’. When Page asked to see the materials the school was showing to 15-year-olds, she was told they were confidential. That led to a campaign to make ‘all state-funded school resource…published, citable […]
Earlier this week Michael Gove made the bold suggestion that parents of persistent truants should have their child benefit docked. There were audible gasps in the room, but is this actually that controversial an idea? The real scandal is that the state doles out £23bn a year in benefits and tax credits for parents, but […]
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Rishi Sunak chose to mention ‘family’ in his mini-manifesto of government priorities earlier this week. The Prime Minister proudly slapped himself on the back for even using the ‘F’ word in a major speech, something he clearly felt was a bold move, sticking it to the metropolitan elite with their […]
Around 250,000 sprightly baby boomers have decided they’ve had enough of work and, not unreasonably, have decided to cash in generous pension schemes with the prospect of 30-40 years of leisure ahead of them. The Bank of England is worried about the number of older people checking out of the workplace, but maybe they have […]
The fact that boys are falling behind is both well-documented and frustratingly overlooked. There are no brightly coloured ribbons for the advancement of boys bedazzling the lapels of MPs. True, International Men’s Day was recently debated in Parliament – but hardly anyone turned up. More dispiriting still was the recent claim from the head of […]
After announcing her intention to build a ‘modern childcare system’ at Labour conference, shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson has clarified what this means. With a simple amendment to legislation, local councils will be allowed to open up new state childcare facilities – so more public spending, more mums working longer and more toddlers in state-run […]
A new broom at Number 10 promises a government focused on raising standards and expectations in our schools. Channelling her inner working class hero, Liz Truss has spent much of her summer recalling her own school days at a comp in Leeds and reminding the Tory faithful that, unlike her rival (wink, wink), she saw […]
The real test of Brexit won’t just be in jettisoning irritating EU rules, but taking advantage of our newly acquired status as an independent trading country. Free market Brexiteers were full of buccaneering spirit but the promised ‘Roaring Twenties’ are quickly turning into more of a whimper. We left the customs union with an EU […]
Children’s homes have become a goldmine for profiteers, and some of society’s most vulnerable children are at risk of neglect and exploitation as a result. A vitally important report published this week has uncovered shocking examples of corporate greed in social care, and lobby groups will soon be piling pressure on the Government to step […]
Later this year we will all be entertained by the annual performative virtue signalling of top tier universities telling us that their coveted courses are stuffed full of the state school children from poor homes, the selection algorithm having deleted any applicant with the letters e-t-o-n in the wrong order. Despite the increasingly fashionable view […]
Radical education uniform was once the leitmotif of education ministers full of social justice vigour. These days, though, the puff rather seems to have gone out of that effort. Where are the big ideas about how to give all our children the best possible start in life? One obvious way to rediscover some of that […]
