Thursday 24th September 2015

[rebeccariots2]

Realise I haven't seen any tweets from Simon Danczuk for a good few hours.

I do hope he's not going to turn up as a surprise podium guest at the Ukip conference .....

[citizenJA]

More from London.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... unding-row" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lambeth Council drop out of supporting the Garden Bridge. Doubtless Johnson can force it on them anyway, but would he want to do that? Also, Sadiq Khan is vowing to scrap it.

Outstanding, the bridge won't be available for general public use and yet it's taxpayer funded.
Lots of odd stories about the project.
I don't like Tories.
I don't trust Tories ever.

[citizenJA]

Realise I haven't seen any tweets from Simon Danczuk for a good few hours.

I do hope he's not going to turn up as a surprise podium guest at the Ukip conference .....

They can have him. It's a case of a day of bad headlines vs five years of bad headlines.

This might work out best for everyone involved, seriously.

[TobyLatimer]

Realise I haven't seen any tweets from Simon Danczuk for a good few hours.

I do hope he's not going to turn up as a surprise podium guest at the Ukip conference .....

He's sulking after someone sent him this

12038279_768731359899181_3058898578550829949_n.jpg (78.22 KiB) Viewed 5792 times

[TobyLatimer]

On a totally unrelated note, the white dog on the right just sent me this wonderful selfie after telling the brown dog that someone called Dave was coming to take him for a walk.

1442478948877.jpg (102.35 KiB) Viewed 5786 times

[rebeccariots2]

Thank you Toby. Those dogs made my day.

[TobyLatimer]

Great aren't they ? Nice to have a little respite from the doom and gloom sometimes ...

[LadyCentauria]

http://www.tatler.com/news/articles/sep ... king-clubs

Ah, thanks - I'd forgotten where I'd seen that photo! (The article tickled me, too.) Resemblances that struck me from the 1860s:
Seated 2nd from left but one step up (and seemingly having his hair stroked by the chap standing behind him) is a very young Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Seated 2nd right from the hair-stroker is Matthew Hancock.
Seated 2nd right from Matthew Hancock is a slightly-chubby young Rowan Atkinson.
There are others who appear familiar but I can't put contemporary names to them.
Though names may change each face retains the mask it wore...

[Tubby Isaacs]

To be fair to O'Hear, Blair was out of order with him on that occasion. He merely said that Diana stuff was over the top.

I'm more concerned with the fact that although he's supposed to head up their department of education, he never seems to have written anything about education let alone teacher training.

I haven't looked at all of the teaching people's backgrounds but I wonder whether there's anyone with experience of teaching Early Years? Heck of a difference between teaching 4-6 y.o and 16 y.o kids!

O'Hear does seem an odd appointment.

Good point about early years. Daisy Christoblockedme and all seem more interested in secondary. Gove certainly was.

[Tubby Isaacs]

More from London.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... unding-row" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Lambeth Council drop out of supporting the Garden Bridge. Doubtless Johnson can force it on them anyway, but would he want to do that? Also, Sadiq Khan is vowing to scrap it.

Outstanding, the bridge won't be available for general public use and yet it's taxpayer funded.
Lots of odd stories about the project.
I don't like Tories.
I don't trust Tories ever.

It's hard to tell how much it would be open to the general public. It was going to be closed to them when being hired for public events, and therefore also when public events were being set up. Now that Osborne (to his credit, in one way at least) basically forced Johnson to admit that the London government wouldn't get its money back, maybe that means fewer closures for private events.

As with the buses, and Gove's free school in Westminster, it's probably about having something bonehead politicians can look at and think they made it.

[citizenJA]

I can't say I agree with your list of things, 'politicians can look at and think they made', having the same value for taxpayers, Tubby.
A good bus, a good public transportation system, can be excellent money for value, for example.
The garden bridge could've been a fine investment.
It's not due the choices made about it by the politicians (Osborne or Johnson) from start to finish.
I'd pay to keep Gove away from public policy and consider it value for money.

[RogerOThornhill]

Did we see all of the letters in the Guardian about Addenbrokes?

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... fficulties

This one especially.

I could not agree more with Polly Toynbee with regard to the Addenbrooke’s CQC report. In over 20 years of working in the NHS I have never witnessed such a gross misrepresentation that smells of political manipulation and desperation on the part of the government. What really saddens me is that, if you get past the headlines and read the report, there are some examples of excellent care and treatment from staff who are clearly doing their best in a system set up to fail both staff and patients. One question to the CQC: in what strange world do you live where excellent care equates to an inadequate judgment? If this represents the new regulation and reporting structure, then we are all doomed to “fail”.
David Flood
London

[Tubby Isaacs]

I can't say I agree with your list of things, 'politicians can look at and think they made', having the same value for taxpayers, Tubby.
A good bus, a good public transportation system, can be excellent money for value, for example.
The garden bridge could've been a fine investment.
It's not due the choices made about it by the politicians (Osborne or Johnson) from start to finish.
I'd pay to keep Gove away from public policy and consider it value for money.

I don't think the money stacks up for the Garden Bridge really. It seems like it costs more than people are willing to pay, unless you close it all the time for private events, which isn't acceptable either.

With you on Gove. Though I'd rather not pay- a clever Permanent Secretary could have got him away from doing too much damage....

[Tubby Isaacs]

Shocked, shocked II



There's such a thing as the Cambridgeshire Academies Board?

So what did Robert Hill say in evidence submission about the role of Regional Schools Commissioner?

Moreover as the number of academies, academy trusts and the types of schools over which RSCs have responsibility continues to expand, the practicality of continuing and resourcing this role will also become an issue. In many respects the exercise of the function appears to be like a reversion to the old model of local authority inspectors, link advisers or school improvement partners, and seems to jar with the government’s stated strategy of moving to a more school-led improvement system.

So we'll end up with something looking very much like LEAs but with them all reporting to the DfE with LAs being powerless to do anything about schools in their area?

There's a surprise...

That is priceless. Not even bothering to have different boundaries to the old LEAs!

We've now got- what?

The old LA
Academy chains
A county Academies Board
A regional commissioner.
A regional free schools advisory board
The New Schools Network
The DfE

That sounds like a lot of bureaucrats.

[RogerOThornhill]

Talking of the NSN you really don't want to read their submission to the Select Committee about RSCs - it's almost as if the DfE wrote it for them.

RSCs are wonderful!

repeat ad nauseum and throw in a few stats *cough* about academies and free schools.

Actually I've just noticed it's not on the Select Committee website yet - the Robert Hill one is worth reading. And the Joe Nutt is a corker...did I quote from that the other day?

http://www.parliament.uk/business/commi ... lications/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

Energy policy under fire.jpg (56.55 KiB) Viewed 5740 times

But they can bung the Chinese money to raise their awareness of UK football ....

Speaking of which

Osborne’s £3m Chinese giveaway is a political own goal – Dr David Webber
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents ... 3m_chinese" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[citizenJA]

It's probably good on Drax for pulling out of that.
I've not seen anything yet indicating it's practical.
Does anyone have a link to something reputable describing how carbon capture works effectively without using more fossil fuel to make it go than it captures, please?

[citizenJA]

Talking of the NSN you really don't want to read their submission to the Select Committee about RSCs - it's almost as if the DfE wrote it for them.

RSCs are wonderful!

repeat ad nauseum and throw in a few stats *cough* about academies and free schools.

Actually I've just noticed it's not on the Select Committee website yet - the Robert Hill one is worth reading. And the Joe Nutt is a corker...did I quote from that the other day?

http://www.parliament.uk/business/commi ... lications/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is this it, Roger?

http://www.parliament.uk/business/commi ... ols-15-16/

[rebeccariots2]

Here's the answer to my earlier question.

George Eaton ‏@georgeeaton 4h4 hours ago
Corbyn's director of policy Neale Coleman has written the first draft of his conference speech http://bit.ly/1KBUF5T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

Patrick O'Flynn ‏@oflynnmep 7m7 minutes ago
Suzanne gives a great answer on migrants and nobody applauds. A Greek Marxist opines and there are cheers. Yes, it's a Cambridge BBC crowd!

The Ukip view of Question Time.

[rebeccariots2]

Housing association chiefs and Tories propose right-to-buy deal
Agreement would allow government to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of plans to extend right-to-buy to 1.2m association homes
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... government" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This stinks, surely? It's the Tories copping out of proper parliamentary process yet again - giving no opportunity for very poor policy to be scrutinised and opposed.

The proposed deal would guarantee that associations were fully compensated for every home sold to tenants, enabling them to build replacements on a one-for-one basis.

Associations would have the discretion to block sales of homes where there were shortages of social housing, such as in rural areas, although those tenants would be given a cash voucher to put towards buying an association property elsewhere.

However the deal would not remove the requirement for the government to fund the expected multi-billion pound cost of right-to-buy discounts. Ministers currently propose to finance the discounts by forcing councils to sell off their most valuable social homes when tenants move out. This could significantly deplete stocks of affordable housing in high-cost areas, such as inner London.

And the government have given the housing associations just one week to decide whether to accept or not. I now see why we had that ghastly eulogy piece for the Tories and their policies by the chief of the Housing Federation in the G a couple of days ago. Setting the scene ...

[rebeccariots2]

Patrick O'Flynn ‏@oflynnmep 8m8 minutes ago
Julia gives a great answer on migrants too. - nobody applauds. Is this the most unrepresentative #bbcqt audience ever?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Ooh, I like Joe Nutt. Not exactly a lefty statist, given he's involved with Deloitte.

Doesn't he put the pseudo-business system to rights? DfE, academy chain, Ofsted, Regional Commissioner. Not up to the job.

This is the sort of person who should be high up in Ofsted. He has a business background, but he knows how you might raise standards all across the board. I'll take that over some ex-head of gerrymandered schools who thinks every school can be like his, and who seems to think teachers are kids.

[RogerOThornhill]

Talking of the NSN you really don't want to read their submission to the Select Committee about RSCs - it's almost as if the DfE wrote it for them.

RSCs are wonderful!

repeat ad nauseum and throw in a few stats *cough* about academies and free schools.

Actually I've just noticed it's not on the Select Committee website yet - the Robert Hill one is worth reading. And the Joe Nutt is a corker...did I quote from that the other day?

http://www.parliament.uk/business/commi ... lications/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is this it, Roger?

http://www.parliament.uk/business/commi ... ols-15-16/

Ah it is there - I hadn't clicked on the A-Z and got the full list.

Lots for me to read!

[citizenJA]

Here's the answer to my earlier question.

George Eaton ‏@georgeeaton 4h4 hours ago
Corbyn's director of policy Neale Coleman has written the first draft of his conference speech http://bit.ly/1KBUF5T" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The more I read, hear and see of Jeremy Corbyn, the more I'm comfortable with this professional person as PM of the UK.
I thought the author of the article condescending as hell, but that's an aside.

[citizenJA]

Housing association chiefs and Tories propose right-to-buy deal
Agreement would allow government to avoid parliamentary scrutiny of plans to extend right-to-buy to 1.2m association homes
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015 ... government" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This stinks, surely? It's the Tories copping out of proper parliamentary process yet again - giving no opportunity for very poor policy to be scrutinised and opposed.

The proposed deal would guarantee that associations were fully compensated for every home sold to tenants, enabling them to build replacements on a one-for-one basis.

Associations would have the discretion to block sales of homes where there were shortages of social housing, such as in rural areas, although those tenants would be given a cash voucher to put towards buying an association property elsewhere.

However the deal would not remove the requirement for the government to fund the expected multi-billion pound cost of right-to-buy discounts. Ministers currently propose to finance the discounts by forcing councils to sell off their most valuable social homes when tenants move out. This could significantly deplete stocks of affordable housing in high-cost areas, such as inner London.

And the government have given the housing associations just one week to decide whether to accept or not. I now see why we had that ghastly eulogy piece for the Tories and their policies by the chief of the Housing Federation in the G a couple of days ago. Setting the scene ...

My partner flagged that article for me.
Bad news - I hope the HAs collectively NO it.
Loudly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Interesting from Robert Hill:

However, the role being played by local authorities in school improvement, notwithstanding their diminished resources and the rise of academisation, is more considerable than one might expect. In areas such as Wigan, North Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Birmingham and the London borough of Harrow have developed or are developing agreed arrangements with schools and school leaders for tracking school performance and commissioning improvement support.

Lincolnshire has NOC, but 60 out of 75 are Tory, UKIP or Lincolnshire Independent (the latter including prominent ex-Tory). Fair play to whoever's been driving this though.

The Tories have a big majority in North Yorks. I don't know why the poor sods bother.

[citizenJA]

UK Employer pension contributions collapse by 48% in a year
Alarm as ONS figures show a big ‘levelling down’ on the back of the government’s auto-enrolment scheme

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/s ... -in-a-year" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

oh, christ, hot off the press.

[citizenJA]

Goodnight, everyone
love,
cJA

[LadyCentauria]

Goodnight @cJA. Sleep tight x

Wasn't Drax the last surviving of the four carbon capture test sites we were supposed to have had? I think it's a shame if they're shutting the experiment (for that is what it is, at this stage) prematurely.

Good to see Chris Bryant coming out fighting on QT tonight - and thought it hilarious when he asked Ken Clarke if he was wanting to join the Shadow Cabinet Glad to see (and hear) Yannis Varoufakis getting such a good response, too. And to hear from the doctors in the audience.

Andrew Neil just said, "Now, it's late. This-little-dead-piggy-went-off-to-Oxford-and-met-David-Cameron -late..." Both This Week and Mock the Week have been having fun with #snoutgate, tonight

[RogerOThornhill]

Having read a few of the written evidence there is a pattern which is recognised by virtually all submissions - with the exception of the NSN.*

1. RSCs implemented in a hurry and thus
2. Everyone is confused about what their roles and responsibilities are and what LAs are likewise.







* How the fucking hell they are still a charity when they are so far up the DfE's arse is beyond all comprehension.

[Hobiejoe]

That "privatise Channel Four" gaff. Nice and clear shot, thumb neatly aligned, gaff my arse.

Get the idea out there first, let the usual suspects (us) froth and grumble, and than announce it to the wider world who always thought it was in the private sector anyway.

Job done.