Interesting News Snippets

This makes for interesting reading and rather contradicts the Milburn report published a couple of weeks ago, and makes an important point about the need for many politicians, particularly those on the left, for there to be a lack of social mobility – whether real or perceived.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/11676667/Britons-are-on-the-move-upwards.html

Trekkie,

This is for you and your idealised belief in the probity of State education.

The D. Tel. (report, 15th inst) begins: “Teachers caught cheating on exam results”

An investigation has found that teachers are routinely helping primary and secondary schoolchildren to cheat during their exams. The tricks of the trade include lenient marking, altering students test papers and grades, inflating pass marks and removing ‘difficult’ children from the register.

An FofI request showed that 60,000 university students have been accused of plagiarism over the last four years. 15,000 a year doesn’t sound so bad, does it ? Dr. Thomas Lancaster, of Birmingham University, described as an expert in student plagiarism, said the recorded cheating was the tip of the iceberg.

We can tonight check for ourselves. A Ch 4 documentary is to be screened on Dispatches. There are, by all accounts, a number of ‘whistleblowers’ ready, willing and able to tell us all just what is going on.

There have, for a number of years, been many stories of State education grade inflation. Most have given them short shrift. I’ve got a suspicion that tonights TV will be especially interesting.

Sad but predictable that the waste of OUR money seems to be of less interest than the misuse of shareholders money in the private sector.

A report issued to-day by the Taxpayers Alliance, about a report into the NHS conducted by a Labour peer, Lord Carter, confirms that savings of 5 billion could easily be made without detriment to existing services if more attention was paid to reducing excessive waste and general inefficiency.

That will never happen; there isn’t the will. The unions will intervene, screeching ‘benefit cuts’. The administrators will not have either the intellectual capacity or, the motivational drive. What astonishes me is the size of the prospective savings – 5 billion ! It would have raised an eyebrow if it was 5 million. Have we now become so blase that this huge sum measured in billions is of no apparent significance ?

This, on a day when the D. Tel. exposes some of the financial shenanigans of the Blair International Circus. £16,000 a day is the sum mentioned by that paper and paid by the British taxpayer to fund the Prince of Darkness in his work experience travels around the globe supported by a retinue of armed British policemen always staying in five star hotels.

We’re paying for this. Ain’t life grand ?

A very interesting, and in light of the campaigning about to get under way, topical statistic mentioned in to-days Press, is that in the early 2000’s we exported total goods to the EU of around 66%.

The current figure is now 45%. That revelation tends to remove a significant part of the argument vented by the ‘staying in at all costs’ brigade.

Something that I did not know until relatively recently is that the authorities, in the form of the Police and CPS, can listen to calls and use the information heard to assist in making an arrest, who, where they are, their imminent actions, but they cannot then use the contents of the call that assists the arrest as evidence in a trial.
Difficult one if the only evidence that the bad guys are up to bad things is contained in the call.

I’ve just read that over the last three years, the Police have made almost three quarters of a million requests to access the publics communications data – e-mail, texts and phone – to discover – they say – the ‘who’, ‘when’ and ‘where’ but, not the content of these messages, access to which requires the permission of the Home Secretary in the form of a signed warrant.

It appears that an organisation called Big Brother Watch elicited this information after requesting disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

It would be good to think that this Forum was, from time to time, being scrutinised ! Apart from the snoops picking up some very useful ideas that appear frequently on the Forum, some of the more inventively anarchic among us could have a field day inventing all kinds of conspiracies for Govt. consumption.

Hah! Good luck!;)

If it is the Mail that is rubbing off on the D. Tel. then I have no objection. In fact, I’ll probably take out a new subscription.

The Telegraph, which I frequently see, becomes more like a cross between the Mail and the Express by the day!!

Having got this far I seriously doubt that even the right wing borderline UKIP Tories will destroy it all by tearing the party apart. Those of an age will remember the Major years and where did that get them? Thirteen years in the wilderness.

They may be politicians but they are not all fools.

Who would have thought it ? So soon. The knives are out. The heady perfume of carnage and blood hangs enticingly. The price of the butchers bill will be extortionate and deservedly so.

Report (D.Tel. 11th May,) “Tories go to war on the BBC”. This relates to the appointment as Culture Secretary of John Whittingdale. Evidently Mr. Whittingdale does not take kindly to the BBC in its present form. The report informs us that he ‘will sort out the BBC’.

I’ve heard that the Beeb have no plans to cull the massed ranks of the poultry on their way to forty winks ! Or, to put it another way in case the imagery eludes you; chickens coming home to roost.

That’s what I assumed.

Some of us specialise in pickiness!!;) I wonder where the quote originated. We can expect lots of trouble making and rumour mongering in the next few months.

The quote originated from that fount of all wisdom the D. Tel. 11th May.

Having got this far I seriously doubt that even the right wing borderline UKIP Tories will destroy it all by tearing the party apart. Those of an age will remember the Major years and where did that get them? Thirteen years in the wilderness.

They may be politicians but they are not all fools.

Indeed, this is the way the media plant a seed of an idea. If the backbenchers do this, and start the process that will inevitably tear the party apart, they will get exactly what they deserve, and another 13 years out of power.

Some of us specialise in pickiness!!;) I wonder where the quote originated. We can expect lots of trouble making and rumour mongering in the next few months.

Don’t get too picky ! It’s election tme; a time of excitement. Permit me to correct you:

Quote: ” The Prime Minister has been warned by backbenchers that they could block key laws if he does not agree to their demands to spend 2% of GDP on defence” Unquote.

Let’s not wait for it to actually happen. Let us regard it as a reliable harbinger of useful things to come such as, doing what the electorate want them to do etc.

It didn’t take long ! Bruce did not agree with my forecast of vigorous activity by ‘bolshie backbenchers”. And here they are (report, D. Tel. May 11).

It was reported

?

Let’s wait for it to actually happen before we get too excited by the inevitable media “reports”…..

It didn’t take long ! Bruce did not agree with my forecast of vigorous activity by ‘bolshie backbenchers”. And here they are (report, D. Tel. May 11).

It was reported that they intend to extract the maximum reward in return for their co-operation in getting thru’ unpopular measures. It is expected that among their list of demands will be the following:

Defence. A minimum of 2% of GDP to be the defence budget
Foreign aid. Repeal of the legislation setting a minimum of 0.7% of GDP
Fixed term. Repeal of the five year fixed term legislation.

As perhaps a little ‘sweetner’ no doubt to ensure our future participation in the Great European Dream when the referendum is announced, The EU have just said that they are working on a formula to COMPEL all member states to admit to their shores a share – based on present population and GDP – of all the North African boat people presently cruising to Southern Europe.

Wonder what the Tory backbenchers will do with that ?

Boxing news.

Anyone interested in boxing ? The so-called Fight of the Century is now on the cards for May 2nd next. Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao. They are regarded by pundits as being slightly over the hill but, you could’ve fooled me! It should be some contest. My 50p will be on Mayweather to edge it on points.

Many of the media reports are quite dismissive. However, the bookies got it right. They had Mayweather as the favourite. How could it be anything else with an undefeated champion ? Reports comment that the action came from Pacquiao with Mayweather largely on the defensive throughout the contest. But, that’s the way that Mayweather fights.

All in all Mayweather is a worthy winner. Let’s hope he calls it a day and retires undefeated and with his marbles intact.