Yet again John you have completely exaggerated my position in your pursuit of your own agenda. I have never suggested that anything is is closed down. The best way to challenge any position is to point out the inconsistancies and innacuracies. That is so easy to do with the Heil.
As we have discussed before, the fact that the Fail is the best selling tabloid does not mean that it is right or that most right thinking people support it’s position. He might think he has the ear of the people, but it is a small percentage of the population that actually read it and probably a smaller percentage who agree with it. The question I ask is … are those people worth listening to? Of course, but I reserve the right to repudiate their (and your) positions if they are wrong, or based on sloppy research or journalism or prejudice

Oh, and yet again, I am a Centrie, not of the left. Further left than you I’ll agree, but then that would be true of a large percentage of the population

Are you saying they made it all up, or is it just that they are willing to provide an alternative to the blinkered, biased and rabidly probrexit Torygraph and Mail and should therefore be ignored?

I could say that the typical anti-social south coast Yotties sense of entitlement is the issue here…..

But since I don’t like stereotyping people and I have been sailing small and not so small yachts out of the Hamble and Portsmouth/Gosport since my teens I wouldn’t be so silly, especially as I can understand the almost impossible situation the organisers and display pilot were put in.

Looks like the chickens are coming home to roost in the Public Schools exam system. I see the Heads are asking for a tighter scrutiny of examiners-even though they must have been aware of the flaws for years-it was common knowlege that this sort of thing went on at private schools twenty years ago at examiners meetings I attended but nothing was done about it.

It’s Radley College and another Eton subject this time. I was offered a job at Radley in the 1980’s but turned them down as the terms and conditions didn’t suit me. Quite glad I didn’t work there now.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/08/30/exclusive-radley-college-emerges-fourth-public-school-caught/

And the Tory chair of the education select committee is asking if they should retain their charitable status

https://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2017/08/rob-halfon-is-it-time-to-get-rid-of-charitable-status-for-private-schools.html

State pupils by and large are reluctant

On what are you basing this nugget John?
What personal experience do you or your family have of State education to draw on to make this erroneous assumption.

Or is it merely based on prejudice

Regarding Winchester, there were some very,very odd people teaching there in the 70’s ,one of whom tried to proposition my 14 year old sister at a social event at the school.
Was that your era by any chance?

The parents of these students being rather keen to get value for money.

I am very aware of this, but it does not guarantee the pupils actually achieve.
I had a very awkward conversation at a parents evening between a father who was berating his son in front of me regarding his lack of application. The gist was that he had wasted £200000 on his son’s education at local independent schools and he had had enough.

It would appear that Charterhouse and Winchester College are also being investigated for giving pupils advanced knowledge of exam questions.
Three of the countries most expensive private schools found attempting to cheat in the same year
Tut tut. Perhaps this is the tip of an iceberg in the independent sector?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/08/27/exclusive-three-britains-leading-independent-schools-caught/
As far as the failure in state schools is concerned, again you are wrong, In my 6th Form college we always instilled into the students that failure was always an option (which some took up) if they were not willing to work and follow guidance given to them in terms of the effort and time required. Often those who had come from Private schools with their reliance on structured ‘prep’ found this concept the most difficult to cope with. To be honest this was often because most of them had been asked to leave their fee paying school because they had not flourished there.

It seems that cheating is on the curriculum at Slough Grammar. Staff, not students.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/08/25/eton-colleges-deputy-headmaster-leaves-school-following-investigation/

Thanks for the images, haven’t been to that there London for a few years.
Regarding The Big Ben Silence. I genuinely can’t understand what the fuss is about. Perhaps it’s because I have never lived anywhere near it. Is it a London thing? If one lived or worked by it and heard it every day I can understand it would feel different and one might miss it , but for those not “lucky” enough to have to survive the Big City on a day to day basis…..
I am aware that it was used a symbol of resistance and indeed defiance in the second world war but is that really a burning issue now 72 years on?

As I understand it it is going to be sounded at important events already, Remembrance Day, New Year etc.
As for being used on the Radio, what is wrong with a recording for the interim period if it is so much an institution?