Michael Gove’s illiteracy crusade will have huge benefits for our economy August 5, 2013 NEARLY half of all businesses are forced to provide literacy classes because many recruits can’t write a coherent memo. Even graduates from our best universities, according to anecdotal evidence from employers, have difficulty expressing themselves in comprehensible written sentences — hence so much dreadful bureaucratese. Meanwhile, a large proportion of universities are offering remedial courses [...]
Mark Carney has been the luckiest of unlucky Bank governors January 23, 2014 BORROWERS, relax; savers, tear your hair out. The Bank of England’s base rates will remain on hold; Mark Carney doesn’t “see an immediate need to change monetary policy.” Carney has been extraordinarily lucky in his misfortune. His flagship policy is in tatters and yet the economy’s strong growth, rising employment and lower inflation means that [...]
Why Cameron thinks his tokenistic cabinet reshuffle will deliver him the election July 16, 2014 David Cameron’s last reshuffle before the general election is over and Westminster is still reeling from the shock of it all. Political heavyweight Michael Gove is out, demoted from education secretary to chief whip where he can be kept close to Cameron but away from the teachers he’s whipped into a frenzy with his controversial [...]
We must revolutionise UK schooling or face inexorable decline December 3, 2013 IT is not possible to put a positive spin on Britain’s results in the latest global education league tables: they reveal an appalling, shameful, tragic waste of talent. It is an embarrassing failure for a country that ought to be doing so much better. Our children were ranked 26th for maths, 23rd for reading and 21st [...]
It’s time we put some X Factor into financial education in schools September 18, 2013 I DO not often cross paths with Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger or Sharon Osbourne. I am told we move in different circles. This seemingly unusual point was brought home to me by new research showing that an 8 to 15-year old was twice as likely to be able to identify an X Factor judge as [...]
Letters to the editor – 07/08 – Human ingenuity, Education reform, Best of Twitter August 6, 2013 Human ingenuity [Re: All hail the boffin burger: The next step in human nutrition, yesterday] We’re proud of our chefs for their innovative dishes. But experimentation can also help in tackling the age-old problem of food scarcity. Ideas like this artificial burger are becoming a reality, promising an age of cheap and nutritious food. Yet too often [...]
Gove’s free school programme gets boost with £1bn injection December 5, 2012 ALMOST £1bn will be spent on building up to 100 new free schools and academies by the end of this parliament. The £980m fund, which will also be spent on expanding the size of top-performing schools, has been created in a bid to combat a squeeze on places in areas with the greatest pressure. The initiative [...]
Will 2012 be remembered by the public as a good year for the coalition government? December 20, 2012 YES David Skelton It’s been a tough year for so many people – the cost of living continues to rise and the economy continues to flat-line at best. Given that background, it might seem odd to argue that 2012 has been a good year for the coalition. But it has. Indeed, I would argue that [...]
The Greeks have something to teach us about the importance of being idle August 20, 2013 BUSINESS and leisure seem like opposites. Ambition’s drive to succeed and achieve has little truck with the pleasures of idleness. With 135 graduates fighting for every opening at investment banks and fund managers, who can afford to be caught with their feet up? Yet leisure is essential, even for the driven. It’s a chance to [...]
How Sweden reformed its state to lay foundations for future growth January 30, 2013 THE muted optimism of the coalition’s mid-term review has made way for the harsh reality of disappointing GDP figures. The economy’s most recent dip demonstrates the scale of the remaining challenge: public sector reform was David Cameron’s big idea, but too little has been achieved. Even the coalition’s more radical reforms, in health and education, [...]