Cameron right to back strivers – but words aren’t enough October 10, 2012 LET us hope David Cameron actually means what he says. His speech to the Tory party conference yesterday was the best he has made in years. He outlined a different vision for Britain, appealing to the strivers who want to work hard and get on in life, a crucial audience whose disenchantment with the Tories [...]
Small businesses lament lack of basic skills in young staff August 22, 2012 SMALL BUSINESSES are sceptical about how ready school leavers are for work, according to a survey released by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) yesterday. A full eight out of ten did not think school leavers were fit for employment, and that more must be done to get them into shape. Fifteen and 16 year [...]
Scrapping dysfunctional GCSEs will return rigour to British classrooms September 17, 2012 CONSIDERING the howls of outrage that greeted this year’s GCSE results, the reaction to Michael Gove’s new English Baccalaureate Certificate has been surprisingly muted. This is not altogether surprising: GCSEs are corrupt and corrupting, and it’s hard to find a teacher with anything good to say about them. Under New Labour, ministers showed little evidence [...]
An underwhelming reshuffle which did not go far enough September 4, 2012 COALITION 2.0: that is our front page headline today, and it sums up what this reshuffle is all about. This was an incremental, almost minor reshuffle, not the revolutionary shift that this government really needed, with most of the most important, cabinet-level jobs still controlled by the same people and economic policy changing not one [...]
Make Britain the home of the brave June 24, 2012 ON FRIDAY, Neil Carmichael MP from the education select committee, hosted a debate in the House of Commons on how innovative further education could better equip the workforce of the future. A pertinent subject, following the revelation of Michael Gove’s plans for education reform. Entrepreneurs can provide an interesting perspective. Friday’s event came on the [...]
RAPID responses June 24, 2012 Return to O-levels [Re: Cameron must back Gove for the sake of Britain’s children, Friday] Michael Gove’s proposal isn’t perfect, but it’s an improvement on the failing system we have today – a de facto two-tier system of double-digit top grades and a long list of failures. Let’s hope Gove can defeat his third-rate political [...]
One-size-fits-all isn’t the route to rigorous A-Levels January 23, 2013 THE announcement by Michael Gove that the government is planning to reform A-Levels in England will be broadly welcomed. Many syllabuses and exams are completely inadequate. They do not provide the preparation for university that the brightest students deserve, and are justifiably criticised by employers for lack of rigour. It’s also right for the government [...]
RAPID RESPONSES May 10, 2012 Fair regulation [Re: Is the Queen’s speech likely to reassure business?, yesterday] The Speech is a clear sign to business that the government supports fair and strong regulation. Many employers want to reduce the burden of unnecessary employment tribunal litigation and the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill is a step in that direction. However not [...]
Tory ministers want new deal with Europe October 14, 2012 A LEADING backbench MP yesterday told City A.M. that a majority of Conservative cabinet ministers would like to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU. Douglas Carswell, MP for Clacton, made the comments following a report that education secretary Michael Gove wants Britain to threaten to leave the European Union if it does not claw back [...]
Michael Gove is courageously recovering our ancient tradition of learning November 15, 2012 IN 75 BC, when the great Roman politician and champion of liberal learning Cicero was quaestor in Sicily, he led an expedition to a neglected, overgrown jumble of funerary monuments just outside the city of Syracuse. Directing men with scythes to cut away the briars, he uncovered the tomb of Archimedes, lost for more than [...]