Pro-Thatcher, anti-state funeral

Margaret Thatcher deserves every honour – apart from a state funeral – Telegraph Blogs

NH - Yes! Summary article

Quite a good little summary from the BBC.

League tables controversial article

GCSE results: more turbulence on the way http://gu.com/p/345q6

UN climate talks

BBC News - UN climate talks may not cut emissions before 2020

How green is the coalition?

New green alliance in savage attack on George Osborne http://gu.com/p/33zpq

Lots today about HS2. Here's ONE.

Gove peace a chance

Michael Gove the comrade. Whatever happened to Tories with a difference? | Jonathan Jones http://gu.com/p/33z3e

Autumn Statement 2011: 'Boris Island' airport could get green light after all

Telegraph article: Here

Osbourne puts off fuel duty hike in Autumn Statement Nov '11

To Austerity and Beyond!!!!

Ouch. Thanks George.
BBC News - George Osborne: Public sector pay rises capped at 1%

Carbon capture safe after all?

Government moves to calm carbon capture funding fears http://gu.com/p/33kke

Why the 80s are so controversial - and it's not the music

No one should want to go back to the 80s – not even the Tories | Andrew Rawnsley http://gu.com/p/33k7y

Atilla the Hen

The impending release of The Iron Lady has thrown up a few 'legacy of Thatcher' type articles including THIS ONE from the Telegraph which runs counter to the theory that Thatcher's influence can be seen everywhere, by arguing that what's needed is more Thatcherism.

2009 saw the 30th anniversary of her first election victory as Conservative leader. THIS one claims that Thatcher's aim - a more moral society - was undermined by her methods.

Reassuringly predictable articles from The Telegraph and the New Statesman.

The Big Boris Idea

At the launch of a report on Britain's airport capacity, the Mayor of London warned that Britain faces a period of economic stagnation unless a new international airport is built in south-east England. The Government has ruled out expansion of London's existing airports, but Boris Johnson has lobbied for a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary claiming "the prize would be immense" for London if it were given the go ahead. Environmental groups also oppose the new airport, which is estimated to cost between £40-50 billion. Mr Johnson said: "There's no doubt that to do nothing will lead to economic stagnation. The Government must now grasp the nettle and begin serious plans for the multi-runway solution." He added that developing the Thames Estuary airport, sometines referred to as 'Boris Island', should be viewed as a pillar in the Government's plan for economic growth. FULL ARTICLE HERE.

Climategate 2?

Leaked climate-change e-mails: Climategate, part two | The Economist

Climate Conference

This latest round of UN climate talks is coming up. Will it be as problematic as the last one?

Anti HS2

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jun/30/high-speed-train-nimby-sceptic?mobile-redirect=false

High Speed Silver Lining

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/08/high-speed-rail-project-boost-economy?mobile-redirect=false

Revolting Liberal Democrats

Solar energy and renewables revolt.

Bojo - neo A Po

Boris Johnson says build new airport or face economic stagnation http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/21/new-airport-economic-stagnation-boris-johnson

Blood on the tracks

Tory outcry set to divert high-speed rail line - Home News - UK - The Independent

Prince Philip has problem with wind

Wind farms are useless, says Duke - Telegraph

Pump up the Jam

Good way to start the new topic this and some nice links with Unit 1 direct democracy and pressure groups if you happen to be retaking. Is the fuel price campaign run by ordinary motorists or by vested interests?  I'm always interested to hear people define themselves by their mode of transport - do pedestrians have campaign groups about the cost of shoes? Article here.

UnSure Start

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/13/sure-start-cuts-threat?mobile-redirect=false

National Wealth Service?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/10/private-firm-run-nhs-hospital?mobile-redirect=false
A private business is to take over the management of

Why is the introduction of more competition into the NHS controversial?

***Remember, the NHS is not being privatised, but some people fear it might be in the future***

Just been looking at your short answer questions. Thought I'd share some of my reading prep with you:

• http://www.guardian.co.uk/public-leaders-network/2011/may/18/nhs-reform-why-competition-works
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8823053/More-NHS-competition-would-cut-death-rate.html
• http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/competition-has-not-made-nhs-better-say-experts-2368099.html
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/19/nhs-services-open-to-competition

Interesting one HERE on how local governments say academies drain a disproportionate amount of money away from LEA maintained schools (effectively saying converting to academies are a smokescreen for more stringent local government cuts). Well, they would say that eh, Mr. Gove?

A fair few mentions of Kent LEA too, who are none too happy apparently.

Kent also calculates that the overfunding of academies is so acute that, if 30% of its schools were to convert to academy status, payments to them would leave it with no budget at all for services to support the remaining 70%.

Gove will tear us apart...?

The Guardian have been publishing a series of articles on the impact of Gove ed. policy.
Here's one of the more useful ones by Mike Baker
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/oct/17/local-education-authorities
and then one that sets out the broad lines of current Labour policy on Free Schools (they won't ban them, but won't promote them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/18/labours-teaching-mission

How have coalition policies impacted on the NHS?

Clearly the Lansley Bill is still before parliament, but the coalition is (if you believe the Guardian) already having a detrimental impact on patients. Cameron claimed he wanted to, "cut the deficit, not the NHS," while saying that it was possible to save £20bn in the NHS before 2015 without affecting 'frontline' services i.e. patients would not notice any difference. The Guardian says that NHS managers have sought to make savings that have negatively impacted on pain relief and neo-natal services amongst others. The left tend to argue that the Conservative Party are not a safe pair of hands for the NHS and that Cameron's pre-election promise was merely a fig-leaf for drastic cuts to patient services.  The government would argue that the actual savings made are up to PCTs and other NHS organisations and their managers. They would probably go on to say that managers can choose to make cuts in other areas if they want to.
Again the dilemma for Tories is how to push through reforms or in this case, massive savings, while sticking to their claim to be against top-down, 'New Labour'-style diktats, whilst also remaining electable!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/17/nhs-cuts-impact-on-patients-revealed

Top 25 movers and shakers on the right

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/8805799/The-Top-100-most-influential-people-on-the-Right-2011-25-1.html

Rawnsley on Fox resignation

"Cabinet resignations seem to matter a huge amount at the time. They scream from the front pages, they dominate the bulletins, they even generate some good jokes. My favourite about the Fox affair is that he actually wrote his resignation letter a week ago, but made the mistake of giving it to Oliver Letwin to hand to the prime minister. Dr Fox finally went on Friday only because it took that long for someone to fish his letter out of the park bin into which the ditzy Mr Letwin had discarded it."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/16/andrew-rawnsley-liam-fox-not-untypical

What do you mean you've never heard of the Beveridge report?

It's difficult to imagine what could create the post war consensus surrounding welfare these days.

Take a look at this clip from Marr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lurGssKn7PA

The Liberal, Beveridge, features from about 7 mins in, but Marr also looks at the public school boy and WWI veteran (Gallipoli) who attempted put Beveridge's report into action, Clement Atlee. According to Churchill he was a "modest man with much to be modest about," but it was his government's legacy that had one of the biggest single impacts of any government on British society, and the one that Thatcher deemed worthy of a challenge. In various opinion polls he shares the top spot of 'greatest ever PM' with Churchill, Thatcher etc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Prime_Ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom

Discipline in schools

It may be 'current affairs lite', but the Tonight show on ITV have summed up the discipline in education debate quite well. Also includes a look at an academy success story Mossbourne Academy, often pointed out as proof positive that academies are the panacea for the educational and social ills of the nation. Few mention the Unity Academy in Middlesborough. Both of these are of the original New Labour 'City' academies - distinct from the New academies.
http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=281017
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2011/03/what-makes-mossbourne-so-good.html

Yes Prime Minister on education

YouTube - State of Education - Yes, Prime Minister - BBC

Interesting that this highlights the concerns of many Conservative ministers of the 1970s and 80s about a left wing bias in education. It seems that every generation believes that education is not what it used to be.

May and the cat

It’s not nasty to fix our human rights problem - Telegraph
I include this as it's a good article for considering the underlying ideological assumptions of arguments, something Y13 candidates need to do for the so- called synoptic marks.

Critique of the concept of choice in the NHS

m.guardian.co.uk
A good summary of the arguments against. Remember all major political parties in favour of choice in the NHS now. Those against are as expected the unions (eg Unison) and Old Labour types.

Rationing in the NHS

The price of life
This is a link to a video about rationing in the NHS.