|
hanson:
it’s a different world - it’s the same world
“In contrast, stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan, stop the nuclearization
of Iran, cut radically back on imported oil, close the southern border,
and end the financial hemorrhaging, and the United States will do just
fine, to the great benefit of the world at large.
“But for now hold on, as the Russians get angrier, the jihadists
more desperate, Mr. Ahmadinejad closer to Armaggedon, the Chinese more
eager to match new power with now [new] old money, Europe more terrified
-- and the United States ever more baffled by it all.”
Victor Hanson sure gets depressed by the idiocy from
time to time, but America remains immensely strong.
I do not like the looming possibility of a ‘Democrat’
president, but even they are likely to become more rational if they are
forced to take responsibility in place of whining.
“The United States should launch military strikes against Iran
if the government in Tehran does not stop supplying anti-American forces
in Iraq, Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday on Face The Nation.”
—
“ "We can tell them we want them to stop that, but if there's
any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule
of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development,
we can't just talk to them," Lieberman said. "If they don't
play by the rules, we've got to use our force and to me that would include
taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."
” [Quoted from cbsnews.com]
“Global demand for US exports helped shrink the country’s
trade gap in April in a strong sign that the American economy is picking
up speed.
“The trade deficit fell by more than even the most optimistic
Wall Street economists were expecting and prompted many to upgrade their
forecasts for economic growth in the second quarter.” [Quoted
from ft.com]
“[...] the largest solar thermal power plant built in 16 years,
has gone online, and is now providing power to Nevada's electrical grid.
Built by Acciona Solar Power, the 64MW power plant is the world's third
largest solar thermal power plant, and will generate enough reliable
clean energy to power 15,000 homes (up to 134 million kilowatt hours
of electricity per year). It covers 400 acres.” [Quoted from treehugger.com]
Most of the problem comes down to oil. In 10 years, the West,
and even India and China, could build themselves out of oil dependency
and bankrupt the Middle East and Russia.
Meanwhile, the Middle East and China will soon be unable
to feed themselves. How much will their paper be worth then?
Russia’s Putin seems marginally stable, and is in a panic.
Some opinion is that Putin thought to drive a wedge
between the pacifists in Europe and the USA. But that it is backfiring
on him and driving the defenceless Europeans back to NATO. Hence Putin’s
backpedalling.
Some Europeans think Russia can afford is serious hassle
with America. Russia is far too vulnerable with its shrinking
population and vast land mass.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#hanson_world_300607
|
advertising
disclaimer
advertising
disclaimer
advertising
disclaimer
|
|
on the use of military force
A rehash of other past studies (Brookings does a lot of this stuff)
a useful scan - shame about the spin.
“A new University of Georgia study has found that despite
overwhelming military superiority, the world's most powerful nations
failed to achieve their objectives in 39 percent of their military
operations since World War II.”
That is, it was successful 61% of the time.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#military_force_290607
|
|
trivialisation by the leftist fossil media - schwarzenegger
The prime socialist fossil media channels can only
concentrate on the passé films of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Yet Schwarzenegger is now one of the most powerful and effective politicians
in the world:
- forcing a green agenda on the USA despite
Bush’s fossil fuel lobby, and
- running an economy larger than most economies in
Europe.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#arnie_260607
|
|
moonbat obarmy votes against himself over big coal
And
this is the sort of great white hope offered by the Democrat Party.
“Three years later, with Obama now a candidate for president,
his embrace of southern Illinois and its dominant industry is showing
signs of strain. Obama finds himself caught between his advocacy of
huge federal subsidies for liquefied coal for transportation fuel, a
technology that the Illinois coal industry views as a salvation, and
environmental groups that reject it as a boondoggle that would set back
efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the fight against global
warming.
“After co-sponsoring legislation earlier this year for billions
of dollars in subsidies for liquefied coal, Obama more recently began
qualifying his support in ways that have left both environmentalists
and coal industry officials unsure where he stands. His shift has helped
shape this month's Senate debate over how to reduce both dependence
on foreign oil and carbon dioxide emissions; on Tuesday, he voted against
one proposal to boost liquefied coal and for a more narrowly worded
one. Both failed." [Quoted from washingtonpost.com]
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#obarmy_260607
|
|
bush policy continues correcting clinton foreign policy errors
north korea announces reactor shut down
“North Korea agreed in February to close its Yongbyon
reactor, the centrepiece of its nuclear programme and source of weapons-grade
plutonium. Yesterday it was announced the shutting-down process had
begun and that the inspectors from the UN atomic energy agency could
visit the plant to verify the operation.”
social
unrest in iran as un pressures grow - petrol rationing introduced
“Iran fears the West could sanction its petrol imports and cripple
its economy.”
—
“Eyewitnesses have seen at least one petrol station in the outskirts
of the west of Tehran on fire and there are reports that three people
died in the blaze.
“All over the city there are huge queues and reports of scuffles
at petrol stations as motorists try to beat the start of the rationing
and fill their tanks.
“Iran's petrol is heavily subsidised, sold at about a fifth of
its real cost. So far there has been no announcement about whether Iranians
can buy more petrol at the real market cost.”
Iraq now has a legitimate government.
Afghanistan now has a legitimate government, among several other countries.
Libya closes bomb ambitions.
Obstructionist socialists out in Germany.
Obstructionist Chirac out in France.
Bush re-elected.
Bliar re-elected.
Howard re-elected.
Socialists in trouble in Italy.
Socialists in trouble in Spain.
Bush is clearly an extraordinarily successful and capable
president.
Obviously, it is time to replace him with a moonbat.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#north_korea_260607
|
|
on populations and war
The article is interesting and is not without reasonable basis, though I’m uncertain
of the detailed historic claims. Recommended for scanning.
“The same will happen to the approximately 40 nations between Brittany
and Vladivostok. Some of them will become Fifth Villages and will have
a new lease on life, others will just implode. I predict that all the
Slavic nations will implode. Same thing with the three Baltic states
and all of the Balkan states. The question is whether Germany and
France will become Fifth Villages. I see Scandinavia as a Fifth
Village. The same thing with the Iberian Peninsula and with Ireland
and England. But I am not sure the rest of the continent will make
it.”
—
“In East Germany they have just decided to demolish an additional 400,000
apartments. There are no people for them, and the empty apartments
ruin the banks by depressing the rents and the prices of housing. In
West Germany we are also losing population. We have to stop taking the
least suitable immigrants. To attract young and competent people, we
might give them a house. That was the way Brandenburg secured the
French Huguenots in the 17th century. But I doubt it will work today.”
—
“ [...] The young are moving out, and with a clean conscience, because
they believe that tomorrow Brussels will pay for their parents. So the
EU has accepted 27 million people who wanted to get inside to secure
their pensions. And in the European centre they are still overjoyed to
have attracted millions more than the USA. That will make us strong,
they believe.”
—
“Or take the Tunisian example. A woman in Tunisia has 1.7 children. In
France she may have six because the French government pays her to have
them. Of course, the money was never intended to benefit Tunisian
women in particular, but French women will not touch this money,
whereas the Tunisian women are only too happy to.”
—
“Most of these welfare dependents were blacks, and that made racists
claim that the problem was in the black genes. But the Republicans and
the Democrats worked together on a new law, 'Temporary Assistance for
Needy Families', which was a smart law. It told American women: We
will give you welfare up to five years. You decide whether it should
be five years straight, or whether you want to divide the five years
into shorter periods. The new law was passed in 1996 and took effect
on January 1, 1997. It caused several top officials in the Clinton
administration to walk out in protest stating the law was a racist
attack on the weakest — single mothers and their children. They had
predicted that by 1997-98, the number of adversely affected would have
grown from 12 to 14 million. As it turned out, it was these
well-meaning people who were the racists. The black girls were smart
enough to go on the pill with the result that the welfare-dependent
population shrank from 12 million to 4 million. It was the most
successful social reform in history.”
While the general argument in this article has some interest, modern psychology and evolutionary theory would suggest that a major objective of the surplus males would be to strive for status, in order to impress females that they were suitable breeding partners. A widespread problem east of Suez is the preference for boys as pension providers (among other problems, there is a very common human social practice for girls to depart their tribe on ‘marriage̵). Thus females are killed in vast numbers, leaving a great surplus of unattached males competing for an increasingly scarce resource - women.
Further, in the Middle East, and in parts of Africa, the holding capacity of the land is now vastly inadequate to provide food for the population levels.
Original link from simple_language@yahoo.com
related material
‘Cocksure young men’
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#young_bulge_250607
|
|
witness the clown - the everlasting coward of uk politics
Despite all Bliar’s manifest faults...
when the chips are down, he has done what has
been required for Britain and the world.
Bliar has only had two such tests:
- to stand against the supporters of saddam Hussein
- and to prepare the UK for a considerable necessary expansion of
nuclear power.
In both cases, despite the noise of fools, he has pressed forward.
In both cases, the [Brown the] Clown has hidden behind the sofa, picking his nose
and looking to find yet another petty tax, or another opportunity to meddle.
Now we have the dedicated coward in the driving seat,
with a juggernaut bearing down on this country.
God help the UK.
“ The Labour government sees nuclear power as one of the most
effective weapons in the fight against climate change and in efforts
to reduce the country's growing dependence on imported fossil fuels.
“But that does not mean it will pay for or build nuclear plants.
“ "The government is not going to build a single nuclear power station,"
Trade and Industry Secretary Alistair Darling told a committee of
members of parliament.
“ "We are not going to contribute to the cost of it," he said, rejecting
suggestions the government might have to give money to get companies
to make the multi-billion pound investments.”[Quoted from metaefficient.com]
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#tony_gordon_230607
|
|
bankimoon on darfur and ecology - will he be any better than the disgraceful kofi?"
“It would be natural to view these as distinct developments. In fact,
they are linked. Almost invariably, we discuss Darfur in a convenient
military and political shorthand -- an ethnic conflict pitting Arab
militias against black rebels and farmers. Look to its roots, though,
and you discover a more complex dynamic. Amid the diverse social and
political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis,
arising at least in part from climate change.”
—
“ [...] But what to do about the essential dilemma -- the fact that
there's no longer enough good land to go around?”
—
“The stakes go well beyond Darfur. Jeffrey Sachs, the Columbia
University economist and one of my senior advisers, notes that the
violence in Somalia grows from a similarly volatile mix of food and
water insecurity. So do the troubles in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.
“There are many other parts of the world where such problems will
arise, [...]”
Yet Sudan is rich in oil, so is he talking sense?
related material
diamond discusses similar events in rwanda
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#un_new_broom_210607
|
|
how powerful is the united states of america? gaining a sense of proportion
Original image source: The York Group
“US States renamed for countries with similar GDPs.”
The linked page includes a list of the 50 US States with economic comparisons. Here are the first ten States:
- California compared to France on the map.
- Texas’ economy is significantly smaller, half of California’s, is compared to Canada.
- Florida compared to South Korea.
- Illinois compared to Mexico.
- New Jersey compared to Russia.
- Ohio compared to Australia.
- New York compared to Brazil.
- Pennsylvania compared to Netherlands.
- Georgia compared to Switzerland.
- North Carolina compared to Sweden.
From the CIA World Factbook:
| Countries ranked by size
of GDP |
| 1 |
United States |
$ 13,130,000,000,000 |
| 2 |
China |
$ 10,170,000,000,000 |
| 3 |
Japan |
$ 4,218,000,000,000 |
| 4 |
India |
$ 4,156,000,000,000 |
| 5 |
Germany |
$ 2,630,000,000,000 |
| 6 |
United Kingdom |
$ 1,930,000,000,000 |
| 7 |
France |
$ 1,891,000,000,000 |
| 8 |
Italy |
$ 1,756,000,000,000 |
| 9 |
Russia |
$ 1,746,000,000,000 |
| 10 |
Brazil |
$ 1,655,000,000,000 |
| 11 |
Korea, South |
$ 1,196,000,000,000 |
| 12 |
Canada |
$ 1,178,000,000,000 |
| 13 |
Mexico |
$ 1,149,000,000,000 |
| 14 |
Spain |
$ 1,109,000,000,000 |
| 15 |
Indonesia |
$ 948,300,000,000 |
| 16 |
Taiwan |
$ 680,500,000,000 |
| 17 |
Australia |
$ 674,600,000,000 |
| 18 |
Turkey |
$ 635,600,000,000 |
| 19 |
Argentina |
$ 608,800,000,000 |
| 20 |
Iran |
$ 599,200,000,000 |
[Note: five countries of the next six countries after the USA in order of GDP - China, Japan, India, Germany, UK - are omitted from this map.]
[Lead from Limbic]
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#usa_map_160607
|
|
buying up britain for oil - this is the real back story
Meanwhile, Bliar and the Clown fiddle and there is still no nuclear strategy.
“ fresh takeover bid for supermarket chain J Sainsbury looked
increasingly likely last night after an investment fund backed by the
royal family of Qatar revealed it had bought a new tranche of shares
in the grocer and now controls a 25% stake.”
—
“Qatar Investment Authority
“Size: $40bn (£20bn) in mid-2006 according to Pacific Investment
Management.
“Investments: Through a number of investment vehicles, the Qataris have
spent an estimated £3bn in the last nine months on Four Seasons Health
Care, a care homes operator, and an education company Senad, which
specialises in teaching children with severe learning difficulties.
Its stake in J Sainsbury is worth £2.5bn. Last October, it failed to
acquire Thames Water for £7bn.”
“Kuwait Investment Authority
“Size: An estimated £125bn.
“Investment: Best known for building up a 20% stake in BP in 1987 in
the wake of the sale of a tranche of oil company's shares by the
government on "Black Monday" stock market collapse. The Kuwaitis still
own nearly 3% of BP.”
“Dubai International Capital
“Size: None disclosed.
“Investments: The Tussauds Group; Travelodge hotel chain and
Doncasters, a manufacturing firm. Stakes in car maker DaimlerChrysler
and HSBC bank.”
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#newlabour_integrity_160607
|
|
exxon admits errors over funding agw deniers - and try to spin out
“Oil company Exxon Mobil Corp. never in the past decade doubted the risk from climate change, its global spokesman Kenneth Cohen said on Thursday, in a latest attempt to improve its green credentials.”
—
“But Cohen said Exxon had only ever funded such groups because they were against the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, negotiated in the late 1990s, and which Exxon still rejects -- and not because they cast doubt on climate change.
“As "We started funding a number of these groups because we were opposed to the Kyoto Protocol. We were slow to stop funding."
“Exxon could terminate its support of more groups, Cohen added -- "It's a question we're asking ourselves," he said.”
—
“ Exxon had simply firmed up, or "evolved", its understanding of the threat, said Cohen, the company's head of public affairs.
“The world's most profitable company now accepted that a US climate policy was inevitable and it preferred either a carbon market that would allocate carbon credits solely to suppliers of fossil fuels, such as oil companies, or else a carbon tax, Cohen added.”
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#exxon_140607
|
|
tax cuts explained for the left
Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day,
ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay£3.
The seventh would pay £7.
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.
So, that's what they decided to do.
The ten men drank in the pub every day and seemed quite happy with the
arrangement, until one day, the landlord decided to reward their loyalty
with some discount. "Because you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm
going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by £20." Drinks for the ten now
cost just £80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the
first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what
about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the
£20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that
£20 divided by six is £3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's
share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to
drink his beer.
So, the landlord suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill
by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each
should pay. And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid £2 instead of £3 (33% savings).
The seventh now pay £5 instead of £7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid £9 instead of £12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid &163;14 instead of £18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid £49 instead of £59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to
drink for free.
But once outside the pub, the men began to compare their savings.
"I only got one pound out of the £20," declared the sixth man. He
pointed to the tenth man," but he got £10!"
"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a pound, too. It's unfair that he got ten times
more than I!"
"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get
£10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at
all. The system exploits the poor!"
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down
and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they
discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of
them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and university professors, is how our
tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit
from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and
they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking
overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
From True Blue.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#uk_taxation_110607
|
|
ann coulter in fine
form
- “The looney left are much more interesting because they don't
know they're supposed to lie.”
- “Democrats can't debate....that's why they throw food.”
- “Democrats say they'll stand up to terrorists.....yet they're
scared to debate with conservatives.”
Ann Coulter is a leading US conservative political
commentator.
Some comments on provocative writers by
FACE:
“In other ways they are quite different: Coulter's forte is wry
and biting satire where [Melanie] Phillips is most often a direly serious
"people can't you seewhat's happening!" sort of approach.
Coulter gets taken out of context and her joking statements are turned
into serious statements that the liberati use to whip her with. The
best example is after 911, in jest she said "we should invade their
countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity".
Well she was joking, but the new castrati treat that statement as if
it was made in deadly seriousness. I find her to be an enjoyable read,
much as find Mark Steyn to be the same.
“As to Phillips, I find her to be somewhat in the mold of the
late Orianna Fallaci (from whom I am sure that a lot of the Italian
humor was lost in translation, so I saw her as similarly serious about
the topics she wrote.)
She insisted on writing/translating her own stuff in
English.
“Or, to keep the UK-US perspective here, I find Phillips to be
much likeDavid Horowitz, who has a tendency to be in the same "the
sky is falling"style, though sometimes i have seen Horowitz as
a little whiney.
“Coulter is Steyn on steroids -- down deep they are both serious
and they both make good points. Coulter, like beer, is an acquired
taste........”
related material
steyn very confused - a deconstruction
by t.a.s.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#coulter_090607
|
|
why giuliani is the only choice - the auroran sunset
The latest moonbat candidate for the “anything but a serious candidate
like Giuliani” wing of the Republican Party is Fred Thompson.
First they tried a more obvious moonbat fundie, Romney. When it became
obvious that Romney was never going to get much over 10%, the moonbats
found another face for their idiocy.
The same people who pushed Romney are now pushing as hard as they can
for Thompson, who is slightly more presentable.
Fortunately, it looks like the latest attempts by the moonbats [1] to hijack the
Republican party are also failing.
No doubt they will keep trying, but in the end the Republican Party has
no choice but to vote for the only candidate with a chance of winning,
that is Giuliani. When it comes down to it, stopping Hillary or Obarmy
will matter more than the moonbats’ mad ‘social’ theories.
The behaviour of those pushing Thomson, and Romney before him, is no
more realistic than that of the Democrat extremists. It would be foolish to take them
too seriously.
The reality is that nobody is getting anywhere near Giuliani.
Meanwhile, each time the moonbats put forward yet another face, they
get nothing more than protest vote levels.
The only person even close to Giuliani is McCain. McCain is also apparently
more socially sane than the moonbats would like, but unlike Giuliani,
McCain is willing to speak out of both sides of his mouth. Yet Giuliani is consistently about 10% ahead
of even McCain.
McCain is obviously going to die as a candidate - he can’t control
his temper, he is too old and his consistent attacks and blasé attitude towards
the First Amendment are annoying the base [Republican core voters] far
more than Giuliani’s tolerance of things that are none of anybody
else’s business.
Giuliani’s only serious problem is his anti-gun attitude, but
I can’t see that being a decisive issue - it is Congress and governors
who mess around with gun laws, and the trend across over the country is
for less controls. Giuliani shows no signs of being sef-destructive enough to try
to bring in gun restrictions.
McCain voters are in general Giuliani voters, not Romney or Thompson
voters.
The moonbat wing of the Republican Party are only too happy to have the world believe
that only a moonbat candidate has a chance at the Republican nomination, and that a candidate
openly contemptuous of their idiocy stands no chance.
But meanwhile there is reality. It is Giuliani that the base and the
country consistently say that they want.
Trust the people, they do alright!
end note
- The left wing have their mad
socialist moonbats, meanwhile on the right there are moonbats just as
fanatical: authoritarian and interfering. The lives of the Republican
moonbats seem to revolve around the 'evils' of sex, abortion, homosexuals,
sex, freedom, and even more sex. In practice there is very little difference between
these two types of moonbats. They just have different excuses for their desire
to control others.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#giuliani_060607
|
|
preparing for a nuclear strike on a western city
The article shows very little imagination or realism, but it is good
to see the first steps towards thinking through these problems.
The suggestions regarding the local populations are childish
and no thought is given in the article to response, either after such an event or pre-emptively. The
tendency to bury the head seems to carry much inertia.
“As concerns grow that terrorists might attack a major American city
with a nuclear bomb, a high-level group of government and military
officials has been quietly preparing an emergency survival program
that would include the building of bomb shelters, steps to prevent
panicked evacuations and the possible suspension of some civil
liberties.
“Many experts say the likelihood of al Qaeda or some other terrorist
group producing a working nuclear weapon with illicitly obtained
weapons-grade fuel is not large, but such a strike would be far more
lethal, frightening and disruptive than the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Not only could the numbers killed and wounded be far higher, but the
explosion could, experts say, ignite widespread fires, shut down most
transportation, halt much economic activity and cause a possible
disintegration of government order.”
Link thanx to Limbic.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#nuclear_defence_050607
|
|
the tory party on the socialist labour party failures in administrating education in the uk
The idea that you will get sense or honesty from the leftist fossil
press is risible. To expect serious analysis from the grumpy old men is also going to
leave you defeated. Read what the Conservative Party is actually saying.
Cameron
“David Cameron has stressed that parents want the Conservative Party to
do something about the shocking standards in many of Britain's three
thousand secondary schools - not tie itself in knots over a grammar
schools policy.
“In an article for Conservatives.com, he emphasises that he fully
supports existing grammar schools.
“But he adds: "There is a kind of hopelessness about the demand to
'bring back' grammars, an assumption that this country will only ever
be able to offer a decent education to a select few.
“ "I want the Conservative Party to rise above that attitude. We need to
be the party of aspiration and opportunity for all.”
Full article.
Willetts
“Meanwhile, research by Conservatives shows that since 1997, schools
have grown dramatically in size, with the number of schools with more
than 1000 pupils up by 42 per cent, while the number of pupils taught
in schools over 1500 pupils has more than doubled. As a result, the
number of smaller schools has decreased by 483.
“But pupil discipline is actually worse in the larger schools, where
exclusions make up over 9 per cent of the population, compared with
3.7 per cent in smaller schools.
“And whereas the number of permanent exclusions has decreased in
smaller schools by 46 per cent, the number of permanent exclusions in
schools over 1500 pupils has risen by 28 per cent.
“ [...] This helps to explain the crisis of discipline in our schools.”
Full, long speech on social mobility.  Recommended reading.
Unfortunately, the article wanders right towards the end. Willetts, by his own admission, is no educationalist. He tends to slip into statist politician mode, where he imagines education can be run effectively on the factory system. Like so many of the grumpy old men from the Tory Party past, Willetts just yearns to get those recalcitrant widgets in the classrooms back into compliant rows where they can be disciplined with the old-style religion.
David Willetts has an unusually clear sight of the various problems with socialist selection, but the authoritarian instinct to solve the difficulties by social engineering from the centre remains conspicuous.
Policy review
“And warning that Britain has some of the loneliest children in the
world, the Conservative Leader has blamed a failure of leadership at
every level, and declared: "That's why I'm setting up a Children
Taskforce to look at how we can improve the lives of children in
Britain."
“The decision to examine the issue in detail follows the recent UNICEF
report into the wellbeing of children in rich countries, which
revealed that those living in the UK suffer the lowest quality of life
in the developed world.”
[See also abelard’s comments on this UNICEF report.]
“The group of experts, chaired by Mr Willetts, will include Lord
Richard Best, a crossbench peer and former Director of Rowntree Trust;
Sir Richard Bowlby, President of the Centre for Child Mental Health;
Tim Gill, Director of the Children's Play Council (now Play England)
from 1997 to 2004, and author of the forthcoming 'No Fear: Growing up
in a risk-averse society'; Baroness Susan Greenfield, Professor of
Pharmacology, and Director of the Institute for the Future of the
Mind, University of Oxford; Sue Palmer;, author of 'Toxic Childhood';
and Bob Reitmeier; CEO of The Children's Society.
“The group will investigate how and why children in Britain are failed
when it comes to measures of subjective well-being, behaviours and
risks, and family and peer relationships. The experts will examine
questions including whether on extended families, we have raised
barriers to a broader-based family life; whether there are particular
problems with boys when it comes to relations between fathers and
their children; whether children can be better protected from the
commercialisation of childhood; whether children are growing up in a
flat world, with insufficient space and time to play and explore the
world for themselves unsupervised; and whether fears of strangers have
been allowed to obstruct normal contacts between adults and children,
putting too much pressure on parents and schools.”
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/politics0706.php#uk_education_040607
|
|
|
