Author: jp

It is no wonder the Government is worried about the level of innumeracy in Britain when its own statisticians and civil servants can’t count. We could have told them there are more immigrants than they thought, we trip over them everywhere. This particular statistic is important, and the looming problems more so, but the really… Continue reading 31.10.07, Comments, Westminster is now Cloud Cuckoo Land!

Years and years ago there was a slogan, ‘Buy British’, which ran for some time and was, indeed, heeded by the public, and I believe, if we would pull our heads out of the sand and look, we are in a worse state than we ever were except for the period round the General Strike… Continue reading 30.10.07, Comment, Buy Britiah or EU to Survive?

Apparently, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has discovered something parents have known for years, children born late in the year can be placed in classes which can be too advanced for them, by the date which determines the school year and the dates of examinations. They have carried out research and discovered that this affects… Continue reading 28.10.07, Comment,Changing the School Year is Next!

Yesterday a film on TV, gave me pause for thought. The film, Cross of Iron, with James Coburn leading, was an old one I had seen long ago. It was so well directed, and was about a small element of the German Army, retreating before a hoard of Russians. The scenes were realistic, bloody and… Continue reading 27.10.07, Comment, Real War!

Diplomas, already? I smell a rat! If the government fails to get the results it has boasted it will in GCSEs and the rest, then we change the goal post yet again and introduce Diplomas on a graded scale. When I was doing first year algebra, the teacher used to say you can’t mix apples… Continue reading 26.10.07, Comment, Change Yet Again?

The lottery of the voting system. The theory is fine, and it is probably as good as we’ll get, but when push comes to shove, have you noticed that the wheels come off? I’m not writing about the shambles of the Scottish election, I leave that to all the real commentators, but the fact that… Continue reading 25.10.07, Comment, inconsistencies.

When one reads a headline, ‘Britain is sickest nation in Europe,’ in one of the few broadsheets left in the country, with one of the largest circulations, you could be forgiven for considering it more than hyperbole. At the height of the Troubles in Ulster, friends of my aunt tried to stop her visiting me… Continue reading 24,19,07, Comment, Are we our own worst enemy?

Tackling the wrong target seems prevalent. I wrote yesterday that the Scottish scheme of diet change by free school meals was unlikely to succeed. I read that drug offences have risen by 14% after the policy of down-grading Cannabis by reducing it from class B to class C. Young mothers are complaining that motherhood is… Continue reading 23.10.07, Comment, Is mine a lone voice?

If you are a Plump Lump you are in the spotlight! I wrote about obesity the other day and now it has taken over from Global Warming as the Flavour-of-the-Week, and is throwing up the most amazing reactions on TV and in the Press. Scotland’s attempt by giving free meals to school children for six… Continue reading 22.10.07, Comments on all sorts.

Decisions can be as simple as ‘when to go to bed’ right up to ‘Should we go to war?’ A little way up the list we have to account for our decisions, like ‘was it wise to have thumped the scrum half when the Ref was looking?’. I read that Michael Martin, the Speaker of… Continue reading 21.10.07, Comment, Decisions.