NUT Plan to help black boys achieve

Now I have some problems with this. In short the NUT have published a "charter" on the issue.

It deals with a cycle of low expectations, by pupil parent and school which is failing black boys.

There are many studies which show a vast chasm of under achievement by black boys when compared with any other community, whether they are Chinese, Indian white or what ever.

Well, there have actually now been studies that look at achievement of white pupils from similar socio economic backgrounds to the black children we are talking about, and they actually do marginally WORSE.

There was a study by the Department of Education that showed that black children are punished more and praised less than anyone else. This apparently is institutional racism, (by members of the NUT).

I would guess that if you did the same study for white children of a similar background you would actually find similar. There is something in some teachers psyche that thinks the poor scruffy children are the source of all problems in schools. They aren't racist, they are just stupid, the teachers who are like that, that is, and I have seen a few.

Now if you read this article from the BBC and substitute black for poor white, black and gypsy, it does make some sense as do some of the proposed remedies. All you need to do is strip out the Guardian reading racism and stupidity.

There is a cycle of low expectations to low achievement that causes all sorts of problems. It isn't helped by teachers unions such as the NUT thinking that employers are the enemy and that they only want to teach academic subjects to pupils regardless of whether the pupils are interested or not, resulting in a lot of disaffected children who then become difficult to teach. (You can see more on that here).

For more on education see here, or the NUT see here.

NUT, are they Nuts?

I must say it is fascinating watching the reports of the NUT conference. Some of the speeches set out clearly what is wrong with our education system, namely the people making the speeches.

Take the speech about diplomas providing cheap Labour. Apparently they suit the aims of employers whilst not meeting the needs of children.

What a bizarre statement. We have children leaving school who can't read or write properly because some of these people try a one size fits all policy and then they have the temerity to argue that teaching pupils in subjects that both interest them and provide a job is letting the pupils down by not meeting their needs?

Have these fools not seen who are in our prisons? People the education system has failed, who have no prospects, can't read or write properly and can't get a job.

The NUT don't want to examine their own mistaken ideology over the years, they just want more of the same. A one size fits all system which aims to send people on one path whether they want to go there or not.

The BBC has this.

More on the lunacy that is the NUT conference later.

Marwan Barghouti to be freed?

It has to be said this is somewhat of a surprise. Marwan Barghouti was and still is a popular leader amongst the Palestinians, and is a pragmatist who speaks both Arabic and Hebrew.

He was a senior Fatah figure and connected to the Tanzim militia before his arrest by Israel in 2002. He ended up being sentenced to 5 life sentences for 5 murders.

Many suspected at the time that he would never serve anything like that length of time, because he was and still is far too important for the peace process. He is one of those politicians that the Palestinian public trust without being the wild eyed loons of Hamas.

However in the process of negotiating the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, Marwan has been mentioned as a show stopper. If Hamas don't get the one man who could in terms of political popularity destroy them released then there is no deal.

It takes a while to get your head around that. Had Marwan Barghouti not been in prison there is no doubt he would have been campaigning and there would have been no Hamas led government.

However what he can do is talk to people who disagree with him and find ways forward and areas of common ground. That could be invaluable in the Middle East.

The problem is of course that he is the enemy of all those who never want peace, and both sides are littered with those.

What is interesting is that the Telegraph article that mentions it describes Marwan Barghouti as the West Bank Mandela. Haaretz has this.

Tackling Liberal Democrat Crime, did they really mean to put it like this?

Iran Hostage Aftermath, the fury grows

More and more people are commenting on how daft and indeed outrageous it is that the 15 ex hostages are being allowed to "sell" their stories.

I had a comment from an anonymous poster who said this:

From my Son serving in Basra.

" Dad is it true that the Navy and Marine personnel who capitulated and then grovelled in front of the World's Press are now going to sell their MOD inspired and directed stories for 6 figure sums?"

Words fail me. You couldn't make it up.

Contrast their disgraceful action with the grieving loved ones of those killed in action and their quiet dignity.

Then we have various opposition politicians and ex military figures popping up and pointing out how crass, stupid and undignified this all is. The parents of our dead soldiers are not all that impressed either.

yes the MOD is right there is a media interest, but so what? No this is not the same as the media interest in people winning Victoria Crosses, because in that case we are rightly proud of them In this case frankly we are not.

Well the soar away Scum has an exclusive interview as has the Mirror. I suggest no one buys those two rags tomorrow.

There will be much in the papers in the morning.

Be in no doubt this is a very sad day for Britain.

The BBC has this.

Bad news for Labour today

There is bad news for Labour all over today's Sunday papers.

The Telegraph carries two interesting stories, this one about Dr. John "Comrade" Reid backing David Miliband for leader against Gordon Brown, with this story about the civil war that will ensue following the change of leader no matter who it is.

The interesting thing about Dr John Reid's position is that he was tipped as a potential challenger until the Home Office started looking like it was falling apart again. He has apparently also said that if David Miliband does not stand then he will. There are many who think Reid is to the right of Genghis Khan so I can't see how he could get elected as Labour leader unless Gordon looks like obvious suicide.

Then there is this in the Observer about perceptions of people on the last 10 years. It will not make pleasant reading in Labour circles. Many think that they are no better off now than in 1997 and that public services are not better. Although conducted by BPIX who are not a member of the British Polling Council, and therefore are not transparent about their methods. However this is published in a left leaning paper read by Labour activists. Interestingly the article also has this reaction: 'I have never heard anybody talk about the years before 1997 as the good old days,' said Alan Milburn, the former Labour party chairman. Perhaps he needs to get out more and listen to real people.

On top of that we have some damning polls in the Sunday Times. Not a good weekend for Labour.

Captured Sailors given exceptional permission to sell their stories

Having heard this news some hours ago I am still having trouble coming to terms with this story. It seems that The MOD, in a daring bid to make the Home Office look well managed and competent has given permission to the captured Sailors and Marines (also Naval personnel) so sell their stories to the media.

According to the Sunday Telegraph Faye Turney, the only woman amongst the group has already sold her story for a "life changing sum" to ITN and a tabloid newspaper. There will be a broadcast interview tomorrow with Trevor MacDonald.

The Sunday Times reports the fury at this deal. The BBC has this.

Is there any one in the MOD with a brain cell? Captured without a fight gets a life changing sum, dead on active duty gets a pension for a widow maybe.

What sort of a message is that sending out?

Then there are Colonel Bob Stewart's observations. Even at the press conference there were inconsistencies between the stories. If examined over a period of time and in detail the press will find stories in any ambiguity and inconsistency.

This story should be yesterdays fish and chip paper already and it is clearly madness to allow it to run and run. It was not after all our finest hour.

Brown in the brown stuff!

There is bad news in the papers for Gordon Brown tomorrow. Polls carried by the Sunday Times and the News of the World show that the number of people who think he has been a good chancellor has declined sharply whilst those who think he has bad has risen sharply.

52% of voters think he has been a bad chancellor against 41% who think he has been good. A month ago the position was almost exactly the reverse , 51% thinking he had been good verses 41% thinking he was bad.

This is I suspect the result of Gordon Brown's Great Pensions grab and the budget which robbed the poor to give to the rich.

So it is now day 8 in the Pensions grab house and voters look like they want to evict Gordon! The only problem is they don't get a vote, the Labour party's electoral college does.

Hat tip to Noisy Summer on Politicalbetting.com for this story here, and Mike Smithson of politicalbetting.com also has this article.

Iran Hostage Crisis, it is all propaganda!

Apparently its is all propaganda, stage managed and a propaganda trick.

Well according to the Iranian government.

Well it has to be said they are spot on there, the only thing is that I suspect most people will know which government has had most opportunity to influence our personnel and which government has used the publicity to theatrical effect.

I don't think there are many sane people in the UK who think the Iranian government is the more honest on this issue.

The BBC has this.

For more on the Iran crisis see here.

Iran hostage crisis, the aftermath begins

We must all be pleased that our naval personnel have been returned, but now they are safe there will be questions.

Firstly what were they doing without air cover?

Why are half our frigates mothballed when clearly another one in the area could have filled in the gaps in air cover?


Then there will be questions over the hostages conduct. The head of the navy has defended their actions in this article on the BBC's website. If I remember correctly the Geneva conventions say you just have to give name rank and number, rather than a televised briefing. We do need to get to the bottom of what went wrong there. It is possible that they felt totally on their own and had to make their own luck, who knows.

Then their is this interesting article in the New York Times (quite a bit to the left of the New York Post) which discusses the merits of diplomacy and engagement over saber rattling and hostility.

There is a difference between engagement and appeasement, Churchill was in favour of the former and against the latter. If we want to stop Iran getting a bomb, in part that is going to involve talking to them.

You can read more on Iran here.

Hat tip to JackW on Politicalbetting.com for the NYT article.

Big in Cambodia!

A while back I had a look at the Alexa traffic graphs and I have a couple of blips there of traffic they had noticed.

What tickled me though was being in the top 700 websites visited by people in Cambodia. Nice to be high up, but not quite my target audience.

Still, this blog has popped in and out of the top 80,000 of websites visited from the UK which is nice as there is a lot more competition and it is more the sort of audience I am looking for, not that Cambodians are not welcome, I am just struggling to see why they would be interested.

That said something else that is also odd is people in the USA and Canada specifically googling my name and/or other terms that seem aimed at bringing up my blog. I can understand it in the UK, but can't understand why someone in North America would do that!

Iran hostage crisis - Who won?

It is a simple question, it does however have a long answer.

In military terms battles are won and lost on victory conditions which have to be met, like taking or holding some objective or destroying some military unit or it surviving. Normally speaking in military terms both sides can't fulfill their victory conditions as they tend to be exclusive (That is not always the case).

However this was a bit of political theater. Unfortunately it involved our service personnel. As such it was a battle fought on two different battlefields in two completely different theaters and it could be the case that both sides could easily achieve their victory conditions.

Domestically in the UK I suspect the picture is going to be mixed. Clearly we have got our people back and that is good. All our national politicians have been both careful and circumspect. In short maybe at home we won.

In Europe we won. No question there. They will move on to talk about something else soon enough, and the backlash won't gain much headway their.

Across the pond, and in the wider world I am afraid we look a bit silly. This clearly was not our finest hour. You only need read my article here to get a flavour of how we may be viewed.

As I said it is a mixed bag.

So how has Iran and I'm a dinner jacket got on?

Well, I suspect he has met all his victory conditions hands down.

Firstly Great Britain has history in the area and has had a massive influence on all sorts of things from borders to the way some armies have been equipped and trained to overthrowing the odd government or two. Effectively getting one over on us gives Iran immense kudos with their target audience, mostly Shia, across the Arab world and indeed further a field. It plays well on the "Arab street" and indeed it raises Iran's and the Shia profile amongst Sunni's who are not rabidly sectarian but disaffected.

Secondly contrast the treatment of our boys to Guantanamo Bay. new suits, not orange jump suits. Good food verses army rations. I could go on. This will play well with their target audience, showing us as harsh brutal and unfair compared to their "hospitality".

It is going to become increasingly difficult to criticise countries for a poor human rights.

President Ahmadinejad appears to be the master of political theater. We should stop thinking of him as a backwoodsman, and start thinking about what he is going to do next. During the Second World War we had psychologists work out how to play Hitler like a fiddle. It worked. FDR would not politically declare war on Germany so we got Hitler to declare war on the USA. We need to relearn the lessons of the past.

So then the question comes, what can we learn? Well not a lot. The fact is we already knew what to do, which is to intercept ships a long way before they get to that territory as we did in the first Gulf war. They other lesson is that you can let people get so close to Iran (Even though they were closer to Iraq) without sufficient support.

For more on the crisis see here.

Matt on Iran

Hat tip to the Daily Telegraph.

Iran to release our hostages!

How nice. The BBC has this.

They should of course not have taken them, and some thought should have been given to intercepting ships further out to sea where they would not fall prey so easily to this sort of piracy, as well as the realisation that Iran does not have a government like ours, different parts of it seem to bat for different sides and are frequently locked in one sort of a power struggle or another.

Well, I won't comment on it too much, but there are two articles in the New York Post which do not make comfortable reading.

The first here, laments our lack of naval power, how weak we appear militarily, and how nuts it is that we appear to be cutting our navy.

Then there is this article which questions our courage and indeed the courage of the 15 captured hostages. To some extent the columnist has a point, but it is exceedingly uncomfortable reading.

For more on the crisis see here.

Gordon Brown in the pensions grab house, day 5!

Well the story, in some circles, 10 years out of date continues to run. It is day 5 in the Pensions Grab house and we have this in the Times, about how there was no cabinet consultation, and crucially ministers responsible for pensions and social security were not consulted.

The question on every ones lips is: "Will Gordon be voted out".

Hewitt having a laugh over NHS!

I must say I am flabbergasted. Patricia Hewitt is promising that women can have a choice of where to give birth!

All very well, but what with local maternity services under threat, under funding for health in the South East and mothers in labour having to hunt around for a unit that can take them fixing the current fiasco would be a favourite first!

Mind you it looks like the plans may be dead in the water as there appears not to be enough midwives.

The BBC has this here.

For more on the NHS see here. To support our local hospital the Princess Royal, see here.

Pensions Grab, Brown just does not get it!

Gordon Brown is back in the country after being mysteriously in Afghanistan when the news of the great Pensions smash and grab broke on Friday night, and according to this article carried by the BBC has defended the great pensions smash and grab at the launch of labours local election campaign.

Specifically he said:

"It was the right decision for investment. It was the right investment for our pensions and the right decision for our economy"

He added that he would "take the same decision again", adding: "I've attempted to take the right decisions, no matter how inconvenient and difficult they might be."

Mr Brown said the decisions he took had ensured the long-term strength of the economy which benefited everyone, including pensioners.

The only problem is that pensioners probably wont feel all that warm and glowy about it. In short this sort of comment will go down like a bucket of cold sick.

There is no great evidence that the change in the tax system has lead to greater investments in companies than would otherwise have been the case and whilst other factors have caused problems to pension funds other than the tax on them, rather than looking to help, Gordon Brown looked to put the boot in and raid a pot because he thought no one would notice.

The rationale for the tax benefits for pensions is simple. People providing for themselves in old age means the government does not have to. It is now no longer worthwhile for many people to have a pension at all because under the new tax and means tested benefit system any pension you get unless fairly large will be the same as someone who had not saved at all. Whether we like it or not people who will not benefit by saving will end up not saving at all,

Drugs education funding to be cut?

It seems that according to this item on the BBC's website that funding for drug education in schools and amongst excluded pupils is to be cut.

Apparently government says drug use is down. Well it maybe but that is not the point. Class A drug use isn't and there are still far to many young people using drugs.

As people know to well the drug use itself is not half as big a problem to the community as the things associated with it like anti social behaviour, and leaving drug paraphernalia lying about in children's play areas. What is more continuing drug use causes crime, and log term problems for the individual. In that context this seems to be a false economy. We all know that part of the reason for people becoming involved in drugs is peer pressure. It seems to follow that if drug use is going down, we are doing something right and need to keep it going down.

We also know that our prisons are full to over bursting point with criminals with drug problems. Clearly if we are going to solve these problems more money needs to be invested in drug education and rehabilitation not less.

I suspect the real reason for the cuts is that this government is having trouble managing its budgets despite the vast increases in tax that we have had over the years.

Voted blog of the month!

yes this blog was voted blog of the month over at Central news. See here.

The Brown Pension Grab, day 4

I am not sure how much new news there is on this, but this story which broke late on Friday is still running (I wonder how long my yet to be published text a visa over stayer story will run, it seems you have to beat FOI requests out of government) 4 days later.

The Telegraph has this, whilst the Daily Mail has this.

The interesting thing about the story in the Daily Mail is that Derek Scott, Tony Blair’s former chief economic adviser claims Gordon Brown railroaded this through against advice.

It also seems the Brown Camp is beginning to see this as some sort of Blairite plot so expect further mud slinging in the coming days.

Alistair Campbell had a rule which was that if you were in the news for a fortnight you were the news and you had to go. I wonder how long this will run for?

What is certain is that many pensioners who had saved so they did not have to rely on the state have been forced to do exactly that, whilst many who could have been persuaded to save and make their own provision so that they don't have to rely on the state have been put off. Not good at all.