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Monthly Archives: May 2006

Nick Cohen has another piece championing the cause of grammar schools. The argument is cogent enough. Presently our ‘comprehensive’ education practices selection on the basis of wealth, either through fees or house-prices. A return to the grammar school system would allow those from poorer backgrounds who are presently excluded under this present arrangement to gain access to the best education available rather than being confined to the ‘bog-standard’ comprehensive. Read More

I hesitate to add to the thousands of words already written about the Euston Manifesto. We had two good posts here yesterday, but the best so far is probably this one. Anyway, I hesitate essentially because I only read it today, and the damn thing is deathly dull, a collection of anodyne pronouncements, platitudes, and mostly a whole bunch of self-justifying shite that just about anything with a pulse could sign up to. Wet western wank, as the catchphrase goes.

So, I only stop by to pose one question I haven’t seen asked yet: could one be “pro” the Iraq War, situated vaguely on the political liberal-left, and yet firmly agin’ the Manifesto? Read More

Not my phrase, but one borrowed from Brian Taylor, political editor of the BBC in Scotland and author of books such as The Road to the Scottish Parliament. He was giving a lecture on Scotland and the EU at Edinburgh Law School, and in that context identified three weak points of devolution: the soft underbelly. Relations with the European Union; England; and money.
 

I’ll deal with each briefly in turn.

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