Leading academics, authors and scientists are launching a campaign to stop state-funded faith schools from discriminating against students and teachers on the grounds of religion.

From Monday, such schools will be allowed to include faith as a selection criterion for teaching and non-teaching posts, reserving more places for people from the same religious background.

In some schools this will expand to include the headteacher while in others this would apply to non-teaching jobs, such as classroom assistants and cooks.

The new rules coincide with the launch of Accord, a coalition of Hindu, Christian and Humanist organisations, which claims that they will further restrict the employment rights of staff in state-funded faith schools and that discrimination of this kind is illegal in other state schools.

… continued at the Guardian

Related
Indy – Faith school discrimination ‘will fragment education’
BBC – New pressure over faith schools

Barack Obama’s post-convention bounce has taken him from a tied race at the start of last week to an 8-point lead, and he’s now matched the peak of his support in the general election as multiple polls show that just short of 50 percent of voters intend to support him.

Two daily tracking polls, though, appear to show that few voters shifted camps based on the big events of the previous two days, Obama’s convention speech and the unveiling of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as John McCain’s running mate.

Gallup Daily tracking reported today that Obama is ahead 49 percent to 41 percent, the same breakdown as yesterday. The week began with McCain and Obama knotted up at 45 percent support.

….more at the Politico

Gordon Brown was battling to contain cabinet indiscipline last night after Alistair Darling undermined his fightback with a devastating forecast for the economy. The Chancellor was unrepentant over a warning in an interview yesterday that the country is on the brink of the worst economic crisis for 60 years.

The fresh infighting came as the ‘IoS’ learned that Stephen Carter, Mr Brown’s high-profile strategist, is to leave his job after a bitter turf war inside Downing Street.

The public relations guru’s move to a lower-key role is a victory for the Prime Minister’s long-serving advisers, who have have clashed with Mr Carter, but will deepen the sense of a Government in crisis. Less than a month after David Miliband infuriated Mr Brown by setting out his stall as a leader-in-waiting, Mr Darling repeatedly refused to deny that there would be a leadership challenge this autumn.

…more at the Independent on Sunday

Barack Obama’s audience for his acceptance speech likely topped 40 million people, and the Democratic gathering that nominated him was a more popular television event than any other political convention in history.

More people watched Obama speak from a packed stadium in Denver on Thursday than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final “American Idol” or the Academy Awards this year, Nielsen Media Research said Friday. (Four playoff football games, including the Super Bowl between the Giants and Patriots, were seen by more than 40 million people.)

His TV audience nearly doubled the amount of people who watched John Kerry accept the Democratic nomination to run against President Bush four years ago. Kerry’s speech was seen by a little more than 20 million people; Bush’s acceptance speech to GOP delegates had 27.6 million viewers.

…more at San Fransisco Chronicle

It was the first time both of them had appeared together.