Recent Articles

Neither men nor mice need a bigger Heathrow

Let’s not be hypocritical here; like most Londoners who go on holiday, take weekend breaks, and travel for work, I use Heathrow several times a year. But not when I can possibly avoid it, though.

I vastly prefer Eurostar for meetings in Brussels and Paris, and as I live only a bus ride from Euston, it works out quicker to catch the train to Edinburgh or Glasgow.

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George Osborne, and why the economy is about to get worse

A Sunday Times poll yesterday found that 80% of people now think the economy is in a bad state, and only 9% expect it to get better over the next twelve months.

This is a really bad sign for several reasons. When people aren’t confident about the future, they spend less and pay off their debts. Britons have been doing this increasingly of late.

Given that most of the economy is driven by consumer spending, this means the amount of money circulating contracts further and the economy suffers.
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Third Runway: is Alistair Darling living in cuckoo-land?

Darling defies Miliband over third Heathrow runway, blares the Independent on Sunday today.

Alistair Darling, the former chancellor, has defied the Labour leader Ed Miliband and called for a third runway at Heathrow to beapproved. Britain’s ability to attract foreign investment is being undermined by a lack of capacity at its biggest airport, Mr Darling warned.

*checks something*

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The GCSE grading scandal: the legal challenge begins

It’s encouraging that several bodies, including the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), are considering legal action over the GCSE grading scandal.

The ASCL has already set out what aspect of the scandal such action may target

We’re examining whether this is hitting any particular groups of young people that are covered by the equal opportunities legislation.

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Galloway producer: ‘you won’t have to worry about rape’

A man claiming to be the producer of George Galloway’s video podcast is a prime example of how many of his supporters have conducted the debate online.

‘Clarence Beeks’, who tweets from @davidandburt, first claimed that questioning the rape claims in the case was “not about Assange” – and more to do with the “media attack on GG’s totally correct position”.

This has become typical of Galloway supporters – claiming anyone who doesn’t agree is a corporate media stooge.

And then he displays the kind of misogyny that has become far too common.

He then quietly deleted the tweet, with no apology whatsoever.

Thanks to @SaliWho for the screenshots, who also blogged about it here.

‘I’ve been ashamed about my rape for twenty years, but no longer’

contribution by Eliza James

-TRIGGER WARNING-
Everywhere I’ve looked this week, I have seen discussions about the definition of rape. Headlines are full of Julian Assange, alleged to have raped two women and then the bizarre statements of Rep. Todd Akin (MO), explaining that “legitimate rape” can not biologically result in pregnancy.

George Galloway next opened his idiotic mouth to say that consent is not required from everyone for every “insertion”.

But it got me thinking about my own experiences. I have also been the victim of rape. More than once.
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By downgrading GCSE results today, Michael Gove plans to sell 100s of schools

contribution by James Hargrave

Last night it appeared that the 2012 GCSE English results have been deliberately manipulated by changing the grade boundaries at the last minute so that more children fail or get lower grades.

The story began to emerge on the TES forums earlier yesterday.

It gradually became clear over Twitter that this was national situation and speculation began that deliberate political interference from the DfE was behind this.
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Why the Cooperative is still right to boycott Israeli settler produce

Four months ago, a national supermarket chain with an admirable ‘Ethical Trading’ policy decided to cut ties with four suppliers whose sourcing decisions make them complicit in severe breaches of international law.

Nothing particularly extraordinary there, you might think, but since these were Israeli companies and the products come from illegal settlements in the West Bank, pro-Israel advocacy groups have been attacking the Co-Operative ever since.

Those criticising include Luke Akehurst, head of Israel advocacy group BICOM’s ‘We Believe in Israel’ initiative.
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Where do Tory feminists stand on Romney?

The Tory MP Louise Mensch – who will soon vacate her seat – wrote a fairly agreeable piece for the Telegraph yesterday stating: George Galloway, Todd Akin and other male politicians still getting it wrong on rape.

That got me thinking: where do self-identified Tory feminists stand on the Republican war on abortion?

The Republican party yesterday approved their position on abortion – which includes no exemptions for rape, incest or even to save the life of the mother.

Tory feminists including Louise Mensch call themselves pro-choice.

Given that the GOP platform is a direct attack on the right of women to choose – and that Vice Presidential pick Paul Ryan has a near-identical record on abortion to Todd “legitimate rape” Akin – what would they say?

So I asked on Twitter

@sunny_hundal check Romney/Ryan statement on exception

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) August 21, 2012

That’s all I got.

@louisemensch But GOP party platform is avowedly anti-abortion in all circumstances, yes? Do you support that party and its leader?

— sunny hundal (@sunny_hundal) August 21, 2012

No reply to that either.

I plan to ask some other Tory feminists too.

It’ll be interesting to see where their support for women’s right to choose is placed.

Why is the media ignoring Michael Gove’s school privatisation bonanza?

contribution by Thomas G. Clark

Michael Gove received a lot of negative media attention last week on three issues: he signed off on plans to concrete over thirty school playing fields and then lied about it; cancelled the two hours a week minimum sports requirements at the behest of Cameron; that just days before the Olympic games began he cancelled minimum outdoor playing space requirements for schools.

Despite all of this negative publicity it should be noted that the mainstream media are missing a much bigger story; the fact that Gove has privatised more than half of the secondary schools in England, playing fields and all.
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