Gavin’s Gaily Gigest

The new edition of Politalks, your weekly satirical news roundup, is here. This week we rip into Labour’s latest worst week, as the Tories and Lib Dems utterly fail to capitalise on the Government’s bad fortune:

Feel free to share and share alike, and for those who are interested, here’s the transcript:
It was David versus Goliath […]

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Hillary Clinton’s daring Bosnian mission.

Carla Bruni and Prime Minister’s Questions rolled into one glorious, glamorous whole.

The embryonic question rears its ugly, underdeveloped head.

The Constitutional Renewal Bill could mean the death of Parliament.

An alternative to the Alternative Vote.

Ten per cent teachers and the army.

If […]

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Teachers are threatening to strike if they don’t get a pay-rise of TEN PER CENT. What the hell planet and / or country are they living on? Inflation, either CPI or RPI is only 2.5% or 4.1% respectively. Asking for an annual rise of 10% (I’ll write that one more time, ten per-fucking-cent) is a […]

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Podcasts and blogs look set to play a part in the A-level Media Studies assessments according to the new syllabus issued by the OCR exam board.
I’m sure this will come in for ridicule pretty soon, somebody will accuse OCR of dumbing down, claim the qualification will be denigrated to a mickey mouse subject, you know […]

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Maybe I’m just in a Christmas mood, but this story from BBC News has got such a real, heartwarming tone to it that everyone should take five minutes to read it and consider the power of persistence, hard-work and education to change a life:

A Kenyan slum child inspired by finding a Manchester University prospectus on […]

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Via the Guardian:
British forces are “ludicrously” overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan because politicians have clung for years to the imperial delusion that the UK is a world power, the historian Correlli Barnett said this afternoon.
Speaking at a seminar at Churchill College, Cambridge, on his 80th birthday, the distinguished historian said that after the first world […]

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What the Government effectively said yesterday when announcing plans for more faith schools:
“At a time when we’re worried about the isolationism and radicalisation of young people, we’re going to be setting up more faith schools, in order to encourage segregation and breed suspicion of those who do not share their beliefs.”
Eloquently put reactions:

James Graham
Clowns to […]

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If you have any views on the state of our primary school education system, the LibDems 4RS Commission want to hear from you.

Apparently, the fourth “R” is “aRticulation” (or speaking skills). Personally, I’ve wondered why it is the 3Rs in the first place since only one of them begins with “R”, hardly good writing… maybe […]

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A mere 20 years after Yes Prime Minister first proposed a form of it (and after many, many academics have pointed out the flaws in the current system), we have the National Education Service (in all but name) being proposed by Government.

Tony Blair (centre)
Let’s just wait and see how watered down the Bill becomes before […]

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Do we really need to see this story about A-levels getting easier again?
It’s oddly reminiscent of 2004’s results, 2003’s results and 2002’s results.
Why does this story keep popping up every year?
In my opinion, it’s simple, examiners are getting lazier. Rather than setting a totally new exam paper in a topic every year, they recycle old […]

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