REASONS TO LEAVE

According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) UK unemployment has fallen by 5,000

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The latest ONS data indicated 2.51 million people were out of work in the three months to April. The jobless rate was unchanged from three months earlier, at 7.8%. However, throughout the UK, a record 29.7 million people are now in work.

Now compare the UK figures with those of France, Spain and Italy.

In France they now have 3.26 million unemployed with two uninterrupted years of monthly rises in their unemployment rate and a 1.2% increase from March. Nearly 337,000 more people are out of work in France than there were when François Hollande was elected in May 2012.

Unemployment is Spain at 26.8%, some 6.2 million people out of work while their economy has shrunk -1.3% in the last two quarters.

Italy’s economy is projected to shrink by -1.8% this year according to the OECD while their unemployment rate hits 12%, a thirty-six year high. 

Besides Germany these nations are supposed to be the pillars of the European Union and that union is crumbling rapidly.

We need to get out now!

JUSTICE FOR (H)ALL

Once again the injustice of the current criminal justice system has raised its ugly head. Last week Stuart Hall the veteran BBC presenter was sentenced to fifteen months after admitting abusing 14 girls, the youngest aged nine

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Now this week, we see 30 year old Maths teacher Jeremy Forrest being sentenced to five and a half years for fleeing the country with a 15 year old schoolgirl.

Now don’t get me wrong, I totally agree what they did was wrong and must have caused unimaginable grief and anguish to the girls family and friends, but why the huge discrepancy in punishment?  

Let’s not forget, she ran away with him out of her own choice!

So should this man who ran away with a consenting partner really spend more time in prison than a serial sexual predator?

SCHOOL STANDARDS IN THE NEWS AGAIN

MEET THE FOCKERS PARENTS

It was interesting to read the reported speech by Sir Michael Wilshaw, England's Chief Inspector of Schools, who, in an effort to close the achievement gap between rich and poor, claimed that many of the poor children being left behind in schools, are now to be found in the suburbs, market towns and seaside resorts, rather than big cities.

Now we all know that despite Tameside council entering each and every one of their taxpayers into long term £180million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) PFI deals, which have seen some of the boroughs schools redeveloped and in many cases, totally rebuilt, the OFSTED inspectors have reported that despite all the investment, it has still not given the pupils in those schools any better results than previous. In fact, according to the latest OFSTED report, Tameside were considered 5^th from bottom out of 150 authorities in England for inadequate or below standard secondary schools.

Regardless of all the fancy initiatives. All the high flying teaching practices, the group work, differentiation, diversification, filling out endless unnecessary forms, peer group assessment, role play sessions and any other fads that the new Senior Management Teams (SMT’s) dream up, all those elaborate resources and all the new state-of-the-art buildings in the world mean little as far as education is concerned unless the pupils parents are also on-board. 

"Don't ask me, I didn't do school!"

We must now face the fact that most right thinking parents have known for years; if children are under attaining, look first at the parents! You can have the best schools, teachers and resources, but if the parents aren't committed to their child's education, there isn't much more those teachers can do.

I don’t believe poor education is all about poverty. Let’s face it, if a child is brought up in ignorance then there is a 99% chance they will stay ignorant. If parents want their children to have aspirations, they need to show them a better life and this achieved by making sure that those parents give their children a good work ethic and take responsibility for their offspring.

My parents like millions of others who started a family just after the war, were poor but they knew the value of a good education. They didn't harp on, telling me how society is unfair and how nobody from a poor background has a chance. They listened to me talking about school, they spoke to my teachers about my ambitions and they encouraged me. In fact, I didn't even know I was "disadvantaged" until much later when New Labour started splitting up sections of our society with their politics of envy.

Despite the fact that we should never lose sight of the fact that not every child as the ability to achieve good results, I think there are deeper social issues involved that teaching standards in themselves can't address.  By and large, poorly educated parents produce poorly educated children.

What do you think?

TOUGH ON CRIME, EH?

So, the ‘cruel, pernicious and spurious’ acquisitions against veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall, were not so cruel, pernicious and spurious after all!

However, being given a meagre 15 months after admitting 14 counts of indecent assault, his sentence makes a joke out of the word justice. …no doubt he’ll be out by Christmas!

What sort of message does that send to child molesters?

COPY CAT POLICIES

In a desperate effort to help Labour win back their lost “credibility” on the economy, the two Ed’s (Miliband & Balls) tried hard to demonstrate that they understood the political impetus of continuing the economic necessity of sticking with the Government's spending ‘envelope’ part of which included trailing-in a three year spending cap on welfare.

 

So, for the last 3 years; whilst the Tories have been telling us that you can’t buy your way out of a recession, both Ed’s (Miliband & Balls) have been telling anyone who’ll listen ‘yes you can!’ Now, as if being hit by a blinding light on the economical road to Damascus, they have admitted,' No, you can’t!'

Also on the economy and in an effort to put a Labour stamp on the Coalitions existing spending plans, Ed said, Labour would ‘look at’ requiring contractors who work on Government contracts to pay a ‘living wage'.

So, can somebody explain to me how this new Labour Party proposal, represents a serious re-think of welfare and savings to the economy? 

Surely, by effectively enforcing a ‘living wage’ to people working on all Government contracts; which ostensibly would become the forerunner of a new, higher minimum wage; would cost the taxpayer even more money, cause even more unemployment and increase Government costs, making the deficit worse.

I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I am getting to the point where it’s hard to find any difference between current Tory and prospective Labour policies.

For instance; this is what Ian Duncan Smith said in a speech in October 2011, introducing his policy on welfare reform. …“This is our contract with the British people – to bring an end to the something for nothing culture”

Last week, ‘little Sir Echo’, (Ed Miliband, Labour leader) said, in his speech on welfare reform, “…People’s faith in the system has been shaken by a system that appears to give a minority of people something for nothing.” 

It just goes to show that in politics, two Eds aren't better than one.

So, it’s back to the drawing board lads!