Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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Come
back Gilligan, all is forgiven. Penny Young, Diss, Norfolk,
to The Guardian, February 24, 2005
Spin, not
face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the Government's
chosen method of communication. Ordinary
people are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question
which throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member
might reveal himself or herself to be a human being like
us, and not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she
might tell the truth. Ann Leslie
- Daily Mail, September 16, 2004
Power
cut, please
Labour's
pollsters have Tony Blair running scared, because they have
informed him that if turnout at the next election is below
50%, the result will be a hung parliament. This would be
good news for those of us who, viewing the damage inflicted
by recent governments, would like nothing better than a
Parliament powerless to do anything. Letter from Ron
Phillips, London W14 - Daily Mail 17/2/05
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Tony
Blair's pledge cards made no mention of pensioners. Perhaps
they're the jokers.
Letter
to the Daily Mail from Brian Green, Daventry, Northants
- February 22, 2005
The
Guardian's Polly Toynbee says 'a profoundly nasty streak'
among voters worried about poverty, crime and immigration
might cause them to vote against the Government. Isn't
it time we replaced the present electorate with one more
to Polly's liking? Ephraim Hardcastle, Daily Mail,
February 24, 2005
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One
million illiterate children - but how many more will it take before
this pernicious ideology is destroyed?
By
Melanie Phillips - Daily Mail, March 3, 2005
One
of Tony Blair's proudest boasts is that his Government's educational
reforms have improved Britain's shamfully low rates of children's
literacy. Yet a report published yesterday by the Centre for Policy
Studies claims that the Natinal Literacy strategy has been a failure,
with almost 1.2 million chldren having failed to achieve expeted
levels of literacy since its launch in 1998. So who is telling
the truth?
The
answer is that although there may have been an improvement in
literacy rates - and even that is contested - it is very small.
Wholly unacceptable numbers of children are still unable to read
and write adequately. Last year, among 11-year-olds, only 56%
of boys and 71% of girls in England reached the standard expected
for their age in writing, while only 46% of girls and 33% of boys
reached the highest standard of reading.
One
in four state teachers would educate their own children
privately - By Rebecca Smithers - Education
Editor - The Guardian - 4/3/2005
A
quarter of state school teachers admit they would educate
their own children privately if they could afford it,
according to a poll out today.
The
findings, which also reveal that Labour has lost more
than a third of its support among teachers since the last
general election, will make uncomfortable reading for
Tony Blair and his education secretary, Ruth Kelly, who
yesterday launched an education 'manifesto' setting out
how Labour would improve the state education system if
elected for a third term.
A
poll of 700 teachers for the weekly TES magazine suggests
many will express their disenchantment with the government
at the ballot box. Most felt the Prime Minister had not
kept his promise to increase support for schools, and
less than half of Labour voters rated the government good
or excellent.
Two-thirds
were in favour of specialist schools and a narrow majority
backed the plans to expand foundation schools. But two-thirds
oppose privately-sponsored city academies, which Mr Blair
yesterday insisted were at the heart of Labour's plans
to reform secondary education.
Responding
to the findings, he said he loped teachers would think
' very carefully before casing their vote' in order to
avoid the Tory alternative which would irreparably destroy
the education system.
The
eight-page education document, Schools - forward not Back,
was the first of a series of policy papers being published
by Labour over the coming weeks, Mr Blair said, to reflect
'the big policy issues that matter to the British people'.
"We
are starting with education because education, was, is
and will remain our number one priority," he said.
"For the past 10 years we have said, year in, year
out, that Britain will only prosper, and its people will
only get on in the 21st century, if they are well educated.
Not just a minority of an elite well-educated as in the
past, hut the great majority achieving as well at school
- and having opportunities as good as the privileged few
did in the past."
He
and Ms Kelly set out plans yesterday to increase the provision
of small-group tuition, either during the school day or
after hours, as part of a package designed to appeal to
parents in which youngsters would receive 'personalised'
learning to suit their needs.
Teachers'
leaders were disappointed after Mr Blair admitted schools
would not get extra cash for this, and would have to fund
the changes from existing budgets "There sill be
a cost, but that is enveloped in the school budget which
will itself be increasing," Mr Blair said.
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Debacle
The
fact is that the false assumptions embedded in our country's decadess-long
national reading disaster are still firmly entrenched - and the
government remains as stubbornly resistant as ever to acknowledging
this debacle.
When
the scheme was launched, then Education Secretary David Blunkett
famously promised to resign unless 80% of 11-year-olds met expected
literacy standards. They didn't.
The
rate went up from 65% to around 75%, where it has remained stuck
- with persistent claims of both cheating in school tests and
lowering of standards, casting doubt even on that level of progress.
The reasons for this were crystal clear
from the start. Britain's
modern literacy problem arose because - extraordinary as this
might sound - the teaching establishment stopped training teachers
in tried-and-tested methods of teaching children to read.
For
various reasons - one of which was excessive concern for the feelings
of children who did not learn to read as fast as others - teachers
junked the structured system of phonics, the matching of letters
to sounds which is crucial in teaching children to read.
They
used instead, a variety of other methods, such as memorising or
guessing at words. But all that this produced was children who
gave a cinvincing impression of being able to read but, when faced
with unfamiliar words, could not do so. Crucialy, they ad not
been taught to decode the language, the skill which only a phonics-based
approach provides. yet they were falsely said to be reading, a
cruel deception which left millions floundering.
Despite
the catastrophic results of this approach, however, vitually the
entire education establishment defended it with near-religious
fanaticism. Professors of Education queued up to claim that what
was most important was that children understood the meaning of
what they were reading.
But
this was clearly to put the cart before the horse. Understanding
the meaning of words which have merely been memorised or guessed
at does not mean a child can read.
Confused
Yet
to these education ideologues, it was more important for a child
to be able to say what was in a book that actually to be able
to read it. They also claimed that it was important to use a variety
of methods in teaching children to read. But this was in itself
disastrous, because when children are taught many approaches,
they merely become confused and the value of phonics is lost.
The
way the education establishment close ranks on this issue and
the depths of its ideological zealotry cannot be overestimated.
As a result, the Government's attempts to combat its harmful effects
were doomed to failure. A bitter and protracted battle ensued
over the content of the National Literacy Strategy.
The
outcome was fudge, in which, while paying lip-service to phonics,
it included other methods such as word recognition - the very
approach that had caused so much damage in the past. The result
was that although a little progress was made at the start, it
soon stalled. Yet the tragedy is that this is so unnecessary.
For every single child in the country who does not suffer from
some innate handicap can be taught to read by what is now called
'synthetic phonics'.
This
involves blending letters and sounds, and then steadily building
up mastery of two-letter combinations, irregular words, prefixes
and suffixes. It teaches children systematically and steadily
to decode the language. and wherever it is used, it produces results.
A
seven-year study of schools in Clackmannanshire has shown that
pupils taught this way rather than by the official method were,
by the age of 11, on average no less than three-and -a-half years
ahead for their age in reading and one year and eight months ahead
in spelling.
What's
more, boys outscored girls and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds
did almost as well as those from more favoured homes. We didn't
need the Scottish survey to tell us this. Author of one of the
sythetic phonics schemes, Ruth Miskin, was previously head of
a primary school in east London, where she used this approach.
Virtually
every pupil was from a Bangladeshi background. Most did not speak
Englsih as their first language. But by the age of six, every
one of them ws reading fluently. In truth,
synthetic phonics is hardly rocket science. It is, in fact, the
way most of us were once taught to read. yet the education establishment
still bandies about the term 'phonics' to camouflage the abject
and persistent failure in the classroom.
On
BBC Radio Four's Today programme yesterday, Professor Henrietta
Dombey of Brighton University, a veteran defender of discredited
education strategies, insisted that phonics had to be taught 'in
the context of focusing on meaning, and this is not what's happening
in Clackmannanshire'.
Thus
an approach more than three times as successful as the governmt's
own scheme was airily dismissed. In response, Schools Minister
Stephen Twigg was wet beyond belief. Boasting, once again, of
the success of the literacy strategy, he commended both Professor
Dombey AND Ruth Miskin - before uttering the giveaway phrase that
synthetic phonics had to be combined with other strategies such
as 'word recognition'. Yet this is the very same 'variety of approaches'
policy which has so singularly failed.
Failure
The
reason the literacy strategy went wrong from the start was that
ministers chose to listen to the very people resposible for the
disaster in the first place - the preposterous academics who had
taught generations of teachers to teach un-reading in our primary
schools.
The
outcome remais nothing less than a national scandal. Because of
the grip still maintained by this ernicious ideology upon out
teacher-training institutions, British children are less literate
than many inthe Third World, let alone our major economic competitors.
Their resulting failure to cope at school is undoubtedly a major
cause of the dismaying lefels of ill-discipline and truancy at
school, not to mention crime and other anit-social behaviou9r.
At a deeper level still, if children are not able to read, they
are not able to think.
Behind
the figure of more than one million illiterate chldren lies untold
stories of human misery and criminally wasted potential. The Government
has been told on innumerable occasions of both the problem and
the solution. How many more children will need to be sacrificed
before it finally wakes up?
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Perhaps
Ann Widdecombe was right about Michael Howard, but it
should have been KNIGHT with a K, and he could have saved
us from the monsters Blair and Campbell - Letter to
the Dail Mayil from Les Fletcher, Rhos-on-Sea, Colwyn
Bay, Wales - February 18, 2005
After
a clear vote against them, we still got eight non-elected
Regional Assemblies. When we vote against the EU Constitution,
we'll get them anyway. Letter from P.Cove, Aylesbury,
BUCKS.- Daily Mail, January 31, 2005
THE
TIMES slavish support for the Government worries some
members of the paper's staff, not to mention any perspicacious
readers who are left. Political editor Philip Webster
was questioned about this when he addressed colleagues
as part of an in-house 'masterclass' exercise. Small wonder.
One of his Blair-worshipping subordinates wrote a news
story yesterday poo-pooing the row over Labours anti-semitic
poster mocking Michael Howard, saying it was merely £5million
worth of 'free publicity' for the party. Ephraim Hardcastle
- Daily Mail, Febrauary 2, 2005
Hold
the front page
Further
to BBC bias (Mail), very often on BBC Breakfast and Breakfast
With Frost, coverage of the morning papers is censored.
If the front page of the Daily Mail is critical of Tony
Blair and his Soviet-style Government, it is not shown,
although the front pages of all the other newspapers are
shown. A supposedly independent broadcasting body is acting
as censor for this Government - an absolute disgrace.
Letter from Peter Fish, Chippenham, Wilts. .- Daily Mail,
February 17, 2005
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The
REAL NASTY PARTY- How
Labour is the true home of spite, bigotry and contempt for the
public
For
the health of our democracy, we, the people of the United Kingdom,
must find a way to force Mr Blair to resign
Such
defiance of the democratic process and the will of the majority
of we people of the UK, must be exposed by voters as a matter
or urgency, and not just in the two by-elections we have had this
July and the European elections in June 2004. But how can this
be done?
The
most effective way of getting our deceitful PM to resign would
be to mobilise the army of Labour MPs currently in the House of
Commons and get them to demand it, the loss of their seat to be
a penalty if they did not. All voters in Labour-held constituencies
need to write a letter along these lines to their local Labour
MPs:
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Dear
Despite
his absolute and unequivocal assurances over the past year
of the serious risk to our security of Saddam Hussein's
'weapons of mass destruction', Prime Minister Blair
has admitted, that the threat was non-existent. For that
critical error of judgement and for his gross incompetence
in handling this very important issue, I ask you to take
immediate steps to ensure that Tony Blair does the honourable
thing and resign without delay..
I
would therefore be much obliged if you would propose and
help mobilise a Parliamentary vote of 'No Confidence' in
Mr Blair which, despite Labour's huge majority, would leave
the PM with no option but to resign.
If
I get no reply to this letter, I shall assume you will continue
to support Mr Blair as our Prime Minister. In such circumstances
I shall not vote for you in the forthcoming General Election.
Signed:
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Simple,
non-violent, protest letters along these lines on a variety of
issues could be the basis for re-vitalising our democracy and
increasing voters' interest and participation in politics. Download
a printable copy of the above letter here.
There
is another way for the voice of the silent majority to be heard,
a voice that made sure broken promises would not only be revealed,
but punished in subsequent elections.
In
the year available before the General Election expected in 2005,
many topics are available as ammunition, each one asking questions.
A weapon for our purpose will be the results of Opinion Polls
in individual constituencies using ICM, NOP, Gallop, Mori
or YouGov.
Questions
suggested for this purpose are listed here.
CAST
YOUR VOTE ON A VARIETY OF OTHER IMPORTANT ISSUES HERE.
Current
and prospective Parliamentary candidates of all Parties running
for election could share a platform at public forums in every
constituency. They would be presented with the results of
polls on this issue expressed by the majority of voters in that
constituency.
The candidates could be asked if their own views and that of their
Party manifesto corresponded with the polls, and if not, how they
intended to represent the will of the majority of local voters.
Local and National Press, Radio and TV coverage would be arranged
and the results published on this web site.
Here
is another powerful strategy for using your vote effectively in
the forthcoming General Election. Send your sitting and prospective
MPs a letter defining your requirements if they want your vote.
This example deals with the proposed
EU Constitutional Treaty.
Your
letters would end: "If you do not answer
this letter, I shall take it that you intend to follow the Government
line. I shall act accordingly in the forthcoming General Election.
Or
why not create a questionnaire that you send to all the candidates
in your constituency, getting them to give yes/no answers to questions
of your choice, and ending it with the same paragraph(above).
Download
a printable example of the questionnaire.
It
is high time for the people of this United Kingdom to stop allowing
themselves to be manipulated by politicians. We need our representatives
in Parliament to genuinely reflect the view of the majority in
their own constituency, even if this means going against their
personal and/or their party's policy. While they may argue their
case, hoping to change the minds of the majority in their constituency,
they should ultimately be obliged to reflect the majority view
of those who elect them.
It
will be argued by politicians of all parties that most voters
don't have the knowledge necessary to express an opinion on important
subjects at issue, and that our vote is a form of delegated democracy.
We should argue that it is their duty to ensure that we voters
do have ready access to such information as is necessary to form
an intelligent opinion. That, after all, is one main purpose of
Opposition Parties in our Parliamentary Democracy.
Most
important of all, such proceedings would rekindle in voters their
latent interest and obligation to cast their vote, knowing that
the candidate of their choice would be more likely to act in accordance
with their wishes. A much higher turnout in elections would be
the result.
Contact
your local Party Chairman. Gain his support for setting up public
forums in your constituency on these, as well as any other relevant
topics, well before the next General Election expected in 2005.
You should then, depending on the integrity of the candidate of
your choice, feel fairly certain that your view on any subject
being debated in Parliament will more accurately be reflected
by your representative in that assembly.
