Silent Majority Speaks
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Blair wants to leave his mark on
history - looks more like a stain to me.
Peter Thorndyke, Diss, Norfolk
- Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
I know I'm me - why do I need an
ID card?
"Sorry, officers, I don't have
an ID card. I never applied for one. It seemed a bit steep
at 300 quid. I do have my free passport, my driving licence
and my London freedom travel pass, each with my photograph.
I have my NHS medical card, with its lengthy number, given
me at birth, my RAF service book with my Armed Forces number,
and a chit authorising me to wear a few gongs -including
a General Service Medal with Malaya bar, for fighting communist
terrorists on behalf of my country, or so they told me.
"I've also got various credit cards and
store cards, all with my signature on the back, generally
good for buying the everyday requrements for life as well
as the odd luxury. If you decide to arrest me, I suppose
I'll have to be photographed and given another number, besides
my PINs.
"I'm afraid I haven't got a pension book;
it was taken away."
"By thieves, sir?"
"No ... well, not exactly. By the Government.
By the way, may I see your warrant cards please, gentlemen?"
Oh dear, they've disappeared. E. Harry Gumer,
Romford, ESSEX - Daily Mail, June 1, 2005
NO means NO
When does NO mean MAYBE?
When it's not the answer the EU wants. With the courageous French
NON resounding in their ears, shabby, undemocratic self-interested
leaders of Europe propose ignoring the part of their precious
constitution that requires ratification by all members and
continuing without one of the biggest founder members to
prevent derailing the gravy train.
As in Ireland, they refuse
to accept any NO votes, ignoring the will of the people,
and re-stage votes until they can engineer the 'correct'
answer. Sadly, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dances to their
tune like a puppet on a string. With tactics such as these,
how can anyone really believe the EU has our interests at
heart. Letter from Steve Penny, Kingsnorth, Kent - Daily Mail, June1,
2005
Surely the French
result makes the £1million the EU recently spent on
a treaty signing ceremony seem a trifle premature and extravagant.
Letter from Keith Wiseman, Bury, Lancs. - Daily Mail, June1,
2005
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Britain has traditionally
been one of the biggest net contributors to the EU because
we do not get as much money back from Brussels in farm
and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According to Treasury
figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average contribution
taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The French - the biggest
recipient of farm subsidies - contributed £1billion
a year or £16.08 per head of their population.
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Tony
Blair should know that respect comes by example - from the
top. If a country's leader has no respect for the rule of
international law and no respect for the truth, how can
he expect anyone to have respect. Letter
from P.J.Atkinson, Ashford, Kent - Daily Mail, January 12,
2006
The
Chancellor's single greatest act of vandalism in almost
nine years in office has been his wanton destruction of
Britain's private retirement industry. By slapping a massive
tax on pension funds, now worth
£7.3billion a year, he has helped to turn
the best private retirement industry in Europe into a basket-case
in perpetual crisis. Together with the adoption of European
accounting rules - which make it much riskier to operate
a company pension scheme - hundreds of firms have shut their
final salary plans to new employees and slashed benefits
to existing staff. From
Allister Heath: "I've seen the future and its grey"
in THE SPECTATOR - April 15, 2006
Nine
years ago the British people were sold a fantasy of clean
and competent government of principle and honesty. Its shiny
wrappings stripped away, the product now reveals its true
nature: Personal greed, arrogance, incompetence, shamelessness,
rash warmongering and an inability to accept - as is clear
to almost everyone else - that it is time to go. Editorial
- The Mail on Sunday, May 28, 2006
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This
site has had 
visitors
Our
PM has been Mr Bean and a Runner Bean.May he soon be a
Has-Bean .. please!
'Straight
to the point' - from Harry Dodd, Bath - Daily Mail, December
18, 2007
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Ministers
'cheat' on Sats
Pass
marks are lowered to prevent a tide of failure in reformed school
tests
By
Laura Clark - Education Correspondent - Daily Mail, February 16,
2008
Pass
marks in revamped Sats tests are to be lowered to prevent a surge
in the number failing. Officials announced the changes after pupils
performed worse than expected in trials of new-look English and
Maths tests for 11 and 14-year-olds.
Whitehall
said the move would align standards in the new tests more closely
with the existing system. The decision to reduce pass marks had
already been taken by the time the trials started late last year,
they insisted.
But
the Tories accused the Government of 'fiddling' the figures.
Ministers
have signalled that the new tests could replace existing SATs
within two years. The revamped regime gives pupils two chances
a year - in December and June - to move up a level in the National
Curriculum system.
Currently,
children must wait until they take SATs at the end of a Key Stage
to discover which level they are working at. In trials of the
new system in 411 schools in December, 'unexpected patterns' emerged
in the results.
Officials
said these trials awarded pupils a 'level four' - the standard
expected of 11-year-olds - only if their answers were judged to
be 'securely within' the grade level. But for the next tests in
June, children will be given a level four if they just scrape
over the grade boundary. This will bring the new tests into line
with existing SATs
"We
have not lowered standards," The Department for Children,,
Schools and Families said. "As before, pupils will need to
reach level four in order to attain a national curriculum level
four. We made a technical change to the pilot, which is that for
the next round of tests in June pupils will need to have reached
or be working within a level, rather than having completed or
be working securely within a level. This is the same standard
as is used in the current national curriculum tests. We are simply
running a pilot, part of which is testing out different assessment
models.
"We
made this change before any pupils sat any tests in the pilot.
In order to maintain standards consistent with previous national
curriculum tests, we adjusted the test model."
Challenged
abut the results this week, David Gee, director of the National
Assessment Agency, which regulates testing, admitted that some
were 'lower than expected'.
"We
identified there were anomalies in the results and we a carrying
out a programme of investigations to try and understand the root
causes of the unusual distribution of results."
Tory
education spokesman Michael Gove said: "Instead of proper
rigour and high standards, goalposts are being moved and ministers
are trying to cover up their own failures. Ministers should concentrate
on improving our schools, not fiddling the figures."
Japan
has begun drastic education reforms in response to evidence that
their standards are slipping. Ministers ordered schools to spend
more time on reading, maths and science. They dumped reforms introduced
several years ago to create a more relaxed atmosphere to foster
'creativity'.
They
acted following a report which showed Japan had slipped several
places in an international table of achievement. Britain fell
further, from a lower starting point.
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